Peter, the business owner, was a major figure in the gospels.  He was the most outspoken member and leader of the disciples.  After Jesus had restored Peter

following Peter's denial of him, and he had re-affirmed his love for Jesus, Peter became a significant leader of the early first century church.  Peter preached in Acts and the church was launched.  We often hear about Paul’s missionary journeys but Peter was also a missionary traveling with his wife.  We know that Peter was married because Jesus healed his mother-in-law in Mark 1 and Paul uses Peter as the example of taking your wife with you on your missionary work in 1 Corinthians 9:5.  Peter was born in Galilee.  He lived in treacherous times as the Roman Empire was the dominant superpower of the day.  We know that Peter was martyred because of his faith and obedience to Jesus Christ.  The early church father Euseibuis tells us that Peter’s wife was also martyred and that Peter was present when it happened.  Other early church fathers Clement, Tertullian, and Origen tell us that Peter was martyred in Rome by crucifixion upside down.  Jesus alludes to Peter’s form of death in John 21:18.  Peter was a bold and courageous follower of Jesus Christ who understood opposition and suffering.  He saw Jesus’ suffering. He was beaten, jailed and threatened before he was murdered.  He saw friends and other followers of Christ killed for their willingness to live for Jesus.  Nero became Emperor of Rome in 54AD and it was during his rule that persecution increased for the church.  After the burning of Rome, Nero blamed the Christians and used it as a catalyst to see followers of Christ crucified, speared to death and devoured in the Coliseum. 

It is in this cultural context that Peter wrote the book of 1 Peter.   He writes, probably from Rome, which he calls Babylon later in the book, to the church that has spread beyond Jerusalem throughout Asia Minor.  These Christians, like Peter, needed a strong dose of encouragement and spiritual strength as they faced this tremendous opposition. 

1 Peter 1: 1-9[i]

“ ¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
      To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ²who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
      Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Praise to God for a Living Hope

 ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

1 Peter is for all people who face trials, tribulation and tragedy in their lives.  It is for all people at all times who know that the world, as grand and wonderful as it can be, is also a place of tremendous struggle and evil.  Today two-thirds of all followers of Jesus Christ in the world live under governments whose repression equals, or exceeds that of the Roman Empire of the 1^st century.  For them the message of Peter is a message of reality. Though we are not yet dragged into the streets and brutalized because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we too experience challenges of all degrees as followers of Christ and so Peter’s message is a message for us.  A message of what was, what is and what could be.