1 Peter 4: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Peter tells his readers to take on Christ's readiness to suffer in the body, and to leave behind the way of life they once shared with their pagan neighbors, even though those neighbors now insult them for it. He then gives instructions for life together as the end of all things draws near: clear-minded prayer, deep love, hospitality, and using each person's gift to serve others. The rest of the chapter deals with suffering for being a Christian, telling them not to be surprised by it, not to suffer as criminals or meddlers, and to entrust themselves to their faithful Creator while doing good.

Claim by Claim

1. 4:1
   • Christ suffered in the flesh for us.
   • The readers are commanded to arm themselves with the same mind.
   • Whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
2. 4:2
   • The purpose is that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh for human lusts.
   • He should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the will of God.
3. 4:3
   • The past time of life is enough to have carried out the will of the Gentiles.
   • That past conduct was walking in sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, revellings, drinking parties, and unlawful idolatries.
4. 4:4
   • They think it strange that the readers do not run together with them into the same flood of dissipation.
   • They speak evil of the readers.
5. 4:5
   • They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
6. 4:6
   • For this reason the gospel was preached also to the dead.
   • The purpose was that they might be judged according to men in the flesh.
   • The purpose was that they might live according to God in the spirit.
7. 4:7
   • The end of all things is at hand.
   • The readers are commanded to be sober-minded.
   • The readers are commanded to be watchful for prayer.
8. 4:8
   • Above all, the readers are to have fervent love among themselves.
   • Love covers a multitude of sins.
9. 4:9
   • The readers are to show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
10. 4:10
    • Each one has received a gift.
    • Each is to use that gift in serving one another.
    • They are to do so as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11. 4:11
    • If anyone speaks, he is to speak as one speaking the oracles of God.
    • If anyone serves, he is to serve out of the strength that God supplies.
    • The purpose is that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.
    • To him belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
    • Amen.
12. 4:12
    • The readers are addressed as beloved.
    • They are not to think the fiery trial among them strange.
    • That fiery trial is coming upon them to test them.
    • They are not to react as though something strange were happening to them.
13. 4:13
    • They are to rejoice insofar as they share in the sufferings of Christ.
    • The purpose is that they may also be glad with exceeding joy when his glory is revealed.
14. 4:14
    • If they are reproached for the name of Christ, they are blessed.
    • The Spirit of glory and of God rests upon them.
    • On the part of those who reproach them, he is spoken of with contempt.
    • On the readers' part, he is glorified.
15. 4:15
    • None of the readers is to suffer as a murderer.
    • None of them is to suffer as a thief.
    • None of them is to suffer as an evildoer.
    • None of them is to suffer as one who meddles in other people's affairs.
16. 4:16
    • If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed.
    • He is to glorify God in this matter.
17. 4:17
    • The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.
    • If judgment begins first with us, the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God is questioned.
18. 4:18
    • If the righteous is scarcely saved, it is asked where the ungodly and the sinner will appear.
19. 4:19
    • Those who suffer according to the will of God are to entrust their souls to him.
    • They are to do this while doing good.
    • He is a faithful Creator.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

4:1

In the King James, "in the flesh" means in the body, in ordinary bodily human life. It is not a comment on sinfulness. "Arm yourselves" is a soldier's image: put on the same mindset the way a fighter puts on armor. The last clause is compressed in the Greek and has been read more than one way, either that a person who has suffered in the body has broken with sin, or that such suffering is itself the mark of being done with it.

4:2

"Lusts" in 1611 English meant strong desires of any kind, not only sexual ones. The contrast is between a life steered by human cravings and one steered by what God wants.

4:3

"Gentiles" is the standard old word for everyone who was not a Jew. Here it carries the sense of outsiders to the people of God, that is, the readers' pagan neighbors. Three of the listed words have shifted meaning since 1611: "lasciviousness" meant unrestrained, shameless behavior, especially sexual; "revellings" meant rowdy street processions, often held in honor of a god; and "banquetings" meant drinking parties, not formal dinners. Idol worship in a Roman city was woven into ordinary social life, including trade guild dinners and civic festivals, so pulling out of it meant pulling out of much of public life.

