Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Peter 1:18

"knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers;" — 1 Peter 1:18 (ASV)

The logic of this verse is “Live... because you know!” That is, the Christian life is lived out of knowledge of the redemption that Christ has accomplished. What do Christians know? Peter reminds his readers of the cost of redemption, based on the value of the Person of the righteous Messiah himself.

The Greek word for “redeem” (GK 3390) goes back to the institution of slavery in ancient Rome. Any representative first-century church would have three kinds of members: slaves, freemen, and freed men. People became slaves in various ways—through war, bankruptcy, sale by themselves, sale by parents, or by birth. Slaves normally could look forward to freedom after a certain period of service and often after the payment of a price. Money to buy one’s freedom could be earned by the slave in his spare time or by doing more than his owner required. Often the price would be provided by someone else, who purchased a person’s freedom from servitude. A freed man was a person who formerly had been a slave but was now set free. Jesus also described his ministry in this picture taken from slavery (cf. Mark 10:45).

The redemption of Christians is from the “empty” (GK 3469) lifestyle of their ancestors. This implies Peter’s readers had come from a pagan lifestyle rather than a Jewish one, for the NT stresses the emptiness of paganism (cf. Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17).

Verse 19 stresses the value of the purchase price of redemption and at the same time identifies the blood as that of a spotless lamb—the Messiah. When Israel was in bondage in Egypt, the Passover lamb was killed and its blood provided release from slavery and judgment. Because Jesus is without sin, he is unique and his life is of infinite value as the Sacrificial Lamb of the Passover (cf. Exodus 12:46; 1 Corinthians 5:7).