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Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 4:17-19
In the previous message we began to cover the section from 1 Pet. 4:12-19. In this message we shall continue with verses 17 through 19 of chapter four.
First Peter 4:17 says, “Because it is time for the judgment to begin from the house of God; and if first from us, what will be the end of those who disobey the gospel of God?” We have seen that this Epistle shows the government of God especially in His dealings with His chosen people. The sufferings they undergo in fiery persecution are used by Him as a means to judge them that they may be disciplined, purified, and separated from the unbelievers and not have the same destiny as unbelievers. Such disciplinary judgment begins from the house of God.
The Greek word rendered “house” in verse 17 also means household. Here the house, or household, refers to the church composed of the believers (1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 3:6; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19). From this house, as His own house, God begins His governmental administration by His disciplinary judgment over His own children so that He may have strong ground to judge, in His universal kingdom, those who are disobedient to His gospel and rebellious to His government. This is for the establishment of His kingdom, which is covered in the second book (2 Pet. 1:11).
In 4:17 Peter asks what will be the end of those who disobey the gospel of God if God’s judgment first begins from us. This question indicates that the unbelievers, who disobey the gospel of God, will undergo a judgment more severe than that which the believers have undergone.
In verse 17 the word “disobey” has a particular and specific meaning. Many Christians, however, do not realize this. Here in 4:17 “disobey” is used with regard to the unbelieving Jews mainly, not to the unbelieving Gentiles. As God’s people, the Jews had received the Mosaic law and also the ordinances and rituals of the Old Testament. But by the time this Epistle was written, the dispensation had changed. The Old Testament was the old dispensation, and the New Testament is the new dispensation of God. The dispensation first began to change at the coming of John the Baptist. Of course, it changed even the more with the coming of the Lord Jesus.
John the Baptist was the son of the priest (Luke 1:5, 13). This means that he also should have been a priest serving in the temple by offering the sacrifices, lighting the lamps, and burning the incense on the incense altar. That was the way the priests served God according to the old dispensation. However, this son of a priest did not stay in the temple. Instead, he went out to the wilderness. Furthermore, as a priest, he should have worn the priestly garment, which was mainly made of fine linen (Exo. 28:4, 40-41; Lev. 6:10; Ezek. 44:17-18). But in the wilderness, he wore a “garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle” (Matt. 3:4). John should have eaten priestly food, which was composed mainly of fine flour and the meat of the sacrifices offered to God by His people (Lev. 2:1-3; 6:16-18, 25-26; 7:31-34). However, John ate locusts and wild honey. For a priestly person to wear camel’s hair was an especially drastic blow to the religious mind, for the camel was considered unclean under the Levitical regulations (Lev. 11:4). All this indicates that John had altogether abandoned the Old Testament dispensation. John did not offer sacrifices, he did not light the lamps in the temple, and he did not burn the incense on the incense altar. Instead, he went to the wilderness and called upon God’s people to repent. Those who repented he baptized in water. From the point of view of Judaism, what John did was heretical.
According to Matthew 3:2, John preached in the wilderness, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” John the Baptist’s preaching was the initiation of God’s New Testament economy. He did this preaching not in the holy temple within the holy city, where the religious and cultured people worshipped God according to their scriptural ordinances, but in the wilderness, not keeping any regulations of the old dispensation. This indicates that the old way of the worship of God according to the Old Testament was repudiated, and a new way was about to be brought in.
Actually, the preaching of the gospel began not with the Lord Jesus but with John the Baptist. John said to those who came to be baptized by him, “I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance; but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire; whose winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His threshing floor and will gather His wheat into His barn, but He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:11-12). Here John seems to be saying, “The One who comes after me will baptize you either in the Spirit or in fire. He will put you either into the Spirit or into the lake of fire. Only He has the power to do these things. Therefore, you must genuinely repent.”
The Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, elders, and chief priests among the Jewish people did not obey the preaching of John the Baptist or that of the Lord Jesus. This is made clear both in the Gospels and in the book of Acts. On the day of Pentecost, Peter and the eleven preached the gospel to the Jewish people. Most of those who believed were scattered Jews who had returned to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. But the local ones, in particular the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the leaders of the people, were not willing to believe. This means that they would not obey the gospel. Furthermore, when Paul was raised up by the Lord, he went forth to preach the gospel in the Gentile cities. Wherever he went, he was persecuted, troubled, and opposed by the Jews. Therefore, in their writings the apostles used the word “disobey” with respect to the unbelieving Jews who did not obey the gospel.
