Chapter 4

Chapter begins with "Since", which is just another word for "Therefore".  (2023 - No.  This is not a therefore.  This is maybe "because".)

First paragraph urges Peter's recipients to forego the earthly "Gentile" pleasures that they previously "enjoyed".  Since it is eternity and the rewards of heaven that are truly important, and those cannot be enjoyed until after the death of the body, then the pleasures of the body are futile and without permanent regard.  Death is when we actually begin what is permanent.  Expect old, sinful friends to be taken aback, to feel judged by us, and to even express anger and try diligently to draw us back into those old ways of doing things as we try to live a holy life.  Peter is adamant that we are not to go back to that.

2023 - They can also get absolutely screaming furious in the face of clear and undeniable evidence that the holy life is our choice.  They can sometimes see it as a contest that they are progressively losing. 

2022 - These verses:

4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. [1Pe 4:4-5 ESV]

First, I note today that coming judgment is announced throughout the Bible.  When you have it in mind, it shows up absolutely everywhere - for the living and the dead, for the saved and the unsaved.

2021 - This verse though:

6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. [1Pe 4:6 ESV]  Here is Peter explaining to whom Jesus preached.  It is not the demons in the pit, it is people.  I would say this means that those in Sheol who had died under the law, or before the law, but had not heard the gospel of Christ, COULD NOT be saved until Jesus was proclaimed to them!  It is the same thing John says in his gospel.  There is only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ and him only.  They died in the flesh, but their faith - a spiritual matter - allows them to live ONCE THEY HAVE HEARD ABOUT, AND APPLY THE FAITH THEY ALREADY HAVE EVEN THOUGH DEAD, TO HIS NAME.  That's not a very good sentence.  These souls would not be in the good part of Sheol if they didn't have saving faith when they died.  But only faith in JESUS will get you into heaven.  That is why Jesus went to preach to those in prison (read Sheol).

2023 - Or...is it a matter of jurisdiction?  Are those that never heard the gospel immune from judgment based on whether they accepted or rejected the gospel?  I have always gone to the "heavens declare the glory of God" verse wrt those who never heard the gospel, either OT or NT.  But what then is that whole 3:19 preaching to those in prison about?  That verse is specifically about the days of Noah.  Do the dispensationalist teach that there was something about that dispensation - the pre-Noahic - that entitled them to some sort of "after death gospel presentation"?  When you put these two verses together, a chapter apart, by the same APOSTLE writer, you surely must at least consider that it is something like that. But this does seem to limit it to the 120 years of Noah's ministry.  Is it God's justice that demands that all get a chance to accept the gospel before all on earth are destroyed?  Noah couldn't preach to everyone...but that doesn't make sense.  People who haven't heard the gospel die every day.  Do they also get another chance in heaven?  That is not a doctrine I have ever heard preached.  It would only apply to those who never heard, not to those who rejected.  I don't think that's what it means - because it is so "new" - but I don't have anything else that I believe either.  Peter mentions it twice.  Twice.  It has to be important.  Why can we not understand it?  The MSB note says that Peter was referencing people who were perhaps martyred, who we "judged" in the flesh and put to death but who, in spirit, will live forever in God's presence.  There is also an extensive set of notes on 3:19 that I did not have time to study yesterday.  Making a note up there to see this note also.

2024 - Jesus went and declared his victory to the faithful in Sheol who could not, without us, be made perfect.  They could not go into God's presence until the perfect sacrifice was complete.  So once Jesus died, he went to Sheol, the place where souls wait for the judgment, and gave them the good news - they had trusted God in life, and death was not their end because Jesus also died for them, and paid for their sins also, such that they could move from Sheol to heaven at that time, as the souls of the saved today go directly from earthly bodies to the presence of God.  This makes sense to me.  I don't know what else could.

