“It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesmen.” These are the words of Abigail Adams, wife of the second President of the United States, to her son.
The recipients of the Apostle Peter’s First Letter contended with great difficulties. They were pockets of churches in what is today modern Turkey. Many of them were planted by Jewish converts to Christianity that were exiled from Rome. They left neighbors, livelihoods, and the places of their youth, likely never to see them again. Continue reading