1 Peter
1. SUFFERING AS A CHRISTIAN (1:1–2:10)
A. The hidden inheritance, the hidden Lord (1:1–9). Peter begins his letter with a greeting, a prayer, and an expression of thanks. But his delight at the message he has to impart is so great that he fills out these bare, formal bones with the glories of the Christian gospel. For example, instead of the usual expression of thanks for something ordinary, like the good health of his recipients, Peter launches into a shout of thanks and praise to God for all the heavenly blessings he has stored up for those who are his. These inspiring opening verses contain the whole message of 1 Peter in a nutshell. The rest of the letter unpacks and applies this vision in greater and more practical detail.
1:1–2. The themes of this opening set the tone for the whole letter. Peter brings up the three persons of the Trinity (1:2) again in the very next section (1:10–21). But this opening section is particularly balanced by 2:4–10, which brings to a close the first part of the letter. There Peter returns to the theme of the hidden things that are true of his readers even if all the world should shout a different message at them.
Although tiny, persecuted congregations are spread across the huge expanse of half of Asia Minor (1:1), struggling to keep their faith alive against the pressure of a pagan environment, from God’s viewpoint their scatteredness is his election. God has plucked them out of their paganism to be his own. Before they ever existed, the Father knew and loved them and made them his (1:2). God has sent his Spirit to sanctify them, leading them into a life of obedience to Jesus Christ, sheltered under the forgiveness won by his blood.
1:3–9. At the moment they are facing all kinds of trials (1:6) and are tempted to hopelessness and despair. But the reality is unseen: there is an inheritance that can never perish, which is kept in heaven for us (1:4), as a result of Jesus’s resurrection and our new birth through him (1:3). And there is no possibility of losing it, for however weak we may feel, we are shielded by God’s power until the moment of salvation comes (1:5). Our present experiences are all preparatory, making us fit for glory. Jesus too is unseen; but even so, with our eyes fixed on hidden realities, we will love him and our hearts will sparkle with a joy that surpasses language and even now partakes of the glory that is yet to be (1:8). We already hear the strains of heavenly praise and share in heavenly joy (1:9), even in the midst of suffering and pain.
B. Preparation for action (1:10–2:3). The exhortation of 1:13 provides the keynote of this section, as Peter tackles the unspoken question, How can I have a faith like that? It would be very possible for an oppressed, isolated believer to feel that the faith Peter describes in 1:3–9 is too high to attain. Peter sets out in this next section to show the roots of such a faith.
1:10–12. Peter’s introduction of “the prophets” (1:10a)—probably shorthand for the whole OT—is at first surprising. But there are two reasons for their appearance. First, the prophets back up what Peter writes about the foreknowledge of God the Father (1:2). God announced centuries ago his intention to save the followers of Jesus. It was in fact the Spirit of Christ who spoke in the prophets (1:11). Second, from the prophets we can learn the Christian faith, which Peter has just summarized. Even though they wrote long before Christ came, they realized that they were writing about a grace to be given to someone else, and they eagerly sought to learn about the time and circumstances of its coming, the sufferings of the Christ, and his glories (1:10b–11). The prophets became aware that they were writing for someone else, so that the gospel only needed to be “announced” (1:12) when the time came. The prophets had already testified to it (cf. Rm 15:4; 1 Co 10:11).
Peter is writing to believers “dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Pt 1:1).
1:13–16. The existence of such a prophetic word is a summons to prepare the mind for action (1:13–21). The Greek for “with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded” (1:13) means “make sure you keep all your faculties fully operational” (Peter repeats the exhortation “be alert and sober-minded” in 4:7 and 5:8). The mind that is redirected by the Scriptures will begin to think in a new way. However threatening the present, the mind fully ready for action will set its hope “completely” on God’s grace.
The redirected mind will also focus on God’s priority, holiness (1:15–16). At its heart holiness means separateness: God calls us to be different, because he is different. Peter’s readers must not worry about their distinctiveness that provokes such hostility from others. It is inevitable! If we are God’s, we will begin to bear his likeness in every aspect of life.
