A Living Hope
A Living Hope
The Living Word – Weekly Bible Reflection
November 12th, 2025
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1–9
November 12th, 2025
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1–9
Introduction
Each week, our Bible Study gathers to reflect on the same passage that shapes our Sunday message. These moments help us pause midweek, sit with God’s Word, and let Scripture prepare our hearts for worship.
If you can’t join us on Wednesdays, this blog is a great way to follow along. You can reflect on the passage at your own pace and come into Sunday already rooted in what God is teaching us.
This week, we turn to 1 Peter 1:1–9, a passage filled with hope, identity, and encouragement for believers living through trials. Peter reminds us who we are in Christ, what God has done for us, and why our hope remains strong—even in seasons of suffering.
Each week, our Bible Study gathers to reflect on the same passage that shapes our Sunday message. These moments help us pause midweek, sit with God’s Word, and let Scripture prepare our hearts for worship.
If you can’t join us on Wednesdays, this blog is a great way to follow along. You can reflect on the passage at your own pace and come into Sunday already rooted in what God is teaching us.
This week, we turn to 1 Peter 1:1–9, a passage filled with hope, identity, and encouragement for believers living through trials. Peter reminds us who we are in Christ, what God has done for us, and why our hope remains strong—even in seasons of suffering.
Opening Prayer
Lord, thank You for the hope and new life we have through Jesus Christ. As we study this passage, open our hearts to hear Your encouragement, remember who we are in You, and trust in the salvation You are guarding for us. Strengthen our faith, refine us through trials, and fill us with the living hope that comes from Christ’s resurrection.
Amen.
Lord, thank You for the hope and new life we have through Jesus Christ. As we study this passage, open our hearts to hear Your encouragement, remember who we are in You, and trust in the salvation You are guarding for us. Strengthen our faith, refine us through trials, and fill us with the living hope that comes from Christ’s resurrection.
Amen.
Bible Study
1 Peter 1:1-9: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ:
Peter (originally Simon) is likely the best known of Jesus’ followers. He is the outspoken, impulsive, passionate disciple who steps out of the boat to walk on water (and sinks); the first to proclaim Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (and is immediately rebuked for saying Jesus’ must not die). Jesus gives Simon the name Peter, which means “rock”, and says it will be on this rock that he builds his church. No one, except perhaps John, is closer to Jesus than Peter. Few people show Jesus greater loyalty, or deeper betrayal. Peter truly understands the ups and downs of faith and the love of Jesus.
After Jesus’ resurrection, he finds Peter fishing, and asks him three times, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” and three times Peter responds, “you know that I love you.” Three times Jesus says to feed and shepherd his sheep, and he also tells Peter that he will be killed but his death will bring God glory. If anyone knows Jesus, it is Peter. Through Mark, Peter shared his account of the Good News of Jesus, and in this letter, he encourages believers who have been exiled to remain faithful through their trials, encouraging them in the hope that they have kept safe in Jesus. Peter is killed sometime between 64-67 AD, and likely writes this letter between 62-64 AD.
1 Peter 1
To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
1 Peter 1:1-9: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ:
Peter (originally Simon) is likely the best known of Jesus’ followers. He is the outspoken, impulsive, passionate disciple who steps out of the boat to walk on water (and sinks); the first to proclaim Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (and is immediately rebuked for saying Jesus’ must not die). Jesus gives Simon the name Peter, which means “rock”, and says it will be on this rock that he builds his church. No one, except perhaps John, is closer to Jesus than Peter. Few people show Jesus greater loyalty, or deeper betrayal. Peter truly understands the ups and downs of faith and the love of Jesus.
After Jesus’ resurrection, he finds Peter fishing, and asks him three times, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” and three times Peter responds, “you know that I love you.” Three times Jesus says to feed and shepherd his sheep, and he also tells Peter that he will be killed but his death will bring God glory. If anyone knows Jesus, it is Peter. Through Mark, Peter shared his account of the Good News of Jesus, and in this letter, he encourages believers who have been exiled to remain faithful through their trials, encouraging them in the hope that they have kept safe in Jesus. Peter is killed sometime between 64-67 AD, and likely writes this letter between 62-64 AD.
