Beloved, don't be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you.
The fiery trial ... The literal word here is "burning,"[19] as in  Revelation 18:9,18, suggesting perhaps that those shameless burnings of Christians to illuminate the gardens of Nero might already have begun.  As Mason said, "The fiery trial was not future but present; already the Asiatic Christians are enduring a fierce persecution."[20] Thus the words "cometh upon you" would be better rendered as "coming upon you."