First Peter contains no fewer than twenty-five direct quotations from the OT, and many allusions to it besides. The Jewish Scriptures are the basis of the Christian gospel, for without these writings we would not understand Christ (1 Pt 1:10–12). And so in practice, Peter asserts, a mind well fed by the Scriptures is the prerequisite for the experience of joy in suffering described in 1 Pt 1:3–9.
1:17–21. The renewed mind knows that life will end with judgment (1:17). We must therefore live each moment under the scrutiny of the Judge. We may rejoice to know God as Father, but there must also be reverent fear. Every moment matters, eternally. The thought that we are to be judged according to our work could lead to despair, but our eternal salvation is not jeopardized by our moral feebleness. It rests on nothing that we can produce, not even on our silver and gold (1:18): even our best perishes before God’s judgment. Rather, our salvation rests on “the precious blood of Christ” (1:19), just as the blood of the Passover lamb saved the Israelites. [Blemish]
Christ was chosen before the foundation of the world (1:20): it was no sudden whim on God’s part that made him the sacrifice for sin. And as a result we may place sure faith and hope in God, who, though our Judge, is also our Savior and Father. The resurrection seals the security of those who so believe and hope (1:21). In the midst of earthly insecurity, here is true confidence and security!
1:22–2:3. How may we be sure of knowing joy in suffering? In the next two paragraphs (1:22–25 and 2:1–3), Peter picks up what he wrote about the prophetic word in 1:10–12 and applies it practically: if our hearts and lives are truly being fed by the word of God, then we will be increasingly transformed within. First, the word of God gives new life (1:22–25). When we obey God’s truth, love will be born in us. God’s word has a vital, life-giving power because of who speaks it. Peter quotes Is 40:6–8, which contrasts the permanence of God’s word with the transitory nature of all earthly life. The gospel that Peter’s readers have heard, and the Scriptures they now read, are alike “the living and enduring word of God” (1:23).
Second, the word of God nourishes new life (2:1–3). Every newborn infant needs a healthy appetite and proper food in order to grow. The “pure milk of the word” (2:2) that will produce healthy Christian growth is God’s own word.
C. The hidden spiritual house (2:4–10). Peter began his letter with the themes of God’s elect and his mercy (1:1, 3). He ends this first section on the same note (2:9–10). He also returns to his central theme of hiddenness. In 1:3–9 his thought was angled entirely toward the future. But now Peter turns to the past and the present.
2:4–8. The hidden but coming Lord was rejected by humankind (2:4), who did not see the estimation God placed on him. In their present rejection, therefore, Peter’s readers are sharing the fate of Jesus himself. He was like the stone the builders rejected (2:7).
Many OT themes come together in 1 Pt 2 as Peter describes the church as a spiritual temple of living stones (2:4–5), as well as a chosen people, a royal nation of priests (2:9).
Peter continues his focus on Scripture by quoting three “stone” passages that were applied to Jesus from a very early date (see Mt 21:42): Ps 118:22–23; Is 8:14; 28:16 (cf. Rm 9:33). A stone can look most unimpressive—but it can perform a vital function if made the cornerstone of a large building (2:6–7), or it can bring a person tumbling to the ground if he or she trips over it (2:8). Jesus has become the cornerstone of God’s spiritual temple, and we can either take our own angle and position from the cornerstone and line ourselves up on him, or we can refuse to live by reference to him and stumble over him instead.
2:9–10. Peter urges his readers to see that they are being built in line with Christ: sharing all the angles of his life, experiencing his rejection as well as his glory. His opponents stumble fatally, but those joined to Christ are a chosen people, a royal priesthood (2:9), contrary to all appearances. Peter piles up phrases from the OT (Ex 19:6; Is 42:12; 43:20; Hs 1:10; 2:23) to show how all that is true of God’s chosen covenant people is true for those who believe in Jesus, however rejected and weak they may seem.
