‘Whom not having seen you love; on whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.'
The one thing above all that will sustain us is our love for Christ. Not some soft, sentimental emotion (although there is nothing wrong with that in the right place), but the love that springs from gratitude and appreciation of what He is, and what He has done for us. We love Him (and others) because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Unlike us Peter had himself seen Him face to face. He had seen Him and had known Him in His daily life. But He recognised that for his readers and for us, faith takes the place of sight. It is not, however, blind faith. We do not just ‘believe' in the dark, for we have Jesus revealed for us in the Gospels and can assess Him from them. True faith is based on illuminated reason (even when we do not realise it). That is why unbelief is without excuse. The evidence is there for all to see in His life and teaching, and even the words of critics cannot hide it, for its truth and beauty shine through. And when those whose hearts are open consider His life and assess His teaching, what He is will be opened up to them (John 7:17), for none other has ever taught like He did, none other has lived as He did, and they will know that He truly is ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God'. One thing is sure, and that is that no one invented the life and teaching of Jesus (apart from Jesus). It is beyond man's inventive capabilities.
Many talk as if faith and reason are contrary to each other, but on that basis we could believe anything. The truth is that (even though they may not recognise it) the humblest Christian believers exercise reason when they make their response of faith. They see Him for what He is revealed to be and their hearts respond to Him, because they recognise in that revelation the evidence of His divine Being. They know that there is no other explanation for Him. And the Holy Spirit, Who reveals this to them, confirms it in their hearts.
And it is because we have ‘seen' Him through His life and teaching and death for us (Hebrews 2:9) that we love Him, so that, although we cannot see Him with our eyes, our hearts reach out to Him in love and we believe continually (present tense) with all our hearts, with the result that we rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Compare Jesus' words in John 6:35. ‘He who comes to Me will never hunger and he who believes in Me will never thirst'. And the consequence of such a faith, both in the present and in the future, will be the salvation of our souls (see note above).
‘Receiving (continually) the salvation of your souls.' For the significance of the verb ‘receiving' compare ‘on Whom believing'. Both are in the present tense. The believing is a present experience and so is the receiving of salvation. It is going on even as we experience the trials, and it is guaranteed to the end. When we first truly believed (assuming that we have done so) we ‘were saved' once for all. We were marked off as one of His elect. As we go on believing we go on being saved because we are one of His elect. The Holy Spirit continues His sanctifying work in us. And one day faith will turn into sight and then we will be fully saved. ‘He will gather together His elect -- from one end of heaven to the other' (Matthew 24:31; compare 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). For it is all the result of the foreknowing of God and the sanctification in the Spirit.
The word for ‘receiving' is in the middle voice and signifies the receiving for oneself of a promise, or of a benefit, or of one's just deserts. The word is also used in respect of a person receiving wages in respect of what he has done. We can note its use in 2 Corinthians 5:10 where those before the judgment seat of Christ receive for themselves in respect of what they have done, whether it be good or bad; in Ephesians 6:8 where ‘whatever good thing each one does, the same will he receive for himself again from the Lord'; in Colossians 3:25, where ‘he who does wrong will receive for himself the wrong that he has done'; and in Hebrews 10:36, where Christians ‘have need of patient endurance that having done the will of God we may receive for ourselves the promise.' Thus we receive the salvation of our souls through believing, because thereby the Holy Spirit makes fully applicable to us the obedience of Christ, and as we believe and obey so we receive. Is it then of merit? The answer is ‘no'. And the reason that it is not is because it is the result of what He works in us, not the result of our own goodness. It is received freely through the response to His love of our faith as a result of the sanctification of the Spirit.
‘The end (telos) of your faith.' That is, its aim and goal. Compare 1 Timothy 1:5; James 5:11; Romans 10:4.
‘The salvation of your souls.' This does not mean that a small part of us called our ‘souls' will be saved. It means that we will be saved in all that we are. It refers to our very lives. We will be saved spirit, inner man and body.
‘ouk idontes (having not seen Him)-- me horowntes (not now gazing at Him).' The change in the negative particle from ‘ouk' to ‘me' is an indication that the words are written by an eyewitness as if he had distinguished, ‘You have not seen Him' from ‘-- we now not gazing at Him.'
The idea of ‘seeing Jesus' is a theology in itself:
1) The prophets ‘saw' Jesus as they looked ahead and prophesied about Him.
2) The disciples literally saw and beheld Jesus as He walked among them. They were witnesses to His life (Acts 1:21; Acts 2:22; John 1:14; 1 John 1:1-4) and resurrection (Matthew 28:10; John 20:29; Luke 24:31).
3) Both His followers and His enemies ‘saw Jesus' through His triumph in the establishing of His Kingly Rule through the early church (Matthew 16:28; Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62).
4) Paul literally saw Jesus as the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:27; 1 Corinthians 9:1). Compare Acts 7:55 where Stephen also saw the resurrected Jesus reigning in Heaven.
5) Believers ‘see' Jesus as they read the Scriptures and look to Him in faith (Hebrews 2:9; compare 2 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 3:18), but like the prophets, they do not see Him with their eyes.
6) Those who are alive at His coming will literally see Him in His glory (Matthew 26:64).
7) One day all who are His will literally see Him face to face (1 John 3:2; John 17:24; 1 Corinthians 13:12).