First Peter 1:1-25

I Peter 1:1 and 2:

^1:1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ – to (the) selected-people, (who are temporary) residents of (the) scattering of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ^.2according to (the) foreknowledge of God (the) Father in holiness of spirit with-a-view-to obedience and sprinkling of (the) blood of Jesus Christ; may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Peter begins this letter by first identifying himself by name: Peter. He was also known as: Cephas (the Aramaic translation of “Peter”), Simon, son of Jona (or “John” his natural father), a native of Bethsaida, who lived with his wife in Capernaum. He was one of Jesus’ learning-disciples and apostles. Some references regarding Peter are: Matthew 4:18-20, 8:14, 10:1-5, 14:29, 16:16-19; John 1:42, 21:15-19; Acts 1:13, chapters 2-5, 9:33-40, chapters 10-12, 15:7-11 and; I Corinthians 1:12, 3:22, 9:15, 15:5; Galatians 1:18, 2:7-9.

Peter also identifies himself by 'job-title' or 'work-function' relative-to his working/service relationship with Jesus Christ: apostle. An "apostle" is a person sent-forth or sent-away by someone on a specific mission or assignment to someone else, and in the context we see that Peter was sent-forth by Jesus Christ.

When Peter writes "Jesus Christ" he is emphasizing the Lord Jesus Christ's obedience and service to God his Father on a horizontal level to benefit people. Jesus who is the resurrected Christ continues today to serve his Father Who is God.

The word "Jesus" is explained in Matthew 1:21 by the Angel Gabriel when he spoke to Joseph:

Matthew 1:21:

^.21She [Mary] will bring-forth a son and you [Joseph] will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

"Jesus" means "God saves / Jehovah (Yahweh) the Savior," and the Lord Jesus Christ was given that name "Jesus" because he is the one who carried-out God's will to make it available for people to be saved, to be made-safe. It is by means of Jesus, the Christ, that people are able to be saved and thereby have a true and vital spiritual relationship with the only true God. Jesus Christ is God's son – he is alive today! He is now at God's right-hand side, second-in-command to God his Father.

The word "Christ" means the "anointed-one" or "Messiah." In the lands and during the time-period of the writing of the Bible, holy oil was poured on the high priest of God to begin his ministry for God, and it was also used to anoint kings. Many people and things were anointed with holy oil to signify their making holy or sanctified for a specific purpose, etc, which can be read about in many scriptures in the Bible (refer to Exodus 30:22-33; Acts 2:36, and 4:27, and 10:38). The resurrected Christ continues doing God's will today.

Re-reading verses 1 and 2:

I Peter 1:1 and 2:

^1:1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ – to (the) selected-people, (who are temporary) residents of (the) scattering of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ^.2according to (the) foreknowledge of God (the) Father in holiness of spirit with-a-view-to obedience and sprinkling of (the) blood of Jesus Christ; may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Peter addressed this letter to…

• the selected people (elect people, those who have been chosen-out by God from other people because they voluntarily accepted what God makes available to mankind, they believed what He says regarding Himself and His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and became holy-people – we should notice that Peter does not limit his address to those of the Judean background or of the Gentile background)
  • who are temporary residents of the scattering (people who are the diaspora, dispersion, those who live in parts of the world away from Jerusalem, as a sower would scatter seed upon the earth, now residing beside the natives in those specific areas) of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (all of these were south of the Black Sea, modern Turkey),
• according to the foreknowledge of God the Father (you were/are selected in accordance, proportion and conformity to/with God our Father’s advance knowledge, what He knew beforehand)
• in holiness of spirit (you became selected within the sphere and cause of action of holiness which proceeds-from and consists-of spirit, referring to the holy spirit which every holy-person has received)
  • [The Greek word which is translated as "holiness" may also be translated as "sanctification" and comes from the word hagios which means to be separated from that-which is common - "common" being the word sometimes used to denote that-which is not set-apart for God, and so is ceremonially unlawful, unclean, or defiled. Those who are holy are separated for God having come into the state of corresponding to the essence of God Who is Holy/Holiness/Sanctity.]
• with a view to (into, directed to, for the purpose of)
  • obedience (hearing, listening attentively to what is spoken, and then the action carried-out in accordance with and resulting from believing what is heard is obedience) and
  • sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (receiving and evidencing the benefits of his blood, being cleaned from sin with its consequences, redeemed, so that we are able to render service to God);…

… may grace and peace be multiplied to you (caused to be made-full, filled to fullness to all of you).