1 Peter 1
To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
Peter emphasizes that the believers are chosen by God, and they are living across a wide geographic region. This letter would have travelled, and was meant for many believers. They are most likely gentiles (non-Jewish people), and likely not exiles from their own country (although some may be); they are exiles because they are citizens of the kingdom of heaven living on earth. They are exiles because they live in a world and a culture that is hostile to them, and they are longing for the home that they know God has promised to them. But now, they wait.
chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Did you catch how Peter repeats this word “chosen” twice? He wants to begin by reminding and reassuring all the believers that they are firmly held in God’s love, care, and plans. The word “foreknowledge” speaks to the way that God knew ahead of time what would happen, but it means more than this as well, because later in the verse the same word is used for Jesus: “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.” God didn’t just know what would happen, he planned it and brought it to pass. God chooses believers, he is not passive in the relationship.
Notice how Peter shows how the three-ness and one-ness of God is active in choosing us: the Father’s foreknowledge, the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work (making us holy to God), and Jesus’ cleansing us with his blood. Peter reminds us that God chooses us, makes us holy, and cleans us.
We read last week in Hebrews about how sacrifices and blood were used in the old covenant to make people clean before God, but that is now replaced with the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus blood “sprinkled” to make us clean. He is present and active in every part of our faith, and even before we have faith. We are not meant to think of faith as only our own, or to try to live out our faith by ourselves: God is the one who gives us the grace and peace to live out the wonderful plans and works that he has for us.
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
Peter blesses God for his mercy, and reminds us to do the same. God doesn’t need our praise or our blessing, but he delights in it. God also loves to give mercy, and through his mercy he gives us new life. We are made new through Jesus Christ who gives us a new birth through his own new life and resurrection. Often we focus on Jesus’ death— and it was vitally important—but the part that is even better good news for us is his resurrection. Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God… Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.”
Our hope is not just in a promise, or a firm belief, it is in the person of Jesus. Our hope is a living hope, because Jesus is alive. He was dead, but now he is alive again, which gives us the confidence to trust and put our hope in him to do the same for us: now, and in eternity.
1 Peter 1:4
and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
We have new birth, into both a living hope and also an inheritance. Just as children usually inherit their parents’ estate, we as God’s children inherit all that he has. Jesus is the legitimate and unique son of God, but he chooses to share his inheritance with us. This includes all of the gifts that God gives to us here and now, but Peter is speaking even more about what is still to come.
He speaks of an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” This isn’t a house that will fall in, or money that will decrease in value, or any of the things that we can pass on to our children. Our inheritance from God is an eternal inheritance, kept in heaven until Jesus comes and unites heaven and earth. In the garden, God made us rulers over the earth with him, and the scriptures say that we will also rule with Jesus in the new heavens and earth. “For if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2)
1 Peter 1:5
You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
We saw in both Hebrews and James the importance of remaining faithful, and persevering in our faith. Faith is not a once-off decision, it is a life spent trusting God. Peter reminds us that this isn’t a cause for us to fear: we are guarded by God’s own power through faith. Faith is a gift that God gives us, and that we must respond to with faithfulness. But even our faithfulness is made possible by God and protected by him, so that we can hold fast to him in life. God guards us because he has chosen us for a to be delivered from the power of sin and death. We are saved now, but it is fully revealed in the age to come. For now, we still have trials, but God guards us.
1 Peter 1:6
You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Our joy comes from the assurance and faith that we have in what God has done for us: he has chosen us, made us holy, cleaned us, and given us new birth into a living hope and inheritance kept safe for us in heaven. God guards us until that time, when we will fully see his salvation.
Our troubles don’t usually feel short. Suffering and trials often feels like they will never end. But God promises that what we have to look forward to in this new life is not another few decades, but eternal life. The time we spend on this old earth compared to eternity in the new heaven and earth is like less than a drop in the entire ocean. One day we will experience that, but for now, we suffer grief and trials. But they are not useless: in these difficulties our faith is shown and refined, like gold that has the imperfections burned out of it in a fire.
Jesus (and Peter) are well aware of suffering. No one understood more clearly than Jesus that before new life came suffering and death. But as followers of Jesus, we enter into suffering and trials with the same hope and faith that Jesus did. Jesus knew that they would come and did not try to run away from them, yet he could also pray powerfully and honestly that God would take them away. Paul also prayed that the “thorn in his flesh” would be taken, but God said that it was in weakness that his power is perfected.
