CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1 Peter 4:12. Strange.—Do not be surprised, as if something unreasonable had happened. No form of suffering can come to Christians as accident. God, with a purpose of grace, is behind all. Fiery trial.—Burning fire. R.V. “among you, which cometh upon you to prove you.” Whether “fiery” is intimation of intensity, or strictly descriptive, does not appear. The word as a symbol is more probable. Martyrdoms by fire may not have begun so early.
1 Peter 4:13. Rejoice.—In one point of view of the sufferings, they bring you into the experience which led to the sanctifying and glorifying of Christ. It will lead through to yours also. Inasmuch as.—Better, “in as far as.” We get the true blessing of affliction only so far as we enter into the mind of the suffering Christ.
1 Peter 4:14. If ye be.—This form of expression hints that they had been, were, and might be. Slander and reproach are often harder to bear than suffering in body or in circumstance Spirit of glory.—“Of glory and of power and of God.” The spirit which marks you out as an heir of glory. “The argument is, that reproach for the name of Christ is a proof of glory in reserve, or rather, already belonging to the man.” On their part.—This closing part of the verse is omitted in R.V. The words are an undoubted interpolation. They are not found in the best MSS. and Versions (see “Variorum Bible.”).
1 Peter 4:15. The word translated “busy-body” is a peculiar one, and seems to have been coined by St. Peter,—ἀλλοτριοεπίσκοπος—lit. “Bishops of other men’s matters,” claiming rights in matters with which he has no proper concern. Interference is a fruitful source of trouble in all religious, as well as other communities.
1 Peter 4:16. Christian.—St. Peter recognises this as the known name of the sect. This fact helps to date the epistle. On this behalf.—In this matter, or in this name; in being “counted worthy to suffer in this name.”
1 Peter 4:17. Judgment must begin.—Compare 1 Peter 4:5; 1 Peter 4:7. “Just about to begin.” House of God.—See 1 Timothy 3:15: 1 Peter 2:5. End be.—Not the final doom, but the end of the judgment dispensations that St. Peter knew were about to begin.
1 Peter 4:18 Scarcely.—With difficulty. Keep association with the calamities immediately coming, which would centre round the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Apostles thought of this as God’s judgment on the wicked. Illustrate by the singing of the Christians, headed by Olynthus, when the fires of Vesuvius were destroying Pompeii, as given by Bulwer Lytton:
“Woe to the proud ones who defy Him;
Woe to the wicked who deny Him;
Woe to the wicked, woe!”
1 Peter 4:19. According to the will of God.—Recognised as permitting, over-ruling, and even apportioning, our suffering lot. Suffering borne for God is sanctified by God. “Stress is laid upon the attribute, or act of creation, as the ground of confidence. He who made the soul is also He who hateth nothing that He hath made.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Peter 4:12-19
Christian Suffering No Surprise.—The burning fire is the symbol of afflictions and persecutions. The mind of the apostle goes back once more to those afflictions which the Christians of the Dispersion were, at that time, called to endure (1 Peter 1:6-7, 1 Peter 2:19-21, 1 Peter 3:15-17). All who profess the faith in Christ must take into full account the fact that only “through much tribulation” can any man enter the kingdom.
“The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the place where sorrow is unknown.”
Christian suffering should be no surprise because—
I. It is needed for proving us.—“The fiery trial cometh upon you to prove you.” That is not precisely the same thing as to discipline you. The cases of Abraham, Job, and the Lord Jesus, show that proving the good, by suffering experiences, is the condition of advance in spiritual life and power. The poet “learns in suffering what he teaches in song.” And the Christian’s power to serve is a product of his trying experiences.
II. It does but bring us into the line of Christ.—We have solved the mystery of our sufferings when we have solved the mystery of His. “Though He were a son, yet learned He obedience by the things that He suffered.” He was “made perfect through suffering to be a bringer on of sons to glory.” Moral power cannot be gained, save in Christ’s way.
III. It is the medium for conveying special grace to us (1 Peter 4:14).—“The Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you.” These afflictions are the special agencies of the Spirit, and signs of unusual interest in you, concern for you, and purposes for you.
IV. It is best seen as part of the Divine judgment on the race.—Which you are bearing vicariously, in order that you may be ministers of the Divine mercy that always blends with judgment.
