"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..." I love that Peter says this right off the bat. If you look up the definition of the word "blessed" you will find that it means happy; praiseworthy; bringing pleasure or divine favor. Let's focus on praiseworthy. Again, keep in mind that this letter is being written to a group of people who are suffering severe persecution for their faith in Jesus. In times of suffering, it can be difficult to praise God, but these are times when we should praise Him the most. We must remember that we belong to Jesus now and He sits on the throne. He has a plan for us and even though we don't always understand the reason for some of the things we go through, we can trust that He knows exactly what He is doing. Also, keep in mind that we want others (non-believers) to come to Jesus and one of the best ways to demonstrate His goodness is to praise Him not only when He blesses us, but when we are suffering as well.
Peter then goes on to say "...who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again..." He is reminding the audience that because God is rich in mercy, they have been born again spiritually and are no longer separated from their creator. They are now a part of God's family and will one day inherit His glorious kingdom in Heaven. Peter says that God's mercy is abundant, which means it is of great quantity; affluence; plentiful amount. We can always count on His mercy and in so doing, we should always be merciful to others. This is not always easy, but when you think about the nature of our salvation, how we received mercy when we should have received wrath, we can make the decision to let out the Jesus in us.
"...to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." Now Peter makes a very encouraging statement. He reassures the suffering Christians of God's promise of eternal life. This hope can bring us joy even in the most difficult times. Although we will suffer, we have confidence in God's ultimate plan, that He works all things for our good and that we will one day live with Him forever in Heaven. Paul says in Philippians 1:21 "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain". We should all live in this mindset. We live for Jesus, that means all the suffering, all the hurt, and all the pain is for His glory and we are blessed to be able to bring glory to the one who sits on the throne.
I hope you have enjoyed my study so far of 1 Peter. I plan on continuing to go through this amazing book verse by verse and posting what the Holy Spirit reveals to me as I read it.
God Bless!