The city of Rome was ravaged by a catastrophic fire that occurred in July, A.D. 64. That event is historically known as “The Great Fire Of Rome,” and it plunged Roman leadership into a politically difficult position. To help deflect responsibility for the devastating impact of that fire, the Roman Emperor Nero attributed blame to the members of the Christian church. That led to “The Neronian Persecutions,” the first large scale governmental action ever taken against the Christian community.
That climate of increasing hostility against the early church had the potential to spread beyond its origin in Rome to the outlying provinces of the Roman Empire. In fact, it may have already done so by the time of Peter’s first epistle, at least to some degree. Therefore, the letter of 1 Peter served to encourage those who were persecuted for their beliefs…
“Nero’s Persecution of Christians, A.D. 64–67, was very severe in and around Rome, but not general over the Empire. However, the example of the Emperor encouraged the enemies of Christians everywhere to take advantage of the slightest pretext to persecute. It was a trying time. The Church was about 35 years old. It had suffered persecutions in various localities at the hands of local authorities. But now Imperial Rome, which had hitherto been indifferent, even in some cases friendly, had accused the Church of a terrible crime, and was undertaking to punish it…” (1)
However, we can also approach this epistle from a perspective that is applicable to men and women of God from every generation…
“It is apparent from the letter that the readers were suffering persecution for their faith (1:6, 7; 3:13–17; 4:12–19; 5:8, 9). But nothing in the letter indicates official, legislative persecution or requires a date of composition later than the 60s. Their sufferings were the trials common to first-century Christians, and included insults (4:4, 14) and slanderous accusations of wrongdoing (2:12; 3:16). Beatings (2:20), social ostracism, sporadic mob violence, and local police action may have been involved as well.
Yet the epistle is addressed to Christians scattered across six Roman provinces in Asia Minor, and churches and individual believers may have been encountering different degrees of reception or resistance in different places. Peter’s qualification ‘if it should be God’s will’ (3:17) implies that his original audience may have been persecuted in some regions and not in others. The purpose of the letter was for the hearers to ‘stand firm’ in faith in the midst of trials and persecutions (5:1; cf. 1:7–9; 2:18–23; 3:13–17; 4:12–19).” (2)
(1) Henry H. Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook, 1 Peter, Occasion of Writing [pg. 663] Copyright © 2000, 2007 by Halley’s Bible Handbook, Inc.
(2) R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 2237.