1 Peter 4:3-6 - Homilies By U.r. Thomas

We have seen that the apostle—the large-hearted, sympathetic, experienced apostle—is showing the scattered Christians he is addressing how to fortify themselves against the persecution that in stormful violence had fallen upon them here and there, before and since they became fugitives or exiles. This is part of a long paragraph beginning at the thirteenth verse of the last chapter, in which he is teaching that amid such persecution a good conscience is the only charm; that whatever befalls their circumstances or their bodily life, a consistent character will be as an asbestos robe enwrapping their spirits. Nothing can violate the charm of that good conscience, nothing burn or even singe the asbestos robe of that true character. Remember his defiant inquiry, "Who is he that can harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" This he has been showing in many verses; and the possession of that charm, the possession of that character is the burden of his exhortation here. The key-note of this chapter is—Live to the will of God.

I. LIVE TO THE WILL OF GOD . This is the lesson of man's past evil life. St. Peter urges that "the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles. " What was the desire of the Gentiles in time past? What they desired for themselves and others. The life of that century throughout the Roman empire, where these scattered Christians were, has never, perhaps, been equaled in the hideousness of its private and public vices. The names of the Emperors Tiberius, Gaius, and Claudius Nero are so many symbols of cruelty, lust, and buffoonery. The walls of Pompeii, the pages of the poets, the annals of the historian, all testify how voluptuous, how debased, how heinously immoral, were the desires of the Gentiles.

1. Lasciviousness ; outrageous debauchery in general, including all that follow—wine-swillings, roysterings, revels, and the filthy festivals of idolatry. So many forms—alas! scarcely exaggerated—of selfism prevalent in cultured and Christian England today. The apostle says, "The time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles." There is deep sadness in the irony here about time past. And yet there is deeper hope, for the past is past, and need not return.

2. Sadness. Enough sin! and such sin as we have been gazing at! Enough; for such time past—hour, or day, or year, or years—was simply

3. Hope. Time past may be left behind.

"Let the dead past bury its dead.

Act, act in the living present—

Heart within, and God o'erhead."

II. LIVE TO THE WILL OF GOD , NOTWITHSTANDING BAD MEN 'S WONDER AT GOOD MEN 'S CONDUCT . St. Peter said, nearly two thousand years ago, what can be truly said today, that worldly men, sinful men, sensual men, think it strange that Christian men do not run with them into the same excess of riot. Dissimilar characters often find it difficult to understand each other; the thoroughly corrupt man seems to find it impossible to understand the Christian.

1. He thinks his conduct strange, and so perhaps he ignores him altogether. He does not invite him to his carousals; he does not know him in society; still less is he on visiting or calling terms with him. He is an enigma he does not care to understand.

2. Or he thinks his conduct strange, and he is aggravated by it. He is contemptuous; he sneers; he tempts. He says about him, or to him, with curled lip, as he declines the wine-party, or gaming-talkie, or clubs of voluptuous pleasure. "Oh, you are 'green;' you are 'soft;' you are 'melancholy;' you're not 'half a man.'" And soon their irritation makes them scandal-mongers and slanderers, as were the pagan scandal-mongers and slanderers of -the early Christians.

3. Or, better far, he thinks his conduct strange, and it leads him to inquire. Wonder ends in respect, and respect in admiration, and admiration in imitation. Not a few of the men who have been reclaimed from lives of silly, not to say sensual, self-indulgence, began to climb the higher path and to breathe the purer air of Christian manhood because they saw a change come over some old companion that they at first thought strange, but soon found to be fascinating and ennobling. Who of you would not wish so to live that men should say, "We will go with you, for we have seen that God is with you"?