2. AT HOME, BUT NOT IN THIS WORLD (2:11–3:12)
Peter now tackles the question that arises at the end of the first section. If Christians must reckon themselves to be gloriously different from what they appear to be, then what should their attitude be toward their earthly circumstances? Peter’s readers must have been tempted to respond to persecution by withdrawing into the comforting warmth of Christian fellowship. But Peter will not let them do this. Withdrawal from the world is not an option for Christians. Rather, their difference must be expressed through the distinctiveness of their life within their earthly callings.
A. The Christian’s inner life (2:11–12). As in the first section of the letter, Peter reaffirms that his readers are “strangers and exiles” in the world (2:11); their home and their roots are elsewhere. It is natural, therefore, that he should go on to urge them to abstain from sinful desires. The flesh seeks to stifle the life of the Spirit within believers.
However, although they may be citizens of another world, they still have to “conduct [themselves] honorably among the Gentiles” (2:12) and do so in a way that testifies clearly to the existence and power of that new world. This declaration depends not so much on words as on behavior. The word translated “observe” means to watch over a period of time, implying prolonged observation. Even though Christians may be mocked (or apparently disregarded), the evidence of one’s life will speak so loudly that, on the day of judgment, non-Christians will glorify God because they will have to concede that the testimony was laid before them quite unambiguously, even if they failed to heed it.
B. A life of submission (2:13–3:7). 2:13–17. Like Paul in Rm 13:1–7, Peter argues that respect for and obedience to worldly authority are important because they are an expression of God’s authority. Peter begins and ends by mentioning the Roman emperor as the one who embodies all the different forms of secular authority (2:13, 17). In theory, worldly authorities exist “to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good” (2:14; cf. Rm 13:3–4), but Peter is as aware as we are today of the possibility of corruption in high places. He even calls Rome “Babylon” in his closing greeting (5:13). Yet, just as Christians are called to abstain from fleshly desires and still remain committed to ordinary human society (2:11–12), so we submit to worldly authority even though it is to pass away under the judgment of God.
God’s world is fallen, but we submit to his ordering of it, keen to testify by our lives to what is to come. Simply by doing good we might silence people inclined to revile us (2:15). The proper attitudes are timely respect for all people (i.e., take every opportunity to show honor to fellow men and women), love for fellow believers, fear of God (full devotion of heart, mind, and soul), and continuing respect for the emperor (2:17).
2:18–20. Peter next homes in on a group for whom a very particular application of the principle of submission to authority is necessary: slaves. Unrest among slaves was widespread at this time, and undoubtedly some Christian slaves believed that, having been “bought” by Christ, they had been set free from their earthly masters. Later on, there were actually Christian groups that encouraged slaves to run away from their masters on these very grounds. But Peter will not allow it. The same principle of nonwithdrawal from the world means that slaves must not stop being slaves but instead become better ones—even when their masters are harsh (2:18). If they suffer, they must make sure that they suffer unjustly, because it will not do their Lord credit if they deserve the beatings they get (2:19–20)!
2:21–25. Then Peter attaches a marvelous passage about the servant Jesus. This is likely an adaptation of an early Christian hymn about Christ. It suits Peter’s theme beautifully as, in close dependence on Is 53, it describes how Jesus, the Suffering Servant of the Lord, submitted to suffering in this world because of his obedience to his heavenly master. Belonging to his Lord did not deliver him from suffering but led him straight to it. And through his suffering we have found forgiveness (2:24). To suffer, therefore, is simply to walk in his footsteps (2:21), and we can be sure that, whatever happens, he is a caring shepherd (2:25). Peter has deliberately placed this hymn in the middle of this section so that it has a central place: Jesus is our example, not just in the way he suffered, but in his obedient submission to the powers of this world.
3:1–6. The zoom lens now focuses in on another relationship from which Christians were tempted to withdraw: marriage (3:1–7). Should Christian husbands or wives leave their partners if they do not share their faith? Again, some Christians answered yes. But Peter insists that they should not. He devotes more space to wives (3:1–6) because they could more easily be made to suffer from their husbands than vice versa.
