Started reading First Peter. After reading First, Second and Third John, it's like going from the "Frying Pan to the Fire."
Where John talked about what people should "know" – it was like he was saying "you have this knowledge that is your directions on how to live, then how can you not do it?"
Peter is talking to a different crowd. They are under attack – actually, being killed because of what they believe. It wasn't bad enough that they were "weird" in their culture – now they were being hunted and punished because they were followers of the one who came at Christmas.
True, that was a repressive society, even when Jesus walked among them, but by A.D. 60, it had become much worse. The Emporor was all bent out of shape that these people did not worship him. After all, he was "God" – so how come he died and stayed dead?
Peter wanted to bring some encouragement to the early church which was spreading. His challenge was for them to remember what they got at the end of the race called "life" – an inheritance that never lost value.