The Book of I Peter

Mike Johnson

The book of I Peter, as the title implies, was written by Peter.  Peter, along with his brother Andrew, was one of the 12 apostles.  Peter and Andrew were fishermen, as were James and John.  Peter, James, and John seem to have made up an inner circle around Jesus as they witnessed many events, which the others did not.  Peter wrote to Christians who were suffering persecutions and were in fear of even greater trials.  The design of the book, it seems, was to encourage Christians facing hardships.

The keywords of the epistle are “patience” and “hope.”  Some scholars call the word “hope” the watchword of the entire book.  At the beginning of the book (1:3), Peter speaks of  a “living hope.”  The idea occurs in various ways throughout the epistle.

In I Peter 5:13, Peter indicated he wrote the letter from Babylon.  Some think he figuratively used this word, and he was speaking of a city besides actual Babylon, such as Rome or Jerusalem.  However, it is most likely that he wrote the letter from Babylon, and thus he is using the term in its ordinary sense.

Have you read a good book lately?  Why not read the book of I Peter?  You will get a lot of good from it.  It is God talking to you!