Day 78. 1st Peter 1 - 3:7. Faith Under Fire, Part 1
The Letters of Peter, James, John and Jude are called by scholars the "catholic" epistles -- because they don't seem to be written to any one church (as Paul's letters were) but seemed meant to be shared among many churches. So they are not known by who they are to, but by who (supposedly) wrote them. I say supposedly because not all scholars are agreed that every one of these catholic epistles was written by the person to whom it is ascribed.
Aside: the word catholic means "universal."
That being said, there does seem to be a theme for this short letter. It is written to a church, or to churches, that are experiencing persecution. So there is a combination of the inspiration, encouragement an exhortation in this letter. There's the wonderful images of the church as living stones, chosen, gathered up and built into a house by God. Peter wants the people to remember that God first loved and chose them; this will help them to resist the temptations they encounter and the sufferings that they need to endure. He identifies the people as strangers among people with different values than their own. He encourages them to continue to live counter-cultural lives, resisting finery, and living simply. Persecution and suffering naturally come to those who are faithful (look at Jesus, after all).
There is practical advice for husbands and wife, wives to submit their husbands, but also to live simply and to care more about being beautiful on the inside than on the outside. Women are called not to follow the cultural norms of beauty. They are also advised to call their husbands "master", which gives me some pause (and I do respect my husband, and our partnership.)
Likewise, husbands are exhorted to submit to their wives (interesting that the same word is used), but also told that women are the "weaker partner." Lots of ink has been spilled with regard to what Peter (or whoever the author means) could mean by this. In my experience women are weaker in some ways and stronger in others. What do you think this passage is about?
Aside: the word catholic means "universal."
That being said, there does seem to be a theme for this short letter. It is written to a church, or to churches, that are experiencing persecution. So there is a combination of the inspiration, encouragement an exhortation in this letter. There's the wonderful images of the church as living stones, chosen, gathered up and built into a house by God. Peter wants the people to remember that God first loved and chose them; this will help them to resist the temptations they encounter and the sufferings that they need to endure. He identifies the people as strangers among people with different values than their own. He encourages them to continue to live counter-cultural lives, resisting finery, and living simply. Persecution and suffering naturally come to those who are faithful (look at Jesus, after all).
There is practical advice for husbands and wife, wives to submit their husbands, but also to live simply and to care more about being beautiful on the inside than on the outside. Women are called not to follow the cultural norms of beauty. They are also advised to call their husbands "master", which gives me some pause (and I do respect my husband, and our partnership.)
Likewise, husbands are exhorted to submit to their wives (interesting that the same word is used), but also told that women are the "weaker partner." Lots of ink has been spilled with regard to what Peter (or whoever the author means) could mean by this. In my experience women are weaker in some ways and stronger in others. What do you think this passage is about?
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