---
title: 1 Peter 1:23
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-peter-1-23/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-peter-1-23.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Peter 1:23
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Peter 1:23

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

## JW Usage

Where the Watchtower engages 1 Peter 1:23, it is typically read through the lens of literacy and Bible study — the "word of God" is the Scriptures the seeker reads, and the new birth is effectively identified with the long process of accepting JW teaching, submitting to baptism, and becoming an active publisher. The passage's native claim — that the imperishable seed itself does the begetting, through the living and abiding word — is collapsed into an ordinary Watchtower study programme. As with John 3:3, the verse is usually reserved for the 144,000 and treated as irrelevant to the great crowd's earthly hope.

## Protestant Usage

1 Peter 1:23 is where "regeneration precedes faith" ties directly to what a Christian at the doorstep is actually doing. Peter says you have been "born again, not from perishable seed, but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God." The gospel does not merely inform — the word itself is the living seed by which God raises the spiritually dead. Use this warmly: "The reason I am willing to talk with you on my porch is that Peter says the living word of God gives the new birth. I am not trying to persuade your reason. I am hoping God will use his own word to quicken your heart, the way he has done in mine." Pair with 1 Peter 1:3 (born again through the resurrection) and John 3:3. The doctrine of regeneration-by-the-word is the quiet engine under every door-to-door gospel conversation, and 1 Peter 1:23 is where it sits.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [You Must Be Born Again](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/born-again.md) — John 3:3 — Not Just for 144,000 [Salvation]
- [The Natural Man Cannot Discern Spiritual Things](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/1cor2-14-natural-man.md) — 1 Corinthians 2:14 — Why Research Alone Won't Save You [Salvation]