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1 Peter 4:1-5

1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm
yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath ceased from sin;

1. Christo igitur passo pro nobis carne, vos quoque eadem cogitatione
armamini; quod scilicet qui passus est in carne, destitit `a peccato;

2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to
the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

2. Ne amplius hominum concupiscentiis, sed voluntati Dei, quod residuum
est temporis in carne, vivat.

3. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the
will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess
of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

3. Satis enim nobis est quod anteacto vitae tempore voluntatem gentium
patraverimus, quum ambularemus in lasciviis, concupiscentiis,
comessationibus, potationibus et nefariis idololatriis:

4. Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same
excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

4. Quod illis videtur insolens, quod non concurratis in eandem luxus
profusionem, ideoque male loquuntur;

5. Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and
the dead.

5. Qui reddituri sunt rationem ei qui paratus est judicare vivos et
mortuos.


1 Forasmuch then as Christ When he had before set forth Christ before
us, he only spoke of the suffering of the cross; for sometimes the
cross means mortification, because the outward man is wasted by
afflictions, and our flesh is also subdued. But he now ascends higher;
for he speaks of the reformation of the whole man. The Scripture
recommends to us a twofold likeness to the death of Christ, that we are
to be conformed to him in reproaches and troubles, and also that the
old man being dead and extinct in us, we are to be renewed to a
spiritual life. (Philippians 3:10; Romans 6:4.) