The reference is to the lifestyle to which these readers were accustomed while they lived in the “darkness” (1 Peter 2:9) of not knowing the living God. The phrase echoes 1 Peter 1:14, where the apostle had mentioned “the passions of your former ignorance” (see further 1 Peter 4:3–4 for some detail). Peter characterizes that traditional way of living as “futile,” empty, providing no meaning or purpose to life (even though societies tend to appreciate tradition for its stability). That way of life is as claustrophobic and hopeless as the womb is for the full-term infant. The Father had given his children a far deeper purpose to life than the fathers had ever passed on to their children!
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,