Read 1 Peter 1:6-7. What is Peter saying?
Peter is writing to people who were battling through difficulties and often felt very alone. He was writing “to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1, NIV). This is the area we know today as western Turkey. A few verses later, Peter says that he knows that they are experiencing “grief in all kinds of trials” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
What does Peter mean by saying that they are “exiles” and “scattered”? How might that add to their trials?
Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com
Being a Christian during those times was a new thing; believers were small in number and in various places where they were a decided minority who were often misunderstood at best, persecuted at worst. Peter assures them, however, that these trials are not random or chaotic (, 1 Peter 1:7). Genuine faith is the goal of those who persevere through “all kinds of trials.”
Read 1 Peter 1:6-9. What ultimate assurance does Peter seek to give these people amid their trials? What does this hope mean for us, too?
Whatever their trials, whatever they suffer, how can it be compared to the eternity that awaits them when Christ returns? Peter’s words to them are God’s words to us, regardless of whatever we are facing. However difficult or painful our trials, we must never lose sight of the ultimate end, eternal life in a new heaven and new earth, without pain, suffering, or death. With such a promise before us, a promise guaranteed us through the death of Jesus, how important that we not lose faith, but instead, amid our trials, ask the Lord to purge us of everything and anything that stands in the way of our faith.
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