1 Peter 4:3-5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For the time past of our life may suffice us Αρκετος ημιν, is sufficient for us; to have wrought the will of the Gentiles The expression is soft, but conveys a very strong meaning, namely, that in no period of our lives ought we to have wrought the will of the Gentiles; and that whatever time we spent in so doing was too much. When we walked in lasciviousness In various kinds and degrees of it; lusts Inordinate desires; excess of wine Οινοφλυγιαις, being inflamed with wine; revellings Κωμοις, luxurious feastings; see on Romans 13:13; banquetings Ποτοις, drunken entertainments; and abominable idolatries With all the shameful vices connected therewith. Wherein they think it strange, &c. The word ξενιζονται, thus rendered, was used by the Greeks to express that admiration and wonder with which a stranger is struck, who beholds anything uncommon or new. The meaning here is, On account of your former manner of life, they wonder that you now shun their company, and run not with them to the same excess of riot you formerly ran into; speaking evil of you As proud, singular, silly, wicked, and the like; who shall give account Of this as well as all their other ways; to him that is ready So faith represents him now; to judge the quick and the dead Those who are now alive, and those who shall be found alive at his coming to judgment.