1 Peter 1:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He says: I was sent, in sanctification by the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling with the Blood of Jesus Christ.

He explains that the work of his apostleship consists in separating. This is what the word sanctification means, as in the words: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God” (Deut 14:2), that is, separated from the other nations.

Therefore, the work of his apostleship is to separate the nations by spiritual gifts. These nations are obedient to the Cross and sufferings of Jesus Christ.

They are sprinkled not with the ashes of a calf, when defilement from association with the Gentiles had to be cleansed, but with the Blood from the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

By the word “Blood,” he also foretells the martyrdom for Christ of those who believe in Him. For whoever obediently follows in the footsteps of the Teacher will surely not refuse to shed his own blood for Him who shed His Blood for the whole world.

Similarly, in Scripture the phrase, “And you shall be to Me a chosen, sanctified people” (Ex 19:6), means that the Hebrew people will be separated from the rest of the nations.

Thus Peter’s apostleship consists in separating, through spiritual gifts, the obedient nations, cleansed by the Cross and the sufferings of Christ.

They are cleansed not by the ashes of a heifer, as happened when guilt from association with the Gentiles had to be expiated, but by the Blood of Christ’s sufferings.

At the same time, the witness of those who have received faith in Him through Christ is sealed with blood.

Thus He obtained eternal redemption for us (Heb 9:12; Heb 12:24).

Therefore, election unto sprinkling with the Blood of Jesus Christ means a calling to enter the eternal covenant with God. It is also a calling to receive the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ.

The calling unto obedience is undoubtedly the demand for obedience to this covenant (Ex 24:7).

By speaking of the election of Christians according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sprinkling with the Blood of Jesus Christ, in sanctification by the Spirit, the Apostle shows that all the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity take part in man’s salvation.

Without in the least violating their free will, He appoints, or predestines, some, with their good activity, to blessedness. This blessedness is both the consequence and the reward of good activity.

Others, with their evil activity, He appoints to perdition, which evil activity necessarily brings upon itself (cf. Rom 8:28-29).

This eternal foreknowledge and predestination is realized in time, in the succession of human generations, through the election of some and the rejection of others. From the midst of sinful humanity the good are chosen and led along the path to blessedness.

The evil and sinful are doomed to perdition, toward which their evil activity itself draws them. God knew both from eternity. Therefore both take place in time according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

In this sense the Apostle calls his readers, Christians called into the Kingdom of Christ and therefore to blessedness, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. This is so if they themselves justify this calling by their free activity (cf. Jn 10:14; Acts 4:28).

This election was accomplished, secondly, in sanctification by the Spirit, that is, by the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the worshipful Trinity. The election in time of those appointed to blessedness according to the foreknowledge of God the Father is accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

It is accomplished by His power, action, and descent, through which the one elected is sanctified (cf. 2 Thess 2:13).

By the sanctification of man on the part of the Holy Spirit are meant all His gracious actions and gifts. These extend from the first and gentlest breaths of His presence in a man's soul to his fullest possible participation in grace.

On man's own part, sanctification means cleansing and moral perfection through the active appropriation of this grace of the Spirit. Outwardly, this is expressed in good works.

This election was accomplished, thirdly, for the highest purpose: unto obedience and sprinkling, more exactly, into obedience and sprinkling, by the blood of Jesus Christ. The meaning of the word obedience is determined here by the idea of sprinkling with the blood of Christ.

For this reason, that idea must first be explained. It occurs in only two places in the whole New Testament: here and in Heb 12:24. In both places it has the same meaning, which at first sight is not altogether clear.

The expression is plainly not literal, but figurative, and the image is undoubtedly taken from the Old Testament. But which image is it, and how does it relate to what this expression represents?

Since the subject here is people elected to sprinkling with the blood of Christ, the Old Testament image of the Paschal Lamb does not fit, however close it may appear. People were not sprinkled with the blood of the Paschal Lamb.

At the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, only the lintels and doorposts of Hebrew dwellings were anointed with it (Exodus ch. 12).

