Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, for sanctification of the Spirit through obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ,

who are kept for salvation through faith by the power of God (which is prepared to be revealed in the last time

so that the trial of your faith—being much more precious than gold, which perishes even though it is tried with fire—might be found to your praise, honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,

searching when or at what time the Spirit of Christ (Who testified before) was in them, declaring the sufferings that would come to Christ and the glory that would follow.

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and trust completely in that grace which is brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

But as He Who has called you is holy, so you be holy, in all manner of conversation.

Because it is written, “Be holy. For I am holy.”

You, through Him, believe in God Who raised Him from the dead and gave Him Glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth (through the Spirit) toward brotherly love without hypocrisy, love one another fervently, with a pure heart;

being born anew—not of mortal seed, but of immortal—by the Word of God, Who lives and endures forever.

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 forever.” And this is the Word which is preached among you.

(if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is bountiful),

coming to Him as to a living stone, indeed rejected by man but chosen by God and precious.

You also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood; to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I put a Chief Cornerstone in Zion, elect and precious. And the one who believes in Him shall not be put to shame.”

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious. But to those who are disobedient, “the Stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the Chief Cornerstone,”

In the past, you were not a people, yet are now the people of God, who in the past were not under mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

And have your behavior be honorable among the Gentiles, so that those who speak against you as evil doers may, by your good works which they shall see, glorify God on the Day of visitation.

Therefore, submit yourselves to every institution of man, for the Lord’s sake; whether it is to the king (as superior),

For such is the will of God: that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men;

as free—yet not having freedom be a cloak for evil—but as servants of God.

Honor the whole brotherhood. Love brotherly fellowship. Fear God. Honor the King.

For this is grace: if anyone - for the sake of conscience toward God - endures grief, suffering wrongly.