Peter describes how we greatly rejoice in all of this: everlasting life, salvation by the precious blood of Jesus, our eternal inheritance, the power of God, and the faith that He has given to us. These are far better things than all those things we have lost in this old world. Peter notes that now there are temptations that can cast us down, and fill us with worry and heaviness. But our sadness is due to our failure to believe the promises of God of such great things He has done and will do for us! Peter explains that these trials are brought about by God Himself to purify and strengthen our faith. All along, our God-given faith is more precious than gold itself! The temptations and trial of our faith are likened by Peter to the use of fire to purify gold. The fire melts the gold, and the dross rises to the surface, where it is skimmed off, leaving gold that is purer and brighter and more valuable than before the refining. Peter notes that gold perishes – it tarnishes, it can be stolen, it can be lost, and in the end, it will all be burnt up in God's judgment of this world. But our faith does not perish, because God, who gave it to us, maintains it, and perfects it through tribulations, so that it increases more and more in the saints. In our lives, these trials burn off our lack of faith, and drive away the things that pollute our faith and mar us in our service to God. All those ways in which we don't trust in the promises of Christ, are driven away by the trials God sends to us. By the time we die and appear with Jesus, our faith is unalloyed with anything left of this world, or of our sins. Then, Peter exults, that faith glorifies and exalts the Lord Jesus!