Most non-Christians see Christians as odd. Giving your money to God is odd. Not having sex outside of marriage is odd. Not getting drunk or high is odd. Forgiving your enemy is odd. And, having a personal relationship with someone you cannot see sounds like kids having an imaginary friend, and that’s really odd. Conversely, living in this world as a Christian is odd for us. Paying for insurance that covers murdering babies but not taking vitamins is odd. Paying... Read more

Like so many college students who are weary of being mocked by their professors for being Bible-believing Christians and getting their grades reduced, husbands who are mocked by their buddies for not looking at porn or partying with their coworkers after work, wives who forego a professional career to stay at home to be a wife and mother, virgin singles who are the punchline of jokes at the gym for waiting until marriage to have sex, and net surfers who... Read more

While it is easy to think that the Bible is old and outdated, the truth is that since God doesn’t change, and people don’t change, the Bible is timeless and therefore timely for everyone everywhere. In Peter’s day, like our own, the average person’s commitment to their version of spirituality was very shallow and nowhere near the deep end of the pool. Their spiritual beliefs, like ours, were simply part of the cultural tradition to keep up social status and... Read more

Christianity has never really been cool. The unpopularity of Christians in Peter’s day was due to the fact that their devotion to Jesus above everyone and everything else caused them to be viewed as subversives overturning long-held familial and cultural norms. Simply, once people became Christians, their lifestyle changed and they stopped worshiping the gods of their empire, city, trade guild, or family. This can feel like rejection to former friends and family, and repudiation of deeply held cultural expectations.... Read more

Peter’s underlying concern was about what we today call tolerance, diversity, and religious pluralism that discriminates against Christianity in a way that is intolerant, not diverse, and religious persecution. Subsequently, 1-2 Peter, although a few thousand years old, are incredibly timely to our current culture in which Christians are welcome to love Jesus so long as they agree that other religions and spiritualities are equally valid, do nothing to discourage others from patronizing their spiritualities and religions by speaking against... Read more

Peter’s two letters are a mere 166 verses. Although rather brief, they are power packed. The people he wrote to were living in a pagan city which meant that to live as a Christian made them the oddballs. Making matters worse, they were facing a host of troubles, trials, and temptations among uncertain days filled with distressing difficulty. Peter had experienced all of these things himself and watched first-hand how to respond by being at the side of Jesus for... Read more

“This epistle of Peter is one of the grandest of the New Testament, and it is the true, pure gospel. For Peter…inculcates the true doctrine of faith—how Christ has been given to us, who takes away our sins and saves us.” — Martin Luther In our day of short texts, spam emails, and social media responses of merely an emoji, it’s quite a treat to get a hand-written lengthy personal letter from someone you love. There is something special about... Read more

In argumentation, there is something called the burden of proof. Practically, this means that if someone presents a clear case, then the critic of that case has the burden of disproving it and dislodging it with a better case for another outcome. It is easy to criticize someone’s position, but unless you’ve got a better idea then that idea should stand. Here’s the case that 1-2 Peter makes for the authorship of Peter: 1 Peter 1:1 – Peter, an apostle... Read more

At some point, every Christian is told that Jesus’ twelve disciples were uneducated simpletons, basically bumbling country bumpkins. It has been said so many times that hardly anyone seems to even question it anymore. The entire charge that Peter was uneducated hangs precariously on one verse of Scripture. It is helpful to note that the charge there is made by critics. Acts 4:13 says, “when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common... Read more