Read 1 Peter 5:12

I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.

1 Peter 5:12

“While there’s life, there’s hope!” That ancient Roman saying is still quoted today, and like most adages, it has an element of truth but no guarantee of certainty. It is not the fact of life that determines hope but the faith of life. A Christian believer has a “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3) because his “faith and hope are in God” (v. 21). This “living hope” is the major theme of Peter’s first letter. He is saying to all believers, “Be hopeful!”

The writer’s given name was Simon, but Jesus changed it to Peter, which means “a stone” (John 1:35–42). The Aramaic equivalent of “Peter” is “Cephas” (v. 42), so Peter was a man with three names. Nearly fifty times in the New Testament he is called “Simon,” and often he is called “Simon Peter.” Perhaps the two names suggest a Christian’s two natures: an old nature (Simon) that is prone to fail, and a new nature (Peter) that can give victory. As Simon, he was only another human piece of clay, but Jesus Christ made a rock out of him!

Something to Ponder

What situation in your life is most in need of new hope?