1 Peter 1:8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Whom having not seen Ειδοτες, known, that is, personally in the flesh; ye love Namely, on account of his amiable character, and for the great things he hath done and suffered for you, and the great benefits he hath bestowed on you. It is very possible, as Doddridge observes, that among these dispersed Christians, there might be some who had visited Jerusalem while Christ was there, and might have seen, or even conversed with him; but as the greater part had not, St. Peter speaks, according to the usual apostolic manner, as if they all had not. Thus he speaks of them all as loving Christ, though there might be some among them who were destitute both of this divine principle and of that joy which he here describes as ανεκλαλητω και δεδοξασμενη, unutterable and glorified; that is, such joy as was an anticipation of that of the saints in glory. Receiving Even now already, with unspeakable delight, as a full equivalent for all your trials; the end of your faith That which in your faith you aim at, and which is the seal and the reward of it; the salvation of your souls From the guilt and power of your sins, and all the consequences thereof, into the favour and image of God, and a state of communion with him; implying a qualification for, and earnest of, complete and eternal salvation. The Jews thought that the salvation to be accomplished by the Messiah would be a salvation from the Roman and every foreign yoke; but that would only have been a salvation of their bodies: whereas the salvation which believers expect from Christ is the salvation of their souls from sin and misery, and of their bodies from the grave.