Additional note: New Covenant rewards (1:4)
Additional note: New Covenant rewards (1:4)
Peter here (v. 4) reminds his readers that in the New Covenant, God’s rewards are less material, physical, and earthly. There is less emphasis on present material prosperity as a reward, for God has ‘chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith’ (Jas 2:5, a statement which does not and could not appear in the OT). The enjoyment of physical health is also less prominent, for ‘though our outer nature is wasting away our inner nature is being renewed every day’ (2 Cor. 4:16). There is less emphasis too on freedom from persecution, for ‘if you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you’ (1 Pet. 4:14). Having many children is not regarded in the New Testament as a necessary sign of God’s favour, for both marriage and celibacy are his gifts (1 Cor. 7:7).
Christians should not be dismayed at this relative lack of present material rewards, however, for faith recognizes the New Covenant reward as something far greater: a present sufficiency for material needs (Phil. 4:19), a present spiritual fellowship with Christ (1 Pet. 1:8), and a future inheritance both material and eternal, which is ‘imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you’ (1 Pet. 1:4).
Just as God in the Old Covenant encouraged his people to look forward to the future Messiah with faith, so he now encourages us, for whom the Messiah’s coming is a fact of history, to look forward to our full heavenly inheritance. Here is great comfort for every New Covenant believer. ‘So we do not lose heart … For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal’ (2 Cor. 4:16–18).
2. Joy in spite of suffering (1:6–7)
6. The word this in the phrase In this you rejoice is best understood to refer to the entire future hope discussed in verses 3 to 5. It cannot refer to ‘salvation’, for that would require a feminine pronoun in the Greek text, whereas the pronoun in the text can only be masculine or neuter. Grammatically the word ‘this’ might also be translated ‘whom’, referring to God the Father or to Jesus Christ in verse 3. But these antecedents are too far from ‘this’ to be understandable to the readers without further specification. Furthermore, the flow of thought in the context makes the combination of rejoicing in hope of the future (vv. 3–5) and suffering grief in the present (vv. 6–7) a very appropriate one here.
Rejoice represents a verb (agalliaō) which is not used by secular Greek writers, and which always in the New Testament signifies a deep spiritual joy, a rejoicing in God or in what he has done. Mary uses it in the Magnificat: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’ (Luke 1:46–47). Believers who have suffered will ‘rejoice and be glad when [Christ’s] glory is revealed’ (1 Pet. 4:13). The Philippian jailer ‘rejoiced with all his household’ that he had believed in God (Acts 16:34). This kind of joy could be called ‘the joy of salvation’ for it is always a spiritually prompted joy. In fact, the LXX uses a cognate noun to translate David’s prayer, ‘Restore to me the joy of your salvation’ (Ps. 51:12(50:14)).
Though rejoice could be either indicative (‘in this you are rejoicing’) or imperative (‘rejoice in this’), it seems unlikely that Peter is commanding believers to rejoice in the great blessings mentioned in verses 3 to 5: rejoicing would be the natural response to such blessings. Furthermore, this entire section is devoted to declaring facts about the believers’ lives, whereas his commands concerning the Christian life do not seem to begin until verse 13. It is better therefore to translate, ‘in this you rejoice’, or, bringing out more explicitly the force of the present tense, ‘in this you are continually rejoicing’.
When they think about their future inheritance, the Christians to whom Peter is writing respond with intense ‘salvation joy’ which continues throughout their earthly lives. He thinks such rejoicing in heavenly realities to be a normal part of the ordinary Christian life.
The Christian life is not all joy, however, for Peter adds though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials. The word though is not explicitly in the Greek text, but it is an acceptable translation of the participle ‘having been grieved’. The adversative sense given by though seems better than any alternative because of the fundamental difference in the emotions of rejoicing and grieving. These believers are rejoicing even though they may suffer grief.
Suffer (RSV) is better translated ‘suffer grief (NIV) or ‘be grieved’. The verb (lypeō) always refers to the emotion of grief, not to the suffering which produces grief (note Matt. 14:9; 17:23; 18:31; 1 Thess. 4:13).
Peter makes the circumstances leading to such grief very general indeed. First, he says not that all his readers are suffering or have suffered, but that they may have to suffer grief in various trials (Gk. text, more literally: ‘if it is necessary’). He does not need to specify the evident fact that he means ‘necessary in God’s sight’, an idea which would greatly encourage his readers.
