First Peter is believed to have been written while Peter was the bishop of either Rome or Antioch. He was bishop of Antioch for 7 years and Bishop of Rome for 25 years, and died in 64-67 AD. I'm not sure I go for that timeline, because it doesn't leave much time for him to live in Jerusalem, and interact with Paul throughout Acts and some of Paul's epistles. Plus, that's a 32 year window for this epistle, which is almost as long as he lived after Christ was resurrected, so it's about as specific as saying we have no idea when he wrote it, except it probably wasn't while he was in Jerusalem. Lame.
1 Peter 1: 1 To the strangers scattered throughout ... Strangers is from the greek (διασπορᾶς diasporas), and meant scattered. It's interesting to me because a community of Ukrainians living outside of Ukraine (who try to maintain Ukrainian culture) is called a diaspora, and that's the only place I had heard it, but the dictionary has it only as a collection of Jews living outside Israel. The content in the rest of the epistle doesn't sound like it's written to Jews, though, diaspora in the opening or not.
1:6 Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Couple of things to note here: Paul spoke of Moses's choice to leave Pharaoh's court using the same season reference, By faith Moses...refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.(Heb. 11:24-25) A season obviously means your mortal life, which gives a bit of an indication about the scale of time you must start to think on as a prophet. I'm still young enough to remember a time when a month seemed interminable, the summer seemed like a lifetime, and the school year seemed like an eternity. Recently, however, it has started to feel like the seasons are come and gone before you have time to realize they are fully arrived. Paul and Peter here, both speak of life that same way. Moses was in the wilderness with the Israelites for forty years and Paul here casually dismisses it as, oh, that was just a season.
The second thing I noticed is the grammatically excludable if need be statement. This statement is actually omitted from some translations of the Bible. Albert Barnes says that Peter was just being tactful by saying, if need be, and that he more accurately meant, because you need it. I often agree with Barnes, and certainly think that most or all of us have something to be gained through trials and humility.
1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love. This was a completely different statement back then, coming from Peter. He not only had seen Christ, but had worked with him daily during his ministry. At a family reunion once, I was up on a deck that came off the second floor of the house, sitting with my grandfather and grandmother, looking down at the majority of their eight living children, all with spouses, their 50-some-odd grandchildren, most with spouses, and the hundred or so great grandchildren. My grandfather and grandmother were looking at those people with different eyes than I was, and as we talked about what it meant for them to see all those people, returning that year to honor them, I had a hint of something eternal that I can't really describe. I wonder if Peter had a similar thought as he wrote this letter to the uncounted saints who, through his and others' efforts were honoring Christ daily.
1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. This statement was originally given in Leviticus 11, again in 19, and again in 20. It is probably one of my favorite injunctions in scripture. At the time it was given, the alternatives to Jehovah were bloodthirsty, lustful, immoral creations of stone and wood that embodied most of the worst behaviors of man, think of Molech or Baal. By the time of the Christians and in this part of the world, people were worshiping the greek and roman pantheons. Zeus was the father of the gods and was constantly coming down to earth to exaltedly lie with normal women. His wife, rather than punish him, would, in deified jealous rage, punish the woman who had succumbed to her husband's immortal seduction. And so on. It was (and is) commonly accepted that people do and act like the gods they worship, choosing them, perhaps in part, because they can identify with that deity. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. (Micah 4:5) Heavenly Father was different from the gods of the day because he said, I am holy, so you should be holy. This is a really important thing to recognize in ourselves--we will practice and aspire to the behaviors and virtues of the being we worship and pray to. Our God is a God of holiness, cleanliness, obedience, truth, love, grace, and so on. If we really believe in him, we will seek to live in the pattern he has set for us.
1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Just had to note the explicit reference to an existence in God's presence before the physical creation of the world. And, lest any think this applies to Christ only, He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 1:4) Both Christ and we existed in a place where God could foreordain and choose us prior to the creation of the world.
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