It is vital to bear in mind the first-century cultural setting. The normal expectation was that, if the male head of a household changed his religion, the whole household would follow (see Ac 16:31–34). It was strongly against this culture for a wife to change her religion apart from her husband. This helps us to see that Peter is not telling wives to be all-accepting doormats here. They have already stepped out and become different by believing in Christ for themselves. Now they must show that their “rebellion” deepens their love. Peter eloquently teaches that the greatest beauty is that of character and that the loveliness of Christian character speaks far more powerfully than a hundred sermons (3:1–4). The word “observe” in 3:2 is the same as that in 2:12, implying extended observation.
The household codes of 1 Pt 3 differ from those found in Eph 5 and Col 3 in that Peter focuses on a mixed marriage—that is, a marriage where one partner is a believer and the other an unbeliever.
The incident in mind in 3:6 is probably that of Gn 12:11–20, where Sarah submits to some unkind treatment from her husband. Abraham tries the same trick again later (Gn 20), and she again submits. (She calls him “lord” in Gn 18:12.) The Christian calling, for both men and women, is patient submission to suffering within the structures of this world.
3:7. Similarly, a man becoming a Christian would have a culturally endorsed right to expect his wife to believe too. But Peter remarkably tells Christian husbands not to insist on this. Their wives must have the freedom not to believe! That’s what honoring them demands. Even if unbelieving wives cannot share on the deepest spiritual level, they are still together “coheirs of the grace of life.” The husband must show all the respect and care due to a “weaker partner”; and in so doing his own bond with the Lord will not be weakened.
C. The Christian’s corporate life (3:8–12). “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13:35): this is the principle underlying these verses, with which Peter summarizes the whole section. Christians treasure their fellowship with one another (3:8). When they are faced with persecution, their common joy in their Lord becomes all the more precious. But Peter wants to impress on them that their relationship with each other is not entirely inward looking. People will notice what they say to each other about the injustices they suffer (3:9). Consequently, the Lord must be their model. The quotation from Ps 34:12–16 in 3:10–12 contains the key word of this entire section: “Do what is good” (3:11). It also highlights the use of the tongue, just as the end of the last section did (2:9; see also 2:1): the way we speak will reveal the shape of our whole life.
3. SUFFERING—THE ROAD TO GLORY (3:13–4:19)
In this section Peter focuses more precisely on the subject of suffering. The last section laid down the basic principle of submission to the structures of this world. Peter now shows how suffering fits into that submission. Once again, this section begins and ends on the same note: doing good and suffering for God’s sake or for what is right.
A. Suffering for doing good (3:13–22). Peter shares with early Christians the belief that authority and power in this world are earthly expressions of unseen fallen spiritual entities. Therefore, submission to secular authority as well as to the constraints of earthly existence is a form of bondage to the powers of evil. Having advised to submit, Peter must touch on the spiritual implications of his teaching. Those who are called to suffer for what is right must look to Jesus, who suffered for our sins and through that suffering has come to a place of supreme authority, raised over all the powers of evil that seem so overwhelming to the persecuted.
3:13–17. Jesus suffered, though he was righteous, and if we will now set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts and follow in his footsteps, we can be delivered from the fear of our persecutors, confident that through suffering we will share his victory (3:13–14). In the meantime, we must bear witness to our hope by both word and deed, remembering that our baptism was our pledge to God (see 3:21), to live with good consciences before him (3:15–16).
3:18–22. The “spirits in prison” (3:19) are fallen angels (2 Pt 2:4; Jd 6). According to Jewish tradition, they deceived and corrupted the generation who lived before the flood, teaching them the arts of sin (see Gn 6:1–4). As a result they were locked up in prison at the time of the flood, “to be kept for judgment” (2 Pt 2:4). They were the counterparts of the angels, authorities, and powers (3:22) still active today. Jesus’s proclamation to these spirits (3:19) was a proclamation of his victory—in fact, the announcement of the judgment hanging over them. Having dealt with them, he finished his journey to heaven and took his place at God’s right hand, in full authority over the powers behind the suffering experienced by Peter’s readers (3:22).
