1 Peter

Chapter 4

vs 11

What is this saying? I think it's saying that when you're doing things, you shouldn't even try to do them in your own strength. If it's speaking, speak the very words of God or none at all. If it's serving (which is basically anything), only do it with the strength God provides, not your own strength.

I might be reading that too strongly. But I wonder what our lives and ministries would look like if we did that? Because to him be the power and the glory.

vs 12

But instead, be surprised that you live in the west where these sufferings aren't happening? Perhaps we should be surprised.

vs 13

So our rejoicing starts when we are suffering, and becomes overflowing joy when he is revealed! So our joy towards Christ's final revelation of himself will be indexed to how much suffering we take for him. That makes perfect sense to me.

vs 14

We definitely do not take this promise seriously. Look at the lives of the apostles and the early church - they really believed this. To them, blessings from God and the spirit of the glory and God resting on them was obviously far more valuable to them than their comfort. The book of Acts so obviously points that out. Shame on us.

vs 15

Of course Christians shouldn't be doing these things - even meddling, which once again tells me that Christians shouldn't be going around meddling in other people's affairs. Ok, I don't mean you should never get involved in people's affairs, but people shouldn't feel like you're meddling. The greek word seems to mean "don't try and take authority in other people's affairs" because it comes from the words "bishop" and "belonging to another". I can relate to that.

vs 16

Some people think that this is showing that the term "Christian" was first a derogatory term. That has been questioned. The meat of the verse is to not be ashamed of Christ. Remember that the punishment for being Christian was just that - a punishment! It was an illegal act, so it would have been easy to feel ashamed about. Our society is a little different, but we still have a lot to feel ashamed about - the Crusades, paedophile priests, televangelists - we share our blessed name with a bunch of shameful people. But we should not be ashamed. Better to be a Christian by far.

vs 17

This verse is not about some mystical or spiritual thing primarily. It is directly in the context of suffering in the last few verses. The judgement that Peter is talking about is the winnowing that is taking place through suffering. This may have a spiritual element, but rest assured that all people, living and dead, will still need to come before the judgement seat of Christ. This is not an absolution of judgement for Christians.

So Peter is in effect saying "If your present sufferings are akin to the judgement of the Christian (ouch), then what's it going to be like for non-Christians?"

vs 18

Peter's quote from Proverbs then builds on this idea, reminding us that if our very salvation seems hard to us now, then what is lack of salvation going to be like for sinners? I think this is the proper sense in which Peter is using this quote - because really, if you look at the actual quote in Proverbs, it's much more about earthly reward than heavenly reward. Peter might be stretching it to take a heavenly meaning, and hence he changes the words like that.

However, if Peter is talking about the earthly kingdom, you can't take this verse to say that "bad people doing bad things are always feeling empty and down and missing something". You've always got to read Proverbs with a good dose of Ecclesiastes or Job. Because we all know from our own experiences that there are people who are happy with their terribly evil lives, and that you can live your whole life as a bastard and die happy. We like to think that these people have some inner Augustinian void in them that needs God - and they do - but we also like to think that this makes them all miserable and they'll be ready for the gospel because of it. Nup. Some of them live it up till the day they die - and only on their deathbed (or even after) do they realise what an idiot they've been.

vs 19

Peter's advice for those who are suffering. "Continue to do good" means "keep doing what's making you suffer" - painful advice.