starting first Peter
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion
.....
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... " 1 Peter 1:1-3
What an amazing beginning! It doesn't start with filler words before getting to the point. We immediately get to know something wonderful and life-changing.
This was written by Peter. Peter, who is one of the first and one of the closest followers of Jesus. If we didn't have this book (and the second one), we'd probably lament the fact that we didn't have a book written by the perspective of someone we got to know so well in the gospels (and relate to, for the most part) and who knew Jesus so well. But we do.
This is Peter, who left everything to follow Jesus, saw Jesus discuss with the Jewish authorities constantly, witnessed miracle after miracle, denied Jesus (and Jesus looked right at him, Luke 22:61), saw him die, but then saw his empty tomb and got to tell Jesus "I love you" three times.
And this was written to exiles in the Dispersion, fellow Christians who were scattered from their homes but still choosing God above everything that was going on in their lives.
This is the context that we hear this: God's great mercy allowed us to be born again to a hope that is alive because Jesus is alive.
That is our hope. It was true for us as Christians then, and it's true for us as Christians now.
No matter what comes, we follow Christ. Because in him, we are alive.
