1 Peter 3:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For it is better, if the will of God be so,— It is a great crime in him who inflicts misery, that he does it to the innocent, and not to such as deserve it. It is not better for him, that those whom he treats with severity suffer for their goodness; but it is better for the persons who suffer, that they suffer innocently. See 1 Peter 3:14 chap. 1 Peter 2:19-20. The lesser evil is, in a given sense, universally esteemed as the greater good; and, in this view, it is better to suffer persecution, or any temporal evil, in comparison of the durable and more intense sufferings of wicked men and apostates in a future state. Holiness and piety are in themselves preferable to vice and wickedness; and, as a resurrection to eternal life would, through the alone merits of Christ, be the sure consequence of their suffering faithfully for righteousness, and their rewards were to be greater in proportion to their sufferings; upon these accounts it was unquestionably better, infinitely better, to suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing. Grotius here takes notice of that fine saying of Socrates, when he was unjustly condemned to die: "He, who suffereth for evil deeds, hath no hope of reward; but, he that suffereth for God, hath the greatest."