Hope, joy, optimism and exuberance characterize the epistle of 1 Peter. Writing to those Jew and Gentile Christians who made their homes in the extreme northern reaches of Asia Minor, this Petrine author seeks to blow gentle breezes of love and joy into the midst of the far-flung faithful.

Yet all these good tidings are celebrations of an eschatological future, not a humanly conceived time. Thus 1 Peter also spends as much time discussing suffering - both Christ's and his followers - as it does rejoicing. The circumstances and events surrounding these distant Christians were far from ideal. They were a tiny, struggling minority amidst a powerful, belligerent pagan culture. Acknowledging the place of suffering in their lives, however, does not mean their expectation of future joy should be…