Grace is what is freely bestowed without any merit on the recipient's part; it includes reference to the attitude and quality of the one giving something favorable to another. Grace is not bestowed because somebody deserves a wage that is owed for something they said or did, nor because they begged so hard, nor because they forced the giver to give! Grace is bestowed because the giver wants to give by his own freedom of will to the recipient - it is completely unmerited favor from the giver to the recipient.

Peace is tranquil harmony, tranquility, peaceful wholeness, without any strife or disagreement.

Peter’s prayerful wish or desire was that grace and peace would be multiplied to them during the everyday living of their lives.

[Reference: Exodus 24:8; Matthew 22:14, 26:28; Acts 2:9, 16:6 and 7; Romans 8:29 and 33; I Corinthians 1:30, 11:25; II Corinthians 3:6; Galatians 1:2; Philippians 3:20; Colossians 3:12; I Thessalonians 4:7 and 8; II Thessalonians 2:13; II Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1; Hebrews 9:13-28, 10:22 and 28, 11:13, 12:24, 13:20; James 1:1; II Peter 1:2; Jude 1:2.]

Verses 3-12:

^.3Blessed (is) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the (God) having begotten us upwardly according to His much mercy into a living hope by means of (the) resurrection of Jesus Christ out-from dead-people, ^.4into an inheritance incorruptible and unstained and unfading, having been kept² in (the) heavens into you, ^.5the (people) being guarded in God’s ability by means of belief into salvation prepared to be revealed in (the) last time;

^.6in which you must exult if being necessary now a little-while having been caused-sorrow in variegated temptations ^.7in order that the sure-proof of your belief – much-more-priced of gold, the (gold) being destroyed but being proved by means of fire – may be found into praise and glory and honor in (the) revelation of Jesus Christ, ^.8whom not having seen you love¹, into whom now not seeing but believing you exult with joy unutterable and having been glorified², ^.9bringing-to-yourselves the completion of the belief – salvation of (your) souls;

^.10concerning which salvation prophets sought-out and searched-out, the (prophets) having prophesied concerning the grace into you, ^.11searching into what or what-kind-of time the spirit in them used-to make-clear of Christ witnessing-beforehand the sufferings into Christ and the glories after these (sufferings), ^.12to whom it was revealed that not to themselves but to you these (sufferings and glories) used-to minister, which now were announced to you by means of the (holy-people) having good-messaged (to) you in holy spirit having been apostled from heaven, into which angels intensely-yearn to bend-alongside.

God is blessed. The adjective "blessed" means: good-worded, well-spoken. The spoken-account of God's inner-thoughts is good/well. The words that come from God are good/well. God is in the continuing and lasting standing and state of blessedness. God - blessed, and this truth does not change. God is the One Who bestows His blessings to others, and of course, we are to speak-well of Him also.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is the God (the First, Superior or Ultimate One, the One Who has power, executes judgment, and emanates what He is, His power and light) of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because: (a) it was God who supplied the seed to Mary, plus (b) God gave Jesus Christ holy spirit when he was baptized by John the Baptist during his earthly ministry, plus (c) God gave Jesus Christ a spiritual body having holy spirit-life when He raised him up from-among the rest of the dead-people.

In verse 3, Peter gives Jesus Christ the title of “Lord.” The word "Lord" refers to a master or an owner, one who has the authority, authoritative-power, the one from whom the directions and instructions are given and who is to be obeyed, the one who has the dominion over and exercises his lordship in relation to that-which his title of "Lord" or "Master" is being associated (see Matthew 1:21; Acts 2:21, 36 and 38; 3:6 and 16; 4:7-12, and 30; Romans 1:3 and 4; Ephesians 1:19-23; Philippians 2:9-11; II Thessalonians 3:6; Hebrews 1:1-4).

