Study of 1 Peter: Introduction and Chapter One

Introduction of 1 Peter 

Author as with all the Bible is God Almighty.

Writer is Peter. We know from Mark Chapter One that Peter was married. Peter along with his brother Andrew and another disciple named Philip were from a fishing village called Bethsaida. In these days the village was located right on the coast of the Sea of Galilee making it a fishing village but now due to the water receding a bit it is located a little more north of the coast. It was in close proximity to Capernaum which was the base for Jesus’ ministry. Bethsaida is believed to have been the site of some of Jesus’ miracles such as healing of the blind man and the feeding of thousands with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. Peter’s father is mentioned in the Bible but there is no record of his mother. Peter is mentioned more in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John than any other person besides Jesus. No one speaks more often than Peter in the gospels. It appears that at times Peter was one to speak before he thought it through. Most of us have done that before in our lives so we can relate. Based on the scripture it would appear that Jesus rebuked Peter more than others. He also praised Peter more than any other disciple. Peter is written about in the gospels more than any other besides Jesus 

Location: Some scripture says “Babylon” 1 Peter 5:13 which is likely a euphemism for Rome which was a city steeped in immorality. Why use a code word or euphemism? We learn in chapter one the fears that believers were facing during this time. So perhaps Peter didn’t want to give his location but believers would understand where he meant when saying Babylon. 

Intended Audience: All believers. Written in that time to Christians scattered around provinces of Asia Minor which is modern day Turkey.

Date: Between and 62 and 64

Theme: God’s Grace. Encouragement during persecution and times of suffering. How to live within a hostile environment. 1 Peter is an epistle, a letter that was written to believers who were undergoing persecution because of their faith. Peter wanted to encourage them as they faced mistreatment. He wanted to remind them that they are suffering in the light of God’s greater purpose. He reminds believers that we are aliens to this earth and that our inheritance is a home in heaven. He instructs us that we are to live as heavenly people not as if we are part of this world. He points us to Jesus as the example to follow. Jesus suffered unjustly and now reigns victoriously. Believers can face their suffering victoriously if they rely on Jesus Christ. He reminds believers that their safety and security rests in God and that hope should motivate them to serve The Lord with commitment despite all cost. 

Study of 1 Peter: Chapter One

1 Peter 1:1-2: Peter greets us and encourages believers to stand firm in their faith. To be  mindful that heaven is our home and Jesus is coming again. Peter refers to Christians in a list of provinces as pilgrims or some translations call them exiles as being “elect” or “chosen” and in verse 3 says “according to the foreknowledge of God The Father through the sanctifying work of the Spirit to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Christ”.  Here for some the debate begins to ask are we chosen, predetermined according to the sovereignty of God or were we chosen according to the foreknowledge of God? What is the difference? It is an important distinction because we are not elect or chosen in the sense that God has predetermined some to be saved and some to be damned to hell. That idea or thought is totally inconsistent to the overall whole counsel of scripture. But we are the elect or chosen in terms of God’s foreknowledge. He knows the events because He has foreknowledge, He knows what is going to happen, He knows all things including who will accept Him and who will reject Him and to the degree we will accept Him. By His foreknowledge He knows the elect or chosen. Don’t get caught up here and wonder if you’re one of the elect or not. Get saved then you are. It is that simple. If you have fully surrendered to Christ then you’re numbered among the elect or the chosen. This verse simply means that God knows in advance who are going to accept Him and who are not. He knows who will respond to His initiation. He is the initiator, we are the responders. He also knows out of the responders who will surrender completely to Jesus and have a devoted relationship with Him. He also knows who those are who accept him but continues feeding on the milk of the word for a lifetime rather then grow and partake of the meat of the word. Peter also here in verse 2 mentions the Trinity God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and to be sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ. He is basically saying that God the Father knows those who are His. God the Spirit sanctifies those who are His and God the son saves those who are His. 

God initiates, he draws with His Holy Spirit but the choice is ours  God knew before it happened what we would decide. Have you missed salvation by 18 inches? How so? Many claim a knowledge of God and of the things of God. They may say yes that they do believe, they may attend church regularly, they may have much book knowledge of the Bible and biblical matters. That alone won’t get them to heaven, that isn’t experiencing God’s saving grace. We must accept Jesus in our heart and allow Him to enter and change everything about us. We must surrender all to Him. God’s Grace, His Holy Spirit residing in us changes us, it changes how we view the world. It changes our desires from wanting to please ourselves to a desire to please our Heavenly Father. Attending church no longer is for show, it is a deep rooted need to be among likeminded people and to feed the hunger for more knowledge of God’s word. That 18 inches from our mind to our heart can make all the difference as to whether we end up in heaven or hell. Don’t just know Him in your mind, know Him in your heart. 1 John 5:13 says “I have written these things to you who believe in The Name of The Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life”. We can know that we are saved. Romans 10:9-10 says “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that Gods has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. Nothing can contradict this. This is how salvation works. If you accepted Jesus into your heart then you know it, you feel the spirit of God that dwells within you. As for us being able to judge if other people are saved, be careful. Yes the Bible says they will be known by their fruits Matthew 7:15-20 but beware because we all make mistakes and no one is perfect. The only person we can know with any degree of certainty is saved, is ourselves. Believers are on a journey from salvation till death or the day Jesus returns. It takes a lifetime to grow in Christ. Last but not least, God knows every single person’s heart and it is not our responsibility to judge a person’s salvation. God allows the wheat (saved people) and the tares (not really saved but attends church) to grow together and in His time he will then separate between the two. That is His job, not ours, not now and not ever, Matthew 13:24-30. Our job is to pray and our responsibility is to go into the world and share the gospel to all, Mark 16:15. Our responsibility is also also to be the proper Christian example that lead people to Jesus and not cause them to turn from Him, 1 Corinthians 11:1.  

