1 Peter 1:8

1:1-9 This epistle is addressed to believers in general, who are strangers in every city or country where they live, and are scattered through the nations. These are to ascribe their salvation to the electing love of the Father, the redemption of the Son, and the sanctification of the Holy Ghost; and so to give glory to one God in three Persons, into whose name they had been baptized. Hope, in the world's phrase, refers only to an uncertain good, for all worldly hopes are tottering, built upon sand, and the worldling's hopes of heaven are blind and groundless conjectures. But the hope of the sons of the living God is a living hope; not only as to its object, but as to its effect also. It enlivens and comforts in all distresses, enables to meet and get over all difficulties. Mercy is the spring of all this; yea, great mercy and manifold mercy. And this well-grounded hope of salvation, is an active and living principle of obedience in the soul of the believer. The matter of a Christian's joy, is the remembrance of the happiness laid up for him. It is incorruptible, it cannot come to nothing, it is an estate that cannot be spent. Also undefiled; this signifies its purity and perfection. And it fadeth not; is not sometimes more or less pleasant, but ever the same, still like itself.

All possessions here are stained with defects and failings; still something is wanting: fair houses have sad cares flying about the gilded and ceiled roofs; soft beds and full tables, are often with sick bodies and uneasy stomachs. All possessions are stained with sin, either in getting or in using them. How ready we are to turn the things we possess into occasions and instruments of sin, and to think there is no liberty or delight in their use, without abusing them! Worldly possessions are uncertain and soon pass away, like the flowers and plants of the field. That must be of the greatest worth, which is laid up in the highest and best place, in heaven. Happy are those whose hearts the Holy Spirit sets on this inheritance. God not only gives his people grace, but preserves them unto glory. Every believer has always something wherein he may greatly rejoice; it should show itself in the countenance and conduct. The Lord does not willingly afflict, yet his wise love often appoints sharp trials, to show his people their hearts, and to do them good at the latter end. Gold does not increase by trial in the fire, it becomes less; but faith is made firm, and multiplied, by troubles and afflictions. Gold must perish at last, and can only purchase perishing things, while the trial of faith will be found to praise, and honour, and glory. Let this reconcile us to present afflictions.

1 Peter 1:8-9 . Whom having not seen — Ειδοτες , known, that is, personally in the flesh; ye love — Namely, on account of his amiable character, and for the great things he hath done and suffered for you, and the great benefits he hath bestowed on you. It is very possible, as Doddridge observes, that among these dispersed Christians, there might be some who had visited Jerusalem while Christ was there, and might have seen, or even conversed with him; but as the greater part had not, St. Peter speaks, according to the usual apostolic manner, as if they all had not. Thus he speaks of them all as loving Christ, though there might be some among them who were destitute both of this divine principle and of that joy which he here describes as ανεκλαλητω και δεδοξασμενη , unutterable and glorified; that is, such joy as was an anticipation of that of the saints in glory. Receiving — Even now already, with unspeakable delight, as a full equivalent for all your trials; the end of your faith — That which in your faith you aim at, and which is the seal and the reward of it; the salvation of your souls — From the guilt and power of your sins, and all the consequences thereof, into the favour and image of God, and a state of communion with him; implying a qualification for, and earnest of, complete and eternal salvation.

The Jews thought that the salvation to be accomplished by the Messiah would be a salvation from the Roman and every foreign yoke; but that would only have been a salvation of their bodies: whereas the salvation which believers expect from Christ is the salvation of their souls from sin and misery, and of their bodies from the grave.

1 Peter 1:8 . Οὐκ εἰδότες ἀγαπᾶτε ) Ye love, although ye know Him not in person. A paradox: for in other cases it is knowledge which produces love. This is said respecting love: Peter afterwards asserts the same respecting faith. Whom and in whom : the absence of the copula resembles Anaphora.[8]— ΕἸς ὋΝ , in whom ) The word in properly belongs to believing , as does also now .— μὴ ὁρῶντες , not seeing ) The present: that is, although you see Him not as yet in glory. The apostles, who had seen Him themselves, thought that their faith was not so great as that of others.— ἀνεκλαλήτῳ , unspeakable ) even now: 1 Corinthians 2:9 .— καὶ δεδοξασμένῃ , and glorified ) This joy is glorified in itself, and glorified by witnesses. Comp. 1 Peter 1:10 . In other respects it is unspeakable. [8] See Append.

Whom; which Christ. Having not seen; with your bodily eyes. Most of these Jews lived out of their own country, and so had not seen Christ in the flesh; and this was the commendation of their love, that they loved him whom they had not seen, though sight doth ordinarily contribute toward the stirring up of affection. Ye see him not; neither as others have done in the days of his flesh, nor as you yourselves hereafter shall in his glory; ye walk by faith, and not by sight, 2 Corinthians 5:7 . Ye rejoice, in hope of seeing and enjoying him. With joy unspeakable; which cannot be expressed with words. See the like phrase, Romans 8:26 2 Corinthians 9:15 . And full of glory; both in respect of the object about which this joy is conversant, the heavenly glory; the degree, it is the highest here in the world; the duration of it, it is most solid; as likewise in comparison of the joy of this world, which is vain and transitory, and whereof many times men are afterward ashamed.

8. not having seen, ye love—though in other cases it is knowledge of the person that produces love to him. They are more "blessed that have not seen and yet have believed," than they who believed because they have seen. On Peter's own love to Jesus, compare Joh 21:15-17. Though the apostles had seen Him, they now ceased to know Him merely after the flesh. in whom—connected with "believing": the result of which is "ye rejoice" (Greek, "exult"). now—in the present state, as contrasted with the future state when believers "shall see His face." unspeakable—(1Co 2:9). full of glory—Greek, "glorified." A joy now already encompassed with glory. The "glory" is partly in present possession, through the presence of Christ, "the Lord of glory," in the soul; partly in assured anticipation. "The Christian's joy is bound up with love to Jesus: its ground is faith; it is not therefore either self-seeking or self-sufficient" [Steiger].

8 . whom having not seen, ye love ] Some of the better MSS. give whom not knowing ye love , but the reading adopted in the English version rests on sufficient authority and gives a better meaning. The Apostle, in writing the words, could hardly intend to contrast, however real the contrast might be, his own condition as one who had seen with that of these distant disciples. Did there float in his mind the recollection of the words “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed” ( John 20:29 )? In any case he emphasizes the fact that their love for Christ does not depend, as human love almost invariably does, upon outward personal acquaintance. He too, like St Paul, has learnt to know Christ no more after the flesh ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ). The next clause, which seems at first almost a tame repetition of the same thought, really points to a new characteristic paradox in the spiritual life. The exulting joy of human affection manifests itself when the lover looks on the face of his beloved ( Song of Solomon 2:14 ). Here that joy is represented as found in its fulness where the Presence is visible not to the eye of the body, but only to that of faith.

Like all deeper emotions it is too deep for words—“unspeakable,” as were the words which St Paul heard in his vision of Paradise ( 2 Corinthians 12:4 ), as were the groanings of the Spirit making intercession for and with our spirits ( Romans 8:26 ), and it was “full of glory” (literally, glorified ) already, in its foretaste of the future, transfigured beyond the brightness of any earthly bliss.