His purpose was to show that God does not thus try His people without reason, for if God afflicted us without a cause, it would be grievous to bear. Hence Peter has taken an argument for consolation from the design of God, not because the purpose always appears to us, but because we ought to be fully persuaded that it ought to be so, because it is God’s will.
Peter says therefore that Christians will experience grief only as it is necessary in the light of God’s great and infinitely wise purposes for them.
The phrase various trials should also caution us against looking for any specific kind of persecution or suffering as the historical background for this letter. Since no one kind of trial or testing is in view, Peter’s words have their application to all the trials which Christians experience (cf. Jas 1:2).
It is best to understand the word now as referring to the present existence of believers during which for a little while, compared with their enjoyment of eternity, they may have to suffer.
Though some (e.g. Selwyn, p. 127) understand the suffering as having been recently completed (giving the sense, ‘though now for a little while you have just suffered grief in various trials’), such a translation is unlikely since it improbably assumes that all Peter’s readers in many churches had just finished suffering. It is better to translate ‘be grieved’ (aorist participle) to indicate time simultaneous with the rejoicing, for Peter’s argument would lose much of its force if the grieving were already past. It is much more forceful to say that they are presently rejoicing even though they may now (from time to time) be grieving in various trials. This gives the following sense: ‘In this hope of the future you are continually rejoicing, although during this life for a little time, if God deems it necessary, you are grieved in various trials.’
Peter thus shows simultaneous grief and joy to be normal in the Christian life. Grief arises because of many difficulties encountered in this fallen world, but faith looks to the unseen reality beyond this present brief existence and rejoices.
7. In verse 7 Peter gives a fuller explanation of the divine purposes behind the grief which Christians now experience. They may have to experience grief in various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith … may redound to praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The term translated genuineness (dokimion) is found outside the New Testament with the meaning ‘genuine, proven’; here, with the definite article in front of it, the sense is ‘the genuineness of your faith’, or ‘the proven quality of your faith’.
This word and closely related terms are frequently used of testing or refining metal (see Ps. 12:6(LXX 11:7); Prov. 27:21). Peter deliberately employs this analogy to say that situations of testing are occasions when God refines and purifies the faith of his people as precious metal is refined in a fire (cf. Isa. 48:10, ‘I have tried you in the furnace of affliction’). The trials burn away any impurities in the believer’s faith. What is left when the trials have ended is purified, genuine faith, analōgous to the pure gold or silver that emerges from the refiner’s fire.
The genuine faith which emerges from trials is more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire. Though gold for centuries has been a commonly understood symbol for the most precious and lasting of material possessions, genuine faith is more precious (literally, ‘much more precious’) than either gold or, by implication, any other material possession.
Gold perishes even though it is refined or tested (dokimazō, from the same word group as dokimion, above) by fire—in fact, gold is one of the most durable of all substances. Yet Peter says that it ‘perishes’, because he knows that this entire creation is on its way toward final destruction (see 2 Pet. 3:7, 10–12). Genuine faith is more valuable to God than gold because he is a God who delights in being trusted. And since God’s evaluation of something is the ultimate standard of meaning in the universe, Peter’s readers have a secure basis for a sense of ultimate meaning and importance for their own lives.
Peter says that his readers may have to experience grief in various trials so that the genuineness of their faith may redound to praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He does not specify whether this praise is the praise which God gives to his people on the last day (as in Rom. 2:29; 1 Cor. 4:5; 1 Pet. 5:4), or the praise which people give to God. It seems more likely that the initial thought is of praise which God gives to his people, since in this context Peter is encouraging his readers to hope in their heavenly reward (v. 4). Furthermore, it is the genuineness of faith which is here affirmed to be more precious (in God’s sight, apparently) than gold. But in this present age faith does not receive much outward or evident reward. Therefore it would appropriately receive a reward as an expression of God’s approval at the day of final judgment.