V. It may be difficult to endure these afflictions well.—“The righteous is scarcely saved.” You must put your whole heart and effort into the enduring, since the perils are so extreme. Life well-nigh masters everybody, with its strain and stress. Only the grace of God, sanctifying the most constant and careful watchfulness, gets even the righteous man through. Christian living is no easy thing.
VI. Suffering in well-doing can only be borne to right issues when there is full trust in God, and the absolute committal of ourselves to Him in well-doing.—“In the acceptance of sufferings as being according to the will of God, much more is meant than the mere submission to an inevitable destiny. If we really think of pain and persecution as working out God’s will, permitted and controlled by Him, we know that that will is righteous and loving, planning nothing less than our completeness in holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:3), the will of which we daily pray that it may be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Dean Plumptre).
A. J. Mason, in “Ellicott’s Commentary,” paraphrases 1 Peter 4:19 thus: “Consider the mildness of these trials compared with the terrors overhanging the sinful. Even if the worst should come to the worst, and you must die a martyr’s death, it is but the execution of God’s plan for you. View your life as a deposit lay it confidently in His hands, to be returned to you again when the time comes, and you will find Him faithful to what a Creator ought to be.” The “will of God,” in accordance with which they “suffer,” is part of the act of creation. The term “faithful Creator “contains the idea that the act of creation mposes duties and responsibilities on the Creator. In the Greek the words “in well-doing” are made emphatic by being placed last in the sentence. Punishment is the word for suffering which attends on wrong-doing. Discipline is the word for suffering which comes to frail-doing. Sanctifying is the proper word for suffering which is associated with well-doing.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1 Peter 4:15. Busybodies.—It is but one word in the original (meaning), as bishops in another’s diocese, as pryers into other men’s matters, as pragmatical persons that meddle with other men’s concernments, without cause or call. It is not suffering for evil-doing, but suffering for well-doing, that carries the crown (2 Timothy 2:12). It is not just, but unjust suffering, that hath the recompense of reward annexed to it (1 Peter 3:14; 1 Peter 4:14). It is not sufferers for the evil of sin, nor sufferers of the evil of sin; but sufferers of the evil of punishment, for the avoiding of the evil of sin, whose cause is good.—Brooks.
Bishops of Those Without.—“Others, through excess of zeal, declaimed aloud against the Pagans, and cast their vices in their teeth. Their more sensible brethren humorously called them “bishops,” or “overseers of those who are without” (Renan). Such is, indeed, the meaning of the droll word which St. Peter here gives: except that, instead of “bishops of those without,” it means “bishops of other men’s matters.” It denotes those prying and self-important people, who fancy they can. set everything to rights, and that everybody they come across is under their personal jurisdiction. Such persons would tend to make Christianity unpopular among the unbelievers, and in case of persecution would be the first to “suffer” (i.e., to be picked out for martyrdom); and while flattering themselves for the boldness with which they had spoken out, they would incur St. Peter’s censure, and their martyrdom would be reckoned no martyrdom by the Church. “Cruel mishaps,” continues M. Renan, “befell them; and the wise directors of the community, so far from extolling them, told them pretty plainly that it did but serve them right.”—A. J. Mason, M.A.
1 Peter 4:17-19. The Time of Visitation.—A new reason is here introduced why Christians should suffer gladly for their Lord’s sake. He will deliver them from the terrible judgments which are about to burst on the ungodly, and their souls will find rest in God, to whom they commit themselves as to a faithful Creator.
I. The visitation of judgment.—
1. Its beginning. When St. Peter wrote, the city and temple of Jerusalem were still standing, but were threatened. The coming visitation affected believers as discipline, before it affected the ungodly as judgment.
2. Its progress. “What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God.” If the sons are chastised, what have the rebels to expect? Not with impunity shall any one, on any grounds whatever, disobey the gospel of God.
3. Its results. The righteous are saved with difficulty. In consequence of the severity of the trial, and their own weakness, they barely escape the judgments of the Most High (illustrated by the haste of the escape of the Christians to Pella). The ungodly are those who care not for God; sinners are those who make a trade of sin. What will be their doom?
II. The lesson to believers.—Drawn from these facts:
1. An exhortation to those who suffer according to the will of God. They never suffer but when God wills, and He will not always chide, nor lay upon them more than they are able to bear.
