Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Peter 1:23

ἀναγεγεννημένοι; cf. 1 Peter 1:3, the only other place where the word occurs. The verses which follow state the obligation and the source of Christian love. They have been brought into a new state of existence, they are born into a new divine sonship, and it is their common sonship which constitutes their new brotherhood with each other. Love is the essential characteristic of life derived from God, for. “God is Love.” The proof of true sonship is to inherit the Father’s nature; cf. 1 John 4:7, πᾶς ὁ�. Christian love must be unfeigned (ἀνυπόκριτος) and earnest (ἐκτενής), because the seed from which it springs is nothing less than “the word of God who lives and abides for ever.” The fruit of that seed therefore must also be “living” and “abiding,” with no fading, no decay.

διὰ λόγου ζῶντος θεοῦ καὶ μένοντος. ζῶντος καὶ μένοντος are generally explained as agreeing with λόγου on the following grounds: (1) that the point of the quotation which follows is that the word (ῥῆμα) of God abideth for ever; (2) that some epithet is needed for λόγου, the seed of Christian life, as contrasted with φθαρτῆς σπορᾶς; (3) that the phrase ζῶν λόγος occurs in Hebrews 4:12; cf. λόγια ζῶντα, Acts 7:38 and John 6:63, where our Lord says that His ῥήματα are ζωή.

On the other hand, the two epithets ζῶν and μένων are together applied to God in Daniel 6:26, and the contrast with σπορὰ φθαρτή is even more marked by tracing the source of Christian life to the abiding life of God Himself.

λόγου means more than the Gospel message by which these Asiatic Christians were converted. That is described as ῥῆμα at the end of 1 Peter 1:25. It means God’s whole utterance of Himself in the Incarnation, in Scripture, in preaching, in the inward voice of conscience. In James 1:18 the original creation of man is attributed to the λόγος�. The divine image was implanted in man, endowing him with a capacity for knowing God and hearing His voice. Here the reference is rather to man’s new creation as a Christian (cf. Intro. p. lvi.).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Peter 1:23

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