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1 PETER CHAPTER 1
(v. 1) "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,
(v. 2) who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
(v. 3) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
["hope" = "elpida"
= a sure hope 
]
1. OUR INHERITANCE IS RESERVED BY GOD FOR US IN HEAVEN (1:3-5) 1:3. God has begotten us again (anagennasas). Peter is here emphasizing the new birth with an aorist participle. Through this he identifies his readers as children of God, born spiritually into the family of God (John 3:3). Biblical hope is a positive attitude based on a desired expectation and includes certainty (Rom 5:5; 8:24-25). The adjective "living" means the hope is active, affecting the Christian. Precisely because Jesus rose from the dead, Christians have hope (1 Cor 15:30-32).
(v. 4) and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you"
[GES]:
1:4. While verse 3 looks at our justification, this verse focuses on glorification. This inheritance is already ours by spiritual birthright. It is a place (John 14:2-3) described with three adjectives. Incorruptible describes its permanence rather than moral nature. It cannot perish, be lost, or break down over time. By undefiled he means that it is unstained by sin. And unlike flowers, it does not fade away in that it does not lose its beauty or desirability. Reserved translates the perfect passive participle (tethrhmenhn) and means that it is already in place and being guarded, or watched over, by God. The possession of the believer from the point of regeneration into eternity, it is not something enjoyed in this life, but is in heaven, on which may be added additional rewards based on deeds (1 Cor 3:10-15).
[Bible Knowledge Commentary, NT, Walvoord & Zuck Eds, Victor Books, USA, 1988, p. 841]:
"The sure hope is of a future inheritance (klEronomian). This same word is used in the Septuagint to refer to Israel's promised possession of the land (cf. Num 26:54, 56; 34:2; Josh 11:23); it was her possession, granted to her as a gift from God. A Christian's inheritance cannot be destroyed by hostile forces, and it will not spoil like over ripened fruit or fade in color. Peter used three words, each beginning with the same letter and ending with the same syllable, to describe in a cumulative fashion this inheritance's permanence: can never perish (aphtharton), spoil (amianton), or fade (amaranton). This inheritance is as indestructible as God's Word (cf. 1 Peter 1:23, where Peter again used aphtharton). Each Christian's inheritance of eternal life is kept in heaven or 'kept watch on' by God so its ultimate possession is secure (cf. Gal 5:5)."
(v. 5) who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
[Notice that 'an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith...', i.e., through faith one receives and has kept for them by God an eternal inheritance]
[GES]
1.5. Kept is a military term describing the protection provided to a city by soldiers of a military garrison. It is used of God's peace guarding our hearts and minds (Phil 4:7). The present tense indicates God's continuous preservation and the passive voice shows that it is not something believers do for themselves. Through faith might seem to indicate that God's preservation of His saints depends on the constancy of their faith. But, since it is God who guards us, it cannot be our faith keeping us saved, but God's faithfulness. This salvation is eschatological, not temporal salvation in this life, with the last time referring to the believer's future destiny in heaven.
[BKC, op. cit., p. 841]:
"Not only is the inheritance guarded, but heirs who have been born into that inheritance are shielded by God's power. 'Shielded' (phrouroumenous) is a military term, used to refer to a garrison within a city (Phil 4:7 uses the same Gr. word). What greater hope could be given to those undergoing persecution than the knowledge that God's power guards them from within, to preserve them for an inheritance of salvation that will be completely revealed to them in God's presence. Believers possess salvation now (pres. tense) but will sense its full significance at the return of Christ in the last time. This final step, or ultimate completion of 'the salvation of their souls' (1 Peter 1:9), will come 'when Jesus Christ is revealed,' a clause Peter used twice (vv. 7, 13)."]
(v. 6) In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
[GES]:
2. WE REJOICE IN THE TRIALS THAT TEST OUR FAITH IN ANTICIPATION OF JESUS' REVELATION (1:6-9) 1.6. When Peter tells his readers you greatly rejoice he is describing an active response of thankfulness toward God. For a little while focuses our attention on the brevity of the trial in light of eternity. Suffering trials is not without purpose. Peter adds if need be to his description of their circumstances. This first class conditional clause assumes the "if" is true and so affirms that trials are a necessary part of his readers' experience. The term translated various trials (peirasmoi) is broader than persecutions (diwgmoi) or tribulations (qlipseis). The latter two terms are used throughout the New Testament to describe antagonistic actions against Christians. This word includes sickness, accidents, war, or any other negative experience, along with persecutions and tribulations.
(v. 7) These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
[GES]:
1.7. Genuineness (dokimion) expresses approval after evaluation or testing to see if something is what it claims to be, or if it measures up to a standard. Here the faith of the one experiencing trials is evaluated. Are they really trusting God? When Peter compares faith to gold that perishes, he affirms that it is of greater value to God (and so should be to us) than anything in this temporal world. Tested by fire reflects the purification process of gold that proves its identity and improves its quality by removing impurities. This praise is the commendation, the "well done," given by God to the saint for his or her faith (Matt 25:14-30). Honor describes the high distinction or recognition given the faithful (Luke 12:8-9; Rev 3:5). Believers are promised to share Jesus' glory at His second coming, or revelation (Col 3:4; 1 Pet 5:1-4; Rev 3:21).
(v. 8) Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy"
[GES]:
1.8. The readers are not eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry or resurrection. And, though they still do not see (present participle) Him, their faith leads to rejoicing in the midst of trials. This is the very faith commended by Jesus-for believing in Him without seeing Him-when He appeared to Thomas (John 20:29). This use of glory emphasizes the greatness (height) of the emotional response of the believer. It is genuinely expressed joy. This only happens when our faith is focused on Christ.