The refusal of the angels to submit to their Creator was matched by the mockery of Noah’s contemporaries, who did not respond to God’s warning of impending judgment given by Noah’s preaching (cf. 2 Pt 2:5) and by the construction of the ark (3:20). The water in which they died was, paradoxically, the very medium of Noah’s salvation. In this respect the flood foreshadows Christian baptism, for that too pictures death but leads to life (3:21). When they were baptized, Peter’s readers pledged themselves to live for God and embraced the hope of resurrection through Jesus Christ. But in so doing they actually brought suffering on themselves, just as Noah did by his obedience to God’s command. Yet in their suffering, they follow the path already trodden by their Savior on the way to glory (3:18).
B. Living for God (4:1–11). 4:1–2. The basic principle holds true for all: “The one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin” (4:1). This was supremely true for Christ, who through death has conquered sin in all its manifestations; it is necessarily true for his followers, who through their suffering learn to dethrone evil desires and live for the will of God (4:2); and possibly it is even true for the persecutors of the church, who might come to life through the judgment of death and must therefore be the objects of patient testimony, in word and deed (see 4:6).
4:3–6. There is no break in the flow of thought from chapter 3 to chapter 4. Although Noah is not mentioned, we will best grasp Peter’s meaning if we keep him in mind. For what Peter says in essence in 4:3–5 is, “You are in the same position as Noah, who refused to join in the profligate and licentious behavior of his contemporaries, even though they thought him peculiar for his refusal. Hold yourselves aloof from such practices, for God is about to act in judgment now as he did then.” Peter actually uses the word “flood” in 4:4 to describe the “flood of wild living.” The outpourings of vice around them are horribly reminiscent of the flood of God’s wrath about to break.
As with Paul and other biblical writers, Peter prepares his audience to respond to suffering appropriately (1 Pt 3:13–22; 4:12–19). Peter seeks to minister to his suffering brothers and sisters in the deepest possible way: by showing them that, precisely in their suffering, already pictured in the baptism that united them with Christ (1 Pt 3:21), they are sharing with their Lord in his victory over all the powers of evil in the universe (1 Pt 3:22).
It is especially helpful to read 4:6 with the story of Noah in mind. Noah was revered as a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Pt 2:5), and by “dead” Peter is probably referring to the people who died in the flood, the “dead” who ignored Noah’s passionate message about the coming judgment. Peter is thinking of his readers’ persecutors. They may heap abuse on the Christians (4:4), but no one is so far gone as to be beyond the reach of God’s life-giving power. They too could “live in the spirit according to God’s standards” (4:6) because of the faithful, suffering witness of the believers, who lovingly live and speak in God, as Noah did.
4:7–11. The flood was a partial judgment, a foreshadowing of the total winding up, which is now near. If Noah prepared with such diligence for the flood, how much more should we seek to be ready for the end? Peter outlines the vital features of a life lived with an eye to the coming judgment.
In the privacy of heart and home, Christians need minds that think straight and hearts that pray straight (4:7). In ordinary social relationships, Christians must love one another and offer hospitality (4:8–9). In undertaking Christian ministry, each must put into active service whatever gift God’s grace has bestowed, whether it is teaching or more practical forms of service (4:10). The believer must draw on God’s resources and provision, and not for personal gain or glory (4:11). Rather, the object of life this side of the end must be the praise of God.
C. Sharing the sufferings of Christ (4:12–19). Peter’s readers must not be surprised at the painful (“fiery”) trial they are experiencing, because suffering is not something foreign (4:12). Rather, it lies at the very heart of our existence. Peter gives three reasons why we should not be surprised.
First, we are participating in the sufferings of Christ (4:13). We must expect to receive the same treatment as our master, simply because we are his servants (Jn 15:20). Suffering is woven into human experience as part of a fallen creation, but Jesus has blasted a way through death to eternal life. And so we should rejoice as we participate in this great saving movement, looking ahead to glory! Second, because Jesus is already victorious, our suffering is a foretaste of that coming glory, a blessedness that comes to us as God’s Spirit rests on us (4:14).
