1 Peter 1:7

that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ:

This rather complicated verse is not a comparison of faith with gold; "but there is an analogy between the testing of character (faith) and the refining of gold."[19] If people go to the trouble to test gold, how much more should it be expected that God will test faith? Barnes also stressed this, as follows:

This does not mean that their faith was more precious than gold (though of course it is), but that the testing of it ... was a much more important and valuable process than that of testing gold by fire.[20]

Also inherent in this verse is the tremendous fact itself, that faith is more precious than fine gold, the reason for this, as pointed out by Zerr, being that:

Even while the earth remains, the joys that gold may procure for us are uncertain and often flee like the dew of morning; but the happiness that is obtained by an enduring faith will not pass away.[21]

It will not be lost on a close student of the New Testament that these verses are loaded with phrases and thoughts used by the apostle Peter in his sermons (Acts 3:20,21; 10:42).

By Peter's striking this note of suffering early in his letter, he was only stressing that which had been stressed by the Master himself (Mark 8:31-38); and Peter would return to this, again and again, throughout the epistle (1 Peter 2:21; 3:14-22; 4:12-19; 5:1,10). (See under the Outline in the Introduction for discussion of themes recurring throughout the epistle.) Thus the sufferings of a Christian must not be viewed as any "unscheduled disaster overtaking him without the will of God, but on the other hand as the very route by which the Lord Jesus wrought his wonderful redemption."[22]

[19] Archibald M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 96.

[20] Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1953), p. 116.

[21] E. M. Zerr, Bible Commentary (Marion, Indiana: Cogdill Foundation, 1954), p. 253.

[22] G. J. Polkinghorne, op. cit., p. 587.