1 Peter 4:17

4:12-19 By patience and fortitude in suffering, by dependence on the promises of God, and keeping to the word the Holy Spirit hath revealed, the Holy Spirit is glorified; but by the contempt and reproaches cast upon believers, he is evil spoken of, and is blasphemed. One would think such cautions as these were needless to Christians. But their enemies falsely charged them with foul crimes. And even the best of men need to be warned against the worst of sins. There is no comfort in sufferings, when we bring them upon ourselves by our own sin and folly. A time of universal calamity was at hand, as foretold by our Saviour, Mt 24:9,10. And if such things befall in this life, how awful will the day of judgment be! It is true that the righteous are scarcely saved; even those who endeavour to walk uprightly in the ways of God. This does not mean that the purpose and performance of God are uncertain, but only the great difficulties and hard encounters in the way; that they go through so many temptations and tribulations, so many fightings without and fears within. Yet all outward difficulties would be as nothing, were it not for lusts and corruptions within. These are the worst clogs and troubles. And if the way of the righteous be so hard, then how hard shall be the end of the ungodly sinner, who walks in sin with delight, and thinks the righteous is a fool for all his pains!

{16} For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and {17} if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (16) The third reason: because the Lord of all the world being especially watchful over those in his household, does therefore discipline them first of all, yet so that he keeps a measure in his greatest severity. As he always used to do until now, so he does now especially when he exhibited himself in person to his Church. (17) Lest the godly should be offended and stumble at that vain shadow of happiness of the wicked, as though God were not the governor of the world, for that the wicked are in good case, and the godly in evil, the apostle teaches by an argument of a comparison of them together, that God who spares not his own, but nurtures them under the cross, will at length in his time handle the rebellious and wicked far otherwise, whom he has appointed to utter destruction.

1 Peter 4:17 . For the time is come — Foretold by Christ, Matthew 24:9 ; John 16:2 ; that judgment must begin at the house of God — In the Christian Church; God’s own family, which he first visits, both in justice and mercy. The judgment here spoken of is thought by many commentators to signify the particular distress which was to happen before Jerusalem should be utterly destroyed. the Christians were to expect to feel some of the first effects of that general calamity: it was to begin with them, as Christ had plainly foretold in the passages just referred to. It was God’s method of old to begin with sending calamities on his own people; and indeed a state of trial seems highly proper before a state of recompense. See 1 Peter 1:6 . There seems to be an allusion in this passage to Ezekiel 9:6 , and Jeremiah 25:29 . By us here, the apostle meant the Christians of that age, whether formerly Jews or Gentiles; for they appear to have been now persecuted generally everywhere. And if it first begin at us — Who have truly turned to God, and are taken into his favour through Christ, his beloved Son; what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? — Who, through unbelief and obstinacy, reject the counsel of God against themselves? how terribly will he visit them!

The words, who obey not the gospel of God, properly describe the unbelieving Jews: they were not chargeable with idolatry; they acknowledged, and in a sense worshipped, the true God; but they rejected the gospel which God had revealed by his Son, and therefore the divine wrath was executed upon them in so dreadful a manner. See on 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 . Whoever compares the accounts in the Scriptures, or ancient fathers, concerning the persecutions which befell the Christians about this time, with the sufferings of the Jews, as related by Josephus, will easily see that the distress only began with the Christians, and was light compared with what afterward fell upon the Jews: for when Jerusalem was destroyed, the Christians escaped with their lives, and enjoyed more peace and tranquillity than they had done before.

1 Peter 4:17 . Ὁ καιρὸς , the time ) that is, now is .— τοῦ ἄρξασθαι τὸ κρίμα , that judgment should begin ) It is one and the same judgment from the time of the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles until the last judgment . Ἄρξασθαι , a middle verb.— ἀπὸ τοῦ οἴου τοῦ Θεοῦ , from the house of God ) that is, the Church, ch. 1 Peter 2:5 . Judgment begins from this with a mild beginning: Jeremiah 25:29 ; Jeremiah 49:12 ; Ezekiel 9:6 .— τί τὸ τέλος , what shall be the end ) The judgment, which is more tolerable at the beginning, gradually becomes more severe. The righteous, having gone through their part, behold with security the miseries of the wicked: the wicked, while they afflict the righteous, fill up their own measure, and learn what their own portion will be; but the righteous better know this, and therefore they are patient.

