FRIDAY
If you’ve been following along with us this week, you’ll notice we are skipping over verses 7-11. This is because we discussed it a few weeks back during our serve Sunday week. We are picking up now in 1 Peter 4:12-19.
1 Peter 4:12-19 12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 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? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
The first few verses simply revisit the themes that we have been discussing all this week and really throughout this whole campaign. Christians shouldn’t be surprised by suffering. Suffering doesn’t mean that God is against us. Christ suffered. Suffering tests the genuineness of our faith. So, we can rejoice even in suffering, especially at the promise of Christ’s return and the reception of our inheritance. He reiterates his teaching to continue living righteously amidst this suffering (v. 15-16). Although this is the culture’s attempt to shame Christians, they can glorify God in that name.
When Christians are insulted in the name of Christ, they are blessed. This harkens back to the teaching of Jesus in the Beatitudes.
Matthew 5:11–12 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
He introduces a new idea in verse 17, that judgment begins at the household of God. Think of judgment, less in the negative sense but more in the sense of testing. This testing sorts out those who are genuine Christians and those who are not. Lots of people can claim to be Christians, but when persecution comes the wheat is separated from the chaff, so to speak.
We shouldn’t be surprised when difficult times come upon us in a culture that is not favorable to the Christian faith. This is testing the genuineness of our faith. This is evident today in this cultural shift into a post-Christian culture that we are currently experiencing. There is now little to no value in claiming to be a Christian. In fact, it’s likely a net negative in the eyes of the majority of people in our culture. This has in and of itself produced a testing of Christian faith. Will we follow the way of Jesus in sexual holiness when the culture views it as repressive and even harmful? Will we follow the way of Jesus in regularly gathering to worship when the culture is busy chasing after other ambitions? The recent stories of abuses of power and moral failings of church leaders are signals of God judging his church first. The testing of the household of God has begun. It hurts now but in the end it will reveal a more resilient faith.
The sense of verse 18 is that the righteous person is saved with difficulties. Not that salvation is difficult for God to achieve in the believer, but that this salvation comes with testing in discipleship that is difficult.
Finally, in ending this section Peter returns to a key basis for our resilient faith in a hostile culture—we are to entrust our souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Reflection
Peter has expressed this last idea twice in the past two weeks, so I think it’s worth emphasizing again. Sit with the idea of entrusting your soul to a faithful Creator while doing good.