1 Peter 4:18

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!

1 Peter 4:18 . And if the righteous scarcely be saved — Escape with the utmost difficulty. So the word μολις , rendered scarcely, signifies. That is, If it be not without much difficulty that the Christians are secured and preserved in those overflowing, devouring judgments which are coming on the Jewish nation; where shall the ungodly and the sinner — The impenitent and unbelieving, the obstinate and wicked part of the Jewish nation; appear? — That is, what will become of them? Dreadful will be their destruction. The meaning of the apostle, however, may be, If the righteous, ο δικαιος , the righteous man, be scarcely, or not wholly saved from suffering, that is, from chastisement, (in which light the apostle represents the persecutions to which the Christians were exposed,) if God judges, and, by various temporal afflictions and calamities, punishes him, where shall the ungodly and impenitent sinner appear? How terrible will be the wrath which will fall upon him? If the faults of the loyal subject, yea, of the dutiful son, be not passed over unnoticed, unchastised, by the holy and just Governor and Judge of the world, what has not the enemy and rebel to fear? Perhaps this may be the chief meaning of the apostle, and not the deliverance of the Christians from the Roman invasion, in which very few of them were concerned, to whom the apostle addressed his epistle; namely, those sojourning in Pontus, &c. See chap. 1 Peter 1:1 .

And the passage may be intended to signify also the difficulty with which pious men get to heaven, through this dangerous and insnaring world. Compare Acts 14:18 ; Acts 27:7-8 ; Acts 27:16 . where the word μολις , here used, signifies with difficulty. “The turn of the latter clause of the verse in the original, που φανειται , 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 vindicate their cause, and preserve them from turning aside to crooked paths. And this the connection with the following verse favours.” — Doddridge.

1 Peter 4:18 . Καὶ εἰ ὁ δίκαιος — φανεῖται ; and if the righteous — appear? ) Proverbs 11:31 , Septuagint, εἰ ὁ μὲν δίκαιος μόλις σώζεται , ὁ ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἁμαρτωλὸς ποῦ φανεῖται ; Very heavy chastisements are inflicted upon the righteous, when they at any time meanwhile offend: how much heavier punishments shall the wicked suffer? The persecution of Nero preceded the calamity of the Jews by a few years. The righteous, the ungodly, and the sinner . A semi-double sentence.[38] A man is righteous with reference to his neighbour, ungodly with reference to God, a sinner with reference to himself. We must therefore supply, by the force of the opposites in the first proposition, εὐσεβὴς , godly ; and ὅσιος , holy: in the second proposition, ἄδικος , unjust .— μόλις ) with difficulty [Comp. Matthew 25:5 ; Matthew 25:9 ]. This is softened, 2 Peter 1:11 , πλουσίως , abundantly . [38] See Append. on SEMIDUPLEX ORATIO.—E.

Scarcely be saved; with much labour and difficulty, through many tribulations, Acts 14:22 , as going in the narrow way, and entering in at the strait gate, Matthew 7:13,14 . The ungodly and the sinner; unbelievers and impenitent sinners of all sorts; both words signify the same, in opposition to the righteous before mentioned. Appear; he shall not be able to stand in God’s judgment against the sentence of condemnation then to be pronounced, Psalm 1:5 : q.d. If the righteous scarcely be saved, the wicked shall certainly perish.

1 Peter 4:18 . To the summary excerpt from Ezekiel Peter appends the Septuagint version of Proverbs 11:31 , which is followed by the Syriac and partially by the Targum: The original—according to the Masoretic text—is Behold or if the righteous will be punished on the earth: how much more the wicked and the sinner . The Greek, which probably represents a different Hebrew text, is more apt to his purpose and to the teaching of Jesus, which provoked the question, Who then can be saved ( Mark 10:24-26 ).

18. scarcely—Compare "so as by fire," 1Co 3:15; having to pass through trying chastisements, as David did for his sin. "The righteous" man has always more or less of trial, but the issue is certain, and the entrance into the kingdom abundant at last. The "scarcely" marks the severity of the ordeal, and the unlikelihood (in a mere human point of view) of the righteous sustaining it; but the righteousness of Christ and God's everlasting covenant make it all sure. ungodly—having no regard for God; negative description. sinner—loving sin; positive; the same man is at once God-forgetting and sin-loving. appear—in judgment.

18 . And if the righteous scarcely be saved ] Once more we have a passage from the Old Testament ( Proverbs 11:31 ) without any formula of quotation. In this instance the Apostle quotes from the LXX. version, though it is hardly more than an inaccurate paraphrase of the Hebrew, which runs “the righteous shall be requited” (the word may mean “punished”) “upon earth, much more the ungodly and the sinner.” St Peter, following the LXX., omits the words “upon earth,” which limit the application of the proverb to temporal chastisements; but it is obvious, as he is speaking primarily of the fiery trial of persecution, that he includes these as well as the issue of the final judgment. A time of “great tribulation,” such as Christ had foretold, was coming on the earth, in which, but for the elect’s sake, “no flesh should be saved” ( Matthew 24:22 ). The “un-godly” and the “sinner” correspond to “those that obey not” in the previous verse, the former pointing to sins against God, the latter to sins against man.

Verse 18. - And if the righteous scarcely be saved. St. Peter is quoting the Septuagint Version of Proverbs 11:31 . That version departs considerably from the Hebrew, which is accurately represented by the Authorized Version, "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner." Probably the word rendered" recompensed," which is neutral in its meaning, is best understood here, not of the good deeds of the righteous, but of the sin which still cleaves to all human righteousness. The righteous shall be requited in the earth, that is, chastised for his transgressions. So it would be now, St. Peter says; judgment must begin at the house of God. He adopts the inexact Septuagint translation for its substantial truth, as we now sometimes use versions which are sufficient for practical purposes, though we know them to be critically inaccurate. We observe again the absence of marks of quotation, as often in St. Peter. Bengel well remarks that the awful "scarcely" ( μόλις σώζεται ) is softened by 2 Peter 1:11 . Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? The" ungodly "are the impious, scoffers, and blasphemers; the" sinners" are men of profligate and dissolute lives. But the words are (probably) included under one article in the Greek; the men were the same; one form of evil led to the other (comp. Psalm 1:5 ; see also Matthew 19:25 ). 1 Peter 4:18

(18) And if the righteous scarcely be saved. —This is a literal quotation, word for word, of Proverbs 11:31 , according to the LXX. The quotation proves to us St. Peter’s perfect familiarity with both the Hebrew original and the Greek version. We have seen how he rejects the LXX. version when it does not suit his meaning ( e.g., 1Peter 2:8 ): here it suits him (though it differs from the Hebrew), and he accepts it. The “righteous” man here means, apparently, as Leighton says, “he that endeavours to walk uprightly in the ways of God,” rather than the man who is then declared finally justified. The fact that they are “scarcely” saved “imports not,” according to Leighton, “any uncertainty or hazard in the thing itself to the end, in respect of the purpose and performance of God, but only the great difficulties and hard encounters in the way.” This is only partly true. The Apostle is rather thinking of the final judgment than of the life of trial; and he means that there was but little margin left: a very few more falls, a few more refusals to follow the calls of grace, and they would have been lost. Doubtless, when the best of us looks back, in the light of the last day, upon all that he has been through, he will be amazed that he ever could be saved at all. Yet Bengel well calls us to see the other side of the picture in 2Peter 1:11 .