By the phrase at the revelation of Jesus Christ, Peter is referring to the judgment of the last day when the secrets of all hearts are revealed (cf. ‘the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ’ or similar phrases in 1 Cor. 1:7; 2 Thess. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:13; 4:13; and the verb ‘reveal’ in Luke 17:30; 1 Pet. 1:5; 5:1, etc.). He thus reminds Christians that God’s purposes in present grief may not be fully known in a week, in a year, or even in this lifetime. Indeed, some of God’s purposes will not even be known when believers die and go to be with the Lord. Some will only be discovered at the day of final judgment when the Lord reveals the secrets of all hearts and commends with special honour those who trusted him in hardship even though they could not see the reason for it: they trusted him simply because he was their God and they knew him to be worthy of trust. It is in times when the reason for hardship cannot be seen that trust in God alone seems to become most pure and precious in his sight. Such faith he will not forget, but will store up as a jewel of great value and beauty to be displayed and delighted in on the day of judgment.
3. Inexpressible joy in knowing Christ himself (1:8–9)
8. Peter begins with an amazing statement of the nature of the Christian life: Without having seen him you love him. The verb ‘love’ (agapaō) in the present tense indicates a continual or regular activity. The Christians to whom he is writing have as their normal present experience continuing love for Jesus Christ, even though they have never seen him. This implies a personal daily relationship with the ascended Lord Jesus—through prayer and worship, and no doubt also through reflection on the written words of Scripture, through which he speaks (see 1 Pet. 2:2–3, below).
The believer’s present personal relationship with Jesus Christ is described more fully by Peter: though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. ‘Now’ here and in verse 6 indicates this present life or this present age before the Lord returns, during which we do not see Christ with our physical eyes. None the less, what Peter says of his readers is also true of all Christians during this age: we believe in him whom we do not see.
The verb translated ‘believe’ (pisteuō) means here to ‘trust’ or to ‘rest one’s confidence in’ or to ‘depend upon’. It is followed by a preposition (eis) which prior to the New Testament was apparently never used with this verb and which carries the surprising nuance of ‘into’, almost as if this personal faith were going ‘into’ the Lord Jesus Christ and resting or remaining there. The combination of verb and preposition implies strong personal involvement in the act of believing, and carries a sense of resting oneself in Christ.
Just as the verb ‘believe in’ gives the sense of continual present activity (present participle), the verb ‘rejoice’ is also in the present tense and may be translated ‘continually rejoice’. This verb (agalliaō) is also used in verse 6 of rejoicing in future heavenly reward. But whereas in verse 6 Peter used the word alone, here he strengthens the word by adding with unutterable and exalted joy. The contrast is clear: whereas in the earlier verse Peter spoke of strong rejoicing in future hope, here he says that our personal, daily fellowship with Jesus Christ himself is cause for even greater rejoicing, unutterable and exalted joy.
The word translated unutterable occurs only here in the New Testament, and describes a joy so profound as to be beyond the power of words to express. (It thus reminds us of the value of singing and other kinds of music in worship, for music often provides a vehicle for expressing the fullness of joy in a Christian’s heart in a way that is much more effective than spoken words alone.)
This joy is also exalted. This word (doxazō) is the verb which corresponds to the noun ‘glory’ (doxa). These terms would quite naturally remind Peter’s readers of the frequent Old Testament mention of the glory of God, that bright shining radiance which surrounded the presence of God himself. The sense of this word exalted (a perfect passive participle) could be given more fully by paraphrasing, ‘joy that has been infused with heavenly glory and that still possesses the radiance of that glory’. It is thus joy that results from being in the presence of God himself, and joy that even now partakes of the character of heaven. It is the joy of heaven before heaven, experienced now in fellowship with the unseen Christ.
9. No new sentence begins in the Greek text at verse 9. Rather, Peter uses a present participle, ‘obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls’ (NASB). The NIV introduces the idea of explanation or reason with the insertion of the word ‘for’: ‘for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls’. Although such a translation of the participle is grammatically possible, it seems unwarranted by the context: it makes the reason for the believer’s rejoicing to be his or her own personal spiritual growth, something worthy of joy no doubt, but certainly not worthy of the unalterable and exalted joy mentioned here. The NASB, however, by translating the participle in a very common sense (expressing attendant circumstances), preserves the lofty character of this passage, for it retains our present personal trust in Christ and love for him as the reason for our greatest joy.
