Peter's letter is clearly written with passion. He continues to condemn the false teachers at work in the early church.

Jesus Himself had given Peter the mission to tend the sheep of God. At times, a shepherd's job includes driving away wild predators, which requires some ferocity, and Peter shows this by defending his flock from these attacking wolves

There is such a considerable difference between Peter’s first and second letters, that some scholars think that the second letter could not have been written by Peter.

Personally I believe that Peter wrote Second Peter, but did not have Silas as a secretary, as he did with the first letter. Peter knows he needs to write urgently, but he doesn’t know Greek well, so the grammar is more clumsy, but the meaning is clear.

The theme of his second letter focuses on how to be faithful in the face of falsehood. How to detect error. How to live in the midst of deceit and how to distinguish between right and wrong, especially when the wrong is so deceptive.

As I said in an earlier podcast series on the Letter to the Hebrews, one of the biggest mistake that any Christian can make, when studying the Scriptures, is to jump around from verse to verse in the Bible, trying to gain an understanding from a single verse or passage.

I likened that to trying to understand the whole picture of a jigsaw puzzle by studying just one piece of it. A single jigsaw puzzle piece cannot help you understand the entire picture. All the surrounding pieces must give context to the piece in the middle.

The only way to really understand the Scriptures, especially passages like 1 Peter 3:18-22 , is to read this entire letter from beginning to end, and to read Second Peter as well as the little letter of Jude, so you can see the whole context – the surrounding puzzle pieces and that way see the larger picture.

In the previous episode of the “Journey through the Scriptures” podcast, we started looking at the First Letter of Peter. We learned a bit more about the Apostle and the situation that he and fellow Christians found themselves in during the first century A.D, when facing the terrible persecutions of the Roman Emperor Nero.

We learned from this letter that Christians, during times of trouble, persecution and suffering, are assured of 3 things: a living hope, a present power and a rejoicing love, and that those assurances have a remarkable effect on their lives.

In the previous episodes of the “Journey through the Scriptures” podcast, we looked at the Letter of James. The title of that series of episodes, was “The Work of Faith”.

In that series we learned that faith is not something that we simply profess. We have to show that we believe in the Lord Jesus by acting. That is real faith.

In this week’s episode we will be introduced to the first letter of Peter the Apostle and learn how we can have hope in the midst of suffering.

In Episode 5 of “Journey through the Scriptures”, we learned a little more about the writer of the Letter of James. We learned that the focus of the letter was the activity of faith and that both trials and the Word of God make faith grow.

Words and wisdom are the focus of James Chapter 3. The uncontrolled words and the wisdom of the world always lead to destruction. Those who trust God understand that neither human speech nor human philosophy will lead them towards a life of faith.

Head-knowledge will not get us very far as a believer, and just knowing about Jesus and confessing Him in faith, means nothing unless there is some activity or work in that faith. That is why this series of episodes - that focuses on the Letter of James - is titled: “The Work of Faith”

Compared to Hebrews, the letter of James is one of the easiest books of the Bible to understand, but at the same time, it will be one of the hardest to apply to our own lives.

In the last episode if we looked at all the "Heroes of Faith mentioned in Chapter 11 of Hebrews, we discovered three principles at work:

• Faith Anticipates the Future
• Faith Acts in the Present
• and Faith Appraises the Past.

In episode 4 of "Journey through the Scriptures" that covers the last 2 chapters of Hebrews, we will discover how faith is produced in our lives, and how God goes about making us strong in the faith.

One of the most serious warnings in the letter and in the Bible is found in Hebrews 6:4-6, and is considered by many to be the most difficult verse to interpret in the entire New Testament.

Does it line up with the Arminian theology that says there are believers who have lost their salvation, or does it confirm the Calvinist view that argues people like this were never believers, or is it the hypothetical "theology" view that teaches that these events had not actually occurred?

I think that none of these apply, as it is important to understand who the audience of this letter is and what was happening to them.

The first 10 chapters of Hebrews have a very simple structure and premise – Jesus Christ is compared to other leaders, systems and religious values.

Jesus Christ is compared to 4 challengers.

• The Prophets and Angels
• Moses and the Promised Land
• Priests and Melchizedek
• Sacrifices and the Covenant.