Robert Mounce demonstrates his scholarship, lucidity, and pastoral heart in this commentary. Pastors and laypersons will find a balanced, effective, and relevant interpretation of Peter’s epistles.
Mounce says that the theme of these letters is hope, but the main purpose is “to encourage believers in Asia Minor to expect and endure hardship as a result of their commitment to the Christian faith” and “to stimulate them to wholesome thinking” to counteract false teachers who had risen within the church.
Although the letters are packed with imperatives, Mounce argues that they do not merely offer simple “lessons for living,” but move freely from doctrine to duty and back again. Thus, the purpose of doctrine is less to instruct than to provide the theological basis for a new way of living. Because Christians have been born anew to a living hope, there is a serious challenge to holy living. Mounce applies these challenges to modern life with chapters such as “How to Get Along With Your Spouse,” “Living in an Alien Society,” and “How to Live in the Family of God.”
