Peter was one of the 12 men that Jesus chose to be his special
workers. (See Matthew 10:1-4; Mark 13:13-19; Luke 6:2-16.) Peter’s name was
Simon, but Jesus changed it to Peter. (See John 1:42.) ‘Peter’ means ‘a rock’
or ‘a stone’.
Peter wrote this letter to groups of Christians in several
different places. All of those places were in the country that we call Turkey
now. We think that he wrote it about the year *AD 65. That was about 35 years
after Jesus died. Peter may have been in Rome city when he wrote it. (See
At that time, enemies were causing a lot of trouble and pain
for Christians. These enemies were killing many Christians. So it was not easy
to be a Christian then, and many Christians were afraid. Peter wrote to them
because he wanted to help them. He wanted them to be brave. He wanted them to
continue believing Jesus strongly.
In his letter, Peter describes the great things that God has
done on our behalf. He says that, as Christians, we will have trouble and pain
during our lives on this earth. But we must remember that God knows about all
our troubles. And he lets us have troubles sometimes because he wants to make
us like Jesus. Jesus had much trouble and pain on our behalf, but he never
stopped obeying God. Also, Peter says that all Christians should obey people
with authority. And Christians should always do what is right and good.