Closing Thought: Crave the Word like a newborn craves his 4 a.m. feeding — because only it can make you grow into salvation.

Closing Thought: One of the clearest evidences of true salvation is a sincere and earnest love for fellow believers. This love does not arise from fleeting emotion or mere human affection, but from the truth of the gospel that has purified our souls and the power of the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us. Since we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God, we are called to love one another with intensity, sincerity, and sacrifice. A cold or loveless heart is evidence of a soul untouched by grace, but a heart that loves the brethren earnestly reveals a life transformed by Christ

Closing Thought: God's holiness has revealed itself through the glories of Jesus Christ and our faith and hope for salvation are in Him. We who call God Father have been set apart to manifest this inward holiness in how we live and conduct ourselves during our time on this earth. We should be motivated by a proper fear of God who will judge everyone's works without partiality. We also remember that Christ shed his most precious blood to ransom us out of our sinful and worthless ways that we might glorify Him with our lives.

Closing Thought: God calls us to be holy as He is holy. Holy living is not a means to gain God's favor, but a response to the salvation we've received. Beloved, as God's obedient children, let us pursue holiness because He is the Lord our God.

Closing Thought: Of all that God has done in creation and throughout history, nothing displays His glory more fully than salvation. This salvation, the grace of God that is now ours, Beloved, is what the prophets longed to understand, what the apostles lived to proclaim, and what the angels long to witness. It is the supreme glory of God which is found in the Person of Jesus Christ. Let us never treat it lightly. Let us live in awe, in gratitude, and fully devoted to the One who saved us for His glory.

Closing Thought: Even though we are God's elect exiles, we have never seen Jesus, nor do we now see Him face to face. Yet we love Him, and we believe in Him. And this faith fills us with a joy that is inexpressible and full of glory, because even now, we are living in the present reality of our soul's salvation. And that means that one day we will see Him face to face forever and ever. Come Lord Jesus!

Closing Thought: As followers of Christ, we will face many trials that bring sorrow and pain. Yet as elect exiles, heirs to a heavenly inheritance that can never perish, we do not respond with despair or hopelessness. These trials are not meaningless; they are refining fires, testing and proving the genuineness of our faith, which is more precious than gold. And so, even in suffering, we rejoice. We jump for joy; not because the tests are easy, but because our faith is being proven, and it will result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Closing Thought: Peter encourages God's chosen exiles to remember that their hope as believers is not found in present comfort, but in the assured promise of eternal glory. They can endure life's trials with confidence, knowing that their future salvation is secured by God's power through faith—and that the eternal inheritance awaiting them far outweighs the fleeting hardships of this world. Beloved, as elect exiles, let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us not merely a promise, but a living hope—one that anchors our souls and guarantees our eternal destiny.

Closing Thought: In his first letter, Peter addresses the scattered Christians of the 1st century by reminding them of their identity as God's chosen people, the means by which they became His people through divine intervention, and the manner in which they should conduct their lives in obedience to Jesus Christ while enduring trials, temptations, and persecution during their earthly existence. May we, as Christians in the 21st century, also receive an abundance of grace and peace to navigate this same reality.

Closing Thought: Peter wrote this epistle late in the first century to God's chosen people living in a land in which they were exiles. He was writing to them to stand firm in the grace of God in the face of persecution, trials, and suffering. He begins his letter by reminding them that it is God who made them His chosen exiles. May this encourage those of us who are God's people today to rejoice as we remember that we too were chosen by God to be His exiles in a place that is not our eternal home.