ABSTRACT
Most scholars who acknowledge a missionary dimension in 1 Peter explicitly connect this dimension to the display of honourable conduct. In this view, the situation of suffering that permeates the entire letter is at most understood either as an occasion for witnessing or as an obstacle to missionary effort. In this contribution, based on an investigation of honour discourse related to the themes of suffering and witnessing, I suggest that the reality of suffering is fully intertwined with the call for honourable conduct and its missionary objective. I will argue that, for Peter, far from being an obstacle, the endurance of suffering is an integral part of the missionary process, rooted in a firm theological conviction. By consequence, the phenomenon of social creativity in 1 Peter is anchored at a deeper theological level, their minority position and actual suffering being an essential theological core of their identity and vocation as Jesus followers.
