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¹ PETER, a legate of Jesus the Messiah, to the elect and sojourners, who are dispersed in Pontus and in Galatia, and in Cappadocia, and in Asia, and in Bithynia,² to them who have been chosen, by the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto the obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus the Messiah: May grace and peace abound towards you.

³ Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, who in his great mercy hath begotten us anew, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, to the hope of life,⁴ and to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, which is prepared for you in heaven;⁵ while ye are kept, by the power of God and by faith, for the life that is prepared and will be revealed in the last times;

⁶ wherein ye will rejoice for ever, notwithstanding ye at the present time are pressed a little, by the various trials that pass over you;⁷ so that the proof of your faith may appear more precious than refined gold that is tested by fire, unto glory and honor and praise, at the manifestation of Jesus the Messiah:⁸ whom having not seen, ye love; and in the faith of whom ye rejoice, with joy that is glorious and ineffable,⁹ that ye may receive the recompense of your faith, the life of your souls;

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¹³ Wherefore, gird up the loins of your minds. and be awake perfectly, and wait for the joy, which will come to you at the revelation of our Lord Jesus the Messiah,¹⁴ as obedient children: and be ye not conversant again with those former lusts, with which ye lusted when without knowledge.¹⁵ But be ye holy in all your conduct, as he is holy who hath called you.¹⁶ Because it is written: Be ye holy, even as I am holy.¹⁷ And if so be ye call on the Father, with whom is no respect of persons, and who judgeth every one according to his deeds, pass the time of your sojournment with fear;¹⁸ since ye know, that neither with perishable silver, nor with gold, ye were redeemed from your vain doings, which ye had by tradition from your fathers;¹⁹ but with the precious blood of that Lamb in which is no spot nor blemish, namely, the Messiah:²⁰ who was predestined to this, before the foundation of the world; and was manifested at the termination of the times, for your sakes;²¹ who, by means of him, have believed in God, who raised him from the dead and conferred glory on him; that your faith and hope might be in God,²² while your minds became sanctified, by obedience to the truth; and ye be full of love, without respect of persons, so that ye love one another out of a pure and perfect heart;²³ like persons born again, not of seed that perisheth, but of that which doth not perish, by the living word of God, who abideth for ever.

²⁴ Because all flesh is as grass, and all its beauty like the flower of the field. The grass drieth up, and the flower withereth away;²⁵ but the word of our God abideth for ever: and this is the word that is announced to you.