III. LIVE TO THE WILL OF GOD , FOR BOTH CHRIST 'S JUDGMENT AND CHRIST 'S GOSPEL ARE FOR ALL . The point the apostle is here pressing is that these bad men—these Gentiles and pagans of that day, who find their counterpart and succession in all worldly, sensual, selfish men of today—will have to give account to him who will judge quick and dead. The last time he mentioned Christ it was as having ascended to the right hand of God; just before that, as having suffered and died and gone to Hades; now, as in the very order in which the Apostles' Creed enshrines the great biography, he mentions him as judging the quick and the dead. All the living and all the dead shall stand at that tribunal. "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God." But if all are to be judged, all must have the gospel preached to them; or the judgment would be partial, unjust, unrighteous. "Unto this end," that is, that all may be righteously judged, all have the gospel preached to them. The gates of mercy are as vast as the seat of judgment; the cross of Christ is as stupendous as the great white throne. Hence the good tidings had been preached "to the dead." "Spirits in prison' were visited by the Redeemer; to the dead Christ goes with his boundless gospel of righteousness and mercy. The myriads in the Roman empire in Peter's day who died without a single note of the evangel falling on their ears—died in gross corruption and bewildering superstitions of heathenism, are yet to be met with the offers of mercy, with the provisions of the gospel, and with the love of Jesus Christ. So that though according to the flesh—their life on earth—they were judged by men, and rightly judged, as evil and wicked men, they may, if they will yet receive the gospel preached to them, if they will read its blessed writing in the lurid light of the very flames of hell, yet be trophies of its unspeakable grace, and live to God in the spirit. Their life in the flesh was a ruin and a wreck, a scourge and a curse;—so they are judged according to men. But, wondrous ray of hope! their life in the spirit may, after the purgings of those terrific fires, and through the influence of the gospel of our blessed Lord, yet become a life unto God.

That is the object and only sufficient end of the preaching of the good tidings of Christ anywhere and at any time—now and here, or then and yonder. Has it led us to live unto God, as the flower lives to the sun, turning to it to paint its petals and to distil its odors and to nourish its exquisite life; as the subject lives to his sovereign, in unflinching and loyal fidelity; as the child lives unto his parent, in loving, watchful, eager obedience? Some men are alive to pleasure, or gain, or ambition, or friendship, and no more. Are we alive unto God?—U.R.T.

1 Peter 4:7 , 1 Peter 4:8 - A solemn fact and urgent duty.

"But the end of all things is at hand," etc. These words, which are part of the paragraph that ends with the eleventh verse, naturally follow the exhortation on 1 Peter 4:3-6 —an exhortation to pure living, and this because our past life is long enough for sin and its vanities; notwithstanding that sinful men think your separation from them in spirit and conduct strange; and to pure living, because Christ's judgment and Christ's gospel are for all. The exact point in the argument is this—that even to the dead was the gospel preached; and this is a deep fathomless mystery of justice and of grace. But however that may be, you are to remember and to realize, that "the end of all things is at hand," etc. Here we note—

I. THE PREDICTION OF A SOLEMN FACT . "The end of all things is at hand." There are, as every student of the New Testament Epistles knows, great diversities of opinion as to the aspect of the transitoriness of all things on which Peter was now dwelling, and from which he was enforcing great lessons. It is clear that not only here, but all through his Epistles, he was deeply impressed with the transitoriness of all things. Glance back at the first chapter, and on: Sojourners— " a little while;" "time of your sojourning;' "All flesh is grass," etc. "Sojourners and pilgrims in the day of visitation." Peter seems to have expected now a termination of human history—at least an approaching end of the age. He was old now, nearly seventy. He came to Rome on the eve of the conflagration of the city by Nero. He felt himself growing old—a prisoner hounded on to the death of martyrdom like the Master who preceded him; and, getting to the end of all things, discerns in the corruptions of the Roman empire indications of ruin—"the end of all things." He discerns, too, the end of Judaism, of ceremonial, of institutions; germs perishing; and the scattering of Christians; the end of all things to the Church—personally, in the empire, in systems. Whether "the end" be "the end of the world" or "the end of the age, that is approaching, so far as we and all with whom we daily have to do are concerned, "the end of all things is at hand." In our persons, homes, institutions, in the world itself, are elements of decay, indications of transitoriness. Yesterday, honors, old age, are carried to the grave; tomorrow, youth and hope—one shadow on all households; one and another and another join the majority. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?"

