What does 1 Peter 1:8 mean?

Christianity—our faith in Christ, the Son of God—is not about a process or a system or a philosophy. It's not a way of looking at the world or improving ourselves as human beings. It's about a person. It's about trusting and loving a person.

Peter had seen Jesus, and had been personally trained by Him. Peter knew and loved Christ as a man, and as God, based on three years of personal, face-to-face experience. Peter saw Jesus alive after seeing Him dead. The vast majority of the believers reading Peter's words had never seen the Messiah with their own eyes. Peter seems to marvel at their believing and loving Christ without seeing Him. Maybe Peter was remembering what he heard Jesus say to Thomas, who believed in the resurrection only after personally seeing Jesus' wounds: "…Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29).

As in verse 6, Peter assumes that faith and love this concrete, this real, results in real rejoicing. Saving faith in Christ brings with it a joy which can't be expressed. Words can't contain it. It's a joy full of glory, reflecting our future with Christ in the moment in front of us. Again we see that the choice to rejoice, even the middle of our trials, is an act of faith. It doesn't require soaring emotions, but it certainly can contribute to them. Joy flows from our growing confidence in the Christ we love.