1 Peter 4

1 Peter 4:7

The apostle exhorts the Christian converts to watchfulness and to fidelity, that they might rightly improve their several talents, and discharge the duties of their respective stations in the church; and to courage and fortitude amidst their discouragements and persecutions; and by way of inference from the trials to which good men were exposed, he observes that a tremendous inevitable destruction will overwhelm the impenitent and unbelieving. 1 Pet. IV. 7—19.

1 PETER IV. 7.

HOW strongly are vain and sinful men atviii. tached to the amusements and interests 1 Pet. of this mortal life, and to the gratification of iv. 7 their lusts! But the important end of all things is at hand, when this earthly globe, and all things which are therein, shall be burnt up, when the eternal state of all its inhabitants shall be determined, and immutable happiness, or misery, shall be their final portion. Be sober therefore, and watch, against all occasions of intemperance, and of impurity, and endeavour to preserve your souls in so Divine a posture, as that you may be habitually qualified for joining in prayer and those other exercises of devotion, which have such an influence on 8 our whole conduct. And above all things be careful to remember the distinguishing badge of your religion, having and maintaining fervent love towards one another; which as it will be very comfortable and honourable to yourselves, will be very pleasing and acceptable to God; for on the whole, as the wise man as-

1 PETER IV. 7.

BUT the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

And above all things have fervent charity among your-

The end of all things, &c.] I cannot think this signifies the destruction of Jerusalem; an event, in which most of those to whom the apostle wrote, were comparatively but little concerned. It must undoubtedly signify either death, which may be considered as the end of the whole

world to every particular person; or the consummation of all things, which may be said to be at hand, in the sense in which our Lord, long after the destruction of Jerusalem, says to the church, “Behold, I come quickly.” Rev. xxii. 7, 20.

should perform the duties of their stations.

sures us, love will cover a multitude of sins,ᵇ it will cause us to excuse them in others, and ’t will entitle us through Divine mercy to the expectation of forgiveness for numberless slips and failings. Be hospitable to each other, without grudging the expense which may attend the exercise of a virtue which in present circumstances is so important and necessary. As every one has received the free gift of God, exercise it towards each other, as becomes those who know they are not themselves proprietors, but merely stewards, of what they possess, and who desire to approve themselves good stewards of the manifold grace of God, with which they have the honour to be intrusted. If any one speak in public assemblies, discoursing on the great topics of the gospel, [let him handle the subject] with seriousness and reverence, and as becomes one who knows that sublime dispensation contains no discoveries of doctrine or duty, but what are indeed the oracles of God. If any one minister in any office of kindness to others, and particularly in the work of a deacon, [let it be] according to the utmost ability which God supplies; that God may in all things be glorified by Jesus Christ, who has called us to his service, and to the hope of enjoying him for ever; to whom, as our great Redeemer and Saviour, be glory and dominion ascribed for ever and ever. Amen.

And now, my beloved brethren, let me seriously caution you, that you be not surprised at the fiery trial,ᶜ at the dreadful series of furious

a multitude of sins.] have, it cheerfully encourages our hope of finding many merciful allowances from God in our final account with him, which those who are destitute of this Divine principle, in which so much of the image of God consists, must never expect, whatever faith or sanctity they may pretend to. Compare Mat. vii. 1, 2; James 13.ᶜ The fiery trial: avowess.] This is metaphor, borrowed from chemical operations, and very emphatically expressed in nature of those trials, in the furnace of affliction, which were intended to reflect their graces, and separate all the drug and alloy from the pure gold.

And rejoice in partaking of Christ’s suffer

and bitter persecutions which is to try you, as if some strange and unexampled thing, beyond all reasonable expectation, had befallen you: But rather rejoice in these trials, as being therein partakers of the sufferings of Christ, the memory of which should ever be dear and precious to you; that when his final glory shall be revealed,ᵈ ye, in the participation of it, may be even transported with joy far beyond what can now be described, or conceived. In the mean time, while you are in this present world, and obnoxious to persecutions and injuries, if you are reproached for the name of Christ, [ye are] happy, and ought to reckon yourselves so, because the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you;ᵉ which will support you under it, and spread a lustre around you; and [though] he, in whose cause ye suffer so unjustly, is blasphemed on their part, yet on yours, he is glorified: it shews the excellence and sublime spirit of true religion, that it can support you under the opprobrious and cruel treatment which you endure, for adhering to it and defending it. But let not any of you, who have the honour to bear the Christian name, by any means suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a malefactor, of any other kind, or even as over busy and assuming in the affairs of others,ᶠ aspiring to direct,

ᵈ When his glory shall be revealed.] There is no occasion with Mr. Fleming to interpret this of the glory of the Shetland, appearing at the millennium to excite the exceeding joy of the saints after the first resurrection. Flem. Christol. Vol. II. p. 868. It probably refers to the great and glorious day of Christ’s second appearance, which is so often spoken of as the grand jubilee of Christians, though not inconsistent with great joy to be received by the spirit of every good man, immediately on its entrance into the intermediate state.

ᵉ Spirit of glory and of God, &c.] The Veteran reading is, “The spirit of honour, and of glory, and Divine power, even the Spirit of God, rests upon you.” But I take the meaning to be in general, you shall have the Spirit of God in a very glorious manner to support you in proportion to the trials you are called out to; and this will spread a glory around you, even though

you may be treated in the most infamous manner, as the vilest of malefactors, which we know many of the primitive Christians were.

ᶠ As over busy in the affairs of others.] A. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. G.

