Sunday April 2
To the Exiles
If you were given a piece of paper that began, “Dear Sir,” you would realize that you were reading a letter. And you would assume that the letter came from somebody you probably weren’t close to.
Just as modern letters have a standard way to begin, so do ancient letters. First Peter begins as any ancient letter would. It identifies the author and those to whom it was sent.
Read 1 Peter 1:1.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
What can we learn from this one verse that helps to give us a bit of context?
It is Peter writing to strangers in a particular location. But, are they strangers? If this is all we knew of the situation, may be led astray.
Peter clearly identifies himself. His name is the first word in the letter. Yet, he immediately defines himself as “an apostle of Jesus Christ.” Thus, as Paul often did (Gal. 1:1, Rom. 1:1, Eph. 1:1), Peter right away establishes his “credentials,” emphasizing his divine calling. He was an “apostle,” that is “one sent,” and the One who sent him was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter identifies a region where his letter was directed: Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These are all regions in Asia Minor, roughly equivalent to the part of modern Turkey east of the Bosphorus.
Debate exists about whether Peter was writing mostly to Jewish believers or to Gentile believers. The terms Peter used in 1 Peter 1:1 “strangers,” “dispersion [diaspora],” (NRSV) are terms that naturally belong to Jews living outside of the Holy Land in the first century. The words chosen and sanctified in 1 Peter 1:2 are suited to both Jews and Christians alike. Describing those outside of the community as “Gentiles” (1 Pet. 2:12, 4:3) also underlines the Jewish character of those to whom Peter writes.
Not knowing for sure, we might also consider that Peter was an apostle primarily to the Jews, and Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. "Paul showed that his enemies could not justify their course by a pretended regard for these apostles. While he honored them as faithful ministers of Christ, he showed that they had not attempted to instruct him, neither had they commissioned him to preach the gospel. They were convinced that God had called him to present the truth to the Gentiles, as he had designated Peter to go especially to the Jews. Hence they acknowledged before the council Paul’s divine commission, and received him as a fellow-laborer of equal position with themselves." Sketches From the Life of Paul, pg 193.
Some commentators argue, in response, that what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:18 and 4:3 would be more appropriately said to Gentile converts to Christianity than to Jewish ones. After all, would Peter really have written to Jews about the “futile ways inherited from your ancestors” (NRSV)? Or would he have said to Jewish readers, “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:” (1 Pet. 4:3)?
Yes, he surely would and surely did. He did not withhold the truth from the apostate Jews. And they schemed to put him to death. And when Stephen did the same, they stoned him. Let's look at 1 Peter 4:3 in context.
4:3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
4:4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with [them] to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of [you]:
Peter places himself with the Jews comparing himself and those he is speaking to with the Gentiles. Then how can he be speaking to Gentiles? Then in verse 4, he says "they think it strange that ye run not with them..." Who thinks it strange? The Gentiles think it strange because the Jews are converted and not doing what they used to do. The Gentiles knew the Jews were hypocrites. The nations of the world despised the Jews because they were not the holy ones they professed to be. This is why Pilot put the message over the head of Christ on the cross. "King of the Jews." They had called for the death of their king. And when in AD 70, Jerusalem was destroyed, it was with vengeance the soldiers killed and burn down the city.
What’s more crucial for us, though, isn’t so much who the audience was but, rather, what the message says.
Yes, and it does indeed help to understand who Peter is talking to. If he was talking to the Gentiles, then he was not one of them. If he was talking to Jews, then he acknowledged the sins of Israel, and the transformation in character that had taken place in the Christian Jews. When we testify to who we were and who we are now in Christ Jesus, God is glorified. If we talk about the work God has done in others, it is not as powerful as our own testimony.