Some of us know deep pain and suffering, some of us do not, but the writers of the scripture certainly knew what it was like to suffer. And we follow a God who suffered. Suffering and pain don’t make sense to us, which is why we need faith. If Jesus said that we had to work hard, get power, and enjoy the good life, that wouldn’t take much faith: we already want to do that, it makes sense to us. But to humble ourselves like he did— to suffer, to endure grief and trials—that takes faith. Peter says that this is what gives our faith its “proven character”. It isn’t until our faith is tested that we know that it is real.
1 Peter 1:8-9
Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
We live in a time where our faith is “blind” in the sense that we do not see God physically as Peter saw Jesus physically. But we believe in him through the words and experience of others sharing, through the scriptures, and through the Holy Spirit. We have a solid, historical faith in a real man—Jesus— who lived, died, and rose again. Peter was a direct witness to all of this, and it is only because he saw it with his own eyes that he believed, but as Jesus said, “blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.”
Our faith is meant to give us “inexpressible and glorious joy”. Like looking forward to a dream trip, or to Christmas morning, or to seeing your best friend after years—we look forward to the day when Jesus will fully save us and make our world new. When we live in the hope and firm faith that Jesus really will do this, the suffering and pain of the world remind us just how good this promise is, and how wonderful that day will be. Even now, we are in the process of receiving our salvation, which is the goal, or the finish-line of our faith. Because one day, we will live by sight, and not only by faith, when we live in the physical presence of God the father, son, and Spirit.
chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Did you catch how Peter repeats this word “chosen” twice? He wants to begin by reminding and reassuring all the believers that they are firmly held in God’s love, care, and plans. The word “foreknowledge” speaks to the way that God knew ahead of time what would happen, but it means more than this as well, because later in the verse the same word is used for Jesus: “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.” God didn’t just know what would happen, he planned it and brought it to pass. God chooses believers, he is not passive in the relationship.
Notice how Peter shows how the three-ness and one-ness of God is active in choosing us: the Father’s foreknowledge, the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work (making us holy to God), and Jesus’ cleansing us with his blood. Peter reminds us that God chooses us, makes us holy, and cleans us.
We read last week in Hebrews about how sacrifices and blood were used in the old covenant to make people clean before God, but that is now replaced with the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus blood “sprinkled” to make us clean. He is present and active in every part of our faith, and even before we have faith. We are not meant to think of faith as only our own, or to try to live out our faith by ourselves: God is the one who gives us the grace and peace to live out the wonderful plans and works that he has for us.
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
Peter blesses God for his mercy, and reminds us to do the same. God doesn’t need our praise or our blessing, but he delights in it. God also loves to give mercy, and through his mercy he gives us new life. We are made new through Jesus Christ who gives us a new birth through his own new life and resurrection. Often we focus on Jesus’ death— and it was vitally important—but the part that is even better good news for us is his resurrection. Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God… Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.”
Our hope is not just in a promise, or a firm belief, it is in the person of Jesus. Our hope is a living hope, because Jesus is alive. He was dead, but now he is alive again, which gives us the confidence to trust and put our hope in him to do the same for us: now, and in eternity.
1 Peter 1:4
and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
We have new birth, into both a living hope and also an inheritance. Just as children usually inherit their parents’ estate, we as God’s children inherit all that he has. Jesus is the legitimate and unique son of God, but he chooses to share his inheritance with us. This includes all of the gifts that God gives to us here and now, but Peter is speaking even more about what is still to come.
He speaks of an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” This isn’t a house that will fall in, or money that will decrease in value, or any of the things that we can pass on to our children. Our inheritance from God is an eternal inheritance, kept in heaven until Jesus comes and unites heaven and earth. In the garden, God made us rulers over the earth with him, and the scriptures say that we will also rule with Jesus in the new heavens and earth. “For if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2)
1 Peter 1:5
You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
We saw in both Hebrews and James the importance of remaining faithful, and persevering in our faith. Faith is not a once-off decision, it is a life spent trusting God. Peter reminds us that this isn’t a cause for us to fear: we are guarded by God’s own power through faith. Faith is a gift that God gives us, and that we must respond to with faithfulness. But even our faithfulness is made possible by God and protected by him, so that we can hold fast to him in life. God guards us because he has chosen us for a to be delivered from the power of sin and death. We are saved now, but it is fully revealed in the age to come. For now, we still have trials, but God guards us.