1 Peter 1:3-12: Here Peter talks about a heavenly inheritance. What we find in this letter from Peter is that salvation is a gift through Jesus Christ. We are first drawn to The Lord and when we open our hearts to Him and then accept Him into our hearts acknowledging Him as our Lord and Savior and then choosing to follow Him, we then receive that gift. We then experience a rebirth (born again). In addition we receive a new inheritance that is stored up in heaven for us. We are told to rejoice in this even though for a “short time” we will suffer trials. When compared to the eternity we will live in heaven, our life on earth is a short time. All this by God’s grace and His mercy. Nothing about the gift of salvation or our inheritance is based on our merit or good works.  It is all based on the mercy of God. Where according to His abundance of mercy He has begot us again, we experience a new birth in Him, a living hope that is ongoing, through the birth, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is our hope for the church and our hope to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefined that does not fade away. Reserved in heaven for us. Scripture specifically mentioning Heaven appears in 54 of the 66 books of the Bible. In KJV there are 692 specific verses in the Bible about heaven and in addition there are other verses where heaven is implied. 

1 Peter 1:13-25: These verses begin by saying to get ready, be sober minded and focus on the grace. In other words, get ready to run this race, gird up your loins. That is a phrase we hear when we are preparing  to go to battle. Back then the clothing they wore if they had to run or go to battle it required them to pull up the long clothing between their legs and secure in the front under their belt or rope they wore around their waist. That is what Peter is striving to get across. This may be a difficult period and you may suffer greatly but keep your eyes on Jesus, on the prize of eternal life in heaven. Stay focused on God’s Grace. It is important to note that in 64AD when Peter wrote this letter to believers this was the year that Rome burned for 6 days. Nero was the Emperor and history tells us that he did nothing to put out the fires. He let it burn. Many historians believe that it was Nero himself who set the fire or at the very least had them set. Earlier in that year Nero’s request for funding to refurbish Rome was denied. Historians believe he destroyed Rome by fire to get what he wanted out of necessity. To deflect attention from himself he blamed the Christians and as a result the next 3 years was the bloodiest of Christian martyr killings. 

All of us are going to experience suffering to some degree just because we are alive and it alone has its share of suffering. However the context Peter is referring to here is suffering for the cause of Christ. Suffering for your faith. To believers in America this can be hard for us to relate to because compared to Peter’s day we have it fairly comfortable when it comes to suffering for our faith. This is not so uncommon to other brothers and sisters today that live in other places around the world who are persecuted for their faith. We read this about suffering and we can take to heart the broader comfort that The Lord reminds us of to keep the faith and find comfort in the fact that The Lord is coming again but the concept of persecution they were experiencing is pretty foreign to believers who live here in America. Not to be unsympathetic to any of the suffering today Americans face but what they were going through in 1 Peter was unique to that particular time and location but is not so uncommon to many other Christians today who live around the world and do suffer persecution for their faith. The word “suffering“ is used in the KJV version 17 times in the 5 chapters of 1 Peter. 

1 Peter 1:14-16 Tells us to not follow the model and the ways of this world. Read also Romans 12:2and Romans 14:19. Don’t let our behavior to be a stumbling block to others. 1 Thessalonians 4:7 As a Christian we can be a stepping stone or a hindrance to others. 1 Corinthians 10:23-33. Does our behavior, how we live and our words reflect Jesus or the world? We are called by The Holy One and we should be holy in our conduct. This makes me think about behavior we excuse or words we may say and again excuse. Am I living holy when I do or say those things? Of course not. I can do better. I need to work harder to keep my focus on Jesus and work harder at living more holy. We have this reward waiting for us in heaven gifted to us because of God’s mercy and His grace. We are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation. “Kept” God is a keeping God even though as I said when discussing verse 1 Peter 1:2 that there is the exercise of the free will that is undeniable in scripture. I believe in the sovereignty of God but I also believe in the responsibility of man. Both are a real thing. While verse 2 implies we are the elect based on God’s foreknowledge because God makes room for the will of man to be exercised in response to His initiation toward us enough that we enter a relationship with Him. Guess what it is not entirely up to us to keep our salvation. Praise God for that because our flesh cannot keep from sinning. We may desire not to but we all fail God daily. Philippians 1:6 explains that God as a keeping God goes along beside us, guiding and helping us to keep the faith. We don’t come into the knowledge of Christ, accept him and then God say we are on our own, good luck making it to the finish line. He’s the one who is helping us with His Spirit to run the race, to finish the course with perseverance. 

Paul understood where Peter was coming from, what he was saying. Paul suffered in his life, physical suffering and he was tormented, beaten and left for dead but he wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:7 “For our light and momentary troubles” Wow, if anyone would have had reason to complain it was Paul but he continued saying those light and momentary troubles “are achieving for us” a glory that far outweighs what we are going through now. In other words, don’t sweat the small stuff, hang in there, stand firm, stay the course, keep the faith because the glory you get in the last days make it so worth going through the suffering we are dealing with now. When we get to the point that we are facing the Lord, right in front of us then all the suffering we’ve endured will not matter. As difficult as it seems for us now, it will seem so small when compared to the glory in Christ Jesus that we will feel then. 

We will continue the study of 1 Peter with Chapter Two in tomorrow’s devotion.