I keep coming across the word redeemed over and over lately. For years I really disliked the word because it just smacked of religious "insider language" or "Christianese". But I think I've let my concerns over people who careless throw around the word keep me from seeing the importance in redemption. Redeemed means that I'm not the one paying the full price...Redeemed means that somebody else has been working behind the scenes to make something more affordable for me. And in the case of Jesus Christ his redeeming work has made something that I had no way of earning (eternal life) not only become affordable, but free (grace is amazing!)

And Peter here reminds us that there are really only two ways to live...trapped in an "empty way of life" v.18 (TNIV) or redeemed to live a life that is marked by a "sincere love for each other" v. 22 (TNIV)

So even though we may be put in difficult situations in our lives as Peter's readers were when when they were scattered from Jerusalem likely by persecution...we can and must greatly rejoice because we have been redeemed to something far greater than we would otherwise have earned by our own achievement. So remember to "roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming", v.13(MSG) because Jesus has paid the price for you and you are REDEEMED.

1 Peter 1:1