Finally, our sufferings are the opening phase of God’s winding-up operation, the beginning of his judgment. Peter deliberately calls the tribulation “judgment” (4:17), partly for theological reasons (because he understands all suffering and death as part of the curse laid by God on a fallen world), but also because he will not let his readers relax their guard. Their suffering is a trial (4:12), and they must make sure that they do not suffer deservedly (4:15)! But if we suffer according to God’s will (4:19; i.e., with our hearts set on God’s will, even in the midst of our suffering), then God will uphold us. [Persecution in the Early Church]
4. FINAL EXHORTATIONS AND GREETINGS (5:1–14)
In times of suffering and trial, special responsibility rests on the leaders of the churches to support and be shepherds of God’s flock (5:2). Peter turns to this practical concern to round off his letter. There also remains a theological question, raised by what he has said about submission to earthly powers and Christ’s victory over them. If we must submit to earthly authorities even though Christ has victory over them, if we must continue to live as loyal citizens of Babylon (5:13) even though we know its satanic power has been broken, then what about authority structures within the church? What kinds of leadership and submission are appropriate for those who are already touched by the glory of the coming age?
5:1–5. Peter’s self-designation in 5:1 hints at this deeper concern. He is a “fellow elder”—not an exalted apostle—and with them a witness to Christ’s sufferings. He therefore enters into all that that means, sharing those sufferings himself and thus participating in the glory to be revealed. Peter urges the elders to be aware of their special responsibility as shepherds. The imperative, “shepherd” (5:2a), has an urgency about it—get on with the job! Then in three pairs of balancing phrases (“not . . . but,” 5:2b–3) Peter tells them how they should exercise their pastoral care as far as inner motivation and outward incentive are concerned.
With the third “not . . . but” (5:3), Peter’s second theological concern surfaces. Even if the church seems to possess a conventional, earthly authority structure, it actually reverses the normal pattern, modeling its vertical relationships on the Son of Man, the servant of all (Mk 9:35; 10:35–45). This is the style of leadership that will bring the full realization of the glory known now but in part (5:4). With the phrase “in the same way” (5:5), Peter implies that the younger people must be submissive to their elders in the same way as the elders are submissive to the younger ones. On both sides there is a submission that recognizes the distinctive gifts and ministry of the other and seeks to serve for Christ’s sake. They must all tie humility around them like a robe, so that they may enjoy God’s grace in all their relationships (5:5).
5:6–11. Now Peter summarizes everything that he desires for his readers. Here is the framework on which he wants the house of our Christian life to be founded. For all that he has urged us to submit to our earthly circumstances, however trying, it is really to God himself that we submit (5:6), in hope of his deliverance. We humble ourselves before him, not as before an earthly master, awaiting instructions, but so as to feel the burden of anxiety lifted from our shoulders (5:7). The readers may be consumed with anxiety about their earthly enemies, but Peter tells them that the spiritual foe is far more deadly (5:8–9). And we feel his pressure on us not just through our earthly trials but especially through the temptation not to face those trials with faith.
In 1 Pt 5:3, Peter uses the same terminology for “lording it over” that Jesus uses in Mk 10:42–43 when discussing the issue of servant leadership with his disciples. Jesus himself, the Suffering Servant, “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life” (Mk 10:45). Church leaders should follow the servant model of the chief Shepherd when leading their own flocks. For God himself does not “lord it over” his creatures, but by his grace he reaches out to us and suffers with us, in Christ.
For all our seeking of stability and strength in this life, Peter reminds us in his closing blessing (5:10–11) that these are things that God reserves for the age to come. After the suffering of this age, in which we already trace his grace, he will finally complete us, strengthen us, and set us on a sure foundation.
5:12–14. In his final greeting, Peter associates with himself not just his two closest helpers, Silvanus and Mark (5:12, 13b), but also the whole church to which he belongs. “Babylon” (5:13a) is almost certainly a reference to Rome, which was increasingly called “Babylon” by both Jews and Christians at this time. Using this term here fits beautifully with Peter’s theme. It reminds us of the true (satanic) nature of secular power. Christ, however, has conquered it. But also it reminds us of the place of Israel’s exile and of the fact that we too are aliens and strangers in the world. The letter thus ends on the same note with which it began, when Peter saluted his readers as God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered. For though exiles, we are yet God’s chosen, his elect people, destined for glory.