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, emphatically and specifically the same God Who has begotten us upwardly (He has already brought us forth as giving birth, caused us to be born in an upward direction, the top, above), in accordance (proportion, conformity) to/with His much mercy (a lot of active-relief from Him because of withholding merited judgment, not bestowing punishment on us who deserved to be punished)…

• into a living hope (with a view to, directed to, for a hope that is presently and actively alive)
  • by means of the resurrection of Jesus Christ out-from dead-people (through or by-way-of the standing-up of Jesus Christ out from among the rest of the dead people; the words “out-from dead-people” are written because he is the only one who has been resurrected and given his new spiritual body, but everyone else who has died still remains dead in the grave),
    • [Our hope is what God gives us to expect to come to pass in the future, His firm-anticipation concerning a future specific situation or circumstance; we have not received this hope yet but it is living now because the Lord Jesus Christ is alive, he has received it and so it is living; refer to Colossians 1:27 and I Timothy 1:1; Christ Jesus is the one who carried out what was needed to make salvation available to mankind thus giving all holy-people our hope, the foundation of our expectation of the full completion of God’s promise definitely coming to pass at a future time.]
• into an inheritance (an assigned-lot, the heir's portion which belongs to us because we are heirs)
  • incorruptible (not capable of decaying, not corrupt, in the state of incorruption) and
  • unstained (not tainted, not tinged, without being colored with something else) and
  • unfading (not going-out, not being put-out, not wasting away; it is not temporary).

This inheritance has been kept (in safekeeping, an eye kept on it, taken-care of, watched-over) and it is still being kept within or among the heavens (plural – figuratively referring to God's spirit realm) for you (into, with a view to, directed to you [some Greek texts read “us” showing the truth that Peter himself and all holy-people are also included])…

• emphatically and specifically the people who are being guarded (as with powerful military authority)
  • in God’s ability (within the sphere of the able-power, the capability that God has and which issues or proceeds from Him)
• by means of belief (through faith, trust relative to God and the things of God; belief is the information that God makes known to have confidence-in with assured certainty and surety which is what God says regarding Himself and His son, the Lord Jesus Christ)
• into salvation (with a view to, directed to, and resulting in safety, the standing and state of being saved, made-safe to God from sins and their consequences, from destruction – all holy-people are saved and we will all receive in the future the fullness of our salvation)
  • which is prepared (the completeness of our salvation is in the state of readiness, ready) to be revealed in the last time (to be uncovered, as removing a veil and exposing what was previously hidden from view, during the most-remote opportune time, the final precise period, the extreme occasion, the uttermost season).

During this last time that we live in today…

• you must exult (be elated, as leaping a lot, jumping, springing about, dancing)
  • if/since being necessary (binding, there is an obligation, it must or ought-to happen)
  • up to now for a short span of time
  • having been caused sorrow (you have already been caused to grieve)
    • in variegated temptations (within manifold or various trials, during times of being put to the test in the bad sense of being enticed to do wrong)
• for the purpose and result that the sure-proof (dokimion – the refined indubitable essence of that-which has already been proved by testing or examination and has thereby been approved, proved to be genuine and pure)
  • pertaining-to and contained-in your belief (the faith/trust that you have, which is the information that God has made known to you to have confidence-in with assured certainty and surety) –
    • much-more-priced of gold (with a higher holding-worth or estimated value, very much more honorable relative-to gold coins which also have a lot of price, value, honor),
    • emphatically and specifically the gold which is being destroyed (being utterly ruined, completely lost away from its owner) but being proved by means of fire (being tested or examined either to approve or disapprove its purity through or by way of fire) –
• would be found into, directed-to, and resulting-in
  • glory (importance, splendor and renown) and
  • praise (applause, acclaim) and
  • honor (estimation of value, deemed to be worthy of price)
    • in the revelation of Jesus Christ (during/at his uncovering, referring to the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will come to be present to gather all holy-people together with him).

[Note: the Greek root word time may be translated into English as “price” or “honor” indicating the value of the object referred to in a particular context, such as the price paid or received, worth, or the esteemed honor due (refer to verse 7 “much more priced” and “honor”, plus verse 19 “honorable”).]

Each second and minute and hour and day and month and year that goes-by, brings all holy-people nearer in time to the event of Christ's coming to gather us all together with him. When we will be gathered-together with Christ we will receive into full-manifestation the salvation which God has promised us in Christ. Currently we only have a token/deposit of it, which is the gift of holy spirit, to assure us that we will definitely receive the fullness of our salvation at a future time.

