Study Desk

and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away.

It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you.

God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.

Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant.

Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy.

You call him Father, when you pray to God, who judges all people by the same standard, according to what each one has done; so then, spend the rest of your lives here on earth in reverence for him.

He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world and was revealed in these last days for your sake.

Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.

For through the living and eternal word of God you have been born again as the children of a parent who is immortal, not mortal.

Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable.

Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.

But you are the chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light.

Your conduct among the heathen should be so good that when they accuse you of being evildoers, they will have to recognize your good deeds and so praise God on the Day of his coming.

For God wants you to silence the ignorant talk of foolish people by the good things you do.

Respect everyone, love other believers, honor God, and respect the Emperor.

God will bless you for this, if you endure the pain of undeserved suffering because you are conscious of his will.

For what credit is there if you endure the beatings you deserve for having done wrong? But if you endure suffering even when you have done right, God will bless you for it.

It was to this that God called you, for Christ himself suffered for you and left you an example, so that you would follow in his steps.

When he was insulted, he did not answer back with an insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but placed his hopes in God, the righteous Judge.

For the devout women of the past who placed their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful by submitting themselves to their husbands.