An Overview of 1 Peter

An Overview of 1 Peter

What’s Going On?

Every New Testament letter has a back story; something was going on, some kind of problem, challenge, or opportunity had emerged in the community of Jesus followers that motivated the author to respond with a letter that would address the situation by pointing them to the gospel and its implications for their lives. When we pick up a letter like 1 Peter, one of our tasks is to understand as best we can the circumstances that compelled Peter to write.

 

First Peter provides us with a number of clues that give us a picture of what the readers were going through. It seems that the Christians living in what is now modern Turkey (1 Peter 1.1; see map) were suffering because of their allegiance to Jesus Christ (1.6; 2.12; 2.18-25; 3.16-17; 4.4; 4.12-19; 5.9).

            

What was the cause for their suffering? Some have suggested that the persecution was instigated by Nero or some other Roman emperor who made being a Christian illegal. This, however, is not the case. We have no record of widespread systematic persecution of Christians until 259ad (1 Peter was likely written between 64-68ad). It appears, rather that the kind of suffering that Peter talks about in the letter is linked to verbal abuse or slander (2.12; 3.16; 4.4, 14-16) because of one’s alignment with Jesus Christ and his people. In some cases, loyal allegiance to Jesus may have resulted in physical harm (see 1 Pet 2,20). But why would they be slandered and physically harmed for putting their faith in Jesus?

            

A careful look at the letter reveals that the original readers’ conversion to Jesus caused them to be rejected by their own people (1.1, 3) because of their new way of life (1.17-18; 2.12; 3.17; 4.12-16). This new way of life was looked upon with suspicion because these new Christians were seen as being unpatriotic, unfaithful to god and country and thus inviting all kinds of disasters because they refused to acknowledge the Roman gods or offer worship to the emperor. And so their Roman neighbors implemented what is called “deviancy control”—they called the followers of Jesus names (such as “Christian”) and accused them of wrong-doing in the hope of bringing them back into the fold and onto the right path. This, then, is the situation the Peter is responding to in his first letter.

What’s the Point?

So what is the message that Peter has for these Christians who are suffering social exclusion because of their allegiance to Jesus Christ?

1. He begins by reminding them of who they are: their neighbors may reject them, but they belong to God! They are elect exiles (1.1), precious to God (2.9-10).Their calling will have to be lived out in a context where people will not embrace their values and new way of life; they will live like foreigners in their own land (2.11-12; 4.4; 14-16).

2. He reminds them of who Jesus is and what he accomplished on their behalf: (a) Jesus’ life, teachings, and sacrificial death were accepted by God as proved by the resurrection (1.3; 20-21; 3.18-22); (b) Jesus’ sacrificial death enabled them to be restored to God (1.19; 2.22-25; 3.18); (c) Jesus left them an example to follow when they are treated wrongly for the allegiance to God (2.4-8; 2.21-25; 3.8-17); to suffer like Jesus did brings with it the promise of receiving glory like Jesus did (1.5-12; 4.13  (d) Jesus will bring them the hoped-for salvation promised in the prophets when He returns (1.5-13; 4.16-19; 5.4-11).

3. He reminds them to put their hope, not in the powers or kingdoms of their day, but in the grace that will be brought to the when the true King, Jesus returns to bring them salvation (1.13; 1.5-13; 2.11-12; 4.16-19; 5.6-11).

4. And he exhorts them to love and serve their neighbors, even those who were wrongly treating them (1.22; 2.11-17; 3.8-17; 4.7-11).

So What?

So what does this mean for our lives? When we read the letters of the New Testament we read them as God addressing us; the claims that are made about God in these letters are claims made to us—they are God telling us who He is, what he wants for us (and what he doesn’t want for us); the claims made in the letters about who we are as a result of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are claims made to us—they tell us what we are to believe in, what we are to hope for, and what we are to love.

At the core of 1 Peter is this profound message: We belong to God. This was made possible by the faithful obedience of Jesus who endured wrong-doing in order to return us to God. Because we belong to God, we will be misunderstood and even maligned. And because we belong to God, the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, we do not return evil for evil; instead, like Jesus, we seek to bless and serve others even when they mistreat us—for to this we have been called (2.21; 3.9). And because we belong to God, after we have suffered because of our allegiance to Jesus Christ, we will receive the salvation we long for (1.5-13; 5.6-11).