3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
(I Peter 1)
Impulsive Peter - always blurting things out without thinking ahead. But this is the new Peter - the one who experienced Christ risen from the dead. What he here blurts out is very well thought through - a praise to God for the new life and living hope we have in the risen Christ. He then piles up adjectives in Paul-like fashion to describe what we have to look for as our inheritance - it cannot be lost, stolen, destroyed or gambled away. Living with such a hope leads to other attitudes and ways of living: joy, persistence, and love, so that our hope is not just future, but present as well. Just as Paul says that if our hope is only in this life, it's a pretty miserable existence (I Corinthians 15), the other extreme is also true: if our hope is only for the future, we're missing out. We can live this life in hope because of our hope for the life to come. Live hopeful.
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