The writer had earlier identified himself as “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:1). What he is about to say about elders comes with apostolic authority. That in turn is to say that Peter has both learned this material from Jesus Christ himself (as will become evident below) and is guided in what he writes by Christ’s Spirit (1 Peter 1:10–12).
1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: