A Living Hope: A Commentary on 1 and 2 Peter

Robert Mounce who was for 21 years a regular columnist in Eternity as well as the author of several popular articles in such publications as Christianity Today here demonstrates his scholarship lucidity and pastoral heart in this commentary designed to meet the needs of laypersons and pastors looking for a balanced effective and relevant interpretation of Peters epistles. Mounce sees the keynote of the letters as hope but the main purpose as hortatory - that is they were written 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 vis-a-vis false teachers who had risen within the church itself. Central to Mounces commentary is the remarkable fact that although the letters are packed with imperatives they do not merely offer ethical instructions or lessons for living but move freely from doctrine to duty and back again. Thus the purpose of doctrine is seen here as less to instruct than to provide the theological basis for a new way of living. More specifically because Christians have been born anew to a living hope there is a serious challenge to holy living. Mounce effectively updates this challenge applying it to modern living - and chapter titles such as How to Get Along With Your Spouse Living in an Alien Society and How to Live in the Family of God reflect the authors timely and practical application. Study questions are included to facilitate individual and group Bible study. These epistles are indispensable antidotes to two chronic ailments which threaten the church. I Peter is a prescription to face suffering while II Peter is medicine to stave off heresy. Robert Mounces expositions are so clear concise devout and thoughtful that they place these healing words within the reach of every Bible student. David Allan Hubbard Robert Mounce President Emeritus of Whitworth College is widely known as the author of a number of New Testament commentaries. For the past forty years he has been seriously involved in Bible translation most recently serving as Assistant New Testament Editor for the English Standard Version.