Peter says his readers are receiving or ‘obtaining’ the ‘goal’ or outcome of their faith while they are believing in Christ and rejoicing in him. Once again the verb ‘obtaining’ is a present participle, giving verse 9 the sense of a progressive obtaining of more and more of this ‘goal’ or ‘outcome’ to which their faith leads. Salvation then must be used here to refer to the full possession of all the blessings of salvation (see v. 5 for the same sense). The process described in verse 9 is the entire process of growth in the Christian life, the process of appropriating in one’s own life more and more of the blessings of salvation. This process happens, Peter says, as Christians continually believe in Christ and continually rejoice because of that personal trust in him. Such day by day faith and joy produces an unexpected benefit: continual growth toward Christian maturity.
4. Prophets and angels amazed at the glory of your salvation (1:10–12)
10. The purpose of this paragraph is to show Peter’s readers that the spiritual blessings they now have are greater than anything that was envisaged by Old Testament prophets or even by angels. Thus Peter seeks to increase his readers’ appreciation for their great salvation in Christ.
Verses 10 to 12 should be understood in connection with verse 9 because the first three Greek words in verse 10 mean ‘Concerning which salvation’ (that is, the ‘salvation’ mentioned in v. 9, the progressive obtaining by believers of more and more of the full benefits of their salvation). The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours are the Old Testament prophets generally, with grace used here to refer to the New Covenant experience of salvation blessings (cf. charis, ‘grace’, used similarly in 3:7; also Acts 20:24; Rom. 5:2; 6:14; Heb. 12:15).
The prophets searched and inquired about this salvation. Neither term means that they merely pondered or wondered—the words both imply active effort in looking to find something. The first word, searched (ekzēteō), implies diligent searching or seeking for something, and is often used of seeking for God (Acts 15:17; Rom. 3:11; Heb. 11:6) or searching Scripture (Ps. 119 (LXX 118): 22, 33, 45, 56, 94, 100, 145, 155).
The second word, inquired (exeraunaō), only occurs here in the New Testament, but thirty-two other occurrences are found in the LXX, Josephus, and Philo. Most often it refers to searching through something like a house, a tent, a city, or a country in order to find some person or thing, or else it refers to searching through Scripture (see Ps. 119:2, 34, 69, 115, 129).
11. They inquired does not necessarily mean that they asked questions, but that they were ‘searching to find out’ (cf. NIV, ‘trying to find out’). What did they search? Since Peter does not say, we cannot be certain. Yet this word (eraunaō), the third ‘searching’ word in this sentence, is used elsewhere of searching through Scripture (see John 5:39; 7:52). An excellent suggestion is therefore that they searched through earlier Scripture, and probably their own prophecies as well, to find out about the ‘salvation’ and the ‘grace’ they were predicting. Moreover, the fact that they subsequently learned that their prophecies were not for their own times but the future (‘they were serving not themselves but you’, v. 12) suggests that they also searched and investigated their own times and circumstances, seeking to learn if their prophecies were to be fulfilled in the events they saw in their own lifetimes. (See also Additional note below).
The Spirit of Christ within them refers to the Holy Spirit but with a title which suggests that predicting the coming Messiah (the Heb. equivalent of the Gk. term ‘Christ’) was the primary focus of his activity in the Old Testament prophets—so much so that Peter calls him the ‘Spirit of Messiah’ or the ‘Spirit of Christ’.
The grammar of the Greek text requires that ‘the Spirit of Christ’, not the prophets, be the subject of the participle predicting (this is clear in the NASB and the NIV but not the RSV). Predicting is itself a rare word but one whose component parts give the clear sense, ‘testifying or bearing witness beforehand’.
That the Holy Spirit speaking through the prophets predicted the sufferings of Christ is a common theme in all the New Testament proclamation about Christ (see Peter’s own use of Isa. 53 in 2:22–24), and the amazing accuracy of these predictions has convinced many throughout history of the divine authorship of Scripture. Yet Peter says the Holy Spirit in the prophets also predicted the subsequent glory. The word translated glory is actually plural, making ‘the subsequent glories’ a better translation. Subsequent means ‘after Christ’s sufferings’, and the word ‘glories’ must refer not only to Christ’s resurrection and exaltation (which are never called ‘glories’ [plural] in Scripture), but also to all the glories of his kingdom which come to us through his redemptive work.
