1 Peter 4:15

15. Their sufferings must be for the name of Christ. To emphasize this, the solemn charge follows to see to it, for the sake of both themselves and the cause, that none suffer, bodily or by reproach, for any wicked crime.

An evil doer Guilty of misdemeanour.

Busybody… matters The admonition is good, taking the ordinary view of it. Robinson defines, an overseer of other men’s matters; perhaps an indiscreet zealot against heathen manners and customs. But as the apostle is specifying offences against civil law, it seems better, with Lardner and others, to understand it of political busybodies, or factious, seditious persons. How faithfully this injunction was heeded by the early Christians may be estimated from the testimony of Pliny’s letter to the Emperor Trajan, some forty-five years later. After saying that they were charged with no other crime than the being Christian, he adds: “They affirmed that the whole of their fault or error lay in this that they were wont to meet together on a stated day before it was light, and sing among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ, as to God, and bind themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery; never to falsify their word, nor to deny a pledge committed to them when called upon to return it. When these things were performed it was their custom to separate, and then to come together to a meal which they ate in common.”