Greeting
1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Peter starts off with two “new” titles he didn’t use in his previous letter, “Simeon” and “servant”. Many times when Peter is named “Simeon” or named “Simon Peter” it goes along with humility. Either he has been humbled or he’s about to. Let’s see if we get a better guage for where he is. “Servant” is oftentimes translated as “slave”. So we might have a picture of Peter’s situation. He’s a humble slave to Christ. He also is writing not just as a churchman, but as an apostle.
Peter wasn’t writing to a lesser group of Christians. He tells his audience that they’ve received an equal standing by faith as anyone else. He has the exact same faith as the person that was just regenerated before the reading of this letter. The next portion really needs to be paid attention to. The righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Chirst. Peter makes it very clear Who Jesus is here. There are several examples of Jesus being called “God” in the Gospels as well as the letters. You never see or read of Him correcting anyone who said it.
Also zero in on Who’s righteousness it is. It’s Christ’s, not ours. There are multiple examples of the notion that our standing before God is all Chirst’s. “Put on Christ”, “be found in Christ”, are a few examples. There’s a parable Jesus told about the man who wasn’t dressed for the wedding in proper wedding attire. Not to get into the weeds of the that story. However it didn’t turn out to well for that fellow. The story is in Matthew 22.
Let’s end this greeting by discussing a concept. Can we grow in God’s grace without reading, studying, or hearing the preaching of God’s Word? I believe Peter here in his opening notes that we grow in grace and peace as our knowledge of God increases. If we go back to the Book of Acts we read that the people devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teachings, prayers, breaking of bread and fellowship. Though God is able to use any means He sees fit to grow His people we can’t reduce the basics that He’s place in front of us.
May we all see an increase of grace and peace in our own lives today as we delve into His word.
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