God’S Judgment
GOD’S JUDGMENT
1 PETER 4:12-19
What are the blessings of suffering for being a Christian?
Judgment begins “with the household of God” (4:17). One of the less considered tensions in Christian theology is that between justification and judgment. This judgment may be experienced in three ways. The tension of Romans 7:24f. may be intensified by earlier evil living, especially if it was in defiance of the known will of God. Then there is suffering for the failure of the present, eg 1 Corinthians 11:29-32 and the warnings to the seven churches (Revelation chapters 2–3). Thirdly, there are certain things against which we are specially warned, eg Mark 9:42 (does a Christian never do this?); Hebrews 4:1; 10:26-31. The clue is probably given by 1 Corinthians 11:31.
Here Peter is considering the suffering of Christians as members of the church, rather than as individuals. Because the church has fallen short and falls short, its innocent members must suffer together with the guilty. Innocent? All too often wrongdoing in the local church has been possible because of the laxity of standards. Neither now nor before the judgment seat of Christ can the Lord be indifferent to ungodly living and low standards (2 Corinthians 5:10).
If we suffer through no fault of ours, we should rejoice that the judgments of God are doing their work and that we are permitted to share in the sufferings of Christ (4:13; Colossians 1:24). We must, however, be careful. Experience suggests that when we are most wronged, we have by omissions or commissions often helped to create the situation in which we were wronged. God is not interested in legal technicalities.
“The spirit of glory and of God” (3:14): here glory, literally, the glory, is the equivalent of the Shekinah, or abiding presence of God, ie Jesus Christ; see also John 1:14. So the phrase means the Spirit of Christ in all his glory and of God.