4:4

"Riot" in 1611 English meant loose, extravagant living, not a violent mob. The Greek picture behind "excess of riot" is a river bursting its banks, which is why the rendering says flood.

4:5

"The quick" means the living. "Quick" in this old sense survives in phrases like "the quick and the dead" and "cut to the quick."

4:6

This verse is genuinely disputed and the rendering deliberately leaves it open. "Them that are dead" has been understood as Christians who heard the good news while alive and have since died, or as the dead in general, connected with the difficult passage at 3:19 about Christ preaching to imprisoned spirits. The Greek does not settle which.

4:7

"Sober" in 1611 English meant clear headed and self controlled, a broader idea than simply not drunk. "Watch" meant to stay awake and alert, the way a night guard does.

4:8

"Charity" in the King James always means love, not giving money to the poor. The modern narrowing of the word came later. "Cover the multitude of sins" echoes Proverbs 10:12, where love covers over offenses rather than broadcasting them.

4:9

Hospitality in the first century was a practical necessity, not a social nicety. Inns were scarce, expensive and often dangerous, traveling believers depended on private homes for food and a bed, and the churches themselves met in houses. The cost of this fell on the host, which is why "without grudging," meaning without complaining about it, needed saying.

4:10

A steward was a household manager, usually a slave or servant, who was trusted with his owner's property and had to answer for how he used it. The point of the word is that what he handles is not his own. "Manifold" simply means of many kinds.

4:11

"The oracles of God" in 1611 English meant God's own spoken words, especially the scriptures. It has nothing to do with fortune telling or with the oracle at Delphi. "Minister" here means to serve in practical ways, such as providing food or money or care. "Dominion" means ruling power.

4:12

The image is metalworking. Ore was heated until the impurities separated out, and "try" in 1611 English meant to test or refine in exactly that way, not to attempt something. The word for trial suggests a fire meant to prove what the metal is, not to destroy it.

4:13

Glory means shining greatness that everyone can see. "Partakers" means people who share in something.

4:14

"Happy are ye" translates the same word rendered "blessed" in the Beatitudes, and means fortunate or well off in God's sight rather than cheerful. The phrase about "the spirit of glory and of God" draws on Isaiah 11:2, where the Spirit rests on the promised king. The last sentence of the King James verse, "on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified," is missing from the oldest surviving manuscripts and is left out of most modern translations, which is why it is unfamiliar.

4:15

"Busybody in other men's matters" translates a single rare Greek word that appears nowhere else in surviving Greek literature before this letter, so its exact sense is uncertain. It has been taken to mean a meddler in other people's affairs, an informer who reports neighbors to the authorities, or someone who mishandles property belonging to others. The rendering keeps the most common reading.

4:16

"Christian" appears only three times in the whole New Testament. It began as a label applied from outside, formed the way a political faction's followers were named after their leader, and here it sounds like the charge read out against someone: the name itself was the accusation.

4:17

"The house of God" means both the temple, where judgment was pictured as starting in Ezekiel 9, and the household or family of God, that is, the believers themselves. The Greek word carries both senses at once. "What shall the end be" asks about the outcome, not the finish of the world.

4:18

This is a quotation of Proverbs 11:31 in its Greek form, which differs from the Hebrew wording familiar from English Old Testaments. "Scarcely" in 1611 English meant with difficulty, not barely by luck. "The righteous" means the person who stands in the right with God.

4:19

"Commit the keeping of their souls" uses a banking term: depositing something valuable with a trusted person for safekeeping, expecting it back intact. "Souls" here means whole selves, their lives, not a spirit part separate from the body. This is the only place in the New Testament where God is called "Creator" using this particular Greek word, and it sits here as the reason the deposit is safe.