1 Peter 4 explained: Living Differently Under Pressure

Done with the old life (vv. 1-4)

Peter asks readers to take on the same firm resolve Christ showed in suffering, and to stop living for the cravings that once ran their lives. Their old friends find the change strange and insult them for no longer joining the heavy drinking, wild parties and idol worship they once shared.

Answering to God (vv. 5-6)

Those who mock will one day answer to God, who judges everyone, living or dead. Verse 6 is hard to pin down; a common reading is that believers who have since died heard the good news while alive, so death does not cancel their hope, but scholars are not agreed.

Love as the end nears (vv. 7-9)

Peter believed history was moving toward its close, so he urges clear heads for prayer and a deep love that overlooks others' faults, an idea drawn from the book of Proverbs. Opening your home to traveling or displaced believers was costly, so he asks them to do it without complaining.

Gifts held in trust (vv. 10-11)

Each person's abilities are pictured as something a household manager looks after for the owner, meant to serve the whole group rather than oneself. Those who speak should speak as if passing on God's message, and those who help should lean on God's strength, so that God gets the credit.

The fiery trial (vv. 12-16)

Peter tells them not to be shocked by the painful hostility they face, which most scholars think was local harassment rather than an official government campaign. Suffering for wrongdoing earns nothing, but being shamed for the name "Christian", probably a label first used by outsiders, is no disgrace.

Judgment begins at home (vv. 17-19)

Peter sees the present hardship as God's testing starting with his own people, and quotes Proverbs to ask how much worse it will be for those who reject God. His closing advice is to entrust yourself to the faithful Creator and keep doing good.

Key verse: 1 Peter 4:19

Something to think about

Have you ever stepped away from something the people around you still did, and how did their reaction affect you?