Welcome to the 10-Minute Bible, where we look at one book of the Bible in 10 minutes. Well, give or take 10 minutes. In this session, we're going to look at the book of 1 Peter. As you've heard me say throughout this series, going book by book through the Bible, in order to understand any book, but especially a book of the Bible, you need to understand three things. The first is the subject, which is nothing more than the answer to the question, what is the author talking about? Now, in most books, virtually all books of any size, there's more than one subject. But when I say what is the subject, I mean the one overall subject that includes all those minor subjects. So the question is, what is the major subject of the book? The second thing you need to know is how does the author develop that subject? How does he deal with it? What's he doing with it? Now, as I've pointed out many times in a secular book, the table of contents gives you some idea of where he's going. And of course, that doesn't exist in the Bible. However, an outline, a good outline of the book will serve as something like a table of content. The third thing you need to understand is what I call the situation. And this is very important. The situation amounts to that author writing to the original audience on that subject. So the question is, why did he choose to write to that audience on that subject? Another way of saying that is, what is the purpose of his writing? It's when you understand that, that really opens up to what's going on in the book. So, to understand any book of the Bible, you really need to understand three things. The subject, the structure, and the situation. Now, with that in mind, let's look at the book of 1 Peter. What is the subject of 1 Peter? Well, by the way, that's debated. But I think the subject of the book is the salvation of the soul. Now, that phrase is used, but what you need to know is that the word translated soul means life. So it's the saving of your life from being wasted. That is the idea. The structure of the book is a letter like Paul's epistles, except there is no prayer in this epistle. So I would outline the book by saying there is a salutation. a thanksgiving, then the body of the book, and it closes with personal greetings and benediction, which is the basic structure of an ancient letter. But let me talk about the body of the book for a second. I think that he's talking about how to save your life from being wasted, and he first talks about that in relationship to the Lord. beginning in chapter 1, verse 13, and going down through verse 21. Then, he talks about your relationship with other believers, beginning in chapter 1, verse 22, going through chapter 2, verse 10. Third, in the body of the book, he talks about your relationship to the world in chapter 2.11 through 3.7. And then your relationship to life in 3, 8 to 4, 6. This is a real interesting part of the book because he talks about your relationship to life and under that he deals with two other subjects, blessing and suffering. So how do you save your life through blessings and how do you save your life when you're going through suffering? Then he talks about saving your life in relationship to the end of the world. That begins in 4.7 and goes through 5.9. But the point is that the subject of the book is the salvation of your life, saving your life, making it profitable, making it count for Christ. And he does that in this book by going through all of those various topics that I just talked about. The relationship to the Lord, believers, the world, life, and even the end. Now, the next question is, what is the situation? And that involves, as I mentioned a moment ago, three things, the author, the recipients, and the purpose. The author is obviously Peter. and to date it gets a little tricky, but he lived into the 60s and there is no indication in this book that the persecution under Nero that resulted in martyrdom had begun. So that helps us to push back the book from the latter part of the 60s. Some have suggested this is because there's suffering in the book. It talks about that, that this is on the eve of Nero's persecution, which would mean that it was written in late 63 or early 64 AD. Then the question is, who were the recipients Well, we're told in the first verse that they were pilgrims of the dispersion, which seems to indicate he's talking to Jews. Then he talks about being excellent among the Gentiles in chapter 2, verse 12, which again gives you the impression he's talking to Jewish Christians. However, the content of the book indicates that he's talking to Gentiles. And that's evident when you look at 2, 9, and 10, chapter 1, verse 14, and verse 18, and chapter 4, verses 3 and 4. So who is it? Is he talking to Jewish Christians or Gentile Christians? And the answer is he's talking to both. He's talking to them because they are experiencing opposition. They're being slandered. They're being attacked for their faith. They're being charged with disloyalty to the state. And Peter calls all of this fiery trials. So the purpose of the book is to exhort them. Matter of fact, this book is full of command. There are 34 imperatives in this book. He's exhorting believers to holiness, love, growth, submission, service, and all of that can be summarized under the word saved or salvation. You save your life by living that kind of life, holiness, love, submission, service, and so forth. And he also says in chapter 5 verse 12 that he's testifying to them. So his exhortation is to stand fast in the faith that constitutes his testimony to the fact that that is the true grace of God. So, the purpose of the book is to exhort them that even though they're going through a period of suffering, that they would be tempted to doubt, and he's urging them to just hang in there. If I were going to summarize the book, I would say it like this. Believers save their lives from freshly lost by submitting to the will of God even in the face of suffering. Or, if I were going to give us the takeaway, I would say believers save themselves from spiritual damage by living a holy, loving, submissive, serving life even while you are suffering.