1 Peter 4:19

Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator.

Suffer according to the will of God ... Throughout this letter, "suffer" is to be understood in the sense of capital punishment, and in a few instances the lesser sufferings that often preceded it.

According to the will of God ... Christians were expected to accept the harsh penalty inflicted by the pagan empire, as being in truth "the will of God." This is the way Paul and Peter accepted it; and, if the ancient testimony regarding the martyrs is accurate, we may well believe that they too in uncounted numbers did so in faith, committing themselves, as Peter admonished here, "unto a faithful Creator" who has the power to make all things work together for good to them that love him and are the called according to his eternal purpose.

Although it is the prophetic destruction of Jerusalem which Peter had primarily in mind in these verses, it should never be overlooked that the event itself was a type of the ultimate judgment of the Second Coming, giving all of the apostle's teaching

here a spiritual application for all generations to come, and Peter's word is skillfully written to cover both meanings perfectly. This is in all likelihood the reason for his choice of such a word as "suffer," meaning capital punishment in the first instance, and being extended to include all kinds of sorrows and sufferings in the second.