Bible Study

Introduction to the Epistles of Peter

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV)
Peter

I once heard a professor call the later epistles or the books of James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, and Jude as books from the “dark corner” of the Bible. He explained by saying very few churches like to teach these books since they encourage an active following of Jesus and not a passive or ‘comfortable’ Christianity. While I might disagree in a sense thinking that the Bible really does not have any “dark corners” (of course that may depend on your point of view, the book of Revelation may indeed be very dark to some, even though it is one that clearly offers hope), the issue of passive pseudo-Christianity is a huge reality today.

What has happened to Christianity? Are church goers dictating a ‘Christian lite’ agenda? Are church leaders only interested in a social gospel? Is the whole counsel of God being taught? Many churches and church leaders seem to be more interested in making it easier to go to church, or promote a ‘comfortable’ form of Christianity than to follow Jesus. Instead of easing off, church leaders should be asking Christians to step up and encourage them to become true disciples of Jesus.

I have always liked Peter; he is someone almost everyone can relate to. A hard worker and dedicated follower but at the same time he seems like an ordinary guy caught up in extraordinary circumstances. When you read about Peter in the gospels you may wonder why would Jesus pick a man like that. But as you read the Bible you realize that’s God’s ‘modus operandi’ (God’s way of doing things), we see that He uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things, after all there aren’t any perfect people! “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10b, KJV) This is good news since that means God can use you and me! Now getting back to Peter, we see how he changed in a positive way in the book of Acts especially in his speech. He went from a “speak-first-foot-in-mouth” type of blowhard guy into an eloquent and thoughtful disciple of Jesus, his epistles retain this eloquence and compassion. As Christians, we need to listen to Peter, I believe he has the answers on how to counter the many disturbing trends in Christianity today.

Regarding this commentary please don’t get nervous if you noticed the number of chapters. Each chapter is fairly short to allow this commentary to be used as a devotional study. If you are reading this commentary from the beginning, or as a devotional you might want to take the time to read the verses marked ‘read’ to enhance your devotional time. Of course I recommend reading all of the Biblical references even if they appear to be redundant, as we can learn from different viewpoints.

About the Author

Peter was born Simon Barjona (or Simeon, from the Hebrew word meaning “to hear”)^[1] son of Jonas (or for some translations, John). Simon was a popular name at the time as evidenced by the fact there were eight other Simons in the New Testament. Simon had a brother named Andrew and they were both in the fishing business with James and John.

Shortly after meeting Simon, Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter (Cephas in the Aramaic language or Petros in the Greek, both mean ‘stone’ or small rock ^[2], see John 1:38-42; Matthew 4:18-22). Simon Peter was married, and at one time his mother-in-law became ill and Jesus healed her at Peter’s home (see Luke 4:38-39), which, based on this and other stories, the house must have been fairly sizable (see also Mark 1:29-34, the size of the house also points out that their business must have been fairly successful).

Most of us remember Peter as the disciple that was always first to open his mouth and often required more object lessons to understand a concept than the other disciples (for example see Luke 5:1-11). Since he was the most vocal, he is often perceived as the leader of the disciples, and as such, is always the first on any list in the New Testament that shows the twelve primary disciples (see Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13). He often debated with Jesus, and in some cases said things that were really unnecessary (for example, see Matthew 17:1-13). Perhaps this is why Satan thought Peter was weak and asked to sift Peter like wheat (see Luke 22:31). Later, Peter would deny Jesus, even though he said he wouldn’t (see John 13:36-38; 18:15-18 and 25-27). But on a few occasions he got it right! (See Matthew 16:13-20)

The Peter depicted in the Gospels is a man often full of his own pride and self-strength, and as a result, he and the other disciples generally failed in understanding what Jesus was all about. Shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion, the disciples went into hiding. They were given instructions to wait, and even though they were with Jesus for nearly three years and saw some incredible things, they fell back to their old profession (fishing) while they waited, giving no evidence of a divine encounter, apparently experiencing no inward or outward change.

Even after Jesus’ resurrection there wasn’t much change in the disciples. We do see that Jesus restored Peter as a disciple (read John 21:15-19), however, the greatest change occurred after he and the apostles received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. In the first five chapters of the book of Acts we see dramatic changes in the disciples especially Peter. Previously Peter had difficulty in understanding Jesus and was often the brunt of admonishment from Him, but now after receiving the Holy Spirit, we see and hear a different Peter. He preaches eloquent sermons (see Acts 1:15-26; 2:14-40; 3:12-26), see him healing in public (see Acts 3:1-9), demonstrating a willingness to confront the Jewish leadership (see Acts 4:8-20) ,and possesses a firmness when pronouncing judgment on Ananias and Sapphira (see Acts 5:1-11). You might ask, is this the same man? Yes! Clearly the Peter that was depicted in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is a changed person and in the Acts of the Apostles (the book best known by its shorter name ‘Acts’), we will discover that change will remain true in both of his epistles as well. The last we hear about Peter in the book of Acts is in chapter 15 regarding the Jerusalem Council where he made an invaluable contribution (read Acts 15:7-12). Then nothing is heard from him until his first epistle.

Some believe Peter was uneducated and unable to write in Greek. The statement about his education is based on Acts 4:13, which refers to his lack of formal theological training, but not his general education. Peter, being a successful businessman in the northern region of Galilee, would undoubtedly have written and spoken Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. His upbringing as a Hebrew child would have exposed him to the writings of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Tanakh, the Old Testament), which Peter (and all of the other authors in the New Testament) quotes in his writings.

[1] Nixon, R. E. (1996). Simeon. In D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, & D. J. Wiseman (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., p. 1103). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Strong’s Greek No. 4826

[2] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (p. 1659). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

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Table of Contents

Intro to 1 Peter · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15
16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28

Intro to 2 Peter · 30 · 31 · 32 · 33 · 34 · 35 · 36 · 37 · 38 · 39 · 40
41 · 42 · 43 · 44

Appendix 1 (Messianic Prophecies)
Appendix 2 (Influential Philosophies)

Copyrights

Unless otherwise noted or verses marked ESV, Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public Domain.

Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.