Likewise, the image of sacrificial blood with which, in certain cases, the altar of sacrifice was sprinkled does not fit. Nor does the sprinkling of the veil before the Holy of Holies and the ark of the covenant fit (Lev 1:5; 5:9; 4:6-7, 17-18; 16:14-19).

In those cases sacred objects were sprinkled with blood, not people. The closest image is that of sacrificial blood at the making of God's covenant with the Hebrew people, when the people were sprinkled with blood.

"And Moses took the blood" of the sacrifice "and sprinkled the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you" (Exod 24:8; cf. Heb 9:18-22).

The covenant with the Hebrew people was made with blood. The new covenant of God with mankind was made by the blood poured out on the Cross by the incarnate Son of God as a sacrifice for the whole world (cf. Mt 26:28 and parallels).

By the sprinkling of the blood of the offered sacrifice at the making of the old covenant, the Hebrew people entered that covenant and became the holy people of the covenant.

Correspondingly, sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ is a figurative expression for entering the new covenant with God, made by Christ through the shedding of this blood on the Cross.

Thus the expression, elected to sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ, means elected to enter the new covenant with God, established through Jesus Christ. It means elected to enter, and already having entered, the Church of Christ.

This same passage from Exodus explains the meaning of the word obedience. Moses sprinkled the people with sacrificial blood as a sign of their entry into the covenant with God only after the book of the covenant had been read aloud to all the people.

Then the people said, "All that the Lord has said we will do, and we will be obedient" (Exod 24:7). The old covenant was made with the sprinkling of sacrificial blood only on the condition of the people's obedience to the will of Jehovah.

That will was expressed in the book of the covenant. Correspondingly, the idea of obedience at the sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ means submission to the will of God expressed through the teaching of Him Who shed this blood on the Cross.

It means obedient and submissive acceptance, grounded in faith, of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the salvation of the world by God through Him. In other words, it means the acceptance of Christian teaching as a whole.

This obedience is the necessary condition for entering this new covenant. Therefore this word stands here before the words sprinkling with blood.

Let us also note that the election of Christians as members of the Church of Christ from among all who remain outside this Church is presented here as a work in which all three Persons of the worshipful Trinity take part.

Election is accomplished according to the foreknowledge and, at the same time, the predestination of God the Father concerning their salvation in Christ. Christ, by His death, establishes the new covenant in which the elect will find their salvation.

The Holy Spirit brings the elect into this new covenant. He bestows the grace that appropriates to the elect the redemptive acts of the Mediator of the new covenant, and thus sanctifies the elect.

Grace and peace: grace is the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, appropriated by believers in the redeeming merits of the Savior and sanctifying them. Peace is peace in God and with God, inward peace in the conscience, and peace with neighbors.

This is the fruit of the gracious actions of the Holy Spirit upon the human spirit. It is the highest fruit, in which all the other gifts are, as it were, gathered together.

For this reason the good wish of this peace appears so often in apostolic greetings. "Peace" was a customary greeting, but the apostolic greeting of peace has the higher meaning just indicated, beyond worldly peace (cf. Jn 14:27).

This is also shown by the word grace, which the Apostles constantly join to it. "Grace, because we are saved freely, bringing nothing of ourselves; peace, because, having offended the Master, we were numbered among His enemies" (Theophylact).

May it be multiplied: the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the human spirit are multiplied, or strengthened, according to its receptivity and moral perfection. From the lower degrees, or beginnings, they grow toward the highest perfection.

Likewise, through negligence and the increase of sins, they are diminished and taken away. In his greeting, the Apostle wishes his readers this multiplication, or strengthening, of grace and peace.

Consequently, he also wishes them moral perfection, which is, on the one hand, a necessary condition, and on the other, a consequence of the gifts of grace and peace.

The Apostle’s very greeting is already stamped with a dogmatic character. He greets the sojourners, or strangers, scattered through the regions of Asia Minor, to whom he writes, as elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

These were newly converted Christians from Jews and Gentiles who were not native inhabitants of Asia Minor. This is the same as the Apostle Paul’s reasoning about the elect among Christians: whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29).

