PETER TO THE DISPERSION (1)

Chapter 1
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen expatriates of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia,
2 according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, in holiness of spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you!
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, according to His vast mercy, regenerates us into a living expectation, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead,
4 for the enjoyment of an allotment incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you,
5 who are garrisoned by the power of God, through faith, for salvation ready to be revealed in the last era,
6 in which you are exulting; briefly at present, if it must be, being sorrowed by various trials,
7 that the testing of your faith, much more precious than gold which is perishing, yet, being tested by fire, may be found for applause and glory and honor at the unveiling of Jesus Christ,
8 Whom, not perceiving, you are loving; in Whom, not seeing at present, yet believing, you are exulting with joy unspeakable and glorious,
9 being requited with the consummation of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning which salvation the prophets seek out and search out, who prophesy concerning the grace which is for you,
11 searching into what or what manner of era the spirit of Christ in them made evident, when testifying beforehand to the sufferings pertaining to Christ and the glories after these.
12 To whom it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to you they dispensed them, of which you were now informed through those who are bringing the evangel to you by holy spirit dispatched from heaven, into which messengers are yearning to peer.
13 Wherefore, girding up the loins of your comprehension, being sober, expect perfectly the grace which is being brought to you at the unveiling of Jesus Christ.
14 As obedient children, not configuring to the former desires, in your ignorance,
15 but, according as He Who calls you is holy, you also become holy in all behavior,
16 because it is written that, Holy shall you be, for I am holy.
17 And if you are invoking the Father, Who is judging impartially according to each one's work, you may behave, for the time of your sojourn, with fear,
18 being aware that not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, were you ransomed from your vain behavior, handed down by tradition from the fathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a flawless and unspotted lamb,
20 foreknown, indeed, before the disruption of the world, yet manifested in the last times because of you, who through Him are believing in God,
21 Who rouses Him from among the dead and is giving Him glory, so that your faith and expectation is to be in God.
22 Having purified your souls, by the obedience of truth, for unfeigned fondness for the brethren, love one another out of a true heart earnestly,
23 having been regenerated, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, living and permanent,
24 because All flesh is grass, And all its glory is as the flower of grass. Withered is the grass, And the flower falls off...
25 Yet the declaration of the Lord is remaining for the eon. Now this is the declaration which is being brought to you in the evangel.

Chapter 2
1 Putting off, then, all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all vilifications,
2 as recently born babes, long for the unadulterated milk of the word that by it you may be growing into salvation,
3 if so be that you taste that the Lord is kind:
4 Whom approaching, a living Stone, having been rejected indeed by men, yet chosen by God, held in honor,
5 you, also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, most acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 Because of this it is included in the scripture: Lo! I am laying in Zion a corner capstone, chosen, held in honor, and he who is believing on it may by no means be disgraced.
7 To you, then, who are believing, is the honor, yet to the unbelieving: "A Stone which is rejected by the builders, this came to be for the head of the corner,"
8 and a stumbling stone and a snare rock; who are stumbling also at the word, being stubborn, to which they were appointed also.
9 Yet you are a chosen race, a "royal priesthood," a "holy nation," a procured people, so that you should be recounting the virtues of Him Who calls you out of darkness into His marvelous light,
10 who once were "not a people" yet now are the people of God, who "have not enjoyed mercy," yet now are "being shown mercy."
11 Beloved, I am entreating you, as sojourners and expatriates, to be abstaining from the fleshly lusts which are warring against the soul,
12 having your behavior among the nations ideal, that in that in which they are speaking against you as of evildoers, by being spectators of ideal acts they should be glorifying God in the day of visitation.
13 You may be subject to every human creation because of the Lord, whether to the king, as a superior,
14 or to governors, as being sent by him for vengeance on evildoers, yet for the applause of doers of good.
15 For thus it is the will of God, by doing good to be muzzling the ignorance of imprudent men;
16 as free, and not as having freedom for a cover over evil, but as God's slaves.
17 Honor all; love the brotherhood; fear God; honor the king.
18 Domestics may do it by being subject to your owners, with all fear, not only to the good and lenient, but to the crooked also;
19 for this is grace, if, because of consciousness of God, anyone is undergoing sorrows, suffering unjustly.
20 For what credit is it if, sinning and being buffeted, you will be enduring it? But if, doing good and suffering, you will be enduring, this is grace with God.
21 For for this were you called, seeing that Christ also suffered for your sakes, leaving you a copy, that you should be following up in the footprints of Him
22 Who does no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth;
23 Who, being reviled, reviled not again; suffering, threatened not, yet gave it over to Him Who is judging justly,
24 Who Himself carries up our sins in His body on to the pole, that, coming away from sins, we should be living for righteousness; by Whose welt you were healed.
25 For you were as straying sheep, but now you turned back to the Shepherd and Supervisor of your souls.

