Martin Luther, the great Protestant and Lutheran reformer, “recognized 1 Peter (along with the Gospel of John and Paul’s Letters) as ‘the true kernel and marrow of all the New Testament Books. For in them [readers]… find depicted in masterly fashion how faith in Christ overcomes sin, death, and hell, and gives life, righteousness, and salvation.’”¹ The significance of 1 Peter throughout Church history, therefore, cannot be understated “as It is confidently woven into the fabric of Christian theology and identity.”²

The author of Peter’s First Epistle is undoubtedly the Apostle Simon Peter, to whom Christ states that “on [the] rock [He] will build [His] church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).³ This proclamation of Petrine authorship is due to extensive use of 1 Peter within the Patristic Era. Peter’s First Epistle is cited by Polycarp (ca. AD 108) and Papias (ca. AD 60-130), and Clement of Alexandria (ca. AD 150-215), Ireneus (ca. AD 130-200), and Tertullian (ca. AD 160-225) cited and attributed the Work to the Apostle Peter.⁴ Moreover, the historian Eusebius (c. AD 260-340) “listed 1 Peter as the only ‘undisputed’ book of all the General Epistles.”⁵ However, the letter, unfortunately, did not keep this reputation until the eighteenth century when it was deemed a forgery like much of the New Testament was by F.C Baur and the Tübingen School.⁶ According to Baur, 1 Peter is too akin to Pauline writings and, therefore, could not have been written by Peter, who represented Jewish Christianity as opposed to Paul’s Hellenistic Christianity.⁷ This position has since been dismissed, but by widespread consensus, 1 Peter is still deemed a forgery by most New Testament scholars. The rest of this essay will keep with the tradition of the Early Church Fathers. 

The date and provenance of 1 Peter, according to Petrine authorship, is in the early AD 60s of Rome. This is because Peter mentions Babylon (1 Pet. 5:21), which is almost unanimously interpreted to be Rome, and “the letter gives no hint… [of] the persecution of Nero, which began in approximately AD 64.”⁸ Thus, the letter was likely written in AD 62-63, “when the harbingers of this persecution were already on the horizon.”⁹

The destination of the Letter is Northern Asia Minor or modern Turkey (1:1), and due to Peter referencing the Dispersion, a few scholars believe his audience to be Jewish exiles.¹⁰ However, most modern scholars believe “he was referring to Gentiles as part of a newly constituted people of God in continuity with the old covenant community.”¹¹ Regardless of his audience's ethnicity, Peter writes to Christian exiles under persecution who are suffering in many ways: 

They [were] suffer[ing] various trials (1:6); endur[ing] grief from suffering unjustly (2:19); were [being] accused and their Christian life denounced (3:16); were [being] slandered (4:4); suffer[ing] fiery ordeals (4:12); shar[ing] in the sufferings of the Messiah (4:13); were [being] ridiculed for the name of Christ (4:14); and suffer[ing] according to God’s will (4:19). But they were not (yet) being executed as criminals.¹²

Therefore, Peter writes to encourage the exiles by promoting a biblical worldview, stating, “[the exiles] by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this [they] rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, [they] have been grieved by various trials” (1:5-6).¹³

In the introduction, Peter labels his recipients as elect exiles, and the following section explains their heavenly, not physical, reality (1-2). The exiles have been given a new future, calling, and family through the Gospel of Christ, and these gifts and hope “cannot be taken away from them because [they] reside in heaven.”¹⁴ Their hope is a hope that is not (yet) seen in that they “are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for [them]” (1:3-4). This reality should give them great joy, for “even though [they are] a suffering community… they have been welcomed as the people of God.”¹⁵ Furthermore, this new reality of hope and inheritance calls the exiles to holiness as they are the new exodus people (1:13-21), the new covenant people (1:22-23), the new temple people (2:4-8), and the new kingdom people “who are to be holy and worship [the Lord] (2:9-10).”¹⁶ Their calling to live in a new spiritual identity is Christocentric: “Their new exodus identity is based on the blood of the Lamb, their new covenant identity on the enduring Word of God, and their new temple identity on the rejected stone… Blood leads to life, the Word endures in exile, and the cornerstone is rejected but glorified.”¹⁷ This holiness and heavenly identity should lead them to embrace their identity as exiles.

Because of the exiles’ new identity in Christ and hope, they must submit and suffer well (2-4).¹⁸ Peter begins this section by “urg[ing his recipients] as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against [their] soul[s], [and to] keep [their] conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when [the Gentiles] speak against [them] as evildoers, [the Gentiles] may see [their] good deeds and glorify God” (2:11-12). Their submission and good works are evidence to the Gentiles of their faith. If the exiles are not loyal to their authorities and instead rebel against them, the Gentiles will see their faith as volatile, not peaceable. Therefore, “Peter calls them to submit to governing authorities, to respect and honor them, but also to not rely on them, to not find [their] identity in the government system.”¹⁹ Peter clarifies that their “loyalty to Christ does not equal rebellion against the government,” for through their submission to authorities, the Gospel is proclaimed, and God is ultimately glorified.²⁰ This advice and plea is somewhat ironic coming from Peter, who drew his sword at Jesus’ betrayal (John 18:10), yet Peter has learned a higher way and implores the exiles to follow it. Through it all, the exiles are to replicate Christ, who declared to the defiant Peter, “Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? (John 18:11)” Christ was eager to do the will of the Lord by submitting Himself to the authorities that would kill Him. The elect exiles are to replicate Him as “not only is He an example, but His sacrificial body was their substitute.”²¹ Simultaneously, the exiles are to do good to their neighbors, including the pagans and Gentiles, for “this type of behavior will lead to life (3:8-12).”²² Their submission and suffering well is “for righteousness’ sake (3:13-17), not for evil (4:1-6), and in light of the nearness of the end (4:7-11).²³ This calling is also Christocentric, as Christ is the ultimate example of suffering well.

Peter then tells the recipients of his letter to “stand firm as exiles (4-5)” by suffering joyfully (4:12-19) and resisting the devil (5:1-11).²⁴ Firstly, he shares that because “suffering is to refine them… [and] their hardship is a purifying and proving fire, their response should be joy because in the midst of suffering they are blessed.”²⁵ Second, Peter reminds the elect exiles that even though they suffer under the hands of the Gentiles and pagans, there are principalities and evil things, such as the devil, that are after them. Therefore, they must resist the devil, “cast[ing] their anxieties on [God] (5:6-11),” who sovereignly ordains their suffering for His glory and their good.²⁶

There is much for Christians today to put into practice based on 1 Peter, primarily that God works and ordains good things within the world and that Christians should gather together yet also go out to be a light. Peter states that pagan “governors are sent by [God] to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (2:14). This means that “an institution does not have to be a Christian institution to do good. God blesses the world consistently through non-Christian institutions. He does so through families, schools, [and] businesses, [and] [Christians] should be the first to joyfully support such things for the benefit of humanity.”²⁷ Often, zealous Christians will begin to only participate in things and institutions that call themselves Christian. However, this idealogy is antithetical to the Great Commission and God’s sovereignty as a good God. Therefore, because God works good in the world, even through secular things, Christians must go out into the world and be examples just as the elect exiles were examples through the Dispersion. Moreover, when Christians prefer only to gather together, “the stink [like maneur], but when they spread out, they do some good.”²⁸ Therefore, Christians must not neglect to gather but must actively do good and participate in their communities, both church and area, for the Gospel to be shared with those around them.