◄ 1 Peter 4 Devotional Commentary ►

1 Peter 4:1

I am sure as Peter started to write his epistle, his thoughts must have raced back to that day when he denied His Lord three times. Jesus had died for him and taken the punishment that he rightfully deserved, and even though he had denied Jesus, Peter was not rejected or replaced. Peter was not only forgiven of all his sins, but re-commissioned by the risen Lord Jesus Christ to be His chief apostle who would feed His sheep, shepherd His lambs, and unlock the read more...

1 Peter 4:2

Christian character and Christian conduct covers a significant chunk of early Church writings and apostolic epistles, and Peter takes time in his letter to reiterate a believer's position in Christ and the privileges we have in Him. Peter explains how this should affect our relationship with others, and impact every aspect of our Christian walk.

As those that have been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus, we have been read more...

1 Peter 4:4

Before we were saved by grace through faith in Christ, we were dead in our sins, at enmity with God, slaves of Satan, and governed by the old, fallen sin-nature. During that pre-salvation time, we were spiritually dead and without God which means that both the noble deeds we carried out in the flesh, and our evil works, selfish actions, and undisciplined behaviours, were ALL considered by God as unacceptable and only read more...

1 Peter 4:5

Preparation for the coming of the Lord was a watchword in the days of the apostle Peter, and it continues to be an increasingly important guiding principle for us today - for the time of Christ's return is closer than when we first believed.

As Christians, we are to remember that the Lord Jesus suffered in the flesh for our sake - so that we could be saved by grace through faith in Him. But we are to translate that eternal truth read more...

1 Peter 4:7

However young or old a person may be in physical years, the fleeting breath of this brief life is but a drop in the vast ocean of eternity as time tick-tocks away. The moon continues to wax and wane in its monthly cycle, and the sun sets in the western skies, evening by evening, as year succeeds to year, in nature's ever-circling round. As spring skips through summer into autumn's golden glow, the end of all things is drawing very close.

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1 Peter 4:8

The warm gentleness and tender-hearted forgiveness in Paul's chapter on love, in 1 Corinthians 13, identifies LOVE as the foundational fruit of the Spirit, from which all other gifts and graces grow. Love is also a gift of the Spirit because it is only as we abide in Him and He in us, that we can love as Christ loved, as we allow the love of Christ to flow through us to others. Here, in Peter's first epistle, we find another important teaching on love, which read more...

1 Peter 4:10

The Bible gives some serious warnings about living in the last days. As the time for Christ's return for His Church draws ever closer, we are warned to be clear-minded and self-controlled. We are exhorted to be sober in deed and watchful in prayer. We are to have fervent love for one another, knowing that love covers a multitude of sins; and we are to extend gracious hospitality to all those with whom we come in contact, and to do it without complaining.

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1 Peter 4:12

As Christians, we are citizens of heaven who are passing through a cursed world which is filled with condemned sinners who are in need of Christ's forgiveness; and God has given us everything we need to live a victorious Christian life in this fallen world. But too many Christians wrongly think that a victorious Christian life is a happy, trouble-free existence where every whim of our heart is magically fulfilled by some sugar-daddy in the sky, cherry-picking read more...

1 Peter 4:13

Christ suffered greatly in His earthly life... and as members of His Spiritual Body, we too are likely to be called on to suffer - individually and corporately. We will also have to face fierce mental anguish, physical suffering, or emotional pain. Peter calls on us to develop a godly attitude towards suffering - even encouraging us to rejoice in our suffering and keep on rejoicing.

Peter exhorts us not to consider the fiery read more...

1 Peter 4:14

Nobody wants to endure suffering, pain, or persecution. None of us like it when we are disparaged or denigrated by friends or acquaintances, and yet Peter teaches us: "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed! If you are ridiculed, insulted, or hated for His name's sake you are favoured people... because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."

Which of us sees read more...

1 Peter 4:15

We are to live a life that honours the Lord Jesus Who bought us. And just as He honoured His Father, by suffering on our account, we are to be similarly motivated to live for Christ and do only those things that honour Him, especially as the time for His return daws ever closer.

We are to be clothed in the armour of God and to resist the evil one. We are to live by faith and to walk in spirit and truth. We are to put to death the read more...

1 Peter 4:16

We have been eternally saved by grace through faith in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are also kept by grace, through the power of the Most High God and are eternally secure, for there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

'LORD' is His regal and deathless title, for He is the Creator of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. He is the only true and living read more...

1 Peter 4:17

Many consider that when Peter said, "It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God," he was referring to God's judgement falling on the physical House of God in Jerusalem, in AD 70. Indeed, Ezekiel 9:6 describes such a judgement spreading out from there.

As Christ had warned, a great and terrible judgement did befall the Jewish Temple and God's chosen people, after Israel rejected their King and crucified read more...

1 Peter 4:19

For many decades, the west has been spared much of the persecution that has been the norm throughout almost 2000 years of Church history. Indeed, the 'normal Christian life' of recent years, is far more accurately labelled the 'abnormal' Christian life', for down through centuries of time, Bible-believing Christians have been hunted down, brutally persecuted, frequently killed, and treated abominably, for righteousness sake.

Much read more...