Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of
God,
&c.] That is, according as some think, that God should
glorify those that are persecuted, and punish their persecutors:
this sense indeed may seem to agree with what follows; but the
apostle is speaking not of something future, but of something
present; not of what God will do hereafter, but of the present
sufferings of the saints. According to others the sense is, that
God's suffering affliction and persecution to befall his own
people, as a chastisement of them, that they may not be condemned
with the world, is an evidence of his strict justice, that he
will not suffer sin in any to go unobserved by him; and is a
manifest token how severely and righteously he will punish the
wicked hereafter, see ( 1 Peter 4:17
1 Peter
4:18 ) . But rather the meaning of the words is this, that
whereas good men are afflicted and persecuted in this life, they
have now their evil things, and bad men prosper and flourish, and
have their good things, so that justice does not seem to take
place; which seeming inequality in Providence has been sometimes
the hardening of wicked men, and the staggering of the righteous,
which should not be; this is now a manifest token, and a clear
case, that there will be a righteous judgment, in which things
will be set aright, and justice will take place; for God is
neither unrighteous nor careless, or negligent; and this is
observed to support the saints under their sufferings, and to
animate them to bear them patiently:
that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for
which ye
also suffer;
either of the Gospel, which is sometimes so called, and for which
they suffered, and so judged themselves worthy of it; as those
that put it away from them, and care not to suffer the least
reproach for it, show themselves to be unworthy of it, and of
eternal life also: or of a Gospel church state, and a name, and a
place in it, for which the people of God likewise suffer; and
those who shun reproach and sufferings for it are not worthy to
have a place, or their names there: or rather of the heavenly
glory; for the hope of which saints suffer much here, whereby
their graces are tried, and so they are counted worthy, not by
way of merit of it, but meetness for it; many tribulations are
the way, or at least lie in the way to this kingdom. In the
school of afflictions the saints are trained up for it; and
though these are not worthy to be compared with their future
happiness, yet they work for them an eternal weight of glory; by
the means of these the graces of the Spirit of God are exercised
and increased, their hearts are weaned from the world; and coming
up out of great tribulations, they wash their garments, and make
them white in the blood of the Lamb, and are made meet to be
partakers of the inheritance with the saints in light.
