What does the term “blessed” mean?

Our translation uses the word “blessed” twice before, in 1 Peter 1:3 and 1 Peter 3:9. In the present verse, however, the Greek term Peter uses is very different from the one he has used before. The earlier word means to speak well of, while in the present verse the Greek term refers to happiness, being fortunate. In the present verse, Peter uses the same term Jesus had used in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12). Jesus had said that those who were poor in relation to this world are blessed (happy) because their treasure is with the Lord in heaven, and that focus provides a joy that overrides the pain and suffering of this life. In the same vein, Peter’s readers were “born again to a living hope…to an inheritance…kept in heaven” (1 Peter 1:3–4), and that focus provides a level of happiness (“blessed”) that suffering for the gospel cannot take away.

Note: our translation casts this blessedness into the future (“you will be blessed”). The Greek does not put a time to the sense of blessedness and so leaves open the possibility that those who suffer are already “happy.” That is so understandable because their heart is not in the things they are losing (be it respect, freedom, property, opportunity, etc.) but their heart is on the imperishable inheritance awaiting them in heaven.