Peter continues: It is the Lord Jesus Christ whom not having seen (you have not physically perceived the Lord Jesus Christ knowing him with your minds from physical sight)

• you presently and actively love¹,
  • [The word "love¹" or the verb "to love¹" comes from the Greek word agape which is God's kind of love. To love with His love means to love the same way as God loves, to manifest God's love towards another, whether it is towards God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, yourself, your Christian neighbor, or towards anyone else. God tells His children today (all who have the spirit of Christ within us) how to Godly-love by means of His previously-revealed written Word and also via our holy spirit-life whereby we receive information from Him regarding how to love in different specific situations. It is the carrying out of God's commandments, His Word, which is the correct usage or way to manifest God's kind of love according to His will (refer to I Corinthians chapter 13 and I John 5:1-3). It is not the same as the brotherly or friendly kind of love, nor is it the same as the emotional/feelings/sexual kind of love.]

…into whom (regarding the Lord Jesus Christ) up to now you are not seeing (perceiving him as the object with your eyes) but you are believing (you are having faith, trusting, he is the object of your belief, which includes what he says and does)

• you exult with joy (you are elated, as leaping a lot, jumping, springing about, dancing, with rejoicing)
  • unutterable (this joy cannot be adequately spoken out-loud, you cannot express the joy with the voice/sound of words)
  • and having been glorified (this joy has been given the importance, splendor, renown) and it remains glorified,

…bringing the completion of the belief to yourselves (you are presently receiving, taking and carrying the complete-thing, the ending-issue, the fulfillment of the faith/trust relative to God and the Lord Jesus Christ to/with yourselves, bringing it into its perfect state, acquiring the completion of the belief from God as compensation or reward so as to preserve and take-care of it from that time onwards) which is –

• salvation of your souls (safety of the life of your beings currently evidenced by breathing, the standing and state of being saved, made-safe to God).

It is about this salvation that prophets sought-out (looked out, in the sense of looking for a response from God regarding it) and searched-out (tracked or traced from the writings, the scrolls which recorded the words that God had previously revealed, as a child traces out a picture or drawing from a book by using semitransparent tracing paper and a pencil)…

• emphatically and specifically the prophets who prophesied (spoke forth God's words being revealed to them concerning the past, present and/or future to, before, in front of a person or people)
  • concerning the grace into you (about the bestowing of unmerited favor for/directed-to you, that is: the grace that you have already received),
• searching into what time (what length this specific period of time would last to its fulfillment) or what sort of time (what events, actions, etc, would be included during this season of time) 
  • the spirit in them used to make clear (the spirit that God had placed within those prophets was making evident, plain for them to see during that past old covenant time)
    • pertaining to Christ (Messiah, the Anointed-one [some Greek texts do not include “of Christ” since the following phrase explains exactly what the spirit within those prophets was making clear to them])
  • witnessing beforehand (the spirit within them was testifying ahead of time, attesting with information, knowledge in advance of occurring, bearing authoritative witness regarding) 
    • the sufferings into Christ (the experiences of the things being directed to Christ, that would affect the Anointed-one during his life and ending in his death)
    • and the glories after these sufferings,
• to whom it was revealed (to the old covenant prophets during their searching it was uncovered by God, as removing a veil and exposing what was previously hidden from their view) that
  • not to themselves
  • but to you
    • these sufferings and glories used to minister (the details witnessed about the sufferings and the glories of Christ were serving to bestow benefit, to bring profit to you holy-people),
• which at the present time have already been announced (messaged-up, reported-back) to you
  • by means of (through) the holy-people who have good-messaged (evangelized, preached the gospel) to you
    • in holy spirit (within the sphere of action of sanctified spirit)
    • which has already been apostled from heaven (‘heaven’ figuratively refers to God; God has sent forth the gift of holy spirit from Himself via the Lord Jesus Christ on a specific mission or assignment; this holy spirit is the spirit of Christ; the holy-people who good-messaged to you did not learn the details regarding this present time from the old covenant writings or because they were so intelligent or had such a high IQ or did so much research, but God revealed this information to them via the holy spirit within them),
• into which things angels presently intensely yearn to bend alongside (they lust, here used in the good sense, angels fix or attach strong desire to move into position beside, by-the-side-of or near-by the object as with their head bent forward intently peering or looking into all that is involved regarding the present time, which is the interval of time between the sufferings of Christ and the glories of Christ; reference Ephesians 3:10).

An angel is a spirit-being whose office and character is one of a messenger in official service via words and/or actions. The word "angel" comes from the Greek word aggello which means to tell or deliver a message and therefore an angel could be called a "messenger." Those angels who have continued to take their instructions from the only true God are also now under the command of the Lord Jesus Christ. But those angels who have refused to take their instructions from God and have instead decided to follow the devil are known as devils (devil-spirits, demons, evil, unclean or unholy spirits). The devil (satan, the snake/serpent, etc) was once one of God's angels, but he rebelled against God wanting to take God's place and he continues attempting to do so. We should also note that the Bible shows us that no human-being was or is or will be a spirit-being angel! See Hebrews chapter 1.

[Reference: Zechariah 13:9; Matthew 5:11 and 12, 17:9; Luke 24:26 and 27; John 3:2-8, 16:7-15, 20:29; Acts 1:7, 2:1-4, 16-26 and 38, 3:15 and 19-26, 5:42, 7:52, 8:4, 10:41-43, 13:26-39, 15:7-11, 16:34; Romans 1:2-4, 16 and 25, 2:5-7 and 10, 3:24 and 25, 5:15-17, 8:2, 9, 10, 18, 19 and 23-25, 9:5, 10:8-17, 15:4-7 and 20; 16:25-27; I Corinthians 1:4, 7, 8 and 17, 2:1 and 5-13, 4:1 and 20, 6:14, 9:16 and 25, and chapter 15; II Corinthians 1:3 and 5, 6:7, 11:31; Galatians 1:11 and 12, 3:18, 4:6 and 7, 5:22; Ephesians 1:3, 6-14 and 18-23, 2:4-10 and 13-17, 3:3-10, 4:4, 7 and 11-16, 5:32, 6:19; Philippians 1:9-11, 4:7; Colossians 1:26 and 27, 2:2, 3:4 and 24, 4:3; I Thessalonians 1:3 and 5, 4:13-18, 5:1 and 8-10; II Thessalonians 2:14; I Timothy 1:1 and 17, 3:16, 6:16; II Timothy 2:10 and 21, 3:1, 9, 15 and 16; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-10, 6:12 and 18-20, 7:26, 9:14, 15 and 28, 11:13, 39 and 40, 13:4; James 1:2-4, 21, 25 and 27, 2:1, 5:20; I Peter 3:18, 4:13, 5:1, 10 and 11; II Peter 1:21; I John 4:9 and 10; Revelation 3:18.]

Verses 13-21:

^.13On-which-account having girded-up the loins of your mind-process, being sober, you must completely hope on the grace being carried to you in (the) revelation of Jesus Christ.

^.14As children of obedience, not outwardly-figuring-yourselves-together with the former intense-yearnings in your lack-of-knowledge ^.15but according to the Holy-One having called you, also you yourselves must become holy in all behavior ^.16for-this-reason-that it was written², “You will be holy because I (am) Holy.”

^.17And since you call-upon (the) Father to-yourselves, the (One) judging unreceptively-of-faces according to (the) work of each-person, in fear you must behave (during) the time of your sojourn, ^.18having known² that you were not redeemed with corruptible-things, silver or gold, out-from your futile fathers’-traditional behavior ^.19but with (the) honorable blood of Christ as of a lamb without-blemish and spotless, ^.20indeed having been known-beforehand² before (the) throwing-down of (the) world but having been manifested on (the) last of the times because-of you, ^.21the believers by means of him into God, the (One) having raised him up out-from dead-people and having given glory to him, so-as-for your belief and hope to be into God.

