1 Peter 1:3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Blessed be the God and Father, or, God even the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ His only-begotten and beloved Son; who, according to his abundant mercy His compassion for us in our state of ignorance and guilt, depravity and weakness; his undeserved love and goodness, the source of all our blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal: hath begotten us again Regenerated us; to a lively Ζωσαν, living, hope A hope which implies true spiritual life, is the consequence of repentance unto life, living faith, justification by faith, and a birth from above, by which we pass from death unto life; a hope which revives the heart, and makes the soul lively and vigorous: by the resurrection of Christ Which not only proved him to be the Son of God, (Romans 1:4,) and demonstrated the truth and importance of his doctrine, which brought life and immortality to light, but manifested the acceptableness and efficacy of the sacrifice he offered for sin, opened an intercourse between God and man, made way for our receiving the Holy Ghost, and is a pledge and earnest of our resurrection, he having risen the first-fruits of them that sleep in him. To an inheritance For if we are children, then are we heirs; incorruptible Not like earthly inheritances or possessions, of whatever kind, which are both corruptible in themselves, tending in their own nature to dissolution and decay; and are possessed by that which is corruptible, even through the medium of the body, with its senses and members, all tending to decay and dissolution. But the inheritance we expect is neither corruptible in itself, nor shall we that enjoy it be corruptible, either in soul or body. Undefiled Every thing here is therefore corruptible, because it has been defiled with the sin of man, and laid under a curse, so that vanity and misery are attached to the enjoyment of every thing; and we ourselves, having been defiled in soul and body, have all the seeds of vanity and misery sown in our frame. But the inheritance reserved for us has not been defiled by any sin, and therefore has no curse, vanity, or misery attached to it: Revelation 22:3. And we ourselves, when admitted into that world, shall be perfectly pure, and shall have in our frame no hinderance to the most perfect enjoyment. And fadeth not away As every thing in this world does, decaying in lustre and glory, in sweetness, or the pleasure it yields in the enjoyment, and in value to us, who can only have a life estate in any thing; whence, whatever we possess is continually decreasing in value to us, as the time approaches when we are to be dispossessed of it. But the inheritance above, on the contrary, will not decay in any of these respects: its value, its glory and sweetness, or the pleasure it yields in the enjoyment, will continue the same to all eternity; or rather, will continually increase; new glories opening upon us, new pleasures offering themselves to our enjoyment, and new riches not ceasing to be conferred upon us from the inexhaustible stores of divine and infinite beneficence. Reserved in heaven And therefore not subject to such changes as are continually taking place here on earth; for you Who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and immortality.