1 Peter (Victorious living in the midst of intense persecution)
Date: 62-64 AD.
Location: Rome
To whom: Jewish Christians driven out of Jerusalem and scattered throughout Asia Minor (North-west Turkey)
Author: Peter the disciple of the Lord
Purpose: To give encouragement to suffering Christians.
Key Places: Jerusalem, Rome and other regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia Minor and Bithynia.
Peter the author of the letter:
His first name was Simon which means ‘reed.’ So God changed the name of Simon to Peter (petra) meaning rock. He was a fisherman from Bethsaida in Galilee, the brother of Andrew. They were the first two disciples. Peter was the first in every list of the twelve and was unofficial spokesman for the group.
Peter was charming, eager, impulsive and energetic, but he had also some weaknesses viz, he was unstable, fickle minded, weak, cowardly, rash and inconsistent. He was wonderful in his speech and God revealed through him some of the mysteries also.
Peter denied the Lord Jesus 3-times before the Lord’s crucifixion, when the cock crowed he remembered and repented for his wrongdoing. Again Peter tried to leave the ministry the Lord has entrusted along with other disciples. He took the lead role to take them ashtray. But again the Lord appeared to them brought them back. Jesus cooked breakfast for the disobeying disciples. The Lord spoke to Peter tenderly and asked him three times. “Peter do you love me.” The Lord was willing to cope with Peter inspite of his disobedience, but asks lovingly “Peter do you love me.” This has put Peter back on track and he became one of the powerful disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. A short time later, when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, 3000 people were baptized and the Holy Spirit came down upon a great number of Jews who came from different countries and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the first explosion of the Gospel.
It is believed that Peter got strongly involved with John Mark in the compilation of Mark’s Gospel. We can see many instants of Peter’s personalities in the Mark’s Gospel. Again the first half of the book of Acts is all about Peter. Peter was married and the Bible records that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Peter took his wife along with him in his missionary journeys. Peter and Paul spent some time in Rome. We read Peter’s weakness of not mingling with gentiles when Paul rebuked him. We see lot of Peter’s reflections and personality in the Gospel of Mark and book of Acts and further through his letters.