1 Peter 1:4

_ _ To an inheritance — the object of our “hope” (1 Peter 1:3), which is therefore not a dead, but a “living” hope. The inheritance is the believer’s already by title, being actually assigned to him; the entrance on its possession is future, and hoped for as a certainty. Being “begotten again” as a “son,” he is an “heir,” as earthly fathers beget children who shall inherit their goods. The inheritance is “salvation” (1 Peter 1:5, 1 Peter 1:9); “the grace to be brought at the revelation of Christ” (1 Peter 1:13); “a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”

_ _ incorruptible — not having within the germs of death. Negations of the imperfections which meet us on every side here are the chief means of conveying to our minds a conception of the heavenly things which “have not entered into the heart of man,” and which we have not faculties now capable of fully knowing. Peter, sanguine, impulsive, and highly susceptible of outward impressions, was the more likely to feel painfully the deep-seated corruption which, lurking under the outward splendor of the loveliest of earthly things, dooms them soon to rottenness and decay.

_ _ undefiled — not stained as earthly goods by sin, either in the acquiring, or in the using of them; unsusceptible of any stain. “The rich man is either a dishonest man himself, or the heir of a dishonest man” [Jerome]. Even Israel’s inheritance was defiled by the people’s sins. Defilement intrudes even on our holy things now, whereas God’s service ought to be undefiled.

_ _ that fadeth not away — Contrast 1 Peter 1:24. Even the most delicate part of the heavenly inheritance, its bloom, continues unfading. “In substance incorruptible; in purity undefiled; in beauty unfading” [Alford].

_ _ reserved — kept up (Colossians 1:5, “laid up for you in heaven,” 2 Timothy 4:8); Greek perfect, expressing a fixed and abiding state, “which has been and is reserved.” The inheritance is in security, beyond risk, out of the reach of Satan, though we for whom it is reserved are still in the midst of dangers. Still, if we be believers, we too, as well as the inheritance, are “kept” (the same Greek, John 17:12) by Jesus safely (1 Peter 1:5).

_ _ in heaven — Greek, “in the heavens,” where it can neither be destroyed nor plundered. It does not follow that, because it is now laid up in heaven, it shall not hereafter be on earth also.

_ _ for you — It is secure not only in itself from all misfortune, but also from all alienation, so that no other can receive it in your stead. He had said us (1 Peter 1:3); he now turns his address to the elect in order to encourage and exhort them.