Some argue that the sufferings of Christ refers not to Christ’s own sufferings but to the sufferings of Christians as they become more like Christ. But this sense of the phrase ta eis christon pathemata as ‘the sufferings of the Christward road’ (so Selwyn, p. 263) adopts a meaning which would not have been understood from the Greek phrase by first-century readers. The New Testament speaks of suffering like Christ, following after him, following in his steps, etc., but it never speaks of suffering toward (eis with accusative) him—an unintelligible idea. In order to give an intelligible sense, Selwyn must import the idea that the people who suffer (not the sufferings themselves) move toward Christ, but that idea is not in the Greek text. Moreover, if the sufferings here are sufferings of Christians to whom Peter is writing, then the meta tauta (‘after these things’) glories of verse 11 must all be after the sufferings are completed. But this contradicts 4:14, where Peter says that glory even now rests on those who suffer. It is best therefore to understand the phrase as ‘the sufferings intended for (or destined for) Christ’.
If we are to look for examples of this predicting activity, we may in fact look through the whole of the Old Testament, for the New Testament authors can sometimes speak of the whole of the Old Testament as the writings of ‘the prophets’ (see Luke 24:27; also Acts 2:30 on David as a prophet). In this sense the predictions of the sufferings of the Messiah begin with the prediction of the ‘seed’ of the woman who would be bruised in the heel by the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and continue through much of the Old Testament writings (for, example, Ps. 22:1, 7–8, 18; 34:19–20; 69:21; Isa. 50:6; 52:14–15; 53:1–12; Zech. 12:10; 13:7, etc.).
The Messiah’s subsequent glory is predicted in Pss 2; 16:10; 22:22; 45:7; 110:1, 4; Isa. 9:6; 40:3–5, 9–11; 42:1–4; 61:1–3; Jer. 33:14–15; Ezek. 34:23; Dan. 7:13–14; Mal. 3:1–3, etc. And the ‘glories’ of the Messiah’s people are seen in Isa. 51:11; 60:1–22; 62:2–5; Jer. 31:31–34; Dan. 7:18, 27; Hos. 2:23; Joel 2:28–32; Amos 9:13–15; Hab. 2:14; Zeph. 3:14–20; Zech. 14, etc.
Yet all these verses are only a beginning, for they do not include the ‘acted-out prophecies’ seen in the historical events of the Old Testament, where in the lives of people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Jonah, and often the nation of Israel generally, God brought to pass events which foreshadowed a pattern of life that would be later followed by ‘one greater than Solomon’, one who was David’s greater Son.
Peter is saying, then, that the Old Testament prophets eagerly searched and investigated their own prophecies, other Scripture, and their own times in order to find out who or what time the Spirit of Christ was indicating when he (the Spirit in them) was predicting the sufferings of Christ and the glories of his kingdom. Since we now know the answers to ‘Who?’ (Jesus) and ‘What time?’ (Jesus’ lifetime and the subsequent church age), we should read the Old Testament prophets eagerly, expecting that our hearts will often be stirred to praise when there we discover, as a central theme, the sufferings of our Saviour on our behalf and the glories of the resultant kingdom of which we even now are members.
12. It was revealed to them indicates a divine communication to the prophets, for the verb apokalyptō (‘reveal’), used twenty-six times in the New Testament, and the cognate noun apokalypsis (‘revelation’), used eighteen times, are never used to speak of human activity or communication (for that the NT generally uses another word, gnōrizō, ‘to make known’). Rather, these terms always refer to ‘revelation’ given by the activity of God (Matt. 11:25; 16:17; Phil. 3:15, of Christ (Matt. 11:27; Gal. 1:12), or of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10; Eph. 3:5), or which results from events brought about directly by them (especially Christ’s return: Rom. 2:5; 8:19; 1 Pet. 1:7).
