1 Peter

Overview

Peter writes to Christians who are strangers where they live — slandered, excluded and starting to suffer for the name. His answer is not escape but perspective: a living hope, an inheritance reserved in heaven, and a faith being tried like gold.

Then he works it out in the places it costs something: in the state, in the household, in marriage, and before those who ask what you hope in. And he says plainly that suffering for doing right follows the pattern of Christ Himself.

Background

The provinces named cover much of modern Turkey — churches Peter had likely never visited. Babylon in 5:13 is almost certainly Rome, a way of naming the imperial city that Revelation also uses.

The persecution here is mostly social: reviling, false accusation, being treated as criminals. Within a few years Nero would make it far worse, and tradition says Peter died in it.

Key themes

• A living hope, born of the resurrection and kept in heaven.
• Suffering is not strange, and it refines rather than destroys faith.
• Holy conduct among outsiders is itself a witness.
• Submit, serve and bless — following the example of Christ, who did not revile in return.
• Cast your care on Him, because He cares for you.

Outline

1. A living hopeChapter 1

   Begotten again to an inheritance incorruptible, and a faith tried with fire.

2. A chosen peopleChapter 2

   Living stones, a royal priesthood, and Christ’s example under unjust suffering.

3. Relationships and answersChapter 3

   Wives and husbands, blessing instead of railing, and a reason for the hope within you.

4. Suffering as a ChristianChapter 4

   Arm yourselves with the same mind; the fiery trial is not strange.

5. Elders and humilityChapter 5

   Feed the flock, resist the devil, and the God of all grace will settle you.

Key passages

• 1 Peter 1:3 Begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• 1 Peter 1:15-16 Be ye holy; for I am holy.
• 1 Peter 2:9 Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation.
• 1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.
• 1 Peter 3:15 Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.
• 1 Peter 4:12-13 Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial.
• 1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
• 1 Peter 5:8 Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about.

Christ in 1 Peter

Peter writes as a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and it shows: the lamb without blemish foreordained before the world, who bore our sins in His own body on the tree, who when He was reviled did not revile again, and who is the chief Shepherd coming with a crown that does not fade.

Reading it

• Read it when things are hard; that is what it was written for.
• Mark every mention of hope and of suffering and see how tightly they are tied together.
• Note how often Peter grounds a command in something Christ did.