1 Peter 4:6

4:1-6 The strongest and best arguments against sin, are taken from the sufferings of Christ. He died to destroy sin; and though he cheerfully submitted to the worst sufferings, yet he never gave way to the least sin. Temptations could not prevail, were it not for man's own corruption; but true Christians make the will of God, not their own lust or desires, the rule of their lives and actions. And true conversion makes a marvellous change in the heart and life. It alters the mind, judgment, affections, and conversation. When a man is truly converted, it is very grievous to him to think how the time past of his life has been spent. One sin draws on another. Six sins are here mentioned which have dependence one upon another. It is a Christian's duty, not only to keep from gross wickedness, but also from things that lead to sin, or appear evil. The gospel had been preached to those since dead, who by the proud and carnal judgment of wicked men were condemned as evil-doers, some even suffering death. But being quickened to Divine life by the Holy Spirit, they lived to God as his devoted servants. Let not believers care, though the world scorns and reproaches them.

{4} For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. (4) A digression because he made mention of the last general judgement. He prevents an objection, that, seeing Christ came very lately, they may seem to be excusable who died before. But this the apostle denies: for (faith he) this same gospel was preached to them also (for he speaks to the Jews) and that to the same end that I now preach it to you, that is, that the flesh being abolished and put away (that is to say, that wicked and disobedient corruption which reigns in men) they should suffer themselves to be governed by the virtue of the Spirit of God.

1 Peter 4:6 . For for this cause — Or to this end; was the gospel preached — Ever since it was intimated to Adam, in the promise made to him after the fall, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head; to them that are dead — Who have died in their several generations, and especially to our forefathers, the descendants of Abraham, and the other patriarchs, by Moses and the prophets; that they might be judged according to men in the flesh — Or, that though they were judged in the flesh according to the manner of men, with rash, unrighteous judgment, were condemned as evil- doers, and some of them put to death, they might live according to God — Agreeably to his word and will; in the spirit — In their soul, renewed after the divine image, as his devoted servants and witnesses in the midst of their persecutors, and so be prepared to live with him in a future world.

1 Peter 4:6 . Γὰρ , for ) The particle connects ready and is at hand , 1 Peter 4:5 ; 1 Peter 4:7 . The Judge is ready; for now that the Gospel is preached, nothing but the end remains.— καὶ νεκροῖς , even to the dead ) Peter calls those dead who lived through the whole period of the New Testament, from the time that the Gospel was preached by the apostles after the ascension of Christ, especially concerning Christ the Judge , Acts 10:42 , and those whom the Judge, who is at any moment about to come, will find dead , and will restore to life, 1 Peter 4:5 . The Gospel is preached also to the living ; but he mentions the dead , because the saying, that they might be judged , etc., is especially accomplished in death. And from this very thing it is plain that the preaching of the Gospel which is meant, is before that death, and not subsequent to it. When the body is put off in death, the condition of the soul is altogether fixed, either for evil or for good. The Gospel is preached to no one after death. Christ Himself preached to those who had formerly lived, ch. 1 Peter 3:20 . In the New Testament there is preaching in abundance to those who are alive. The Lord sees respecting those to whom that preaching does not come in their life.— εὐηγγελίσθη ) He , that is, Christ, was declared in the Gospel . While they were alive, He caused Himself to be preached to them by the Gospel.

The Gospel is always preached at the present day: but Peter speaks in past time, for [ i.e. having respect to] the time of judgment[in relation to which the preaching will have been past ]; which, as we have said, he sees as it were close at hand.— ἴνα , that ) The end and efficacy of the Gospel is, that men may be made like Christ in death and in life, ch. 1 Peter 3:18 . The way of salvation through Christ is both secured and made known to all: they who have believed are saved, and ought to be objects of imitation, not of reproach, to others; they who have not believed, nay, have even used reproaches, are justly punished.— κριθῶσι ζῶσι , might be judged: might live ) They who receive the Gospel become like the death of Christ through repentance; and successively through (by means of) all adversities, even until the death of the body. That death is called a judgment , with reference to the old man; and to this judgment, distinguishing evil things from good, the faithful themselves readily subscribe: nor will they be liable to the dreadful universal judgment : 1 Peter 4:5 ; 1 Peter 4:17-18 ; 1 Corinthians 11:32 . But the same also live with Christ: and they are said to live , not to be made alive ; because they have been made alive already together with Christ: ch. 1 Peter 3:18 , compared with Ephesians 2:5 .

To them that are dead; either: 1. Spiritually dead, i.e. dead in sin, viz. then when the gospel was preached to them; or: 2. Naturally dead, viz. when the apostle wrote this Epistle. The verb are not being in the Greek, the words may be understood either way, by supplying were, according to the former exposition, or are, according to the latter, which our translators favour. See the like, Ruth 1:8 . That they might be judged according to men in the flesh: either: 1. That they might be judged or condemned in the flesh, i.e. that their old man and carnal conversation, according to men walking in their carnal lusts, might be destroyed and abolished; and then, to be judged in the flesh, is of the same import as to suffer in the flesh, 1 Peter 4:1 ; to be dead to sin, Romans 6:2 : or: 2. That they might be judged or condemned in the flesh, according to men, and so far as they could reach, not only by censures, reproaches, and evil speeches, but even death itself, as it had fallen out already to Stephen, James, &c. But live according to God in the spirit; that they might live a spiritual life in their souls according to the will of God, and an eternal life with him. To live in the spirit, to the will of God, to walk in newness of life, & c., are phrases of a like import in the language of the apostles.

According to the latter exposition of the former clause, the apostle seems in the whole to remove the scandal of these Christians, being reproached and condemned by unbelievers for their strictness in religion, and nonconformity to the world, by telling them, that their condition was not singular, but so it had fared with others before them, (though now dead), to whom the gospel was preached, with the same event as to the judgment of worldly men who censured and condemned them, and yet with the same hope of fruit and benefit, viz. that though they were condemned by men in the flesh, or as to their outward man, yet as to their souls, (meant here by spirits), they might live a holy, spiritual life, a life to God in this world, ending in a life with him in the other.

1 Peter 4:6 . The judgment is imminent because all necessary preliminaries have been accomplished. There is no ground for the objection “perhaps the culprits have not heard the Gospel”. As regards the living, there is a brotherhood in the world witnessing for Christ in their lives and the missionaries have done their part. As regards the dead Christ descended into Hades to preach there and so was followed by His Apostles. And the object of this was that though the dead have been judged as all men are in respect of the flesh they might yet live as God lives in respect of the spirit.— εἰς τοῦτο , with a view to the final judgment or = ἵνα , κ . τ . λ .— νεκροῖς , to dead men generally, but probably as distinct from the rebel spirits who were presumably immortal and could only be imprisoned. Oecumenius rightly condemns the view, which adds in trespasses and sins or takes dead in a figurative sense, despite the authority of e.g. , Augustine ( Ep. , 164, §§ 1–18).— εὐηγγελίσθη , the Gospel was preached, the impersonal passive leaves the way open for the development of this belief according to which not Christ only but also the Apostles preached to the dead. Hermas, Sim. , ix. 16.5–16.7; Cl. Al. Strom. , vi. 645 f. So was provision made for those who died between the descent of Christ and the evangelisation of their own countries.— ἵνα , κ . τ . λ ., that though they had been judged in respect of flesh as men are judged they might live in respect of spirit as God lives .

The parallel between the dead and Christ is exact (see 1 Peter 3:20 ). Death is the judgment or sentence passed on all men ( Sir 14:17 = Genesis 2:17 ; Genesis 3:19 ). Even Christians, who have died spiritually and ethically ( Romans 8:10 ), can only hope wistfully to escape it ( 2 Corinthians 5:2 ff.). But it is preliminary to the Last Judgment ( Hebrews 9:27 ), at which believers, who are quickened spiritually, cannot be condemned to the second death ( Revelation 20:6 ).

6. For—giving the reason for 1Pe 4:5, "judge the dead." gospel preached also to … dead—as well as to them now living, and to them that shall be found alive at the coming of the Judge. "Dead" must be taken in the same literal sense as in 1Pe 4:5, which refutes the explanation "dead" in sins. Moreover, the absence of the Greek article does not necessarily restrict the sense of "dead" to particular dead persons, for there is no Greek article in 1Pe 4:5 also, where "the dead" is universal in meaning. The sense seems to be, Peter, as representing the true attitude of the Church in every age, expecting Christ at any moment, says, The Judge is ready to judge the quick and dead—the dead, I say, for they, too, in their lifetime, have had the Gospel preached to them, that so they might be judged at last in the same way as those living now (and those who shall be so when Christ shall come), namely, "men in the flesh," and that they might, having escaped condemnation by embracing the Gospel so preached, live unto God in the spirit (though death has passed over their flesh), Lu 20:38, thus being made like Christ in death and in life (see on [2621]1Pe 3:18). He says, "live," not "made alive" or quickened; for they are supposed to have been already "quickened together with Christ" (Eph 2:5). This verse is parallel to 1Pe 3:18; compare Note, see on [2622]1Pe 3:18. The Gospel, substantially, was "preached" to the Old Testament Church; though not so fully as to the New Testament Church.

6 . For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead ] The thought that Christ was ready to judge the great company of the dead, as well as those who were living when the Gospel was preached by His messengers, leads the Apostle back to the truth which had been partially uttered when he had spoken of the work of Christ in preaching to “the spirits in prison.” The question might be asked, How were the dead to be judged by their acceptance or rejection of the Gospel when they had passed away without any opportunity of hearing it? He finds the answer in the fact that to them also the Gospel-message had been brought. Those who were disobedient in the days of Noah are now seen by him as representatives of mankind at large. Of some of these his Lord Himself had taught him that if they had seen the wonderful works which attested His ministry and mission, “they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” ( Matthew 11:21 ). Was it not a natural inference from those words, confirmed by what had been revealed to him as to the descent into Hades, that that opportunity had been given? that they might be judged according to men in the flesh ] The contrast between “flesh” and “spirit” stands parallel to that in chap. 1 Peter 3:18 . The “dead” had the Gospel preached to them that they might be judged by a judgment, which was remedial as well as penal, in that lower sensuous nature in which they had sinned.