I Peter 1:3-9 Unpacked

Demetri Martin recently wrote a 224 palindrome poem--one which says the same things both ways you read it.  I think the guys kind of weird.  

On a totally unrelated note, here's I Peter 1:3-9 backwards:

 ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

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The goal of our faith is our Salvation.  As a result of faith in our salvation--demonstrated through loving and believing in Him though we do not see him--we are given inexpressible and glorious joy; further, if we keep faith through trials we will be given honor, glory, and praise.  Our faith is worth far more than gold because it shields us from doubt and enables us to receive this Salvation, in which we have an eternal inheritance because of the resurrection of Christ, in whom we are enabled to place hope in because of the Lord's great mercy on us.

As I Thess 1:3 says:

...Your work is prompted by FAITH--witnessing about the God I've neither tangibly seen or heard but only know of through faith.

...labor is prompted by LOVE--Love the Lord first

...endurance is prompted by HOPE--Life is hard, but the inheritance given in our new life is worth these comparatively short trials.