Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials,
Peter’s readers are ‘God’s scattered people’, an expression that Peter uses with a wide meaning. In relation to their place of local residence, they are God’s people scattered throughout northern Asia Minor. But in relation to heaven, they are God’s people scattered in a foreign land. Their true homeland is heaven, and the foreign land is the world. They really belong to God. He chose them and cleansed them, with the aim that they be holy and obedient (1:1-2).Through the death and resurrection of Christ, God gives believers new life and promises them eternal blessings. He also protects this life for them. They can therefore be assured that when the day of inheritance arrives at Christ’s return, they will enjoy the promised blessings and so experience salvation in its fulness (3-5).This assurance gives Christians joy amid the trials of the present life. Trials produce endurance, and endurance proves that faith is genuine (6-7). As faith grows stronger and joy increases, so their love for Christ is enriched. They experience in advance the greater fellowship that they will have with Christ when their salvation reaches its fulfilment at his return (8-9).Old Testament prophets, who by God’s Spirit foretold this salvation, tried unsuccessfully to find out when it would come about and who the great Messiah-Saviour would be. God showed them that their prophecies would be understood by a future generation. When Christ died and rose again, other messengers of God, guided by the same eternal Spirit, saw the real meaning of their prophecies and then taught others (10-12).