1 Peter 4:4

4 with respect to which they are surprised [when] you do not run with [them] into the same flood of dissipation, [and so they] revile [you].

1 Peter 4:4 Meaning and Commentary

1 Peter 4:4

Wherein they think it strange
Here the apostle points out what the saints must expect from the men of the world, by living a different life; and he chooses to mention it, to prevent discouragements, and that they might not be uneasy and distressed when they observed it; as that they would wonder at the change in their conversations, and look on it as something unusual, new, and unheard of, and treat them as strangers, yea, as enemies, on account of it:

that you run not with them into the same excess of riot;
to their luxurious entertainments, their Bacchanalian feasts, and that profusion of lasciviousness, luxury, intemperance, and wickedness of all sorts, which, with so much eagerness of mind, and bodily haste, they rushed into; being amazed that they should not have the same taste for these things as before, and as themselves now had; and wondering how it was possible for them to abstain from them, and what that should be that should give them a different cast of mind, and turn of action:

speaking evil of you;
and so the Syriac and Arabic versions supply "you" as we do; but in the Greek text it is only, "speaking evil of, or blaspheming"; God, Christ, religion, the Gospel, and the truths of it, and all good men; hating them because different from them, and because their lives reprove and condemn them; charging them with incivility, unsociableness, preciseness, and hypocrisy.

1 Peter 4:4 In-Context

2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for the will of God.
3 For the time that has passed [was] sufficient {to do what the Gentiles desire to do}, having lived in licentiousness, [evil] desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries,
4 with respect to which they are surprised [when] you do not run with [them] into the same flood of dissipation, [and so they] revile [you].
5 They will give an account to the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
6 Because for this reason also the gospel was preached to those who are dead, so that they were judged {by human standards} in the flesh, but they may live in the spirit {by God's standards}.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("run with") which is understood as temporal
  • [b]. *Here "[and so]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("revile") which is understood as result
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.