On account of what is written in the previous verses…

• after you have already girded-up the loins of your mind-process (of your meditation, the conscious thinking-through and reflecting-on the perception in your mind)
  • [this is likened to a girdle put on the area between the thighs and the ribs that girds-up the long flowing robes of Orientals while engaged in any business, such as service or conflict – holding your mind-process tightly, holding it fast in an upward direction without letting it go and fly in the wind where you cannot get a hold of it quickly causing you to slow-down; after you are ready and able to move quickly in your mind process],
• presently being sober (literally this would refer to being free from intoxicants, but it is used figuratively here by Peter meaning: being in control of your minds and bodies so that you are alert and receptive to what God and/or the Lord Jesus Christ may want to make known to you, and that you are not in a stupor, a daze, lethargic),

…you must completely hope (expect something to come-to-pass, to come into being, to happen at a future time in a manner and quality that perfectly reaches God’s intended fulfilling ending-issue) resting or relating down upon the grace being carried (borne, brought) to/for you in the revelation of Jesus Christ (during/at his uncovering – referring to the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will come to be present to gather all holy-people together with him; also refer to verse 7 above).

As children of obedience…. When the Bible refers to someone or something as being "sons" or "children" of such-and-such which is intangible, for example "children of obedience," we must recognize that this is a figure of speech. The word "obedience" denotes the quality of these "children" and the phrase indicates their essence, making a distinction regarding them from those who are not obedient to what God says. The essence of the children of obedience is that they hear what God says, listen attentively, and then they carry-out what they hear, which includes believing it in order to do it correctly. Refer also to verse 2 above.

As children of obedience…

• not outwardly figuring yourselves (causing your external-figure, outward-shape, scheme, schema, outline, including the demeanor, deportment, expressed-personality to be)
  • in conjunction with the former intense-yearnings in your lack of personal knowledge (the prior or previous lusts, here used in the bad sense, the strong-desires you had attached and fixed upon certain objects other-than God and the things of God within the cause and sphere of action of your ignorance, unawareness) [It is only in the walk/behavior category that you could shape yourselves together with this age, because the holy spirit within you cannot behave that way.]
• but contrary to that sort of behavior, you must outwardly figure yourselves in accordance (conformity, proportion) to/with the Holy-One having called you (God is the One Who is Sanctified, He is set-apart from the state of being common, defiled or unclean, and He has already invited you),

…also emphatically you yourselves must become holy (you must come to pass to be sanctified, set-apart from what is common, defiled or unclean against God, you should correspond to the essence of God)

• within the sphere of action of all behavior (every mode of living, way of turning-up, manner of moving-about during everyday living)

…on account of this reason that it was written and it is still written (refer to Leviticus 11:44, 19:2, 20:7 and 26), “You will be holy because emphatically I am Holy.” The future tense was used by God in commands because people were to obey them from the time that the commands were spoken onwards (not that the people would be forced to do them and had no control over their own lives).

And since/if you call upon the Father to yourselves (invite God our Father to yourselves by turning appealingly towards Him)…

• emphatically He is the One judging (making His decision passing sentence) in a manner and quality without receiving faces (not showing partiality, not biased)
  • [God is not a receptor or a respecter of a person's face. God does not 'play favorites.' God does not receive the face or countenance which is presented or turned to His eye to be seen by Him – like an actor on stage would wear a mask and present it forth to take-on the outward appearance of another person to make the audience think of him in a different way. God does not have partiality or favoritism based on a person's outward appearance. He is not a receptor or respecter of persons, of faces, of "masks," even when there is no intention of pretence on the part of the one presenting himself before God. See Deuteronomy 10:17; I Samuel 16:7; II Chronicles 19:7; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25.]
• in accordance (conformity, proportion) to/with the work of each-person (the deed, the effect produced by each person individually, particularly, singly, distinctly, having expended his/her energy),

…in fear you must behave (you must have your mode of living, your manner of moving-about, your way of turning-up during everyday living emphatically within the sphere of action of fright, being afraid at the consequences of the performance of any wrong behavior, exhibiting the awe and respect that ought to be shown towards God and the Lord Jesus Christ)

-          for the chronological time of your sojourn (your housing or dwelling as temporary residents, as settlers beside or near the family, but who do not have the citizenship rights as the true dwellers have; refer also to verse 1 above)…

…having known (perceived) and you still know that you were not redeemed (the ransom, expiation, atonement money, the payment necessary to loosen, release, free you, was not paid/made)…

