“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

To those who say you must be born again – that baptism is not enough – we here find Peter saying the Father has given us a new birth through the resurrection of his Son.  And yet we have to claim it by faith.  ‘A living hope.’  A beautiful expression, but what does it mean, precisely?  What is this ‘living hope?’  It is the person of Jesus himself, who was raised from the dead.  This is at the very heart of our faith: we are born again into Jesus – our living hope.

“and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,”

Meditate on those words: imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.  Though you are perishable, your inheritance is not.  Though you defile yourself, one day you will receive an undefiled, pure inheritance and you will rejoice.  Though your memory fade and your heart wither, you will enter into a glory that is fadeless and ever shining!

“who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Protected against what?  The world and its allurements, the evil one and the loss of our soul and our eternal inheritance.  Protected by what?  Faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which has changed everything.  Protected by whom?  The Father.

“In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith--being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Trials purify our faith!  So let us not be discouraged by them.  If gold which is perishable is purified by fire, how much more so our souls, which are imperishable, are purified by trails.  Let us remember this while in the midst of them, and persevere.  And when on the other side of them let us rejoice that we clung to our faith in the resurrection – our key to the salvation of our souls:

“Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”