(v. 9) Obtaining as the outcome of your faith ["pisteOs" = faithfulness] the salvation of your souls
[GES]:
1.9. Peter speaks here of receiving. The idea is that his readers are in the process of "obtaining for themselves" a rich eternal future with God. The salvation of your souls is not obtaining eternal life, which is already possessed (verse v. 4), but the rewards of future abundant life for those found faithful (Revelation 2-3). 3. THIS FUTURE SALVATION WAS PROPHESIED BY THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS (1:10-12)
(v. 10) Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,
[GES]:
1.10. The salvation of verse 9-its nature and benefits, not how to obtain it-was of interest to the prophets. The use of inquired and searched together (hendiadys) expresses the intensity of their effort and desire to understand fully that which they prophesied. They were asking these questions after they prophesied (aorist participle). They received the revelation from God and then wondered about its significance.
(v. 11) trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow."
[GES]:
1.11. This verse clarifies that the prophets were not questioning the meaning of their prophecies. They understood that they spoke of the sufferings and glories that Jesus would experience. It was the details (what) of the prophecies and their timing (what manner of time) that they wondered about. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53:1-12, and Daniel 7:13-14 are examples of such prophecies.
[Hodges, op. cit., p. 101]:
"The same idea is present in the Apostle Peter's famous passage on suffering found in 1 Peter 1:6-9. The expression in verse 9 which is translated 'the salvation of your souls' would be much better translated according to its normal Greek sense: 'the salvation of your lives.' Peter is describing the messianic experience in which the believer partakes of Christ's sufferings first, in order that he might subsequently share the glory to which those sufferings lead (1 Peter 1:10, 11). In this way the 'life' is saved, even when paradoxically it is lost, because it results in 'praise honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (1 Pet 1:7)."
(v. 12) It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
1.12. The prophets did not understand everything they were saying, but they did understand that they were speaking prophetically and that a later generation would benefit. Why? God had revealed that truth to them. In contrast to the prophets' forward-looking prophecies are the backward-looking reports of the gospel witnesses. They have reported the very details about which the prophets had wondered. And, where the Spirit of Christ spoke through the prophets then, the same Holy Spirit speaks through the gospel preachers now.
(v. 17) "Since you [believers, v. 18] call on a Father Who judges each man's work impartially, [relative to rewards, 1 Cor 3:11-15] live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
(v. 18) For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers.
[Notice the word "redeemed". The subject is salvation. Peter is reminding Jewish believers that they were saved not by things nor by their "empty way of life", i.e., by trying to be saved by the deeds of the Law handed down by their forefathers but they were saved by the blood of Jesus Christ]:
(v. 18 cont.) For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers.
(v. 19) but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
"you were redeemed" = "elutrOthEte", aorist tense =completed action, second person, plural, passive mood - Christ has done it all once for all time.
[Pentecost, op. cit., p. 74-75]:
"The word ["elutrOthEte"] the Apostle chose to use in... [1 Pet 1:18-19] ...which is translated by the English word 'redeemed,' is a word that emphasizes an act: it is the act of setting free, the act of liberating. The word the Apostle used here... emphasizes that a purchase was necessary, and a purchase has been accomplished.
God owns the world and all that is within creation. Because God is the Creator, all that came into being by the word of His power is rightly His. We are His by creation; therefore we are answerable to Him as creatures to the Creator. But when God would bring many sons into glory - that we should be found to the praise of the glory of His grace - God did not bring us into glory by creating us, but rather by purchasing us for Himself. When the Apostle says we were not redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ, he is emphasizing the fact that God Who had created entered into a separate act, or work, whereby the One Who already possessed us bought us to Himself that we might be doubly His: His by creation, and His by a purchased redemption.... Peter has shown us that the redemption price was the blood of Christ"
'...ye were not redeemed with corruptible things" - and the corruptible things he mentions are silver and gold. Silver and gold are corruptible and are corrupted because they are under the curse.
(v. 20) He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
[And the basis upon which the blood of Christ saved you, Peter says to fellow believers, is faith, i.e., belief in the gospel of salvation]:
(v. 21) Through Him you believe in God, Who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God [relative to salvation unto eternal life]
(v. 22) Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."
"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth" = Now that you have received perfect righteousness, i.e., purification unto eternal life by "obeying the truth" = by believing in the gospel of salvation, (cp v. 21).
(v. 23) For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God."
So obeying the truth according to Scripture is believing in it. Verse 21 states that believing in God, in what He did relative to His Son: His Son's death, burial, resurrection and glorifiication (the Gospel of salvation) will result in purification, i.e., eternal life. And verse 22 describes this action of believing in the gospel of salvation as "obeying the truth." Then verse 23 confirms that the subject is being born again, i.e., salvation.
(v. 2:11) Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
[Dillow, cont., p. 119]:
"In 1 Pet 1:9 Peter speaks of the salvation of our souls in a similar way. The entire passage is instructive and bears comment. His burden is to encourage his readers toward steadfastness in trials (1:6). Not only are there external enemies, but there are internal enemies such as 'fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul" (2:11). This warfare against their soul (Gk. psuche) is severe, and they need victory in the battle; they need deliverance, or 'salvation' (Gk. soteria). Only by daily obedience to the truth can their 'souls' be 'purified' so that they can love fervently (1:22).
Peter's method of encouragement is to set their hearts aglow with a vision of the great future. They have, he says, been 'born again to a living hope' (1:3). This birth is to 'obtain an inheritance which is imperishable' (1:4)." [an eternal reward]