We have pointed out that the book of 1 Peter was written to Jewish believers. In particular, this Epistle was written to the “chosen pilgrims of the dispersion” (1:1). The word “dispersion” was a term familiar to all the scattered Jews among the nations. This term clearly indicates that this Epistle was written to Jewish believers. These believers, who had been scattered throughout the Gentile world, were suffering persecution. It is important for us to realize that this persecution did not come mainly from the Gentiles; most of it came from the opposing Jews, the Jews who did not obey the gospel.
Words such as “dispersion” in 1:1 and “disobey” in 4:17 indicate that Peter’s writing has a strongly dispensational aspect. Peter indicated clearly that he was writing to the chosen pilgrims of the dispersion. The word “dispersion” is a Jewish term. At the time this Epistle was written, many Jews were scattered in dispersion. Whereas the Gentile believers lived in their own cities, the Jewish believers were in dispersion, for they had been scattered, dispersed, among the Gentiles, separated from their fatherland. Hence, these scattered Jews were pilgrims in dispersion.
The Judaistic terms used in this book are an indication that it was written to Jewish believers. One of these terms is the “sprinkling of the blood” (1:2). In typology, the sprinkling of the atoning blood ushered the sprinkled people into the old covenant (Exo. 24:6-8). Likewise, the sprinkling of Christ’s redeeming blood brings the sprinkled believers into the blessing of the new covenant, that is, into the full participation of the Triune God (Heb. 9:13-14). Expressions such as “chosen pilgrims of the dispersion” and “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” show that this Epistle was written to Jewish believers.
In 4:17 “those who disobey the gospel of God” refers mainly to unbelieving Jews. In the sight of God, the unbelieving Jews were disobedient. God gave them the law through Moses, and they accepted it. But when God’s dispensation changed and He wanted to give them the gospel, the Jews disobeyed the gospel and rebelled against it. If we would understand verse 17, we need to realize that “disobey the gospel” refers mainly to the disobedience of the unbelieving Jews.
In his synopsis J. N. Darby points out a number of times that 1 Peter is a dispensational book written to Jewish believers. Because of this dispensational aspect of 1 Peter, certain verses are not fully applicable to Gentile believers.
In verse 18 Peter goes on to say, “And if the righteous is saved with difficulty, where will the ungodly and sinner appear?” Here “the righteous” refers to the believers, who became righteous by being justified through their faith in Christ (Rom. 5:1) and by living a righteous life in Christ (Phil. 3:9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rev. 19:8).
The correct translation of verse 18 should say “saved with difficulty.” The King James Version has the rendering “scarcely be saved.” That translation is not correct, and it actually changes the meaning. What does it mean to be scarcely saved? The Greek really means saved with difficulty. The difficulty refers to persecution, suffering, and, mainly, to God’s discipline. God saved His chosen pilgrims with difficulty through much discipline and through many judgments, sufferings, and persecutions.
If God’s children, the members of His own household, are saved with difficulty, do you think that those Jews who do not believe but who disobey God’s gospel will escape God’s judgment? Certainly they will not escape. If God’s chosen pilgrims are disciplined by God and judged by Him, how much more will the ungodly be judged? We may apply verse 18 in a general way to all sinners and ungodly people. But according to Peter’s concept, this verse applied particularly to the unbelieving Jews. If the believing Jews, to whom this Epistle was written, are saved with difficulty, that is, through God’s dispensational discipline and punishment, how much more will the unbelieving Jews, those who disobey the gospel of God, suffer? Certainly God will judge the ungodly much more severely than the believers. Where will the ungodly and sinners appear when God judges them?
In verse 18 “saved” does not mean saved from eternal perdition through the Lord’s death, but saved from the coming destruction (1 Thes. 5:3, 8) through the trials of persecution as God’s disciplinary judgment. The believer, who has been disciplined by God through the sufferings of persecution to purify his life, is saved with the difficulty of persecution from the destruction of God’s wrath toward the world, especially toward the unbelieving Jews, with the coming destruction of Jerusalem in view.
