Contents and Characteristics.—We need not oc cupy space in going over the general contents, which are patent to every reader. But a few dis tinctive features may be looked at. The churches addressed were in trials—such trials as the spirit of that age must necessarily have brought upon them (iii. 17 ; iv. Those trials originated to some extent in their separation from the heathen amusements and dissoluteness in which they had mingled prior to their conversion (iv. 4, 5). They are exhorted to bear suffering patiently, and ever to remember the example, and endure in the spirit, of the Suffering One—the Righteous One who had suffered for them. And while affliction would come upon them in the present time, they are ever en couraged to look with joyous anticipation to the future. Peter indeed might be called the apostle of hope. Doctrine and consolation alike assume this form. The ` inheritance' is future, but its heirs are begotten to a `living hope' (i. 3, 4). Their tried faith is found unto glory at the appearance of Jesus Christ' (i. 7). The ` end' of their faith is sal vAtion' (i. 9), and they are to ` hope to the end for the grace to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (i. 13). Their ruling emotion is therefore ` the hope that is in them' (iii. 15) ; so much lying over in reserve for them in the future, their time here is only a sojourning' (i. 17) ; they were merely strangers and pilgrims' (ii. ; nay, ` the end of all things is at hand' (iv. 7). Suffer ing was now, hut joy was to come when his 'glory shall be revealed' (v I). In Christ's own experi ence as Prototype suffering led to glory (i. 11 ; iv. 13), the same connection the apostle applies to himself, and to faithful ministers (v. 1-4). There are also allusions to Christ's words, or rather re miniscences of them mingle with the apostle's thoughts. Compare i. 4 with Matt. xxv. 34 ; i. 8 with John xx. 29 ; i. to with Luke x. 24 ; 1. 13 with Luke xii. 35 ; ii. 12 with Matt. v. 16 ; 13-15 with Matt. v. 16, x. 28 ; v. 6 with Matt. =111. 12, etc.
There were apparently some tendencies in those churches that required reproof—some temptations against which they needed to be warned, as former lusts,"fleshly lusts' (i. 14, is); dark and envious feelings (ii. 1 ; iii. 8, 9) ; love of adornment on the part of women (iii. 3) ; and ambition and worldli ness on the part of Christian teachers (v. 1-4). God's gracious and tender relationship to his people was a special feature of the old covenant, and Peter reproduces it under the new in its closer and more spiritual aspects (ii. 9, to ; iv. 17 ; v. 2). The old economy is neither eulogised nor disparaged, and no remark is made on its abolition, the reasons of it, or the good to the world springing out of it. The disturbing question of its relation to Gentile believers is not even glanced at. In his view it had passed away by its development into another and grander system, one with it in spirit, and at the same time the realisation of its oracles and types. His mind is saturated with O. T. imagery and allusions, but they are freely applied to the spiritual Israel, which, having always existed within the theocracy, had now burst the national barriers, and was to be found in all the believing communi ties, whatever their lineage or country. To him the Jewish economy was neither supplanted by a rival faith nor superseded by a sudden revolution ; Israel had only put off its ceremonial, the badge of its immaturity and servitude, and now rejoiced in freedom and predicted blessing. What was said
of the typical Israel may now be asserted with deeper truth of the spiritual Israel. But the change is neither argued from premises laid down nor vindicated against Jews or Judaizers, and the results of the new condition are not held up as matter of formal congratulation ; they are only seized and put forward as recognised grounds of joy, patience, and hope. The Redeemer stood out to Jewish hope as the Messiah ; so Peter rejoices in that appellation, calling him usually Jesus Christ, and often simply Christ (i. r1 ; ii. 21 ; iii. 16-18 ; iv. I, 13, 14) ; and it is remarkable that in nearly all those places the simple name Christ is used in con nection with his sufferings, to the idea of which the Jewish mind had been so hostile. The centre of the apostle's theology is the Redeemer, the medium of all spiritual blessing. The relation of his expia tory work to sinners is described by inrop (IL 12 ; iii. 18) ; or it is said he bore our sins--rds ItAapricts ; or died wept abcaprE C3v. ' The sprinkling of blood' and the Lamb without spot' were the fulfilment of the old economy, and the grace and salvation now enjoyed were familiar to the prophets (i. in). Christ who suffered is now in glory, and is still keeping and blessing his people.
In fine, the object, as told by the author (v. 12), is twofold. I have written briefly, exhorting' (rapaKaMv) ; and the epistle is hortatory—not didactic or polemical ; 'and testifying (girtf.taprupc3v) that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand.' The true grace of God—CaigAs xdpu could not be doctrine imparted through the apostle's personal teaching. Some of the fathers, indeed, affirm that Peter visited the provinces specified in this epistle. Origen gives it as a probable con jecture; and Eusebius says that the countries in which Peter preached the doctrine of Christ appear from his own writings, and may be seen from this epistle. The assertion has thus no basis, save in the idea that Peter must have preached in the churches to which he sent an epistle. Jerome repeats the statement, and Epiphanius, as his wont is, intensifies it ; but it has no foundation. Nay the apostle, by a change of person, distinguishes himself from them that have preached the gospel unto you' (i. 12). So that the true grace' in which those churches stood was the gospel which they had heard from others, and especially from Paul, by whom so many of them had been founded. The epistle, then, becomes a voucher for the genuineness of the gospel preached in Asia Minor by the apostle of the uncircumcision. Not that, as Schwegler supposes, it attempts to mediate between James and Paul ; for it proclaims the same truths, touch ing the peculiar aspects common to the two, with out any dilution of Paul's distinctive forms, or any modification of Peter's as given in his oral ad dresses—both being in inner harmony, and differing only in mode of presentation, caused by mental diversity, or suggested by the peculiar circum stances, tendencies, or dangers of the churches which were warned or addressed.