1 Peter 1:1

Verse 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

In the very outset the author of this Epistle gives his name Peter. Around this name many sacred memories are entwined. The Lord himself chose the writer hereof, and selected him as the one who should first announce the gospel of peace to the awe-stricken Jew at Jerusalem and to expectant Cornelius and his invited guests, thus opening the doors of Messiah's kingdom to both Jew and Gentile. Yet the writer truthfully and modestly calls himself "an apostle," not "the apostle." He claims no pre-eminence over others. He is only one among the chosen ambassadors. All are equally clothed with authority. No one of the dozen is the superior of the other. Each is the Lord's minister and the Lord's sent. Each is to be without succession and without the power of substitution. All this is plainly deducible from the modest declaration of the apostle. Whom it may hurt or how bad the wound, we have no concern. This is clearly the mind of the Spirit, and that is all in which we are interested.

To the strangers scattered.

The Revised Version has, "Elect who are sojourners," while the Syriac uses this language: "Elect and sojourners who are dispersed." In any event, if the persons addressed were at a distance from the home of their nativity, they were strangers and among strangers, and while remaining away from their former residences they were sojourning whither they had gone, and so long as it appears that they were in different places, they were scattered or dispersed. That they were elect is evident in the character of the letter written to them, and in the way and manner the writer accosts them.

Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

These are geographical divisions, provinces of Asia Minor, as then arranged by the authority of the Roman Empire. From the labors of the apostle Paul, as we gather the history thereof from the Acts of the Apostles and from Paul's many epistles, the gospel had been proclaimed in these provinces, and churches established. In some of the provinces more than one congregation existed, for Paul speaks of the churches of Galatia. (Galatians 1:2). Peter most probably writes to the believers composing these various congregations, Jewish believers specially, and Gentile believers incidentally. I express myself thus for the reason that the gospel is intended for all alike, no discrimination being therein made, and while Peter was to go specially to the circumcision (that is, the Jew) and Paul specially to the uncircumcision (that is, the Gentile), these addressed ones were gathered from both classes, which Peter evidently knew, and it is certain that he could not comfort, admonish and exhort the one without at the same time reaching and benefiting the other.