“In sanctification by the Spirit” points to the mystery of baptism. They are elect “unto obedience,” that is, to obey the law of Christ, while others are left in their opposition to Christ.

They are also elect “unto sprinkling with the Blood of Christ,” that is, unto entrance into the new covenant. Likewise, at the entrance into the old covenant, the people of God were sprinkled with sacrificial, typological blood (1 Pet 1:1-2).

One cannot fail to see that Saint Peter deliberately sets forth his apostolic dignity in the inscription of his epistle. What special reason could there have been for this?

The reason was that the churches to which he wrote had not been founded by him and had no personal acquaintance with him.

Nevertheless, the holy Apostle Peter had not only the authority and right, but also the direct obligation, to examine and care for their needs and moral wants.

For this reason, at the very beginning of his epistle, he appeals to his apostolic dignity and to his mission from Christ Himself to feed His lambs and His sheep (Jn 21:15-17).

At the same time he suggests that, despite their distance from him and their dispersion through various lands of Asia Minor, they must listen attentively to his instructions. They must submit to them obediently, as though to Christ’s own instructions.

From this it is clear that the first duty of Christians, who have been counted worthy of such great care from the Holy Trinity, is to give themselves wholly to God. They must submit to Him without contradiction in everything, as those chosen precisely for obedience (cf. Ex 24:7).

This is especially obedience in faith. Faith must not be only a matter of the mind, but also of the will. It must consist in the submission of our thoughts, desires, and actions to God.

The sprinkling with blood indicated by the apostle vividly carries our thought to this action, performed in the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement. It prefigured Christ, who sprinkled us with His cleansing Blood.

But especially close here is the sprinkling performed over the Hebrews at the conclusion of the covenant (see Ex 24:8).

Thus the sprinkling with the Blood of Jesus Christ is a figurative expression for the entrance of Christians into the New Covenant with God and for participation in all its grace-filled gifts.

Having defined the inner, special character and dignity of the persons to whom he writes, the apostle accordingly expresses to them his greeting and good wish: the multiplication of grace and peace.

What great wishes these are! The whole work of Christian salvation, in its beginning, continuation, and completion, is the work of grace. That is, it is a special divine mercy, not deserved by men.

It is granted solely according to the ineffable goodness of God, for the sake of the merits of Jesus Christ (see Jn 1:17).

We are not especially worthy even of God’s ordinary gifts. Still less are we worthy of His higher mercy, the spiritual gifts of grace, which warm us, enlighten us, sanctify us, and fill us with joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).

No less joyful for Christians must be the multiplication of another gift of God, peace. It depends on reconciliation with God, the tranquility of our own conscience, concord with all people, and finally, general spiritual well-being (see Jn 14:27).

The acquisition of such peace must be greatly desired by Christians, because the one who attains it will have the Kingdom of God within himself.

But since this is difficult, the apostle imparts this peace, and with it spiritual consolation, as a heavenly blessing.

Grace and peace are the highest heavenly gifts, which will sweeten even the righteous. These gifts are closely connected and dependent on each other, since peace depends on grace, and peace attracts grace.

For this reason they are very often placed in inseparable connection. In the words of one interpreter, grace is the root of Christian life, and peace is its sweet fruit.

By imparting grace and peace, the apostle does not merely express a wish for these gifts by the right given to him by Jesus Christ (see Mt 10:12). He also imparts them as an actual blessing.

Under the action of these gifts, Christians are to make progress in faith and holy life.

The Holy Spirit, having called him to faith and strengthened him in it, sprinkles the believer with the Blood of the Lord and Savior in the mystery of baptism.

Having thereby gained entrance into him, the Spirit Himself dwells in him and assists him in every way in the ordering of his salvation.

Let us praise, hymn, and magnify the Most Holy Trinity, the good Author of our salvation. For our part, applying to this all diligence (2 Pet 1:5), let us hasten to adorn ourselves with every virtue.

