Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
Another motive to reverential fear (1 Peter 1:17) of displeasing God-the consideration of the costly price of our redemption from sin. It is we who are bought by the blood of Christ, not heaven: heaven is the "inheritance" (1 Peter 1:4) given to us as sons, by the promise of God.
Redeemed. Gold and silver being corruptible themselves, and so of little value, can free no one from spiritual and bodily corruption. Contrast 1 Peter 1:19, Christ' "precious blood." The Israelites were ransomed with half a shekel each, which went toward purchasing the lamb for the daily sacrifice (Exodus 30:12-16: cf. Numbers 3:44-51). But the Lamb who redeems the spiritual Israelites does so 'without money or price' (Isaiah 55:1). Devoted by sin to God's justice, the church of the first-born is redeemed from sin and the curse with Christ's precious blood. In Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14; Revelation 5:9, the idea is that of substitution, the giving of one for another by way of ransom or equivalent. Man is 'sold under sin' as a slave; shut up under condemnation. The ransom was, therefore, paid to the righteously incensed Judge, and accepted as a vicarious satisfaction for our sin, inasmuch as it was His own love, as well as righteousness, which appointed it. An Israelite sold as a bond-servant for debt might be redeemed by one of his brethren. Since, therefore, we could not redeem ourselves, Christ assumed our nature to become our Brother, and so our God or Redeemer. Holiness is the natural fruit of redemption "from our vain conversation;" for He by whom we are redeemed is also He for whom we are redeemed. 'Without the righteous abolition of the curse, either there could be found no deliverance, or the grace and righteousness of God must have come in collision' (Steiger); but now Christ having borne the curse of our sin, frees from it those who are made God's children by His Spirit.
Corruptible. Compare 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 1:23.
Silver and (or) gold. Compare Peter's own words, Acts 3:6: an undesigned coincidence.
Vain - self-deceiving, promising good which it does not perform. (Compare the pagan, Acts 14:15; Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17; human philosophers, 1 Corinthians 3:20; the disobedient Jews, Jeremiah 4:14.)
Conversation - course of life. To know our sin we must know its cost.
Received by tradition from your fathers. 'Human piety is a vain blasphemy, the greatest sin that man can commit' (Luther). There is only one Father to be imitated (1 Peter 1:17: cf. Matthew 23:9).