• with/by corruptible things (capable of decay, in the state of corruption), for example: silver or gold (our redemption was not bought with gold, silver, money, as paying to release a slave),
  • originating out from your…
  • futile (empty as to any results, meaningless and useless)…
  • fathers’-traditional behavior (mode of living, way of turning-up, manner of moving-about during everyday living that your forefathers, ancestors, gave-along or delivered-over from one to another, passing that futile behavior from one-person to beside or alongside another from generation to generation which eventually came to be considered as an authority, "the way we've always done it" and so those traditions were thought of by many people as being "the right-way to do it")

…but on the contrary, you were redeemed…

• with/by the honorable blood (esteemed of value, of worth, prized blood; refer to verse 2 above)…
  • of Christ
    • as of a lamb
    • without-blemish (unblemished, no fault to be found because of some defect as a spot or damage in it) and
    • spotless (the state of being stainless),
  • indeed Christ was known beforehand and this truth has not changed – he was known prior to the throwing-down of the world (in advance of the time when this ordered-arrangement was cast-down)
  • but Christ was manifested (evidenced, brought to light, shown-forth) on the last of the times (during the more remote, uttermost, final or extreme span of chronological times) on account of you,
    • the believers (you are the people who have previously believed what God says and thus you received holy spirit-life, you are faithful, trusting relative-to God)
    • by means of him (through Christ) into or directed-to God,
    • the One (God) Who has raised Jesus up alive out from being among the rest of the dead-people (who will remain dead until the time of their resurrection and judgment)
    • and Who has given glory to him (God has made Christ glorious, He has given him importance, splendor, renown),
  • so as the result and consequence of this is for
    • your belief
    • and hope
    • to be into (with a view to, directed to) God.

In verse 20 the noun translated “throwing-down” refers to the time when the world (the ordered arrangement that God created originally) was placed in the situation that it is continuing in today. To throw something down is as throwing a stone aimed at something in particular, or as scattering seed on the ground. This throwing-down occurred immediately after God had promised the Christ, before God made Adam and Eve to leave the garden of Eden and many adverse things happened to the world and it is still being affected today (refer to Genesis 3:15 and following). For further information on this, you may read my study of Appendix to Romans, the fall of Adam.

Also refer to the note above regarding the Greek root word time.

[Reference: Genesis 3:15; Leviticus 11:44 and 45, 19:2, 20:7 and 26; Matthew 13:46, 15:3, 20:28; John 1:29-36, 14:6, 17:24; Acts 1:7, 2:23, 3:13 and 17, 8:32, 10:34, 13:17 and 30, 17:30, 20:28; Romans 2:6 and 11, 3:24-26, 4:24, 5:2, chapter 6, 10:8-11, 12:2, 16:25-27; I Corinthians 2:3-10, 6:20, 7:23, 8:6, 11:25-27; II Corinthians 1:23, 3:17 and 18; Galatians 1:1, 6, 13 and 14, 4:1-7; 5:8; Ephesians 1:4, 7 and 20, 4:17, 18 and 22, 5:21, 6:14; Colossians 1:18-22, 2:8 and 12; I Thessalonians 2:12, 4:3-8, 5:1 and 6-9 and 24; II Thessalonians 1:9, 2:14; I Timothy 4:12, 6:14; II Timothy 1:9 and 10, 4:5; Titus 2:14, 3:3; Hebrews 1:2 and 3, 2:7-10, 3:1-3, 5:8, 7:25, chapters 9 and 10, 13:20; James 1:27, 2:1; I Peter 5:10; Revelation 5:5-9, 20:12 and 13.]

Verses 22-25:

^.22Having purified² your souls in the obedience of the truth into brotherly-love without-hypocrisy, out-from a clean heart you must stretchingly love¹ one-another, ^.23having been begotten-upwardly² not out-from a corruptible sowing-of-seed but an incorruptible (sowing-of-seed) by means of (the) living and remaining word of God, ^.24for-this-reason-that “all flesh (is) as grass, and all (the) glory of it (is) as a flower of grass; the grass was dried and the flower fell, ^.25but the spoken-matter of (the) Lord remains into the age” – and the spoken-matter is this: the (spoken-matter) having been good-messaged into you.