Judgment would begin at the house of God.

overrule and determine them in a manner not suiting your station in life ; in consequence of which you may bring any degree of ill will upon yourselves. But if it please Providence to appoint, that [any of you] should [suffer] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, though the punishment, like that inflicted upon his Divine Master himself, should be ever so infamous ; but rather let him glorify God in this respect, despising the shame, as well as resolutely enduring the agony that may attend it ; Because the time [is coming,] and just at hand, when judgment is to begin at the house of God ; for he hath determined to exercise his own people with very severe trials, giving them up for a while to the malice of their enemies ; that by this means their characters may be approved, and those who are hypocrites, may be separated from those who are sincere in their Christian profession ; and if [it begin] first with us, what [shall be] the end of those, who are obstinately and presumptuously disobedient to the gospel of God, and who not only reject it, but persecute its professors, and endeavour to root it out of the world ? And if the righteous himself be saved with difficulty, how miserable

hrazed the words so as to suggest this, yet so as to take in the most that could be imagined to be intended.

g Time is coming when judgment is to begin at the house of God.] As if he had said, “Do not think this a matter of unconcerning speculation. No, the time foretold by Christ (John xvi. 2, &c.) is coming.” I doubt not there is an allusion to that passage in Ezek. ix. 6, where it is said the slaughter to be made was to begin at the sanctuary ; but this cannot be interpreted as of the Temple of Jerusalem, because it answers to beginning with us, that is, Christians, immediately after. So that Grotius’s criticism upon the word יהוה in the latter clause of this verse, as answering to בלה Dan. ix. 27, and to יהוה in Matt. xxiv. 6, seems quite foreign to the purpose.

h If the righteous be saved with difficulty.] The apostle seems to quote Prov. xi. 31, according to the Seventy, which in sense, though not exactly in words, agrees with the Hebrew He cannot intend deliverance from the Roman invasion, in which

so very few of those Christians were concerned ; nor merely deliverance from any of their persecutors, because he takes it for granted, that in this sense the righteous would be saved, though with difficulty ; whereas multitudes fell by persecution, even of these Christians in Bithynia, as appears by Pliny’s letter. It is necessary therefore to understand it more generally, of the difficulty with which good men get to heaven, through this dangerous and ensnaring world. Compare Acts xiv. 18 ; xxvii. 7, 8, 16, where μολις signifies with difficulty ; in which sense it is also used by Philo. (See Wolfi Curæ Philolog. Vol. V. p. 161) The turn of the latter clause of the verse in the original, which I have endeavoured to preserve, is very lively ; it seems as if the apostle were solicitous to lead the sinner to consider, where he should hide his head ; since wherever he was, he would find God immediately appearing against him as an irresistible enemy. This he might say by way of warning to persecutors, and to encourage Christians to hope that God would vindi-

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Re ections on

must the ungodly and the sinner be? where shall he appear in the day of Divine vengeance, when all nature, shall be, as it were, armed with terror by the God of nature, for his destruction; and when all impious transgressors shall be brought forth in his awful presence, that his just, though dreadful sentence of condemnation, may be executed in its rigour? Therefore let them also, who now suffer this temporary punishment, which according to the will of God so permitting, their enemies have at present a power of inflicting, acknowledge the Providence of God in this mysterious event, and commit their souls [to him] as to a faithful Creator, in well doing; assured that while they continue to act as under a sense of his presence, and endeavour to approve themselves to him, he will regard them as his creatures, and even his children, and will render their immortal interests secure, whatever injuries of a temporal nature he may suffer them to sustain.

IMPROVEMENT.

verse 7 Let us continually bear in mind the approaching end of all things; and then we shall neither omit the exercises of devotion, nor grow supine and careless in the discharge of them. Then 8 shall we be engaged through a sense of our need of the Divine clemency and indulgence, to exercise forbearance and candour, and maintain the most fervent charity to all without distinction; and we shall then be more disposed to consider ourselves a 10 stewards, and as such, be concerned to behave with all good fidelity, both in the use and enjoyment of our possessions, and in the exercise of those gifts and endowments with which God hath been pleased to intrust us. To this they should especially attend, who are called to speak in God’s name; they should consider, that 11 his oracles are committed to them; and though they cannot pretend, that the instructions they deliver from thence, are revealed to and impressed upon their minds by immediate inspiration, yet a reflection on the general nature of the glorious gospel, and on its important and everlasting consequences, may well dispose and form them to an humble awe and reverence in their manner of handling and dispensing it; and may remind them, that on the whole, in every ministration of the word of life, in every dis-

cate their cause, and preserve them from this the connection with the following verturning aside to crooked paths. And favours.

our partaking of Christ’s sufferings.

tribution of charity, and office of kindness, the main end to be pursued is, That God may be glorified.

If, in the cause of Christ, Providence should call us out to encounter the severest persecutions, and even fiery trials, let us not be astonished, as if some strange thing had happened to us; let us not be discouraged, nor think ourselves hardly dealt with in such Divine appointments; remembering that in this case we are only partakers in the sufferings of Christ, that we only tread in the same rough and thorny path in which he walked before us; and that in due time, if we continue faithful to him, we shall also be made partakers of his glory. In the mean while, the Spirit of God and of glory will rest upon us; only let us be jealous of his honour with a godly jealousy, and be greatly concerned, that our sins and indiscretions may not throw a blemish on a profession which derives its appellation from him. Glorious are the privileges indeed which belong to the disciples of Christ; but they, notwithstanding, draw very awful consequences after them. For judgment begins at the house of God, and even his dearest children are exercised with trials of their fidelity and patience. Let us prepare for them before they come, that when they do come, we may bear them honourably, committing the keeping of our souls to him, as to a faithful Creator, in well doing. But let the wicked and the ungodly meditate terror; for the vengeance of God will find them out; the great day of wrath will come; and who can be able to stand? May Divine grace reclaim those who are now exposed to so terrible a condemnation; lest they know by experience, what no words can describe, no thought conceive, the end of those who obey not the gospel of God.