This revelation, probably specifically from the Holy Spirit working in the prophets, provided at least a partial answer to the prophets’ searchings. It made known to them that their prophecies about the Messiah and his kingdom referred not to their own times but to some future generation: they were serving not themselves but you. The original text has another direct object for the verb, the Greek word auta, ‘those things’, a word left untranslated by the RSV. It refers to their predictions of Christ’s sufferings and the glories of his kingdom. More explicitly we can translate, ‘They were ministering those things not to themselves but to you.’ The prophetic predictions were not without relevance for the original hearers, for they would give comfort and hope to those who looked forward in faith (cf. Heb. 11:13), but primarily they were given to minister to you, that is, to New Covenant believers. (Similar statements, affirming that other parts of the OT were written primarily for the benefit of New Covenant believers, are found in Rom. 15:4 and 1 Cor. 10:11; cf. Luke 24:25–27; 2 Tim. 3:16.) The word translated serving (diakoneō) is the common word in the New Testament used for ministering to or serving someone (Mark 10:45; Luke 10:40; Acts 6:2; 1 Tim. 3:10, 13; 1 Pet. 4:10, 11, etc.)—reminding us that God’s great prophets are simply servants of others, as are all to whom he gives large responsibility (cf. Matt. 23:11), and suggesting also that we are greatly privileged as the recipients of their ancient ministry.
Those predictions are, Peter says, the things which have now been announced to you by those who preached the good news to you—the content of the gospel preaching which Peter’s readers heard was the declaration of these prophecies and the announcement that they had found their fulfilment in Jesus Christ and in the establishment of his church. (Peter himself makes just this point in his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:14–40.)
These things—the most significant facts in history—were announced or ‘proclaimed’ (the word usually refers to a declaration of previously unknown information which is of great import or concern to the hearers) to Peter’s readers ‘through those who preached the gospel to you’ (NASB). The translation ‘through’ (NASB and also NEB) is preferable to ‘by’ (RSV) because this construction (dia with genitive) is often used by Peter to speak of the person through whom or thing through which God does something (1:3, 5, 23; 2:14; 3:1; 2 Pet. 1:3, 4; cf. 1 Pet. 5:12). Peter thus implies, but does not state, that the proclamation actually came from God, who ‘proclaimed’ the good news ‘through’ those who preached the gospel. And those who preached did so ‘in (the power and character of)’ or ‘by means of (both senses are possible) the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. This last phrase refers to the sending of the Holy Spirit from heaven in new power and fullness at Pentecost (cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; 2:33).
Finally Peter adds that these facts about Christ’s suffering and the subsequent glories of his kingdom are things into which angels long to look. The word long (epithymeō) is used in the New Testament to speak of very strong desires, both good and evil. Here (as in Matt. 13:17; Luke 17:22; 22:15; etc.) it refers to the positive desire of sinless angels. The verb is in the present tense and cannot be restricted to a longing which the angels had before Christ came, or before the first sermon at Pentecost allowed them to hear the full Christian gospel. Peter rather says that even as he writes angels are still longing to look into these things and learn more about them. The longing must therefore include a holy curiosity to watch and delight in the glories of Christ’s kingdom as they find ever fuller realization in the lives of individual Christians throughout the history of the church (cf. Eph. 3:8–10).
The word parakyptō, ‘to look’, is very appropriate here, for it means to peek or peep into a situation from the vantage point of an outsider, usually one who is not seen by those being watched (see Gen. 26:8, Abimelech looking out of his window; 1 Chr. 15:29, Michal watching David out of the window; the word is used of angels peering from heaven in 1 Enoch 9:1). These verses show that the word has no necessary nuance of ‘stooping’ to look at something (although it can be used that way) or of stealing just a quick glance, as some have assumed by looking at only one or two instances of its usage (see also Prov. 7:6; Song 2:9).
The whole paragraph carries a strong flavour of the newness and the excellence of the church age. Peter tells his readers: ancient prophets predicted the grace that would be ‘yours’ (v. 10); you live in the great ‘time’ of ‘glories’ (v. 11) which was long foretold; the prophets were in fact repeatedly ministering for the benefit of ‘you’ (v. 12b); and world-changing events have ‘now’ been proclaimed to ‘you’ through the working of the Holy Spirit ‘sent’ in epoch-changing new power from heaven (v. 12b). Though the world may think such Christians insignificant and worthy of pity or scorn (see 3:14–16; 4:4), angels—who see ultimate reality from God’s perspective—find them to be objects of intense interest (v. 12c), for they know that these struggling believers are actually the recipients of God’s greatest blessings and honoured participants in a great drama at the focal point of universal history. We too may rightly think of our Christian lives as no less privileged and no less interesting to holy angels than the lives of Peter’s readers.