1 Peter 4:14-16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

If ye be reproached for Christ Reproaches and cruel mockings were always one part of their sufferings, and to an ingenuous mind, reproach is often worse than the spoiling of goods, or even than bodily pain; happy are you The apostle alludes to Christ's words, Matthew 5:11, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, &c. For the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you Conquering all reproach, and spreading a lustre around you, while he supports and comforts you in a glorious manner under all your trials. The apostle alludes to Isaiah 11:2. “The Spirit of glory, which rested on the persecuted disciples of Christ in the first age, was a Spirit of fortitude, enabling them to suffer the greatest evils without shrinking, a virtue which the heathen greatly admired. For which reason, when they put the first Christians to death for refusing to worship idols, they were so struck with the constancy, patience, meekness, and benevolence wherewith they suffered, that it led many of them to think well, both of a religion which inspired its votaries with such admirable virtues, and of those votaries themselves. And as this constancy in suffering, from which the Christians derived so much glory, proceeded from the aid of the Spirit of God, the apostle justly termed it, both the Spirit of glory, and the Spirit of God.” Macknight. But let none of you Who have the honour to bear the Christian name; suffer By your own fault; suppose as a murderer, or as a thief &c. At the time St. Peter wrote this epistle, the unbelieving Jews in Judea were extremely addicted to murder and robbery, and every kind of wickedness, as we learn from Josephus; for they robbed and killed, not only the heathen, but their own brethren, who would not join them in their opposition to the Romans. Hence the apostle judged it proper to caution the Christians, especially the Jewish Christians, in this manner, lest, being corrupted by such bad examples, they should be led to the commission of any such crimes. As the apostle is here cautioning them against those sins which, if they committed them, would expose them to punishment from the civil magistrate, by αλλοτριοεπισκοπος, here rendered a busy-body in other men's matters, he cannot well be supposed to mean merely one who pries into the concerns of private families, as such a one could not properly be ranked with such criminals as are here mentioned. But he might mean one that affected to inspect and direct the behaviour of persons in public offices, from a factious disposition to find fault with their conduct, and thereby to raise commotions in the state; which Lardner hath shown was the practice of the Jews in Alexandria, Cesarea, and other places. Or we may, with L'Enfant. understand the word in the more general sense of meddling with other people's affairs, from avarice, anger, revenge, malice, or other bad passions. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian That is, because he is a Christian; and if he suffer in a Christian spirit, let him not be ashamed Of his sufferings; but let him glorify, or praise, God on this behalf That is, for having judged him worthy to suffer in so good a cause; and for enabling him to do it with fortitude and patience. It may be proper to observe that this, with Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28, are the only passages of Scripture in which the disciples are called Christians, after their Master.