1 Peter 1:6
You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Our joy comes from the assurance and faith that we have in what God has done for us: he has chosen us, made us holy, cleaned us, and given us new birth into a living hope and inheritance kept safe for us in heaven. God guards us until that time, when we will fully see his salvation.
Our troubles don’t usually feel short. Suffering and trials often feels like they will never end. But God promises that what we have to look forward to in this new life is not another few decades, but eternal life. The time we spend on this old earth compared to eternity in the new heaven and earth is like less than a drop in the entire ocean. One day we will experience that, but for now, we suffer grief and trials. But they are not useless: in these difficulties our faith is shown and refined, like gold that has the imperfections burned out of it in a fire.
Jesus (and Peter) are well aware of suffering. No one understood more clearly than Jesus that before new life came suffering and death. But as followers of Jesus, we enter into suffering and trials with the same hope and faith that Jesus did. Jesus knew that they would come and did not try to run away from them, yet he could also pray powerfully and honestly that God would take them away. Paul also prayed that the “thorn in his flesh” would be taken, but God said that it was in weakness that his power is perfected.
Some of us know deep pain and suffering, some of us do not, but the writers of the scripture certainly knew what it was like to suffer. And we follow a God who suffered. Suffering and pain don’t make sense to us, which is why we need faith. If Jesus said that we had to work hard, get power, and enjoy the good life, that wouldn’t take much faith: we already want to do that, it makes sense to us. But to humble ourselves like he did— to suffer, to endure grief and trials—that takes faith. Peter says that this is what gives our faith its “proven character”. It isn’t until our faith is tested that we know that it is real.
1 Peter 1:8-9
Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
We live in a time where our faith is “blind” in the sense that we do not see God physically as Peter saw Jesus physically. But we believe in him through the words and experience of others sharing, through the scriptures, and through the Holy Spirit. We have a solid, historical faith in a real man—Jesus— who lived, died, and rose again. Peter was a direct witness to all of this, and it is only because he saw it with his own eyes that he believed, but as Jesus said, “blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.”
Our faith is meant to give us “inexpressible and glorious joy”. Like looking forward to a dream trip, or to Christmas morning, or to seeing your best friend after years—we look forward to the day when Jesus will fully save us and make our world new. When we live in the hope and firm faith that Jesus really will do this, the suffering and pain of the world remind us just how good this promise is, and how wonderful that day will be. Even now, we are in the process of receiving our salvation, which is the goal, or the finish-line of our faith. Because one day, we will live by sight, and not only by faith, when we live in the physical presence of God the father, son, and Spirit.
Reflection
Peter reminds us that in Christ we are chosen, made holy, guarded, and given a living hope that cannot fade. Even in trials, our faith is refined and strengthened. Though we have not seen Jesus, we love Him—and our hope in Him anchors us with joy as we look toward the salvation already being worked out in us.
As you reflect this week, consider:
How is God using your current season—whether joyful or difficult—to refine your faith and deepen your hope in Him?
Peter reminds us that in Christ we are chosen, made holy, guarded, and given a living hope that cannot fade. Even in trials, our faith is refined and strengthened. Though we have not seen Jesus, we love Him—and our hope in Him anchors us with joy as we look toward the salvation already being worked out in us.
As you reflect this week, consider:
How is God using your current season—whether joyful or difficult—to refine your faith and deepen your hope in Him?
Closing Prayer
Lord, thank You that You have chosen us, made us holy, and given us new life through Jesus. Help us hold tightly to the living hope we have in Him. Strengthen our faith in trials, refine our hearts, and fill us with the joy that comes from Your salvation. Keep us faithful as we wait for the day when our faith becomes sight.
Amen.
Lord, thank You that You have chosen us, made us holy, and given us new life through Jesus. Help us hold tightly to the living hope we have in Him. Strengthen our faith in trials, refine our hearts, and fill us with the joy that comes from Your salvation. Keep us faithful as we wait for the day when our faith becomes sight.
Amen.
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