The First General Epistle of Saint Peter

The first Chapter. Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers that dwell here and there throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father to sanctification of the Spirit, through obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance immortal and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation, which is prepared to be showed in the last time. Wherein you rejoice, though now for a season (if need require) you are in heaviness, through manifold temptations, That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes (though it be tried with fire) might be found to your praise, and honor and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom you have not seen, and yet love him, in whom now, though you see him not, yet do you believe, and rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched, who prophesied of the grace that should come to you, Searching when or what time the Spirit who testified before of Christ who was in them, should declare the sufferings that should come to Christ, and the glory that should follow. To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to us they should minister the things which are now showed to you by them who have preached to you the Gospel by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the Angels desire to behold. Therefore gird up the loins of your mind: be sober, and trust perfectly on the grace that is brought to you, by the revelation of Jesus Christ, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves to the former lusts of your ignorance: But as he who has called you, is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conduct, Because it is written: Be you holy, for I am holy. And if you call him Father, who without respect of person judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your dwelling here in fear: Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conduct, received by the traditions of the fathers, But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb undefiled, and without spot. Who was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was declared in the last times for your sakes, Who by his means do believe in God that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Having purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, to love brotherly without feigning, love one another with a pure heart fervently, Being born anew, not of mortal seed, but of immortal, by the word of God, who lives and endures for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls away. But the word of the Lord endures for ever: and this is the word which is preached among you.