1 Peter 2

1 Peter 2:1

Enlightened - With the knowledge of God and of his truth.

1 Peter 2:3

For ye sympathized with all your suffering brethren, and with me in particular; and received joyfully the loss of your own goods.

1 Peter 2:4

Cast not away therefore this your confidence - Your faith and hope; which none can deprive you of but yourselves.

1 Peter 2:5

The promise - Perfect love; eternal life.

1 Peter 2:6

He that cometh - To reward every man according to his works.

1 Peter 2:7

Now the just - The justified person. Shall live - In God’s favour, a spiritual and holy life. By faith - As long as he retains that gift of God. But if he draw back - If he make shipwreck of his faith My soul hath no pleasure in him - That is, I abhor him; I cast him off. Habakkuk 2:3, &c.

1 Peter 2:8

We are not of them who draw back to perdition - Like him mentioned Hebrews 10:38. But of them that believe - To the end, so as to attain eternal life.

1 Peter 2:10

The definition of faith given in this verse, and exemplified in the various instances following, undoubtedly includes justifying faith, but not directly as justifying. For faith justifies only as it refers to, and depends on, Christ. But here is no mention of him as the object of faith; and in several of the instances that follow, no notice is taken of him or his salvation, but only of temporal blessings obtained by faith. And yet they may all be considered as evidences of the power of justifying faith in Christ, and of its extensive exercise in a course of steady obedience amidst difficulties and dangers of every kind. Now faith is the subsistence of things hoped for, the evidence or conviction of things not seen - Things hoped for are not so extensive as things not seen. The former are only things future and joyful to us ; the latter are either future, past, or present, and those either good or evil, whether to us or others. The subsistence of things hoped for - Giving a kind of present subsistence to the good things which God has promised: the divine supernatural evidence exhibited to, the conviction hereby produced in, a believer of things not seen, whether past, future, or spiritual; particularly of God and the things of God.

1 Peter 2:11

By it the elders - Our forefathers. This chapter is a kind of summary of the Old Testament, in which the apostle comprises the designs, labours, sojournings, expectations, temptations, martyrdoms of the ancients. The former of them had a long exercise of their patience; the latter suffered shorter but sharper trials. Obtained a good testimony - A most comprehensive word. God gave a testimony, not only of them but to them: and they received his testimony as if it had been the things themselves of which he testified, Hebrews 11:4,5,39. Hence they also gave testimony to others, and others testified of them.

1 Peter 2:12

By faith we understand that the worlds - Heaven and earth and all things in them, visible and invisible. Where made - Formed, fashioned, and finished. By the word - The sole command of God, without any instrument or preceding matter. And as creation is the foundation and specimen of the whole divine economy, so faith in the creation is the foundation and specimen of all faith. So that things which are seen - As the sun, earth, stars. Were made of things which do not appear - Out of the dark, unapparent chaos, Genesis 1:2. And this very chaos was created by the divine power; for before it was thus created it had no existence in nature.

1 Peter 2:13

By faith - In the future Redeemer. Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice - The firstlings of his flock, implying both a confession of what his own sins deserved, and a desire of sharing in the great atonement. Than Cain - Whose offering testified no such faith, but a bare acknowledgment of God the Creator. By which faith he obtained both righteousness and a testimony of it: God testifying - Visibly that his gifts were accepted; probably by sending fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice, a token that justice seized on the sacrifice instead of the sinner who offered it. And by it - By this faith. Being dead, he yet speaketh - That a sinner is accepted only through faith in the great sacrifice.

1 Peter 2:14

Enoch was not any longer found among men, though perhaps they sought for him as they did for Elijah, 2 Kings 2:17. He had this testimony - From God in his own conscience.

1 Peter 2:15

But without faith - Even some divine faith in God, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God - in prayer, or another act of worship, must believe that he is.

1 Peter 2:16

Noah being warned of things not seen as yet - Of the future deluge. Moved with fear, prepared an ark, by which open testimony he condemned the world - Who neither believed nor feared.

1 Peter 2:17

Genesis 12:1,4,5

1 Peter 2:18

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise - The promise was made before, Genesis 12:7. Dwelling in tents - As a sojourner With Isaac and Jacob - Who by the same manner of living showed the same faith Jacob was born fifteen years before the death of Abraham. The joint heirs of the same promise - Having all the same interest therein. Isaac did not receive this inheritance from Abraham, nor Jacob from Isaac, but all of them from God. Genesis 17:8

1 Peter 2:19

He looked for a city which hath foundations - Whereas a tent has none. Whose builder and former is God - Of which God is the sole contriver, former, and finisher.

1 Peter 2:20

Sarah also herself - Though at first she laughed at the promise, Genesis 18:12. Genesis 21:2.

1 Peter 2:21

As it were dead - Till his strength was supernaturally restored, which continued for many years after.

1 Peter 2:22

All these - - Mentioned Hebrews 11:7 - 11. Died in faith - In death faith acts most vigorously. Not having received the promises - The promised blessings. Embraced - As one does a dear friend when he meets him.

1 Peter 2:23

They who speak thus show plainly that they seek their own country - That they keep in view, and long for, their native home.

1 Peter 2:24

If they had been mindful of - Their earthly country, Ur of the Chaldeans, they might have easily returned.

1 Peter 2:25

But they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly - This is a full convincing proof that the patriarchs had a revelation and a promise of eternal glory in heaven. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: seeing he hath prepared for them a city - Worthy of God to give.