1 Peter 1:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Let us learn, beloved, to despise human honors and not to desire them. We have been honored with the greatest honor, in comparison with which earthly honor is truly dishonor, laughter, and mockery. Just as earthly wealth, in comparison with heavenly wealth, is poverty, and this life without that life is death, so also the glory here is shame and laughter in comparison with that glory. For Christ says, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead" (Mt 8:22). Therefore let us not chase after it. If those very people who give it to others are more insignificant than shadows and dreams, then the glory itself is still more insignificant. "The glory of man is like the flower on the grass." And what can be more insignificant than a flower of grass?

Having said that Christians have been regenerated not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the living word of God that abides forever, the Apostle shows the nothingness and extreme frailty of human glory. By this he urges the hearer to hold more firmly to the teaching previously handed down. That teaching is constant and extends forever, while earthly things quickly decay by their very nature. To confirm this, he cites grass and the flower of grass, which is still weaker in being than the grass. David also likens our life to it (Ps 102:15). Having shown the low worth of our glory, the Apostle again returns to explain what precisely regenerated them by the word of God, living and abiding forever. He says: this is the word that was preached to you. He affirms that this word abides forever, because the Lord Himself also said: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Mt 24:35).

We must look suspiciously at everything pleasant, even if dominion and authority are offered, with crowds of bodyguards or flatterers, and even a lofty and splendid throne that subjects peoples and cities to us in voluntary slavery. For "all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away."

If one despises what is considered worthy of such high honor among men, and has love only for the divine life, and knows that all flesh is grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass, will he ever consider such a flower worthy of pursuit? It exists today, and tomorrow it will be no more.

O wretched human condition, and vanity of all our life without Christ! Why do you shift about, why do you resort to circumlocutions, my speech? It is as though we could postpone his death and make his life longer, because we fear to speak to the end. "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass" (Is 40:6). Where now is that beautiful face? Where is that majestic appearance of the whole body, with which the beauty of the soul was clothed as with a fair garment? Alas, the lily has withered from the breath of the south wind, and the purple of the violet has imperceptibly given way to pallor.

"Truly, the people is like grass: the grass withered, and its flower fell away." Here the apostle foretells the salvation of the Gentiles everywhere and the barrenness of the Jews. For the nature of man, he says, is like grass, while glory and power are acknowledged as the flower of the field. And just as, when the grass withers, the flower falls away, so also, when man dies, his power and splendor are extinguished.

Such, of course, is the nature of all flesh and of the man who bears the image of the earthly (1 Cor 15:49). I speak of the lover of the flesh and of one who lives according to the flesh (Rom 8:12). Like the grass of the earth and the flower on the grass, he blooms and appears beautiful for a short time. Then, because of his changeable and unstable nature, he withers.

This is the twofold possibility of man, inner and outer. The outer man, mortal from a dead man, is compared with hay and with falling flowers. The inner man, from the Living God, lives in eternity.

24-25. "For all flesh," and so forth. Here the distinction between what is born of corruptible seed and of incorruptible seed is unfolded, in order to show the high advantage of the latter birth over the former. For this the Apostle uses the words of the great Old Testament prophet Isaiah (Isa 40:6 and following), though not in a literal translation, but in a free rendering. By "all flesh" is meant every man, and therefore all people, or all humanity. All of it is corruptible, mortal, and swiftly passing away, like grass (cf. the note on Jas 1:10-11). Such is man according to the body. Such is he also according to the natural life of the soul, if it has not been regenerated, or if it is sinful. Therefore such a man, in his whole being and even according to his soul, is called fleshly.

Regeneration (1 Pet 1:23-2:3). Christians must lead a new, pure, and holy life on the foundations of brotherly love, "as those born again, not of corruptible seed," meaning by descent from Adam, "but of incorruptible. Through the word of God, living and abiding forever." The Apostle calls the word of God the means of regeneration because it leads to faith, and faith leads to baptism and repentance. "Having laid aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy," which belong to those who have grown and become hardened in evil, you, the Apostle urges, "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word," that is, the Gospel teaching. Desire it "so that by it you may grow unto salvation; for you have tasted that the Lord is good." This means that you have experienced in yourselves the action of God's grace in the Christian Mysteries.

Cf. Isa 40:6-8. After general motives for a virtuous life, the Apostle now exhorts us to uproot from ourselves everything that defiles our soul. He urges us to be enriched with particular forms of good works. These are wholehearted obedience to the truth, brotherly love, and especially mutual brotherly love, free from every admixture of guile, changeability, and inconstancy. Among other things, the Apostle bases his teaching on love upon the teaching concerning Christians' regeneration. They are not regenerated from earthly human seed, in which self-love is an inborn property, but from the word of God. Through this word man's calling to new life in Christ has been and is accomplished. This life is founded on love, which abides forever.

Having said before that the word of the Lord, which serves as the channel of grace regenerating to spiritual life and thereby making the regenerated children of the Lord and brethren, is the living word of God that abides forever, the Apostle confirms this statement by citing the words of the prophet Isaiah (Isa 40:6 and following). In the Prophet, the discourse is properly about the Lord's promises. These promises are immutable, unlike the words of human promises. A man may give many promises, but he is not always able to fulfill them. While he lives, he can still do something according to his promise, though even then not always. But every human life is swift, and every human glory is unstable.