1 Peter 1:2Plain English VersionA long time ago, God, our father, knew you, and he picked you to be in his family. His spirit picked you out from other people to make you his special people. You listened to Jesus’s words, and you did whatever he said. Jesus died and his blood came out, and it is like God put that blood of Jesus on you to make you clean. I’m asking God to be properly good to you, and to make you feel really happy and quiet inside yourselves. See the chapter |
There will be a lot of people that will tell lies and try to trick you. Some people will say that they are the Christ, the special man from God. Other people will say that they are telling people God’s words, and they might do all sorts of clever things. Those people will be thinking, ‘Maybe we can trick the people that God picked out for himself.’ But really, they can’t do that.
Paul kept on talking. He said, “Now I’m asking God to keep you safe, and to keep you believing the true message that God is very good to you and will save you. If you keep on believing that message, you will grow strong for God, and you will know that you are in God’s family, and God will give you the good life that he is keeping for his own people.
and he picked me out to be a worker for Jesus Christ. My job is to tell the good news about Jesus to people that are not Jews. After I tell them that good news, God’s spirit works in them to make them good and right, and God is really happy with them. It is like I give them to God, like a really good gift.
But as for you, God joined you to Jesus Christ. You and us together, Jesus helps us to be wise, like God. And Jesus makes us to be God’s friends, so that he will tell us we are all right. And Jesus makes us God’s own special people too. Jesus died to pay for us and set us free from everything that is wrong.
You see, God loves you. He picked you to be his own special people. So you have to live a new way for him. You have to be good to other people. You have to feel sorry for people that have trouble and try to help them. Don’t think that you are more important than other people. You have to be easy on other people, and don’t get angry with them, even if they give you trouble.
But, Christian friends, we thank God that you are not in that mob. Right from the start, God picked you to be the ones that he will save. And he put his Holy Spirit into you, to save you. We told you the true message about Jesus, and you believed it. It is like God called to you, at that time, to come and join his mob. And now God’s spirit works in you all the time to change you into God’s special people. And God will make you great, like our leader Jesus Christ.
Dear Titus, I am Paul, and this letter is from me. I work for God, and I am one of Jesus Christ’s special workers. God sent me to teach people about Jesus Christ, and to help his people believe in him more. And he sent me to help people understand his message better. Then they will know what they have to do to make God happy.
So God didn’t pay money to set you free. He did more than that. I’ll tell you the price he paid for you. You know the old Jewish ceremonies. You know that they pick a young sheep that has nothing wrong with it, and they kill it to give it to God. Well, that is a picture of Jesus. There was nothing wrong with him, and he never did anything wrong. But people killed him. He bled and died for you. That is the price God paid to set you free, and it is better than money, it lasts for ever. You see, you belong to God now.
A long time ago, before God made the world, he picked Jesus to set you free. Then, later, Jesus came into the world. And now you know about him. You know that he died for you, and so you believe in God too. After Jesus died, God made him alive again, and God made him very great and gave him a lot of power. Now you can trust God and wait for everything he promised you.
But you are the people God picked out for himself. Together you work for him, like the men that looked after his ceremonies. You are his own family. God called you away from doing bad things, so you can do good things. It is like you used to live in the dark so that nobody could see you do bad things there, but now he called you away from that to live in his good light. So let’s tell everyone that God is really great and really good.