1 Peter 4

1 Peter 4:1-19 . LIKE THE RISEN CHRIST, BELIEVERS HENCEFORTH OUGHT TO HAVE NO MORE TO DO WITH SIN.

As the end is near, cultivate self-restraint, watchful prayerfulness, charity, hospitality, scriptural speech, ministering to one another according to your several gifts to the glory of God: Rejoicing patience under suffering.

1. for us--supported by some oldest manuscripts and versions, omitted by others.
in the flesh--in His mortal body of humiliation.
arm--( Ephesians 6:11 Ephesians 6:13 ).
the same mind--of suffering with patient willingness what God wills you to suffer.
he that hath suffered--for instance, Christ first, and in His person the believer: a general proposition.
hath ceased--literally, "has been made to cease," has obtained by the very fact of His having suffered once for all, a cessation from sin, which had heretofore lain on Him ( Romans 6:6-11 , especially, 1 Peter 4:7 ). The Christian is by faith one with Christ: as then Christ by death is judicially freed from sin; so the Christian who has in the person of Christ died, has no more to do with it judicially, and ought to have no more to do with it actually. "The flesh" is the sphere in which sin has place.

2. That he, &c.--"That he (the believer, who has once for all obtained cessation from sin by suffering, in the person of Christ, namely, in virtue of his union with the crucified Christ) should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God" as his rule. "Rest of his time in the flesh" (the Greek has the preposition "in" here, not in 1 Peter 4:1 as to Christ) proves that the reference is here not to Christ, but to the believer, whose remaining time for glorifying God is short ( 1 Peter 4:3 ). "Live" in the truest sense, for heretofore he was dead. Not as ALFORD, "Arm yourselves . . . with a view no longer to live the rest of your time."

3. may suffice--Greek, "is sufficient." Peter takes the lowest ground: for not even the past time ought to have been wasted in lust; but since you cannot recall it, at least lay out the future to better account.
us--omitted in oldest manuscripts.
wrought--Greek, "wrought out."
Gentiles--heathen: which many of you were.
when, &c.--"walking as ye have done [ALFORD] in lasciviousness"; the Greek means petulant, immodest, wantonness, unbridled conduct: not so much filthy lust.
excess of wine--"wine-bibbings" [ALFORD].
abominable--"nefarious," "lawless idolatries," violating God's most sacred law; not that all Peter's readers walked in these, but many, namely, the Gentile portion of them.

4. Wherein--In respect to which abandonment of your former walk ( 1 Peter 4:3 ).
run not with them--eagerly, in troops [BENGEL].
excess--literally, "profusion"; a sink: stagnant water remaining after an inundation.
riot--profligacy.
speaking evil--charging you with pride, singularity, hypocrisy, and secret crimes ( 1 Peter 4:14 , 2 Peter 2:2 ). However, there is no "of you" in the Greek, but simply "blaspheming." It seems to me always to be used, either directly or indirectly, in the sense of impious reviling against God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit, and the Christian religion, not merely against men as such; Greek, 1 Peter 4:14 , below.

5. They who now call you to account falsely, shall have to give account themselves for this very evil-speaking ( Jude 1:15 ), and be condemned justly.
ready--very speedily ( 1 Peter 4:7 , 2 Peter 3:10 ). Christ's coming is to the believer always near.