1 Peter 1:25

1:17-25 Holy confidence in God as a Father, and awful fear of him as a Judge, agree together; and to regard God always as a Judge, makes him dear to us as a Father. If believers do evil, God will visit them with corrections. Then, let Christians not doubt God's faithfulness to his promises, nor give way to enslaving dread of his wrath, but let them reverence his holiness. The fearless professor is defenceless, and Satan takes him captive at his will; the desponding professor has no heart to avail himself of his advantages, and is easily brought to surrender. The price paid for man's redemption was the precious blood of Christ. Not only openly wicked, but unprofitable conversation is highly dangerous, though it may plead custom. It is folly to resolve, I will live and die in such a way, because my forefathers did so. God had purposes of special favour toward his people, long before he made manifest such grace unto them. But the clearness of light, the supports of faith, the power of ordinances, are all much greater since Christ came upon earth, than they were before. The comfort is, that being by faith made one with Christ, his present glory is an assurance that where he is we shall be also, Joh 14:3. The soul must be purified, before it can give up its own desires and indulgences.

And the word of God planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eternal life. In contrast with the excellence of the renewed spiritual man, as born again, observe the vanity of the natural man. In his life, and in his fall, he is like grass, the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away. We should hear, and thus receive and love, the holy, living word, and rather hazard all than lose it; and we must banish all other things from the place due to it. We should lodge it in our hearts as our only treasures here, and the certain pledge of the treasure of glory laid up for believers in heaven.

{15} But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (15) Again lest any man should seek that spiritual force and virtue in feigned imaginations, the apostle calls us back to the word of God: teaching us furthermore, that there is no other word of the Lord to be looked for than this that is preached, in which we must trust alone.

Word of the Lord (ῥῆμα κυρίου) Compare 1 Peter 1:23, and note that ῥῆμα is used for word, instead of λόγος; and Κύριος, Lord, instead of Θεός, God, which is the reading of the Hebrew, and of most copies of the Septuagint. The substitution indicates that Peter identifies Jesus with God. No very satisfactory reason can be given for the change from λόγος to ῥῆμα. It may be due to the Greek translation, which Peter follows.

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever; not only absolutely in itself, and in respect of its perpetual verity, Psalm 119:160 Matthew 24:35 ; but relatively, as received by and dwelling in believers, 1Jo 3:9 , who always experience the effects of it in themselves in their regeneration, receiving a solid and lasting being from it, (the new nature), which is likewise preserved by it, in opposition to that flux and mutable being they had by their first birth. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you; this word, of which Isaiah speaks, and which he so much magnifies, is the very same word of the gospel, which is preached unto you by us apostles.

25. (Ps 119:89.) this is the word … preached unto you—That is eternal which is born of incorruptible seed (1Pe 1:24): but ye have received the incorruptible seed, the word (1Pe 1:25); therefore ye are born for eternity, and so are bound now to live for eternity (1Pe 1:22, 23). Ye have not far to look for the word; it is among you, even the joyful Gospel message which we preach. Doubt not that the Gospel preached to you by our brother Paul, and which ye have embraced, is the eternal truth. Thus the oneness of Paul's and Peter's creed appears. See my [2613]Introduction, showing Peter addresses some of the same churches as Paul labored among and wrote to.

Verse 25. - But the Word of the Lord endureth forever . And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you. In this verse, both in the quotation and in the apostle's comment, the Greek equivalent for "word" is not λόγος , as in ver. 23, but ῤῆμα . Ῥῆμα is "an utterance, the word uttered," more concrete than λόγος ; yet in some pus-sages, as Ephesians 6:18 ; Hebrews 6:4 and Hebrews 11:3, it seems to be used as equivalent to λόγος , and the variation here may possibly be owing to the quotation. Compare the transition from λόγος to ῤῆμα in St. Peter's speech recorded in Acts 10:36, 37 . The Revised Version renders the last half of the verse, And this is the Word of good tidings which was preached unto you ; literally, This is the Word which was preached as good tidings . Here St. Peter recognizes the gospel which had been preached in Asia Minor as the Word of the Lord which abideth for ever. St. Paul and his companions were the missionaries from whom those provinces had heard the Word of God. St. Peter gives his formal testimony to the teaching of St. Paul, as he had already done at Jerusalem ( Galatians 2:1-9 ). 1 Peter 1:25

(25) The word which by the gospel is preached .—An incorrect rendering of the original tense. It literally runs, And this is the word which was preached unto you. The whole magnificent peroration of this paragraph, as of the last, leads up to this: that, in the opinion of St. Peter, the Gospel, as delivered by St. Paul and his followers—the Gospel of equality, or rather of unity between Jew and Gentile in Jesus Christ—was the living and supreme abiding revelation of the will of God! Well may the Tübingen school wish to disprove the genuineness of this Epistle!

But the word of the Lord - In Isaiah Isa 40:8 "the word of our God." The sense is not materially varied. Endureth forever - Is unmoved, fixed, permanent. Amidst all the revolutions on earth, the fading glories of natural objects, and the wasting strength of man, his truth remains unaffected. Its beauty never fades; its power is never enfeebled. The gospel system is as lovely now as it was when it was first revealed to man, and it has as much power to save as it had when first applied to a human heart. We see the grass wither at the coming on of autumn; we see the flower of the field decay; we see man, though confident in his strength, and rejoicing in the rigor of his frame, cut down in an instant; we see cities decline, and kingdoms lose their power: but the word of God is the same now that it was at first, and, amidst all the changes which may ever occur on the earth, that will remain the same. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you - That is, this gospel is the "word" which was referred to by Isaiah in the passage which has been quoted. In view, then, of the affecting truth stated in the close of this chapter, 1 Peter 1:24-25 let us learn habitually to reflect on our feebleness and frailty. "We all do fade as a leaf," Isaiah 64:6. Our glory is like the flower of the field. Our beauty fades, and our strength disappears, as easily as the beauty and vigor of the flower that grows up in the morning, and that in the evening is cut down, Psalm 90:6.

The rose that blossoms on the cheek of youth may wither as soon as any other rose; the brightness of the eye may become dim, as readily as the beauty of a field covered with flowers; the darkness of death may come over the brow of manliness and intelligence, as readily as night settles down on the landscape and our robes of adorning may be laid aside, as soon as beauty fades in a meadow full of flowers before the scythe of the mower. There is not an object of natural beauty on which we pride ourselves that will not decay; and soon all our pride and pomp will be laid low in the tomb. It is sad to look on a beautiful lily, a rose, a magnolia, and to think how soon all that beauty will disappear. It is more sad to look on a rosy cheek, a bright eye, a lovely form, an expressive brow, an open, serene, intelligent countenance, and to think how soon all that beauty and brilliancy will fade away. But amidst these changes which beauty undergoes, and the desolations which disease and death spread over the world, it is cheering to think that all is not so. There is that which does not change, which never loses its beauty. "The word of the Lord" abides. His cheering promises, his assurances that there is a brighter and better world, remain amidst all these changes the same. The traits which are drawn on the character by the religion of Christ, more lovely by far than the most delicate coloring of the lily, remain forever.