Call to Commitment

Finally, I have opportunity to write on the first epistle of Peter. I have wanted to do so for some time. There is no substitute for an expositional study, verse by verse, of the Scriptures. I will attempt to comment solely on what is written and confirmed by other passages, which add clarity, avoiding personal comment. I invite you to follow along with me, because you and I need to be instructed by the unerring, powerful truth of the word of God. To the left, I have a map of the dispersion of Jewish Christians, to whom Peter is specifically writing. We are the spiritual offspring of Jewish Christians, grafted into the plan of God, given to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile. 

 It will not be necessary to relate the entire biblical biography of Peter, because his story is well-known to all those who have read the Gospels of Jesus Christ, as well as the book of Acts. His predominance among the apostles, his strong and impulsive character, have taught us much about countering self-confidence and self-sufficiency, even as a disciple of Christ. We will simply remind ourselves of the major milestones in his life, before delving into his inspired teaching.

 In fact, he was among the three, along with James and John, who formed an inner circle of disciples that experienced things that the other nine did not. As all Christians, he had to learn the ways of God that contradict all human instruction, received over the years, as it is taught in this world. At the same time, Peter was totally consecrated to the Lord, leaving his means of living to follow Jesus faithfully for 3 ½ years.

 He was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee, named Simon by his parents, having learned the fishing profession from his father. At the very beginning of his discipleship, he was renamed Peter, a stone, by the Lord. His home later became Capernaum, a fishing town on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He was a typical Galilean, despised by the more sophisticated Judeans, especially those of Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin noticed that he was an untrained and uneducated man and even a common servant girl noticed his Galilean accent, when he spoke Hebrew. His native tongue was Aramaic repulsive, as a Gentile language, by the Judeans in the south of Israel.