1 Peter 1:17

1:17-25 Holy confidence in God as a Father, and awful fear of him as a Judge, agree together; and to regard God always as a Judge, makes him dear to us as a Father. If believers do evil, God will visit them with corrections. Then, let Christians not doubt God's faithfulness to his promises, nor give way to enslaving dread of his wrath, but let them reverence his holiness. The fearless professor is defenceless, and Satan takes him captive at his will; the desponding professor has no heart to avail himself of his advantages, and is easily brought to surrender. The price paid for man's redemption was the precious blood of Christ. Not only openly wicked, but unprofitable conversation is highly dangerous, though it may plead custom. It is folly to resolve, I will live and die in such a way, because my forefathers did so. God had purposes of special favour toward his people, long before he made manifest such grace unto them. But the clearness of light, the supports of faith, the power of ordinances, are all much greater since Christ came upon earth, than they were before. The comfort is, that being by faith made one with Christ, his present glory is an assurance that where he is we shall be also, Joh 14:3. The soul must be purified, before it can give up its own desires and indulgences.

And the word of God planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eternal life. In contrast with the excellence of the renewed spiritual man, as born again, observe the vanity of the natural man. In his life, and in his fall, he is like grass, the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away. We should hear, and thus receive and love, the holy, living word, and rather hazard all than lose it; and we must banish all other things from the place due to it. We should lodge it in our hearts as our only treasures here, and the certain pledge of the treasure of glory laid up for believers in heaven.

{10} And if ye {i} call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: (10) As before he distinguished true faith and hope from false, so does he now obedience, setting the quick and sharp sight of God, against an outward mask, and earnest reverence against vain severity. (i) If you will be called the sons of that father.

1 Peter 1:17 . And if ye call on the Father — With an expectation of being heard; or, as you desire or expect audience and acceptance at God’s hands; who, without respect of persons — Which can have no place with God; see note on Romans 2:11 ; judgeth according to every man’s work — According to the tenor of his life and conversation; pass the time of your sojourning — The short season of your abode on earth; in fear — In the reverential and awful fear of God, in an humble and loving fear of offending him, in a watchful fear of your spiritual enemies, and in a jealous fear of yourselves, lest a promise being left you of entering into his rest, you should, through lukewarmness, sloth, and indolence, or through levity, carelessness, and negligence, after all, come short of it. This fear is a proper companion and guard of hope. The word παροικια , here rendered sojourning, properly signifies the stay which travellers make in a place while finishing some business. The term, therefore, is applied with great propriety to the abode of the children of God in the present world, as it signifies that this earth is not their home, and that they are to remain in it only a short time. See on Hebrews 11:13 .

If ye call on the Father - judgeth More correctly, Rev., If ye call on him as Father; the point being that God is to be invoked, not only as Father, but as Judge. Without respect of persons (ἀπροσωπολήμπτως) Here only. Peter, however, uses προσωπολήμπτης, a respecter of persons, Acts 10:34, which whole passage should be compared with this. Paul and James also use the kindred word προσωπολημψία, respect of persons. See Romans 2:11; James 2:1. James has the verb προσωπολημπτέω, to have respect of persons. The constituents of the compound word, πρόσωπον, the countenance, and λαμβάνω, to receive, are found in Galatians 2:6; and the word is the Old-Testament formula to accept or to raise the face of another; opposed to making the countenance fall (Job 29:24; Genesis 4:5). Hence, to receive kindly, or look favorably upon one (Genesis 19:21; Genesis 32:20, etc.). In the Old Testament it is, as Bishop Lightfoot observes, "a neutral expression involving no subsidiary notion of partiality, and is much oftener found in a good than in a bad sense. When it becomes an independent Greek phrase, however, the bad sense attaches to it, owing to the secondary meaning of πρόσωπον, a mask; so that πρόσωπον λαμβάνειν signifies to regard the external circumstances of a man, his rank, wealth, etc., as opposed to his real, intrinsic character." Sojourning (παροικίας) Compare sojourners, 1 Peter 1:1.

1 Peter 1:17 . Ἐπικαλεῖσθε , ye call upon ) and are called by His name.— ἀπροσωπολήπτως , without respect of persons ) whether any one is a Hebrew or a Greek.— ἀπροσωπολήπτως — ἐν φόβῳ ) Comp. 2 Chronicles 19:7 .— ἔργον , work ) The singular. The work of one man is one, whether it be good or evil.— ἐν φόβῳ , in fear ) Fear is joined to hope, each flowing from the same source. Fear prevents us from falling away from hope.— παροικίας , of sojourning ) He calls them strangers , because they are in the world, ch. 1 Peter 2:11 ; not however without an allusion to the διασπορὰ , the dispersion , in Asia, 1 Peter 1:1 .

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, Jam 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 Jam 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.