II. THE CONSEQUENT CALL TO THE HIGHEST PERSONAL AND SOCIAL DUTY . The thought of the termination of our connection with all things produces different impressions on different minds. Epicureans both ancient and modern, as represented by Athens and England, have said, "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die!" "A short life, and a merry one," is the maxim some formulate from their impression of all things passing away. Wiser, deeper, Heaven-taught natures draw an altogether other lesson. Here it is:

1. Personal. "Be of sound mind and sober," etc - an echo (especially as the old version puts it of what Peter had heard from his Lord on the last evening of his life, and in discourses in which he portrays the great days of judgment. A memory which saddened him; for he had not watched "one hour" which he would give worlds to have back. The bitter experience of his fall had taught him his deepest need. "Sound mind; " not volatile and fickle, and perhaps impulsive and fanatic. " Sober " Another word than that which clears gluttony and drunkenness from the experiences of the Christian life; all temperance, all self-control, free from the intoxication of all inordinate excitement, whether the cause be alcohol or gold, appetite or ambition. "Unto prayer. " This is the point to be touched, the focus through which life shall pass—the concert-pitch note of prayerfulness. Prayer is both a means and an end. Here it is an end. Such nearness to Heaven is the secret of confidence in and submission to God.

2. Social. "Above all things." This is all-comprehending and crowning social duty. Love alone—all alone. John, Paul, Peter, James.

a better, truer spirit. As you have seen ivy covering twisted gnarled oak, defaced and scarred ruins, so let love be ever green, covering the multitude of sins that defame and deface and scar human nature on every side of you - U.R.T.

1 Peter 4:9-11 - Christian love as a service.

"Using hospitality one to another," etc. Here the apostle describes Christian love as a service. For as the word variously translated " minister " and "deacon" denotes a servant, so the word "ministereth" here really conveys the simple thought of service—a thought which veins the beautiful marble of these two verses. This service is—

I. UNIVERSAL IN ITS OBLIGATION . "As each hath received a gift." That includes all, for all are gifted by God with some endowment or other. The man who has received no gift from God would be one not only without possession or influence, but without life; he is as nothing, and he is nowhere to be found. We have seen all through the Epistle some of Peter's memories of his Lord's teaching. Is there not here a recollection of the parable of the talents? In its light every gifted man is "a steward" ( 1 Peter 4:10 ).

II. MANIFOLD IN ITS METHOD . All serve, but all serve in different ways. The service of love is not a dreary monotone, but the richest music; it embraces the full diapason of duty. It is "the manifold grace of God." Some of the notes are here. " Using hospitality." This is specially applicable to those to whom the Epistle was first written, i.e. "strangers of the dispersion." It was, indeed, almost the earliest form of Christian charity. Peter finds it in Simon the tanner, Paul in Gains, etc. It is incumbent on men now in the midst of the yawning social distinctions, and of the ceaseless travel of today, Here is an echo of the teaching of the apostle's Lord, "I was a stranger, and ye took me in." "Without murmuring;" i.e. without grumbling. Three watch-dogs keep the door of the inhospitable man: temper, suspicion, reproach. "If any man speaketh." Just as the hands put on the table viands for the body, the lips are to spread a banquet for the intellect and the heart. How? "As it were oracles of God." That must mean with reality, with purity, with tenderness. "If any man ministereth." This comprehends every form of service. It is a widening of the other two just mentioned. "As of the strength which God supplies." That implies that the service will be rendered

III. ONE IN PURPOSE . "That in all things God may be glorified." Hospitality, teaching, almsgiving, all are to be for the glory of God. "Through Jesus Christ." Had it not been for Jesus Christ, that kindness, activity, wisdom, liberality, would not have been. He awakened all. He is the Head from whom the life of love flows. "Whose is the glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen." This is not a note of conclusion, but of strong emotion. Reason, gratitude, love, all utter their deep "amen' to the declaration that God through Christ has endless glory and dominion - U.R.T.

1 Peter 4:12-14 - The fiery trial of the Christian.

"Behold, think it not strange concerning," etc. Some have thought Peter is alluding to the burning of Rome, but both because the conception of suffering generally as fire is very common in the Old Testament Scripture, with which Peter shows himself familiar, and also because he is writing to Christians, upon whom through all parts of the Asiatic provinces of Rome the cruelties of Nero's persecution were being in many ways wreaked, we conclude that "the fiery trial" is a wider and more scathing and more enduring conflagration than that which destroyed the imperial city. So the lessons here are of wide application. They cover the whole scope of Christian suffering.

