{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/pnt/pe1004.htm","path":"bib/cmt/pnt/pe1004.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/pnt/pe1004.htm","text":"The People's New Testament, B.W. Johnson, [1891]\nArm yourselves. The saints must be equipped for warfare and suffering.\nWith the same mind. The mind that was in Christ when he suffered, a willingness to suffer to do the will of God.\nHath ceased from sin. The idea seems to be that of Rom 6:7, \"He that is dead is freed from sin.\" Suffering with Christ puts an end to (or ceases) our connection with sin.\nThat ye no longer should live. Hence, because we have \"ceased from sin,\" we should live, henceforth, to the will of God.\nThe time past. That was enough time for sin.\nHave wrought the will of the Gentiles. Lived the unholy lives common among the heathen.\nTo have walked. Peter describes the common sins, sins of the Gentile world, sins in which too many Jews imitated them. The first two are sins of uncleanness.\nExcess of wine. Drunkenness.\nRevellings. See Rom 13:13, and Gal 5:21. Riotous merry making is meant.\nBanquetings. Carousings, as in Revision.\nWherein they. The outside world think it strange that you do not engage in these sins longer. Their enjoyment is in them, and they cannot understand how one can enjoy life without them.\nSpeaking evil of you. Because you refuse to rush into their riotous sins.\nWho shall give account. Those sinners, who not only persist in their unholy lives, but persecute the saints because they will not sin with them. Christ shall judge living and the dead.\nFor to this end was the gospel preached even to dead. This passage has been explained as meaning those spiritually dead. But the dead must be the same as in Pe1 4:5, and there they are opposed to the living. Meyer holds that this is an expansion of Pe1 3:20-21. There he supposes Christ, in the Spirit, preached to the antediluvians. Here, he holds, that Peter affirms that all the dead who lived before Christ came had the opportunity to hear; hence when the living and dead are judged, none can plead that they had no chance of life. Others hold that the meaning may be freely given as follows: \"Whether you die or live Christ is your judge. For this cause the gospel was preached to your brethren who have died,\" etc. This view avoids some difficulties but does not seem to harmonize fully with the context. Others hold that Peter means all the dead who have died from the time the gospel began to be preached. These had heard and gone, but would be judged as well as the living. This interpretation has the advantage of giving \"the dead\" the apparent meaning of that phrase.\nThat they might be judged. Without some opportunity to know of the gospel they could not be judged for its rejection.\nAccording to men in the flesh. These dead, who had heard, and received the gospel, though experiencing the judgment of physical death that rested on all men, were called to live according to God in the spirit; that is, live on, an immortal life.\nThe end of all things is at hand. The end of Jerusalem was not far off, and it does not seem that it was given to Peter to distinguish clearly between that and the end of all things, which truly draweth near.\nWatch unto prayer. Compare Th1 5:6, Th1 5:8, and Mat 24:42.\nLove covereth a multitude of sins. Compare Pro 10:12; Co1 13:7. Love is a mantle which seeks to condone sin rather than exaggerate it.\nUsing hospitality. A duty very needful in that age of persecution when Christians were so often driven from home. See notes on Rom 12:13; Ti1 3:2.\nEven as each hath received a gift. All these are to be freely used for others. Spiritual gifts (Co1 12:4, Co1 12:28) are primarily meant, but the principle is of general application.\nAs good stewards. Those to whom God has given gifts must use them, not as their own, but as God's.\nIf any man speaketh. Through a gift of the Spirit. He must speak not his own words, but speak as though they were God's oracles, speakers of a divine message.\nMinistereth. Let him act as one of God's ministers and act in his strength.\nThat God may be glorified. Since all is of God.\nThe fiery trials. Persecution.\nAs though a strange thing. Christians, with the world against them, must expect to endure such things.\nRejoice. Because thus you are made partakers of Christ's sufferings. See notes on Rom 8:17, and Co2 1:7.\nAt the revelation of his glory. All who suffer with him will be glorified.\nIf ye be reproached for the name of Christ. Because you are a Christian.\nBecause the spirit of glory. Spirit is not found in the Greek. The idea is, that the sufferer for Christ is happy because the glory of Christ awaits him, and God's spirit is with him.\nLet none of you suffer as a murderer. As an evil doer.\nIf any man suffer as a Christian. This name was now widely known, and good men suffered only because they were Christians.\nThe time for judgment is come. it begins at the house of God, the church. In Matt., chapter 25, the righteous are judged first.\nIf it begin first at us. If even the righteous are called to judgment, what shall be the fate of the disobedient?\nAnd if the righteous. A passage quoted from Pro 11:31. The idea is that if sufferings and judgments (chastenings) come upon good people, what hope is there for the wicked?\nWherefore let them also that suffer. Let all who suffer, not for evil doing but for righteousness sake, keep on in well doing and commit their souls to the care of the all seeing and faithful God.","title":"The People's New Testament: 1 Peter: 1 Peter Chapter 4","type":"page"}