1 Peter 1:3-5

Peter lifts his readers' eyes at once to the future. He speaks first of their hope, their inheritance, their final salvation, before he alludes to the burdens and fears of the present. There was that in Peter himself which leapt up in natural response to the new hope which came by the Gospel, and we can see from the Acts how he turned with constant expectancy to the future. If he seems, however, to give exceptional prominence to the element of hope, it is not as if he read the Gospel differently from Paul or John, or placed the grace of hope where they put that of faith, or that of love. The circumstances of his readers made it seasonable to present primarily to their view the worth and radiance of a grace which had at the same time so deep a hold upon himself.