For the time is come; or season, viz. that which is fixed by God: the afflictions that befall God’s people come in the time appointed, and so are never unseasonable. Or this may imply, that what the prophets spoke in their time, Isaiah 10:12 Jeremiah 25:29 , doth especially agree to gospel times, viz. that judgment begins at the house of God. Judgment; viz. temporary, and for good, in opposition to the destructive judgment he implies in the latter part of the verse; he means all those afflictions God brings upon his children for their correction, trial, instruction, mortification, 1 Corinthians 11:31,32 . Must begin at the house of God; the church of God, and the members of it, called here his house, as 1 Timothy 3:15 Hebrews 3:6 , and typified by the material house or temple of God under the Old Testament. What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? How miserable, how dreadful will be the end of all those that would not obey the gospel! Implying, that they shall be in a much worse condition if God take them in hand. If he spare not his children, much less will he his enemies. If the one sip of the cup of God’s wrath, the other shall wring out the dregs, and drink them, Psalm 75:8 .

1 Peter 4:17 . That Judgment begins at the House of God is a deduction from the vision of Ezekiel 9. ( cf. Ezekiel 7:4 , the καιρός has come ); the slaughter of Israelites who are not marked with Tau, is ordained by the Glory of the God of Israel; the Lord said, ἀπὸ τῶν ἁγίων μου ἄρξασθε and the men began at ( ἀπό ) the elders who were within in the house. The new Israel has precedence like the old even in condemnation; cf. Romans 2:8 f., τοῖς … ἀπειθοῦσι τῇ ἀληθεία … ὀργὴ ἐπὶ … ψυχὴν … Ἰουδαίου τε πρῶτον .— τῷ … εὐαγγελίῳ , cf. Mark 1:14 . The Gospel or Word, which God spake in a Son , succeeds to the law as the expression of the will against which all but the remnant ( Ez. l.c. ) rebel.

17. Another ground of consolation to Christians. All must pass under the judgment of God; God's own household first, their chastisement being here, for which they should glorify Him as a proof of their membership in His family, and a pledge of their escape from the end of those whom the last judgment shall find disobedient to the Gospel. the time—Greek, "season," "fit time." judgment must begin at the house of God—the Church of living believers. Peter has in mind Eze 9:6; compare Am 3:2; Jer 25:29. Judgment is already begun, the Gospel word, as a "two-edged sword," having the double effect of saving some and condemning others, and shall be consummated at the last judgment. "When power is given to the destroyer, he observes no distinction between the righteous and the wicked; not only so, but he begins first at the righteous" [Wetstein from Rabbins]. But God limits the destroyer's power over His people. if … at us, what shall the end be of them, &c.—If even the godly have chastening judgments now, how much more shall the ungodly be doomed to damnatory judgments at last. gospel of God—the very God who is to judge them.

17 . For the time is come that judgment must begin ] Literally, It is the season of the beginning of the judgment . The words of the Apostle stand in close connexion with his belief that he was living in the last age of the world, that “the end of all things was at hand.” (See note on 1 Peter 4:7 .) He saw in the persecutions and sufferings that fell on the Church, beginning “from the house of God,” the opening of that judgment. It was not necessarily a work of condemnation. Those on whom it fell might be judged in order that they might not be condemned (comp. 1 Corinthians 11:32 ). But it was a time which, like the final judgment, was one of separation. It was trying the reality of the faith of those who professed to believe in Christ, and dividing the true disciples from the hypocrites and half-hearted. The “house of God” is His family, His Ecclesia , as in 1 Timothy 3:15 , and the “spiritual house” of chap. 1 Peter 2:5 . what shall the end be of them that obey not ] The à fortiori argument reminds us in some measure of that of St Paul, “If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee” ( Romans 11:21 ). There, however, the contrast lay between Israel after the flesh that was rejected for its unfaithfulness and the new Israel after the spirit if it too should prove unfaithful. Here it lies between the true Israel of God and the outlying heathen world.

With a question which is more awful than any assertion, he asks, as to those that obey not, What shall be their end? The thought was natural enough to have been quite spontaneous, but it may also have been the echo of like thoughts that had passed through the minds of the older prophets. “I begin to bring evil upon the city which is called by my Name, and shall ye”—the nations of the heathen—“be utterly unpunished?” Jeremiah 25:29 . Comp. also Jeremiah 49:12 ; Ezekiel 9:6 .

Verse 17. - For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. The house of God is the Church (see 1 Timothy 3:15 ; 1 Corinthians 3:16 ; and 1 Peter 2:5 ). The judgment must begin at the sanctuary ( Ezekiel 9:6 ; see also Jeremiah 25:15-29 ). The beginning of judgment is the persecution of the Christians, as our Lord had taught ( Matthew 24:8, 9 , and following verses); but that judgment is not unto condemnation: "When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" ( 1 Corinthians 11:32 ); it is the fiery trial, "which is much more precious than of gold that perisheth," the refining fire of affliction. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? Compare the passage in Jeremiah already referred to: "Behold, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my Name, and should ye be utterly unpunished?" Compare also our Lord's question, "If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Gerhard (quoted by Huther) rightly remarks," Exaggeratio est in interrogatione." The question suggests answers too awful for words. 1 Peter 4:17