2. What are such sufferers to do? Commit the keeping of their souls to God, and put all their strength into well-doing.
3. The encouragement to do this arises from the fact that He is “a faithful Creator.”—Thornley Smith.
Suffering a Common Experience.—All Christians are not tried as the Christians to whom Peter wrote—the Christians at the close of the Jewish dispensation; but all Christians meet with afflictions, and meet with afflictions because they are Christians; all suffer, and all suffer as Christians. We must never think ill of a cause merely because it is persecuted, nor indulge dark thoughts respecting the spiritual state and prospects of men merely because they are very severely afflicted. The absence of trial is a worse sign than what we may be disposed to think the excess of trial. It is not exposure to trial, but the endurance of trial, in “a patient continuance in well-doing,” that is a characteristic mark of those who obey the gospel of God.—Dr. J. Brown.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
1 Peter 4:16. The Name “Christian.”—“There are only three places in the New Testament where the name Christian occurs. It is plain that for a long time there was no commonly recognised term of this kind. Hence they are called variously, “they that believed” (Acts 2:44), “the disciples” (Acts 6:1), “those of the way” (Acts 9:2), etc. Again, the name of Nazarenes was applied to them by the Jews, as a term of reproach, but plainly arose before the extension of the faith to the Gentiles. It was at Antioch that the large accession of Gentiles first made it impossible to look upon them merely as a Jewish sect, and required the use of some more distinctive title. It was natural, therefore, that the use of such a title should first prevail at Antioch. When the book [Acts of the Apostles] was written, towards the close of Paul’s imprisonment at Home, the formation of churches in the chief cities of almost every province would awaken inquiry as to the origin of this new name, that was already in every one’s mouth. How suitable, then, would be this passing remark of the historian (Acts 11:26), to show when and where it began to be current!—Birks.
Called Christians.—The word χρηματίσαι, used by St. Luke (“they were called”), implies the thing to have been done by some public and solemn act and declaration of the whole Church; such being the use of the word in the imperial edicts and proclamations of those times, the emperors being said χρηματἱζειν “to style themselves,” when they publicly proclaimed by what titles they would be called.… Such being the general acceptation of the word, St. Luke (who was himself a native of this city) makes use of it to express that solemn declaration whereby the disciples of the religion entitled themselves to the name of Christians.—Cave.
1 Peter 4:17. The Danger of Unbelief.—In one of the popular books of the present day there is a story told of “The Sunken Rock.” A vessel, named the Thetis, was cruising in the Mediterranean, in search of a shoal or bank, or something of that kind, said to exist beneath the treacherous waters. The captain, after he had adopted all the means he thought necessary, having failed, abandoned the enterprise, declaring “that the reported danger was all a dream.” An officer on board formed a different judgment, went out by himself on an expedition afterwards into the very same latitude and longitude, and there discovered a reef of rocks, which he reported to the Admiralty, and it was inserted in the charts, the discoverer being rewarded with a high appointment. The intelligence came to the captain’s ears; he would not believe in the discovery. He was a shrewd, clever, practical man, but unscientific, incredulous, and obstinate. “The whole thing is a falsehood,” he exclaimed; adding, “If ever I have the keel of the Thetis under me in those waters again, if I don’t carry her clean over where the chart marks a rock, call me a liar and no seaman.” Two years after, he was conveying in the same vessel the British Ambassador to Naples. One windy night he and the master were examining the chart on deck by the light of the lantern, when the latter pointed out the sunken rock on the map. “What!” exclaimed the old seaman, “is this invention to meet me in the teeth again? No; I swore I would sail over that spot the first chance I had, and I’ll do it.” He went down into the cabin, merrily related the story to the company, and said, “Within five minutes we shall have passed the spot.” There was a pause. Then, taking out his watch, he said, “Oh, the time is past. We have gone over the wonderful reef.” But presently a grating touch was felt on the ship’s keel, then a sudden shock, a tremendous crash—the ship had foundered. Through great exertions most of the crew were saved, but the captain would not survive his own mad temerity, and the last seen of him was his white figure, bareheaded, and in his shirt, from the dark hull of the Thetis, as the foam burst round her bows and stem, He perished, a victim of unbelief. So perish multitudes.
1 Peter 4:18. Scarcely Saved.—There is such a fate as being saved, yet so as by fire, going into the brightness with the smell of fire on your garments.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
CHAPTER 5