It’s July 18, 64 AD and a fire breaks out in the Circus Maximus. Over the course of the next five days much of the city of Rome is devastated by the fire that rages (if the history, specious at best, holds out).
For many, the suspicion goes to their megalomaniacal emperor, Nero. His desire to seal his legacy is tied to his expansionist dreams for the Great City. Nero was obsessed with his popularity and the thought of being accused of such a crime was too much to bear.
Understandably, the Romans were devastated by the conflagration. Homes were consumed, lives snuffed out and livelihoods were compromised. Not only that but much of their religious life went up in flames.
Shrines, idols, temples were destroyed. There was only one group that did not suffer the loss of their religious identity–Christians. And because they were seen as being hostile to the empire and due to their close ties to the hated Jews Nero used them as a convenient scapegoat.
Persecution began as a result of Nero’s deflecting the suspicion onto this nascent sect.
In the midst of this period of Christian persecution (that saw the executions of both Peter and Paul) Peter wrote a letter of encouragement to those Gentile Christians who were living in fear of the sword. That message, 1 Peter, is a lesson in non-violent living.
Here we see the early church working out its practice of turning the other cheek, living in community and comporting themselves in such a way that even their enemies could see that they are different.
Peter’s Message: Live as Christ lived.
2:13–Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor (!) as supreme,
2:15–For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people
2:16–Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
And the money passage (1 Peter 2:19–25):
this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
For Peter it was imperative that these early believers did not live the way of the sword but by the way of the cross. The live and example of Jesus was normative for the believer in the early church. His example was that of non-violence, turning the other cheek, loving your enemy. Even a despotic tyrant such as Nero.
1 Peter is a manifesto for non-violent living. For the first pronounced persecution of Christians in world history was met without arms or retaliation. It was met with the very person of Christ.