Let us do this according to the image of Him who created and re-created us, lest we prove unsuccessful and fruitless in the knowledge of the Lord (2 Pet 1:8).

Let us not close to ourselves the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord (2 Pet 1:11), to which we have been called.

The believers to whom the apostle addresses these good wishes he calls sojourners of the dispersion. This title was usually applied to Israelites living outside their homeland in foreign lands, where they had been scattered during the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities (Jas 1:1; Jn 7:35).

But the apostle writes the epistle to believers not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. This is clear from indications within the epistle itself (1 Pet 2:10; 1 Pet 4:3).

Therefore the name “sojourners of the dispersion” is used here not in the proper sense, but figuratively. All believers in Christ, whether they live in their homeland or in foreign lands, must regard earthly life as a time of pilgrimage toward the heavenly homeland.

They must confess: “Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Heb 13:14). They must remember that their present “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20).

By this remembrance they must restrain themselves from attachment to the place of their temporary dwelling and to earthly goods.

Already in the days of the apostles, the Christian faith had spread everywhere. It spread not only within the broad Roman Empire, but also beyond its borders.

Thus the Apostle Paul could without exaggeration apply to the preachers of the Gospel, the apostles, the Psalmist’s words about the heavens declaring the glory of God: “Their proclamation has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Rom 10:18).

Yet in his epistle the Apostle Peter addresses not all Christians scattered everywhere, but the Christians of Asia Minor. He calls them sojourners scattered in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

Pontus is the northeastern region in Asia Minor adjoining the Euxine Pontus, or Black Sea. Galatia lies west of Pontus. Cappadocia lies south of Pontus.

Asia means the proconsular Asia that embraced the whole western coast of the peninsula of Asia Minor. Bithynia is the northwestern province of Asia Minor.

In what sense does the apostle call Christians from Jews and Gentiles chosen? In the Old Testament the chosen people were the Israelites. They were separated from all nations to preserve true worship of God.

They constituted the portion of God, His special possession. In the New Testament this privilege is given to believers in Christ, whatever nationality they belong to by origin.

Calling them chosen, the apostle then indicates the participation of all the persons of the Holy Trinity in their election. They are chosen according to the foreknowledge of the great Father, who from eternity foresaw and predestined them to salvation (Rom 8:29-30).

In time this election was accomplished in the sanctification of the Spirit, that is, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who sanctified us for new life in the mystery of baptism.

The words “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” indicate the entrance of those chosen by the foreknowledge of God the Father and the grace of the Holy Spirit into the New Covenant with God in Christ Jesus.

This resembles the way the Hebrews were chosen to enter the Old Covenant. The Hebrews’ entry into covenant with God consisted in this: on the day after they heard the commandments given on Sinai, they obligated themselves to obey the will of God expressed in them.

They said: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey” (Ex 24:7). This obligation was the condition of the covenant with God on their part.

The Lord accepted this obligation as a pledge of faithfulness to Him. On His side, He sealed His covenant with them by sprinkling them with sacrificial blood, which He called the blood of the covenant (Ex 24:8).

Something similar takes place when Christians enter the New Covenant. It is accomplished in the mystery of baptism.

The one being baptized undertakes to break union with the devil, under whose power all the unbaptized remain. He undertakes to be in inseparable union with Christ and to preserve faithfulness to Him as King and God.

This is obedience, as the necessary condition for entering the New Covenant.

Then, corresponding to the sprinkling of the Old Testament people with sacrificial blood, the Christian is immersed in Christ’s Blood. That is, he is immersed in the baptismal font with sanctified water, which in this case has the significance of blood.

For “as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried with Him through baptism into death” (Rom 6:3).

The comparison of the New Covenant with the Old, and the indication of the correspondence between the Lord’s New Testament relations to men and those of the Old Testament, are seen throughout Peter’s epistle. In the next verses the apostle presents this correspondence in the following form: