Epistles of Peter
Key Learnings from Wednesdays
July 2025 - August 2025
In Peter's Letters (Epistles) the Apostle encourages us to endure in faith. To live a life of faith secure in our identity as God's a chosen people. There are also warns against false teachers, and encouragement to own your God given faith through knowledge and grow faith into maturity to love your neighbor.
⁃ Authorship is contributed to Peter
• Message very similar to Paul
• Peter’s scribe and assistant is likely Silvanus who also traveled with Paul (2Corinthians 1:19, 1Thessalonians 1:1; 2Thessalonians 1:1)
⁃ Christ refining you for a greater purpose
⁃ Christ, the cornerstone rejected by man used by God for us and our salvation
⁃ Honor Authority (An argument can be made that the American Revolution did not uphold this principle)
⁃ Men and women are codependent
• Men are to reflect the image of God to their wives
• Women are to reflect the image of God to their husbands
• Marriage not seen as hierarchy or Master/Slave analogy would have been used
⁃ Wives and Husbands are brought up in connection with suffering - LOL
⁃ Do good no matter what; Do not repay evil for evil
• Only God defines good. Only God can define good
⁃ “Descended into Hell” a 5th century addition to the Apostle’s creed based on 1Peter 3:18 and Colossians 2:15 (Both used in an expose about Baptism)
• No explanation as to why the church chose to included it in the creed.
• Purpose of Christ’s desertion was to proclaim to the spirits in prison
• Part of Christ’s exaltation not His humiliation which was finished on the Cross
⁃ Our suffering is not comparable to Christ’s suffering. Christ suffering brought us salvation. Let our suffering point others to Christ
⁃ Christians will be misunderstood
⁃ Faith must influence our actions, and not for superficial results (Hosea 6:6)
⁃ Expectations of a life of faith;
• Do not be surprise when tested
• Rejoice in Christ
• Do not be ashamed
• Glorify God
• Remain faithful
• Do good.
⁃ Good and Gracious Will of God
• Name Kept Holy
• Word Taught Correctly
• Sinners brought to faith
• Lead godly lives
⁃ Characteristics of Sheep
• Dumb and yet must have enough decrement to identify false shepherds?
• Social, flocking, need for fellowship
• Followers
• Recognition - are able to recognize the shepherd
• Fallen sheep need help to get backup (that’s a new one)
⁃ Shepherds lead sheep (congregation) to God
• Feed the sheep (congregation)
• Protects the sheep (congregation)
• Gathers the sheep (congregation)
⁃ False Shepherds lead us away from God
• Deception can be subtle (even the devil can quote scripture)
• Charismatic can be problematic
• Prosperity Gospel Preachers
⁃ Peter’s Doxology (1Peter 4:11; 1Peter 5:11) no apparent connection to the Lord’s Prayer Doxology which some sources contribute to 1Chronicles 29:11
• The 1st century Didache has a short version of the doxology
• The 4th century Apostolic Constitutions has a longer version of the doxology.
• The 6th century Textus Receptus manuscript includes the doxology.
• The 7th century Book of Common prayer included the doxology
• Henry VIII (1491-1547) contributions to the Lord’s Prayer dealt with other variations and not the doxology
⁃ Grow in faith and knowledge; actively pursue virtues like goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love.
⁃ Authority of Scripture; Not a product of human will but inspired by the Holy Spirit
• Peter personally witnessed the Transfiguration
⁃ Sources of temptation; Flesh, World, the Devil
• Flesh: biological desires in excess
• World: self-righteousness
• Devil: anything to keep us from Christ
⁃ Beware of those who would blaspheme and exploit will not escape judgement
• False teachers/prophets
• Fallen angels (Demons), the Flood, Sodom & Gomorrah, and Balaam
⁃ In every age God has sent “heralds of righteousness”
• Noah, Lot
• Even Balaam’s donkey
⁃ Salvation comes not from resisting sin perfectly but from trusting in Christ, who died for all sin
⁃ Your Apostles
• Sent - commission, to go, to preach and teach the gospel
• Must have seen the risen Lord
• There may have been more Apostles than those whose names we know
⁃ Those before Christ were save by the promise yet to come. We are saved by the promise fulfilled.
⁃ We are finite; God is infinite
⁃ We are limited living a linear existence; God its boundless
• God is patient and is not slow in the way we measure time
⁃ God’s purpose:
• To expose evil in the world
• To confrunt Sin
• To save us through Christ alone