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Paul and Barnabas return to their home church of Syrian Antioch. They tell the church about all that God had accomplished through them, the miracles and the many Jews and Gentiles who believed in Jesus. God is reaching the Gentiles. The gospel is for the entire world.

Leviticus 2:14-16 describes another variation of the grain offering, this time concerning the "early ripened things," also known as the first harvest.

The enemies of Paul and Barnabas have been coalescing and colluding. Jews from Pisidian Antioch have joined with Jews from Iconium. This mob arrives in Lystra, stirs up hatred in the crowds, and successfully stones Paul. The mob thinks he is dead and leaves his body outside of the city. But believers find his body, and Paul stands up, alive, and returns to the city. Barnabas and Paul preach in a neighboring city, Derbe, and then backtrack through the churches they have planted. They establish a group of men to lead as elders over each church, and encourage all the new believers to endure suffering by trusting in God.

Leviticus 2:11-13 provides further instructions on what must be excluded from the grain offering and introduces an essential element that must be present: salt.

Continuing the instructions for a grain offering, Leviticus 2:4-10 begins detailing the various forms this offering may take, emphasizing the care and reverence with which offerings are to be made to the LORD.

The local priest of Zeus brings oxen to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, because Paul healed a lame man by God’s power. Paul and Barnabas tear their robes and preach against this mistake. They explain that they serve the living God who created everything. God allowed the Gentiles to stray for some time, but He was still active in blessing their wellbeing. Their words do not seem to sink in, but they are able to, with difficulty, prevent the people of Lystra from sacrificing cows to them.

Leviticus 2:1-3 introduces a type of sacrifice called a grain offering.

God heals a man born lame through Paul. The people of Lystra misinterpret the healing as evidence that Paul and Barnabas are Greek gods who are visiting them.

Driven out of Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas preach in the synagogue of Iconium. Many Jews and Gentiles hear and believe in Jesus. But some of the Jews are hostile and do not believe. They sow hatred in the hearts of some of the Gentiles in Iconium, and although Paul and Barnabas are able to perform miracles and preach for a long time, eventually they leave town to escape a plot to stone them to death.

Peter asserts that because his readers are living in obedience to God’s Word and have dedicated their lives to genuinely loving their fellow believers, they are to heartily love one another. The reason for doing this is that their physical lives now have the eternal Spirit living within. This change did not happen through temporary human effort, but by means of the life-giving and eternal Word of God. This truth is confirmed by Isaiah 40:6-8, which contrasts our temporary, decaying earthly lives with the eternal, life-giving Word of God. This is the Word that Peter and his fellow apostles have proclaimed to his readers.

Though God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son knew about Jesus’s bloody death before creating the earth, Christ, in God’s timing, came to earth for the benefit of those who would by Christ’s work believe in God. God was the one who resurrected Jesus and gave Him glory, resulting in the believer’s hope and faith being in God.

God’s children are to live their lives on earth with a healthy respect for their heavenly Father because He will hold them accountable for their work and because they know the high value of the cost of their redemption.

When believers understand the high value of living faithfully during times of suffering, they know it will save life on earth from being wasted. They know enduring suffering will result in making their lives count for eternity. Peter exhorts the letter’s recipients to be clear-headed, focusing on the rewards that Christ will give when He returns. This will encourage believers to live in obedience to God’s Holy Word rather than be controlled by the desires of their sinful flesh. This is because when we live walking according to the Spirit, God’s holy nature directs His children to live holy lives—lives set apart to live in God’s (good) design to love and serve one another.

Peter explains the paradox of the salvation of the believer’s soul as something so special the prophets spoke about it without understanding it, and the angels, who cannot experience it, became curious to see it how it was lived out in the life of a believer.

Believers are to rejoice knowing their salvation is secure. Even though we must endure various trials on earth which God designed to test our trust, love, and faithful obedience, we can have joy. Our faithfulness will be acknowledged when Jesus returns. This should result in believers experiencing deep inner joy while making their lives count for eternity.

Peter praises God for His merciful work in bringing believers to a present position of salvation, assuring them of eternal rewards for faithful service at a future aspect of salvation when Christ returns.

The Apostle Peter writes to persecuted Christians forced to move from Jerusalem to various parts of Asia Minor. He reminds them of God’s foreknowledge in choosing them and the Spirit’s work in setting them apart as holy. He wishes for them all the grace and peace they will need to live faithfully for Christ.

God the Father and God the Son acted out a plan to restore the relationship between man and God. God the Father sent God the Son in a human body to live in perfect obedience and die as the perfect sacrifice for everyone’s sins, then He raised Him back to life. Now, by believing in Jesus the Son, we can choose not to sin, and can now live rightly according to God’s good design.

For Paul, being “in Christ” was everything, and everything he did, thought, and spoke came from this perspective or worldview. The fear of the Lord, the compelling love of Christ, the conviction that Christ died for him and for all, the lens of the Spirit and not the flesh, the message and ministry of reconciliation, and being an ambassador of Christ and His purpose, all came from Paul being “in Christ.”

Each believer in Christ has transformed into a new person. It is as though we were born again, into a new life, so that we can live as Christ lived. We can live in obedience and fellowship with God because we now have Christ living in us. This is an amazing change of our entire identity and reality.