This issue of LW encourages us to be a hopeful community. In current English usage, “hope” usually expresses a wish about something yet to be determined, such as, “I hope I don’t have cancer,” or “I hope the Astros win the World Series.” In the Bible, hope does not convey mere wishfulness; rather, it conveys expectation — patiently waiting for God’s reliable promises in His Word to be fulfilled, since He “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Christian hope is not in this life, with all its changes and chances. Paul says, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:19–20). Through Christ, you “are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21). Your hope is sure and certain because it rests upon “the word of the Lord [that] remains forever” (1 Peter 1:25).

Rev. Carl Roth, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Elgin, TX, joins Andy and Sarah to talk about the “Searching Scripture” feature in the March 2024 issue of the Lutheran Witness titled "A Community of the Word" on 1 Peter 1:22–2:3. This year, "Searching Scripture" is themed "Elect Exiles" and will walk through the First Epistle of St. Peter. Follow along every month and search Scripture with us!

Find online exclusives of the Lutheran Witness at witness.lcms.org and subscribe to the Lutheran Witness at cph.org/witness.

1 Peter 1:22–2:3

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for

“All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

A Living Stone and a Holy People

2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. esv.org