18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Peter's gloss on Isaiah 40:6, like that of James, focuses not only on the comparison between man's brief earthly glory and God's eternal glory, but also on the contrast between that part of man that identifies with earthly glory (the "corruptible seed" in us) and that part which actually has a share in God's eternal glory. The "incorruptible seed" of the word of God is sowed and grows in us not to wither and watch its flowers fall away, but to endure forever. The flowering of that seed is to "believe in God," to have "faith and hope...in God," to see our souls "purified...in obeying the truth through the spirit," to possess "unfeigned love" and "pure hearts."
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