1 Peter 4 Commentary
Of course, your old friends don’t understand why you don’t join in with the gang anymore. Verse 4. Indeed, the world won’t understand your spinelessness until they too become spineless. The saint is never one until Jesus becomes their spine!
Verse 4 presents a trap in human nature that may easily work against the saint. The gang is by far in the majority. It is a wide road. The gang has power. Even without doing anything or saying anything, travelers on the narrow road may easily feel uncomfortable. You become the odd one out. It makes you feel abnormal.
If you are the only normal person among 100 mentally disturbed men, know you won’t be normal for long! The human mind feels normal with uniformity. It seeks uniformity. It is a natural adaptation trait in humans; the Creator God made it that way. The pulling power of sin is unbelievable in a world where everyone is sinful.
Saints may not be aware, but the only reason they stay normal is because of another greater power at work in the transformed soul.
And when the gang is the entire world, the story is different. Yes, they will heap abuse on the odd ones. The world may also set laws to make it even tougher for the odd ones – the saints. How about making deception the currency for business transactions! Or, having greediness as fuel to navigate your way to the top!
See how this world isn’t suitable for the saint! Well, Peter has said it, saints are foreigners and aliens. This world isn’t our home!
Yet the saint stands even when they lose the moral argument by a landslide loss! On their side is unimaginable power. The Spirit of Jesus pulls the strings and the least among the saints is wiser than the world’s smartest brains!
Verse 6 may have the thought that God’s solution for the salvation of men works for all time. It may not mean that dead men received the gospel in their ‘dead’ condition. Peter may be answering the question of what happens to people who lived before Jesus Christ. In this verse and elsewhere in this book, the reference to the dead and the “imprisoned spirits” is eye-opening. It could be a glimpse of things beyond our understanding. We don’t want to make decisions based on flyers! Peter hasn’t underlined these statements for action.
We have numerous points of action to be bothered by informational statements. Check the list below.
Be alert and of sober mind. Love each other deeply. Offer hospitality to one another. Use whatever gift you have received to serve others. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides. Verse 7 to 11.
Can we be short of action points!
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