Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
Loving One You Have Not Seen
1 Peter 1:8-9
8 whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, · WEB
The writer marks the difference between his readers and himself, and treats their position as the stronger one rather than the poorer.
Two clauses in verse 8 turn on sight, and both are concessions. Not having seen, you love; not now seeing, you believe. The man writing this had seen, and says so elsewhere in the letter with some emphasis — a witness of the sufferings of Christ 1 Peter 5:1. He is describing a gap between his experience and theirs.
What he does with the gap is the surprise. He does not treat it as a deficiency to be compensated for by his testimony. He states it and then attaches to it the highest description of joy in the letter: rejoicing with a gladness that speech does not reach and that already carries glory in it. The unspeakable joy is credited to the ones who have not seen.
Verse 9 gives the reason without sentiment. They are receiving the outcome of their faith, in the present tense, the salvation of their souls. The word for outcome is the end of a process, and putting it in the present says the process is not merely promised but under way.
So the whole passage refuses the assumption a reader might bring — that the eyewitness generation had the real thing and later believers have a copy. The letter's own eyewitness is the one who denies it.
held with reason What this mark means