1 Peter 1:8-9 8Though you have not seen, you love him; even though you do not see him now, by believing in him, you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
This verse describes the essence of the faith Peter wrote about in the previous verses. Faith is believing in what we do not see with our eyes (Hebrews 11:1). So much of our lives is based on what is right in front of us—what we experience with our senses. These senses can be tricked and distorted by the desires of the world. Faith is evident in loving Jesus even though we do not see him. Peter’s readers in Asia never saw Jesus but had to trust the testimonies of eyewitnesses. The readers may have received the words about Jesus second or third hand.
How can we believe in what we do not see? There was no New Testament to read yet, so everything was by word of mouth. Writings, like Peter’s letter, because the link to Jesus for later generations. God gives us clues from other senses and sights beyond simply seeing a physical Jesus. We can use our eyes to read the Bible. We can see and hear the testimony of faithful people. We can experience the ups and downs, pains and joys, of life that help us realize that there is more to life than what we see.
Faith in Jesus results in two responses. The first is love. The remarkable faith of the scattered believers is that though they were experiencing suffering and had never seen Jesus (concessive participle idontes), they loved him. Loving Jesus is the strongest confirmation that a person believes in him. Second, they also had great joy. Faith in Jesus is the response of loving him and brings a deep joy (instrumental participle orōntes). Joy is different than happiness. Happiness is an emotion that comes and goes based on circumstances, while joy is a response of the will and a deep trust that all is well with our souls. Our external experiences can be difficult, harsh, or even life-threatening, but as an expression of faith, we can still have joy.
This joy is described in two ways. Inexpressible (aneklalētō) means this joy cannot be described with words; it is beyond imagination and human ability to fathom. Glorious (dedoxasmenē) is a perfect passive participle, implying that this glory is a gift of God that comes when we believe in Jesus and continues to grow as our faith in him grows (similar to 2 Corinthians 3:18). Glory is the experience of God’s awesome, loving presence, from which our sin separates us from experiencing (Romans 3:23). We were created to live in this glory in relationship. The deepest joy, beyond our imagination, is to be with our Creator.
The goal and result of this faith is salvation. Salvation is the ultimate goal of our earthly existence. When life is going well, we get comfortable in our earthly existence and tend to forget eternity. We forget God because we do not need God. Materialism’s curse is weak faith. Peter uses a presence participle receiving (komizomenoi) because we can begin to live out this salvation in this lifetime, particularly amid suffering. Faith gives us hope and keeps it alive because of its object in Jesus and outcome of eternal life.