Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

If you're doing our New Testament plan, we finished our 19th book today, and if you're doing

the whole Bible, we finished book 58. We haven't heard from Peter in a while. The last time

we saw him was in Jerusalem, helping lead the church that was comprised mostly of Jewish Christians.

But since then, he's expanded his ministry to include Gentiles, and that's the primary audience for

this letter, specifically Gentile believers who live in what is now Turkey. Rome is still running

the show, and Nero is probably the emperor at the time.

He's a renowned persecutor of the church. In fact, he uses Christians as torches at his parties.

The Roman Empire is so wicked that Peter nicknames it Babylon, which was an evil empire from back in the Old Testament days.

Rome is Babylon 2.0. Put a pen in that, we'll come back to it in a few days.

Peter writes this letter to churches who are under severe persecution in the midst of a culture

openly rebelling against God in his kingdom.

How would you feel if you were those Christians?

You'd probably feel confused and frustrated and maybe even lean toward despair.

Let's see how Peter addresses them. He starts out by

reminding them that God has chosen them. This is probably important to hear if you're at a place where

you question God's love. They are gods, Peter says. Right out of the gate, he's aiming toward comfort

and hope. This also connects them to the language used about the Jews in the Old Testament,

and Peter spends a lot of time reinforcing that theme. He wants them to see the connection between God's

relationship with them and God's relationship with the Jews. He speaks to their identity in Christ

and reminds them of the gospel. He says, God caused you to be born again. He did this, and he's

keeping you forever. You're going through some

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