4, 5. (a) In the first century C.E., why could the apostle Peter speak of Christians as “temporary residents scattered about”? (b) How did Jehovah God view them?

⁴ Writing to fellow believers, the apostle Peter called attention to their honorable standing as “aliens and temporary residents.” At the outset of his first letter, we read:

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the temporary residents scattered about in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, to the ones chosen

1 Peter 1:1,

⁵ Back in the first century C.E., believers found themselves scattered in various locations and living in the midst of a large non-Christian population. Often they were unjustly despised by their neighbors. So it must have been encouraging for them to read or to hear Jehovah’s estimation of them as set forth in Peter’s letter. They were actually God’s ‘chosen ones,’ the elect. The Most High had made them his possession, his people.