Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Peter 1:18 (New Living Translation) For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. Peter is writing to God’s chosen people—they have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus […]

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1 Peter 1:8 (New Living Translation)The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a call to be productive and useful. Well, sort of. Peter writes about a growth from faith to love through steps that enrich a person’s life […]

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1 Peter 2:16 (New Living Translation) For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. I am free. I am God’s slave. Okay, must be something wrong with the translation here. How can I be both free and a slave at the same time? […]

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1 Peter 4:10 (New Living Translation) God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Peter is summarizing his first letter. He has a word of great encouragement. Everyone has received a wonderful gift from God. He has a word of great […]

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1 Peter 3:3-4 (New Living Translation) 3 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. 4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. Women should not wear fill-in-the-blank-with-your-favorites. […]

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1 Peter 2:12 (New Living Translation) Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. This verse continues the thought from the previous one. We are passing through […]

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1 Peter 2:11 (American Standard Version) Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; It is easy to focus on the second part of the above verse—abstain from those things that are tugging at us from the flesh. Some of those things war against our […]

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1 Peter 3:8-9 (English Standard Version) 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. Peter is […]

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1 Peter 2:11-12 (New Living Translation) 11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, […]

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1 Peter 1:3-4 (New Living Translation) 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept […]

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