1 Peter 1:17 , cf. Romans 2:10 f., εἰ πατέρα ἐπικαλεῖσθε , if ye invoke as Father :—reminiscence of Jeremiah 3:19 , εἰ πατέρα ἐπικαλεῖσθέ με (so Q[147] perhaps after 1 Peter, for εἶπα πατέρα καλέσετέ με ) cf. Psalm 89:27 , αὐτὸς ἐπικαλέσεται με Πατήρ μου εἶ σύ . There may be a reference to the use of the Lord’s Prayer ( surname the Judge Father ); but the context of Jer. l.c. corresponds closely to the thought here: “All the nations shall be gathered … to Jerusalem, neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. In those day.… Judah and Israel shall come together out of the land of captivity … and I said ‘My father ye shall call me’.”— ἀπροσωπολήμπτως summarises St. Peter’s inference from experience at Caesarea ( Acts 10:34 ) καταλαμβάνομαι ὅτι οὔκ ἐστιν προσωπολήμπτης ὁ θεός . Adjective and adverb are formed from λαμβάνειν πρόσωπον of LXX = נשא פוי receive ( lift up ) the face of, i.e., be favourable and later partial, to . The degeneration of the phrase was due to the natural contrast between the face and the heart of a man, which was stamped on the Greek equivalent by the use of πρόσωπον for mask of the actor or hypocrite .— κρίνοντα . If the tense be pressed, compare the saying of Jesus recorded in John 12:31 , νῦν κρίσις ἐστιν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου . Romans 2:16 is referred to the last Judgment by διὰ χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ .

But the present participle may be timeless as in ὁ καλῶν , ὁ βαπτίζων , etc.— κατὰ τὸ ἑκάστου ἔργον , a commonplace Jewish and Christian, cf. Ps. 12:12 (cited Romans 2:6 ), σὺ ἀποδώσεις ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ (Hebrew has the work ). R. Aqiba used to say … The world is judged by grace and everything is according to the work ( Pirqe Aboth. , iii. 24). For collective singular lifework , cf. also 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 , etc.— ἐν φόβῳ , Fear is not entirely a technical term in N.T. Christians needed the warning to fear God (so Luke 12:5 ; 2 Corinthians 5:10 ), although love might be proper to the perfect—Gnostic or Pharisee— 1 John 4:18 . The natural and acquired senses exist side by side, as appears in the use of ἄφοβος . Compare ἄφοβος οὐ δύναται δικαιωθῆναι ( Sir 1:22 ) with ἐν τούτῳ ἄφοβός εἰμι ( Psalm 27:2 , Symmachus) = in Him I am confident .— τὸν τῆς παροικίας χρονον , during your earthly pilgrimage , which corresponds to the sojourn of Israel in Egypt ( Acts 13:17 ). If God is their Father, heaven must be their home ( 1 Peter 1:4 ); their life on earth is therefore a sojourn (see on 1 Peter 1:1 ). St. Paul has his own use of the metaphor ( Ephesians 2:19 ). Gentile Christians are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow-citizens of the saints. [147]. An eighth century version of Codex Vaticanus

17. if ye call on—that is, "seeing that ye call on," for all the regenerate pray as children of God, "Our Father who art in heaven" (Mt 6:9; Lu 11:2). the Father—rather, "Call upon as Father Him who without acceptance of persons (Ac 10:34; Ro 2:11; Jas 2:1, not accepting the Jew above the Gentile, 2Ch 19:7; Lu 20:21; properly said of a judge not biassed in judgment by respect of persons) judgeth," &c. The Father judgeth by His Son, His Representative, exercising His delegated authority (Joh 5:22). This marks the harmonious and complete unity of the Trinity. work—Each man's work is one complete whole, whether good or bad. The particular works of each are manifestations of the general character of his lifework, whether it was of faith and love whereby alone we can please God and escape condemnation. pass—Greek, "conduct yourselves during." sojourning—The outward state of the Jews in their dispersion is an emblem of the sojourner-like state of all believers in this world, away from our true Fatherland. fear—reverential, not slavish. He who is your Father, is also your Judge—a thought which may well inspire reverential fear. Theophylact observes, A double fear is mentioned in Scripture: (1) elementary, causing one to become serious; (2) perfective: the latter is here the motive by which Peter urges them as sons of God to be obedient.

Fear is not here opposed to assurance, but to carnal security: fear producing vigilant caution lest we offend God and backslide. "Fear and hope flow from the same fountain: fear prevents us from falling away from hope" [Bengel]. Though love has no fear IN it, yet in our present state of imperfect love, it needs to have fear going ALONG WITH It as a subordinate principle. This fear drowns all other fears. The believer fears God, and so has none else to fear. Not to fear God is the greatest baseness and folly. The martyrs' more than mere human courage flowed from this.