An Exposition Of 1 Peter, Part 1: Introduction

An Exposition of 1 Peter, Part 1: Introduction

1 Peter 1:1-2

Introduction

We live in difficult times here today in America. In other parts of the world, persecution is far greater for the sake of Jesus Christ. The future shows that persecution is likely to increase. We do take a moment to rejoice that along with the persecution, God is at work. The church in Iran, for example, lives under constant threat. Occasionally, Christians are arrested and sent to jail or even executed. Yet the church there is the fastest growing church in the world. In this, we rejoice in the faithfulness of the believers there and in other dangerous parts of the world. This proves that the Christian message can thrive even in the most difficult conditions.

We are going to begin a study of the Book of 1 Peter because the early churches which Peter addresses in the epistle were going through similar times. It is hoped that this might inform us how we should live in this world. So let us now begin our study.

Authorship: The Apostle Peter

Although there are many scholars today who claim that it is unlikely that Peter wrote the epistle, One of the main arguments put forth is that the quality of the Greek it is written would be above the ability of a Galilean fisherman who was of limited formal education. These scholars would entertain that Peter might have known some Greek as it was the language of commerce in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. If Peter sold fish to Gentiles as well as Jews, he would at least have to speak some Greek. These scholars would expect a much more rustic Greek such as we find in the second epistle of Peter. However, this argument is less than persuasive if Peter used Silvanus (Silas) (See 1 Peter 5:12). We don’t know anything about Silas’ ability in Greek, but scribes were often employed to polish the grammar of the author. The Holy Spirit is, of course, capable of using perfect Greek. Since we believe that all Scripture is God-breathed by the Holy Spirit as Paul tells Timothy, then the style of the Greek is no obstacle.

There are other arguments put forth as well, but I don’t want to bog down this study trying to answer these at this time. I don’t want to get bogged down in speculations as it gets away from the clear message of the text.

Peter and his brother, Andrew, we called from the business of fishermen. At first we might think that Peter was a poor fisherman. Even though fishing was looked down upon by the purists like the Pharisees because fishermen handled dead animals, it was actually a middle-class trade. The Jewish authorities tried to paint Peter as a rustic Galilean, calling him and John “agrammatoi” (without letters) and “idiotai” (think “idiots”) Peter was bolder than the rest of the Apostles, but he also had the tendency to put his foot in his mouth. When told by Jesus that Peter would deny Him three times, Peter rashly replied that he would not. He even made an attempt to take on the Temple guard and two cohorts of a Roman legion with his sword. But deny he did three times.

By the grace of God, Peter was restored by Jesus after the resurrection. His calling was changed from “fishers of men” to that of a pastor (John 21). In the Book of Acts, Peter acted as the chief spokesman for the Apostles in the first half of the Book of Acts. He was both bold and eloquent in his proclamation of Jesus, far above what would be considered the ability of a Galilean fisherman. He became the first to proclaim the Gospel to Gentiles.

He had a part in what is called “The Jerusalem Council in 49 AD which dealt with the place of Gentiles in the church in which he stood solidly with the rights of the Gentiles even though his sphere was to be Apostle to the Jews in contradistinction to Paul who was sent to the Gentiles. But this distinction should not be set in stone. We already saw that Peter evangelized Gentiles and Paul came to the synagogues first when he came to a new city.

Other than a reference to Peter’s inconstancy for standing up for the Gentiles as recorded by Paul in Galatians, the New Testament is silent about Peter after this until the time of the writing of 1 Peter. All kinds of speculations to fill in the gaps have been written, including the idea that Peter went early to Roma and became the first Pope. There is no Biblical support for this idea. But early tradition tells us that he eventually died by being crucified upside-down at his request in Rome somewhere about 67 AD. John also verifies Peter’s martyrdom. We would like to know more, but this is all we have that is solid.