Theopedia

First Epistle of Peter

“According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

— 1 Peter 1:3

Overview

First Peter is a general epistle written by the apostle Peter to Christian communities scattered across five Roman provinces of Asia Minor. Rather than addressing one congregation’s local dispute, the letter is a circular pastoral exhortation to believers who were suffering for their faith, written to root their perseverance in the “living hope” secured by Christ’s resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3) and in their identity as God’s own chosen people (1 Pet. 2:9-10).1

Author and Date

The letter identifies its author as “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:1), closing with the note that it was written “by Silvanus, our faithful brother” (1 Pet. 5:12), most naturally read as identifying Silvanus as the letter’s amanuensis or courier rather than its author. Alexander Strauch dates the letter to approximately AD 63, written from Rome to persecuted believers scattered across Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, regions spanning much of modern-day Turkey.1

In the letter’s closing charge to church elders, Peter identifies himself not by his apostolic title but as “a fellow elder … and a witness of the sufferings of Christ” (1 Pet. 5:1). Strauch reads this as a deliberate pastoral choice: by setting aside the apostolic authority he had already claimed in the letter’s opening verse, Peter “establishes a special bond of affection and solidarity with the church elders” he is about to charge with a serious responsibility.1

Historical and Literary Context

Peter addresses “elect exiles of the dispersion” (1 Pet. 1:1), believers enduring suffering and social hostility for their faith rather than an empire-wide, officially sanctioned persecution (1 Pet. 4:12-16). Strauch notes that the letter’s charge to elders across such a wide geographical area, spanning several distinct Roman provinces and many local churches, indicates that congregations governed by a plurality of elders were already the standard pattern of church government in the earliest churches, not a later development.1

Writing as a fellow sufferer and eyewitness of Christ’s own sufferings (1 Pet. 5:1), Peter’s purpose throughout is pastoral rather than polemical: to ground his readers’ endurance in who they already are in Christ, and to instruct them in how that identity should shape their conduct toward a hostile society, within their households, and inside the church (1 Pet. 2:11-3:7; 5:1-5).

Structure

  • The believer’s identity and hope (1:1-2:10) - salutation, the living hope secured by Christ’s resurrection, the call to holiness, and the church’s identity as a chosen people and royal priesthood.
  • Submission and suffering for doing good (2:11-3:22) - conduct toward governing authorities, within households, and under unjust suffering, patterned after Christ’s own suffering.
  • Suffering as a Christian and shepherding the flock (4:1-5:14) - arming oneself with Christ’s mindset toward suffering, the nearness of judgment, the charge to elders, and closing exhortations.

Major Themes

A living hope through Christ’s resurrection. Peter opens the letter by tracing the believer’s hope directly to the fact of Christ’s resurrection rather than to his death alone (1 Pet. 1:3). Calvin makes the same distinction: “it is not by his death, but by his resurrection, that we are said to be begotten again to a living hope… because… he, by rising again, became victorious over death, so the victory of our faith consists only in his resurrection.”2

A chosen people and royal priesthood. Peter applies to the church titles Israel bore under the old covenant: “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). Bavinck reads this transfer as definitive rather than merely figurative: in the New Testament, “God’s people of Israel have been replaced by the church of Christ, which is now the ‘holy nation, the chosen race, the royal priesthood’ of God.”3

Suffering well as following Christ’s own pattern. Christ “suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Pet. 2:21), bearing sin “in his own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). Bavinck observes that Peter “pictures Christ’s suffering as that of a lamb who bore our sins, redeemed us from our futile way of life, and left us an example to follow in his steps.”4 The same pattern governs the letter’s instruction to those who suffer unjustly: because Christ himself “suffered while doing good” and was vindicated through his resurrection and ascension, Peter calls his readers to “follow in his footsteps” rather than retaliate against those who wrong them.5

Submission in various relationships. Peter instructs believers to submit to governing authorities (1 Pet. 2:13-17) and wives to be subject to their own husbands (1 Pet. 3:1-6) as part of the letter’s wider household instruction. Strauch reads the marriage instruction alongside Paul’s parallel teaching in Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, and Titus 2 as one consistent New Testament witness to distinct, complementary roles for husbands and wives.6

Elders shepherding the flock. Peter closes the letter by charging “the elders among you” to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly… not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5:1-3). Strauch takes this charge, addressed to elders across several provinces and many local churches, as evidence that plural elder leadership was the assumed norm of New Testament church government rather than a single innovation in one congregation.1

Related Doctrines

External Links

References

  1. Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership: Restoring the Eldership to Its Rightful Place in the Local Church, 4th ed. (Littleton, CO: Lewis and Roth Publishers, 2017), chap. 24, “1 Peter 5:1-5: Peter’s Exhortation and Encouragement to the Elders,” 241-254. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845-1846), book 2, chap. 16, 447. ↩

  3. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), chap. 21, “The Church as a Spiritual Reality.” ↩

  4. Bavinck, chap. 15, “The Servant Savior: Christ’s Humiliation.” ↩

  5. Bavinck, chap. 16, “The Exalted Lord Christ.” ↩

  6. Strauch, chap. 5, “Male Leadership,” 69-78. ↩