Living the Christian Life, According to Peter

First Peter has been called by some the "epistle of hope." The book of First Peter is a very encouraging and also doctrinal text for Christians today. It tells us to have courage in our daily lives as Christians and gives us reasons why we should have perseverance. First Peter also tells us how we should treat each other in our relationships as brothers and sisters in Christ. As we strive to live with God by our side, this book also tells us that suffering will occur in our lives and how we should deal with those struggles. This book of only 105 verses is filled with words that give a remarkable sense of hope.

The authorship of First Peter seems very obvious, but according to commentary from Edward Gordon Selwyn there is definite room for discussion. Peter is written in the prelude to chapter one, but in the final greetings in chapter five, help from Silas is mentioned. There are many different parts of the book that confirm Peter as the main author though. In chapter five, verse one, the author states that he was a "witness of Christ's sufferings," in which Peter witnessed all that Jesus endured. The author exhorts the elders in chapter five, verse two, to tend to God's flock that is under them. Peter could be saying this in reference to the instance when Jesus was speaking to him in John chapter 21 about feeding His lambs and taking care of His sheep. These are just a couple of statements that would be "quite natural" for Peter to make in his writing (Kelcy 8). The other possibility in the authorship of First Peter is that Silas, also known as Silvanus, helped write the book as an amanuensis. With Peter's lack of formal schooling, some scholars say that Silvanus must have had a part in the...

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...writing this letter when he was crucified upside down for his belief in God (Woods 13). When Peter speaks of persecution and suffering as Christians, he is most likely not talking about actual death or physical persecution, but slander from local people around them. Nero started his killing spree of Christians in Rome a little bit later after the book of First Peter was written, so the audience probably did not know quite yet how much persecution was ahead. If Peter did write this letter from Rome, he probably gathered from the situation that was developing around him just how serious the persecution could be that was in store for him and other believers. In seeing the present ways of Nero in Rome, Peter wanted to encourage his audience not only for the slander they were dealing with from those around them, but also for what could possibly happen to them later on.