2025 - Perhaps - it seems too unorthodox to be true - we ought to focus on the idea that there is only one name under heaven by which we can be saved.  That name is Jesus.  The OT faithful like say Abraham's other sons and the slaves in his household, had faith because Abraham did they surely had no knowledge of the name of Jesus.  Those who see and seek God because of the glory declared by the heavens, because of the majesty and incomprehensible complexity of creation, who were out in the jungles in places undiscovered and unreached by men of faith, had never heard of the name of Jesus.  But they had faith in a greater than themselves, a LORD of all, a creator.  And after his death Jesus went into the part of Sheol where the faithful were waiting, and he told them of himself and he revealed to them that HE was the object of the faith they discovered on earth, and so all those who died having never heard the name of Jesus, but who died with saving faith in an unknown God, had the gospel preached to them by Jesus himself, heard his name, believed on Him, and were ushered from Sheol to heaven.  This is the justice of God toward those who have heard.  It may still apply today in the case of those who have never heard the name.  You MUST believe in Jesus to get to heaven.  There is no other way.  And here Peter tells us how that works.

We shouldn't even be surprised when "fiery trials" come.  This should be seen as the "new normal" of the Christian life. 

2022 - I cannot believe I have no notes on vss 7-11.  There are many statements in there that ought to be studied out.  Among them:

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. [1Pe 4:7 ESV].  How does sobriety and self-control enhance prayers, and their opposites harm them?  Prayers offered in drunkenness not heeded by God?  If you are out of his will, either angry or in a frivolous mood, He will not hear?  What does this mean?

8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. [1Pe 4:8 ESV]  What?  Is there a scoreboard?  Does love cover our own sins, or those of others?  The Greek word for "covers" is kalypto.  Same as the root of "apokalupsis" at the rapture?  Or maybe "apokalypto" for end times?  Those words are about uncovering, about illumination, about visible obvious revealing.  Maybe this is a practical idea that simply means that if we show love to others, they will perhaps not judge us for the sinners that we really are, underneath? 

I really don't know what these mean, but this whole list of admonitions toward Christian behavior is worth regular review.

There is an "amen" at the end of vs. 11.

2023 - ...and 4:12 seems to begin a whole new section of the letter:

2022 - Hmm...left out 12-16 also!  I must have been tired, reading so many chapters in a single morning.  This verse especially:

14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. [1Pe 4:14 ESV]

This verse, indeed this section, ties back to 1Pet 3:17.  That verse, and this one, are encouragement to and clarification of the "honor" that suffering for our beliefs brings.  Because to suffer for righteousness is to be like Christ.  Because getting singled out for insult means that the Spirit of God shines from you so that even sinners can tell that you belong to Him.  What a privilege!  What a commendation!  These are how we should feel.

Is there a whole series of FB posts here?  3:17 and this verse at least, and possibly some more about suffering for Christ?

2023  - Suffering for Christ is a good thing, but do not suffer for murder or theft...that is, don't live the kind of life that brings civil government down on you for committing crimes that are crimes both to God and man.  Live an exemplary Christian life, so that if we suffer at the hands of government, it is like the suffering that Christ did, who had broken no civil law, and yet was crucified - and glorified - because he took it without a word.  Peter portrays this as a very great blessing. 

This is an interesting verse:

17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? [1Pe 4:17 ESV]

Judgment begins with us - with Christians.  And if the things that happen to us who are in Christ are awful to contemplate, imagine the judgment that awaits sinners.  This is one to be careful of.  Does it say that sickness, disease, being robbed, being beaten, being killed by evil men in pursuit of evil are all judgements on the saved?  Can't mean that!  These verses are about persecution for the cause of Christ, which strengthen our faith and earn rewards in heaven - it is these trials that have eternal results.  Cancer is not a judgment...hmmm...but it could be like the blind man who was blind to show God's glory.   Perhaps we should say that our suffering - of whatever kind, from whatever source - should be used to exemplify our focus on things to come, and rather than railing against persecution by man or against the ravages of disease, we should welcome them for the eternal rewards bound up in how we deal with them in a Godly way, and as accelerating us toward the glorification of our bodies.  Hmm....

2022 - Or...maybe it means that at the GWT, when the dead are judged, both saved and lost, and they read out what we could have done compared to the dismally little that we actually did, and they see our grief for our failures, and the pronouncement of God and they see that our poor works or our misdirected words burn up in the fire and mean nothing in heaven, so that our reward is much less than it might have been, imagine the dread that will come over the lost as they await their turn at in the dock.  Maybe that's what it means...