Among the early apostles there was a strong belief that the Lord Jesus would come back soon to judge the unbelieving sinners, who are ungodly and disobey His gospel (2 Thes. 1:6-9). Peter’s word here should refer to this. In God’s government, if the righteous, who has obeyed His gospel and lives a righteous life before Him, is saved with difficulty, suffering persecution as the means of His disciplinary punishment to purify his life, where will the ungodly, who disobeys His gospel and lives a sinful life against His government, stand when the destruction of His wrath comes?
We may regard the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the Lord’s coming back as two great mountain peaks seen by the apostles. On the day of Pentecost, when God poured out His Spirit for salvation, the Lord opened the door for all sinners to be saved. First, the door was opened for the Jews and then, for the Gentiles. Expecting the Lord Jesus to come back soon, the apostles did not realize clearly that there was a gap between the “peak” of Pentecost and the second peak of the Lord’s coming back. If we read Paul’s writings, we shall see that he also expected the Lord Jesus to come back soon. The gap between Pentecost and the Lord’s coming was not made clear to the early apostles. When they asked the Lord Jesus about the time of His coming, He told them that this was something known only by the Father (Acts 1:6-7). The Father kept this matter as a secret within Him. Therefore, not even the Lord Jesus was free to reveal this to the disciples. As we have pointed out, the apostles could see only the two peaks.
Perhaps you have had the experience of seeing two mountain peaks from a distance. You did not realize at first that between these two peaks there was actually a large gap. It seemed that the two mountain peaks were next to each other. Later you may have realized that these two mountain peaks were not in the same mountain range. I would use this as an illustration of the gap between the day of Pentecost and the day of the Lord’s coming back.
Before the Lord Jesus died, He predicted the destruction of Jerusalem. When the disciples spoke to Him concerning the buildings of the temple, He answered, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, A stone shall by no means be left upon a stone which shall not be thrown down” (Matt. 24:2). Moreover, in Luke 21:20 He said, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that her desolation has drawn near.” The Lord was saying that Jerusalem would be destroyed, a prophecy that was fulfilled in A.D. 70 when Titus, the prince of the Roman Empire, led an army to destroy the city of Jerusalem. I believe that as Peter was writing this book, he had in mind the Lord’s prophecy regarding the destruction of Jerusalem. Therefore, Peter seemed to be saying, “All the Jews need to be careful. God is judging, exercising His governmental administration. We know that in not too long a time the city of Jerusalem will be destroyed, and God will judge the unbelievers.” Because Peter had this thought, he could say to the believing Jews, who were suffering persecution as a disciplinary punishment from God, that they would be saved from the coming destruction. Then he goes on to ask where the disobedient Jews will be when that destruction comes.
In verse 19 Peter concludes by saying, “Wherefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in welldoing to a faithful Creator.” The will of God here is that He wants us to suffer for Christ’s sake and has appointed us to this (1 Pet. 3:17; 2:15; 1 Thes. 3:3).
Literally “commit” here means to give in charge as a deposit, as in Luke 12:48; 1, Acts 20:32 Timothy 1:18; and 2 Timothy 2:2. When the believers suffer persecution in their body, especially as in martyrdom, they should commit their souls as a deposit to God, the faithful Creator, as the Lord did with His spirit to the Father (Luke 23:46). The persecution could damage only the body of the suffering believers, not their souls (Matt. 10:28). Their souls are kept by the Lord as the faithful Creator. They should cooperate with the Lord by their faithful commitment.
According to verse 19, the believers should commit their souls in welldoing to the faithful Creator. The word “welldoing” indicates doing right, good, and noble deeds.
The Creator in verse 19 does not refer to the Creator of the new creation in the new birth, but to the Creator of the old creation. Persecution is a suffering in the old creation. God as our Creator can preserve our soul, which He created for us. He has even numbered our hairs (Matt. 10:30). He is loving and faithful. His loving and faithful care (1 Pet. 5:7) accompanies His justice in His governmental administration. While He is judging us, as His household, in His government, in His love He cares for us faithfully. In suffering His just disciplinary judgment in our body, we should commit our souls to His faithful care.
