Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
He begins, like Paul, in opening his Epistles with giving thanks to God for the greatness of the salvation; herein he looks forward (1) into the future (1 Peter 1:3-9); (2) backward into the past (1 Peter 1:10-12) [ALFORD].
Blessed--A distinct Greek word (eulogetos, "Blessed BE") is used of God, from that used of man (eulogemenos, "Blessed IS").
Father--This whole Epistle accords with the Lord's prayer; "Father," 1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:14, 1 Peter 1:17, 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 2:2; "Our," 1 Peter 1:4, end; "In heaven," 1 Peter 1:4; "Hallowed be Thy name," 1 Peter 1:15-16; 1 Peter 3:15; "Thy kingdom come," 1 Peter 2:9; "Thy will be done," 1 Peter 2:15; 1 Peter 3:17; 1 Peter 4:2, 1 Peter 4:19; "daily bread," 1 Peter 5:7; "forgiveness of sins," 1 Peter 4:8, 1 Peter 4:1; "temptation," 1 Peter 4:12; "deliverance," 1 Peter 4:18 [BENGEL]; Compare 1 Peter 3:7; 1 Peter 4:7, for allusions to prayer. "Barak," Hebrew "bless," is literally "kneel." God, as the original source of blessing, must be blessed through all His works.
abundant--Greek, "much," "full." That God's "mercy" should reach us, guilty and enemies, proves its fulness. "Mercy" met our misery; "grace," our guilt.
begotten us again--of the Spirit by the word (1 Peter 1:23); whereas we were children of wrath naturally, and dead in sins.
unto--so that we have.
lively--Greek, "living." It has life in itself, gives life, and looks for life as its object [DE WETTE]. Living is a favorite expression of Peter (1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 2:4-5). He delights in contemplating life overcoming death in the believer. Faith and love follow hope (1 Peter 1:8, 1 Peter 1:21-22). "(Unto) a lively hope" is further explained by "(To) an inheritance incorruptible . . . fadeth not away," and "(unto) salvation . . . ready to be revealed in the last time." I prefer with BENGEL and STEIGER to join as in Greek, "Unto a hope living (possessing life and vitality) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Faith, the subjective means of the spiritual resurrection of the soul, is wrought by the same power whereby Christ was raised from the dead. Baptism is an objective means (1 Peter 3:21). Its moral fruit is a new life. The connection of our sonship with the resurrection appears also in Luke 20:36; Acts 13:33. Christ's resurrection is the cause of ours, (1) as an efficient cause (1 Corinthians 15:22); (2) as an exemplary cause, all the saints being about to rise after the similitude of His resurrection. Our "hope" is, Christ rising from the dead hath ordained the power, and is become the pattern of the believer's resurrection. The soul, born again from its natural state into the life of grace, is after that born again unto the life of glory. Matthew 19:28, "regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory"; the resurrection of our bodies is a kind of coming out of the womb of the earth and entering upon immortality, a nativity into another life [BISHOP PEARSON]. The four causes of our salvation are; (1) the primary cause, God's mercy; (2) the proximate cause, Christ's death and resurrection; (3) the formal cause, our regeneration; (4) the final cause, our eternal bliss. As John is the disciple of love, so Paul of faith, and Peter of hope. Hence, Peter, most of all the apostles, urges the resurrection of Christ; an undesigned coincidence between the history and the Epistle, and so a proof of genuineness. Christ's resurrection was the occasion of his own restoration by Christ after his fall.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
1 Corinthians 15:8
1 Corinthians 15:19
Galatians 5:5
Ephesians 1:3
Ephesians 1:19
James 1:18
1 Peter 1:3
1 Peter 1:3
1 Peter 1:4
1 Peter 1:13
1 Peter 1:14
1 Peter 1:21
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