After you have purified your souls (caused your physical living in the walk/behavior category, including your character and disposition, to become uncontaminated from God's viewpoint by any bad-thing which may be near-by) and your souls continue purified…

• within the cause and sphere of action of the obedience pertaining to the truth (hearing the essential reality, the inherent verity that God speaks to you, listening attentively to what is spoken, and then the action carried-out in accordance with and resulting from believing what is heard is the obedience of the truth)
  • into brotherly-love without-hypocrisy (with a view to, directed-to and resulting-in the friendly or brotherly kind of love, which all of mankind are capable of doing, and which is in a manner that is not hypocritical, not an answer in reply given in pretense as if wearing a mask playing a part on a stage, not feigning to brotherly-love another – it should be genuine),

…out-from a clean heart (the word "heart" literally means: the organ which keeps the fleshy body alive by circulating the blood; but figuratively it means: the center or core of a person's being, the seat of his whole personal self and life; here Peter refers to a heart that is clean, free from any bad foreign mixture [some Greek texts do not include the word “clean”])…

• you must stretchingly love¹ one-another (love with God’s kind of love in a manner that is fervently extending forward and earnest towards each other; refer to the description of “love¹” given for verse 8 above),

…having been begotten-upwardly and continuing begotten-upwardly (refer to verse 3 above) 

• not originating out from a corruptible sowing of seed (resulting from an action of sowing seed that is capable of decay, in the state of corruption)
• but on the contrary – originating out from an incorruptible sowing of seed (resulting from an action of sowing seed that is not capable of decaying, not corrupt, is in the state of incorruption)
  • by means of (through) the living and remaining word of God (the words “living” and “remaining” are verbs in participle form; “word” refers to a spoken account which contains individual words constituting what is spoken – what God speaks is alive and abiding, the spoken account of God’s inner thoughts is presently and actively living and staying, in continuous action – the living and remaining word of God was/is the action or agency by way of which the initiated progress passes-through in order to reach the accomplishment of our being begotten upwardly originating out from an incorruptible sowing of seed),

…on account of this reason that (referencing Isaiah 40:6-8)…

• “all flesh (the flesh of everyone of mankind) is
  • as grass (in comparison to what grows in a field, an enclosed area where animals may graze or feed upon it),
• and all the glory of it (every importance, splendor, renown of flesh) is
  • as a flower of grass (in comparison to the temporary surface displays produced by what grows in a field);
• the grass was dried (withered)
  • and the flower fell (fell out/off the grass – it was only temporary),
• but the spoken-matter of the Lord (the portion of the whole of God’s Word containing the specific discourse)
  • remains into the age (stays, continues for the lifetime, throughout the age, the duration of God’s life which will not end)” –

…and the spoken-matter is this:

• emphatically and specifically the spoken-matter that has been good-messaged into you (evangelized, gospelized directed to you – which pertains to the Lord Jesus Christ as is clear from this letter and all other new covenant writings by Peter, Paul, etc; refer to also verses 10-12 above).

The seed that was sown in us is the gift of holy spirit which we have within us (Acts chapter 2). It is the spirit of Christ in us (Colossians 1:27) and Christ is the promised seed (first promised in Genesis 3:15). The way we received this holy spirit is because we believed what God says, which is His Word (Romans 10:8-17). We could not have believed what He said until we heard the words He gave us to believe. Now we have the gift of holy spirit, and we have the hope that God promised which is that Christ will gather us together with him and we will receive our new spiritual bodies like the one Christ has already received from God (refer to I Corinthians chapter 15 and I Thessalonians 4:13-18).

[Reference: Isaiah 40:6-8; Matthew 4:4; Luke 8:11; Acts 2:1-47, 3:26, 4:33, 5:20, 29-32 and 42, 8:4 and 12, 10:34-43, 11:16 and 20; Romans 1:23, 5:5, 10:8-18, 12:10, 13:8; I Corinthians 1:17 and 18, 9:25, 15:52; Galatians 1:11 and 12, 2:8; Ephesians 2:20-22, 3:5, 4:7 and 11-16, 5:26 and 27, 6:17; I Thessalonians 4:9; I Timothy 1:5 and 17; II Timothy 2:22; Hebrews 1:3, 4:12, 6:5, 11:3, 13:1; James 1:10, 11 and 18; II Peter 3:2. Note: verbs with a superscript 2 (²) immediately following them indicate the "perfect" tense - details are provided in the "Relevant Notes" link of this study.]