I. THE CHRISTIAN MUST NOT RECKON HIS SUFFERINGS AS STRANGE . Tenderly, with the word "beloved," Peter bids Christian sufferers not to feel themselves bewildered as men in a strange country. Do not let suffering shock you. Do not fear as you enter into the cloud. Why not? Because:

1. The sorrows the Christian shares in common with the world generally are not strange. His religion will not exempt him from bodily pain, business calamities, social bereavement, physical death.

2. The sorrows that Christians endure in persecution because they are Christians are not strange. Persecution is not to be wondered at. It is

3. The sorrows that are the direct result of Christian spirit and character are not strange.

No. Trial is not "strange;" for:

II. THE CHRISTIAN MAY FIND IN HIS SORROWS A CAUSE FOR PROFOUND JOY . To Peter, as well as his beloved brother Paul, the vast region of sorrow was not unknown or unexplored; they did not feel "strange" in it, as bewildered men in a foreign country. They had descried light on its hill-tope, drunk of streams in its deserts, plucked flowers in its solitudes, eaten manna in its wastes. How was this? They were "partakers of Christ's sufferings." Some of our Lord's sorrows are infinite secrets. Some can be known and shared. Such as:

1. Agonizing sensitiveness to sire His sigh, tear, groan, we may know in our experience.

2. Sacrificial compassion for sinners.

3. Sternly self-denying loyalty to duty. In all these we may, we must as Christians, be partakers of Christ's sufferings. "At the revelation of his glory." These words speak of unspeakable future joy. To rejoice in the revelation of his glory, which will be the triumph of pity, of purity, of the mission to bless others, we must be partakers of his sufferings. Blessed now with reproach for his sake, we shall, by growing resemblance to him and gracious reward from him, be blessed then. "The Spirit of glory and of God resteth on you." This token of the Divine presence not simply indicates the continuance of God with you, but the satisfaction of God in you. His spirit "resteth" upon you. The teaching is:

1 Peter 4:15-19 - Suffering, shameful and glorious.

"For let none of you suffer as a murderer," etc. The apostle is still dwelling on the "fiery trial." All trial to the Christian is a fire that

I. SUFFERING FOR WRONG - DOING IS CERTAIN AND IS SHAMEFUL . "Let none of you suffer as a murderer," etc. This is strange counsel to Christians. That it is thus given to them:

1. Reminds us of the classes from which the first converts were drawn. No doubt many were not only from the poorest, but from criminal, classes. Hence the apostle's reminder after he has described some of the basest of characters, "Such were some of you."

2. Suggests to us to be on our guard against sins to which before we became Christians we were addicted. The old taint is a peril. Perhaps tow now need fear being "murderers" or "malefactors," but many may be on their guard against being "meddlers." "Lay aside the sin that so easily besets." "Them that obey not the gospel." Here is another class whose sufferings will bring shame. The climax of judgment is for them. Who can tell what their" end" will be? "The house of God" is under his control, and all in it must suffer for their wrong-doing. Those who know the claims of the gospel, the possibilities it offers, and yet despise it and reject it, "do not obey it," must have even severer suffering than Christians who have blundered into error or been overborne by evil, for they at least have

II. SUFFERING FOR RIGHT - DOING MAY BEFALL US , BUT WILL BE A SOURCE OF GLORY . This Peter noted in earlier paragraphs, and reverts to again. "Suffer as a Christian," that is, because he is a Christian. The very name was at first one of scorn. And the name of scorn has become a name that glorifies God. So with all the sufferings that the character of those who truly wear that name has ever brought upon them. Are they the sufferings of

They are sufferings none need be ashamed of, but in which they may, as the noblest of men have done, glorify God.

III. SUFFERING FOR RIGHT - DOING MUST BE ENDURED IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT . The words of the nineteenth verse, the final words about "the fiery trial," are addressed to those who suffer because they are Christians.

1. They "suffer according to the will of God."

2. In such sufferings they are to "commit their souls, in well-doing unto a faithful Creator." Here is the obligation of:

"Faithful Creator." He knows—he cares: he will be faithful to his creation, and emphatically to the trustful ones. He who gave the soul its existence: and knows its capacities and needs, is its loving Guardian - U.R.T.