1 Peter 1:17 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

And if; this particle is used here, and frequently elsewhere, not as a note of doubting, but by way of assertion, and supposition of a thing known. Ye call on the Father; either this is to be meant of invocation, their calling on God in prayer; and then the sense is: If you be servants and worshippers of the Father; prayer being many times put for the whole worship of God, Isaiah 43:22 Acts 9:11: or, of their calling God, Father, as Matthew 6:9; and then the sense is: If you would be counted God's children, James 2:7. Who, without respect of persons; and so will no more excuse you that are Jews, and descended from Abraham, than those that are born of Gentile parents, Job 34:19 Acts 10:34 Ephesians 6:9. Judgeth; and so is not a Father only, but a Judge, and that a most righteous one. According to every man's work; i.e. works, the singular number put for the plural, as James 1:25: see Romans 2:6 Job 34:11. Pass the time of your sojourning here; the word signifies the temporary abode of a man in a place where he was not born, or doth not ordinarily reside; such being the condition of believers in the world, that they are sojourners, not citizens of it; they are travelling through it to their Father's house and heavenly country, Hebrews 11:9,10,13,16. They are here exhorted to a suitable carriage, expressed in the next words. In fear; which is due to him as a Father and a Judge. It may imply the greatest reverence, and the deepest humility, Philippians 2:12 1 Corinthians 2:3 1 Peter 3:2,15.