1. 1 Peter 5:14 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does the word “peace” imply?

1 Peter 5:14 (ESV)

14 Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

The word peace reflects the restored relation there is between the sinner and God through the work of Jesus Christ. The Lord God had adopted Peter’s readers to be his people (hence born again, 1 Peter 1:3) and so heirs (1 Peter 1:4) of God’s eternal treasures. That wealth assumes restoration of the relation once broken by sin. With the word peace (Hebrew, shalom), Peter would tell his readers that God’s smile rests on them per the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24–26, even in the midst of the hostility and suspicion they were experiencing from the spiritually unborn around them.