Chapter 3
1 Likewise wives may do it by being subject to their own husbands, that, if any are stubborn also, as to the word, they will be gained without a word, through the behavior of their wives,
2 being spectators of your pure behavior in fear,
3 whose adornment, let it not be the outside, of braiding aught into the hair and of decking with gold, or putting on of garments,
4 but the hidden human of the heart, in the incorruptibility of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in God's sight, is costly.
5 For thus once the holy women also, whose expectation was in God, adorned themselves, being subject to their own husbands
6 (as Sarah obeys Abraham, calling him "lord," whose children you became), doing good and not fearing dismay in anything.
7 Husbands, likewise, may do it by making a home with them according to knowledge, awarding honor to the feminine as to the weaker vessel, as to those who are also joint enjoyers of the allotment of the varied grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.
8 Now the finish; Be all of a like disposition, sympathetic, fond of the brethren, tenderly compassionate, of a humble disposition,
9 not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but, on the contrary, blessing, seeing that you were called for this, that you should be enjoying the allotment of blessing,
10 for He who is wanting to love life and be acquainted with good days, Let his tongue cease from evil And his lips speak no guile.
11 Now let him avoid evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it,
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the just And His ears are for their petition, Yet the face of the Lord is on evil doers.
13 And is there anyone who will be illtreating you, if you should become zealous of good?
14 Yet if you may be suffering also because of righteousness, happy are you. Now you may not be afraid with their fear, nor yet be disturbed,
15 yet hallow the Lord Christ in your hearts, ever ready with a defense for everyone who is demanding from you an account concerning the expectation in you, but with meekness and fear,
16 having a good conscience, that, in what they are speaking against you as of evildoers, they may be mortified, who traduce your good behavior in Christ.
17 For it is better to be suffering for doing good, if the will of God may be willing, than for doing evil,
18 seeing that Christ also, for our sakes, once died concerning sins, the just for the sake of the unjust, that He may be leading us to God; being put to death, indeed, in flesh, yet vivified in spirit,
19 in which, being gone to the spirits in jail also,
20 He heralds to those once stubborn, when the patience of God awaited in the days of Noah while the ark was being constructed, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were brought safely through water,
21 the representation of which, baptism, is now saving you also (not the putting off of the filth of the flesh, but the inquiry of a good conscience to God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
22 Who is at God's right hand, being gone into heaven, messengers and authorities and powers being subjected to Him.

Chapter 4
1 Christ, then, having suffered for our sakes in flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same thought, for he who is suffering in flesh has ceased his sins,
2 by no means still to spend the rest of his lifetime in the flesh in human desires, but in the will of God.
3 For sufficient is the time which has passed by to have effected the intention of the nations, having gone on in wantonness, lusts, debauches, revelries, drinking bouts, and illicit idolatries,
4 while they are thinking it strange of you not to race together into the same puddle of profligacy, calumniating you;
5 who shall be rendering an account to Him Who is holding Himself in readiness to judge the living and the dead.
6 For for this an evangel is brought to the dead also, that they may be judged, indeed, according to men in flesh, yet should be living according to God, in spirit.
7 Now the consummation of all is near. Be sane, then, and sober for prayers,
8 before all, having earnest love among yourselves, for love is covering a multitude of sins.
9 Be hospitable to one another without murmuring.
10 Each, according as he obtained a gracious gift, be dispensing it among yourselves, as ideal administrators of the varied grace of God;
11 if anyone is speaking, as the oracles of God; if anyone is dispensing, as out of the strength which God is furnishing; that in all God may be glorified, through Jesus Christ, to Whom is the glory and the might for the eons of the eons. Amen!
12 Beloved, do not think strange the conflagration among you, which is becoming a trial to you, as of something strange befalling you,
13 but, according as you are participating in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that you may be rejoicing, exulting in the unveiling of His glory also.
14 If you are being reproached in the name of Christ, happy are you, for the spirit of glory and power, and that of God, has come to rest on you.
15 For let not any of you be suffering as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as an interferer in other's affairs;
16 yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, yet let him be glorifying God in this name,
17 seeing that it is the era for the judgment to begin from the house of God. Now if first from us, what is the consummation of those who are stubborn as to God's evangel?
18 And, "If the just one is hardly being saved, where will the irreverent and the sinner appear?"
19 So that, let those also who are suffering according to the will of God commit their souls to a faithful Creator in the doing of good.

Chapter 5
1 The elders, then, among you I am entreating (who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a participant of the glory about to be revealed),
2 Shepherd the flocklet of God among you, supervising, not of compulsion, but voluntarily, according to God; nor yet avariciously, but eagerly;
3 nor yet as lording it over the allotments, but becoming models for the flocklet,
4 and, when the Chief Shepherd is manifested, you shall be requited with an unfading wreath of glory.
5 Likewise, younger men may be subject to the elder, yet all wear the servile apron of humility with one another, for God "is resisting the proud, yet is giving grace to the humble."
6 Be humbled, then, under the mighty hand of God, that He should be exalting you in season,
7 tossing your entire worry on Him, for He is caring concerning you.
8 Be sober! Watch! For your plaintiff, the Adversary, is walking about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to swallow up;
9 whom withstand, solid in the faith, having perceived the same sufferings being completed in your brotherhood in the world.
10 Now the God of all grace, Who calls you into His eonian glory in Christ, while briefly suffering, He will be adjusting, establishing, firming, founding you.
11 To Him be glory and might for the eons of the eons. Amen!
12 Through Silvanus, a faithful brother, as I am reckoning, I write briefly to you, entreating and deposing that this is the true grace of God, in which you are to stand.
13 Greeting you is the ecclesia in Babylon, chosen together with you, and Mark, my son.
14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all that are in Christ. Amen!

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