Hi James and Ellen,
1 Peter is a guide for how to steadfastly live as a Christ-follower guy or gal. The 1 Peter letter was couriered to guys and gals who were Christ-followers who had fled from the city of Rome after the Roman Emperor – who was Nero, began a demented plan to kill all Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome. Nero’s legacy has it that he deliberately burned the city of Rome. When Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome found out that Nero was blaming them for starting the fires that were destroying the city of Rome, they escaped to the regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia and Asia. The author of the 1 Peter letter – who was Apostle Peter, had about thirty years earlier experienced a similar ordeal that the displaced Christ-follower guys and gals who had been living in the city of Rome were going through. After a new belief paradigm that centered on the life, teachings, death and resurrection of an incarnate man – Whose name was Jesus Christ, began to gather up momentum in the city of Jerusalem and nearby areas, a hired gun – a guy by the name of Saul of Tarsus, willingly agreed to make it a personal life goal to stop this new religiosity by rounding up any guy or gal who called himself or herself a follower of Jesus Christ. In order to not be captured, imprisoned and/or slaughtered by Saul of Tarsus or one of his cohorts, guys and gals who were Christ-followers who were living in and near the city of Jerusalem had to flee to other regions. Three or so years before Saul of Tarsus and his cronies began their attempt to purge from or near the city of Jerusalem every guy and gal who were Christ-followers, Apostle Peter was living a fisherman’s life as Simon Peter. While Simon Peter was one day around 30 A.D. cleaning the net that he used for netting fish out of Lake Gennesaret – which is the Sea of Galilee, which was where Simon Peter plied his vocation, a stranger who had been standing on a shore of Lake Gennesaret climbed into Simon Peter’s boat, told Simon Peter to push his boat a little ways out into Lake Gennesaret where he did some insightful teaching from Simon Peter’s boat to the guys and gals who were on the shore, instructed Simon Peter to row out to deeper water and to put out his net – which he did after he told the stranger that he and his fishing buddies who with him would not net any fish as . . ., was filled with fish when they pulled in the net. When the stranger – Who was Jesus Christ, told Simon Peter to drop everything that he was doing and to go with Him, Simon Peter obediently did what Jesus Christ asked him to do. Simon Peter would end up spending those three or so years being mentored by Jesus Christ alongside eleven other guys.
Your grandpaa thinks that Jesus Christ was probably about thirty years old when He told Simon Peter to follow Him. Your grandpaa thinks that Simon Peter may have been in his early twenties when he had Jesus Christ tell him to follow Him. Simon Peter was the first of twelve guys who Jesus Christ told over the next year or so to follow Him as His disciples. Simon Peter may have been around twenty-five years old when he witnessed Jesus Christ being falsely accused, nefariously tried, callously and ruthlessly beaten followed by His resurrection after having died and entombed followed forty days later by His ascension into heaven. During the time that Simon Peter and Jesus Christ did planet Earth time together, Simon Peter – who had his name changed by Jesus Christ to just Peter, was a very opinionated, close companion of Jesus Christ. Apostle Peter became an outspoken proponent for guys and gals to become and to live lives as Christ-followers after God – as God the Son – Who is Jesus Christ, visibly ascended into heaven and after God – as God the Spirit – Who is the Holy Spirit, descended on the heads of Christ-follower guys and gals fifty days later as tongues of fire that were accompanied by the sound of a mighty wind resulting in these guys and gals being understood by guys and gals who spoke and understood another language.
Apostle Peter’s bio has him in his mid-fifties when he penned a five chapter letter to guys and gals who were Christ-followers who once lived in the city of Rome. Apostle Peter – in the early 60’s A.D., penned this letter that became called 1 Peter while he was in a place which he refers to by the name of Babylon. After Apostle Peter made sure that the readers of his letter understood that they needed to constantly praise God for His grace for having saved them, Apostle Peter exhorts the guys and gals who would read his letter that as Christ-followers that they were to live holy lives. Apostle Peter reminds the Christ-follower readers of his letter that God – as God the Father, chose them to be His specially chosen guys and gals. Apostle Peter puts into perspective their situation when he explains to them that even though they are feeling like strangers and aliens where they are now living, that all Christ-follower guys and gals no matter where they are living on planet Earth will always be outsiders and foreigners to the guys and gals who are non-Christ-followers who are living around them. Per what he penned in 1 Peter, Apostle Peter had come to the conclusion that a Christ-follower guy or gal must do all that he or she can to submit to the authority of each guy who has a positioned responsibility over him or her and that the conduct of a Christ-follower guy or gal must always be without reproach in his or her relationship with other guys and gals. A guy or gal to Apostle Paul to live life as a Christ-follower – and to your grandpaa, must always be done in a deliberate way throughout each day.
1 Peter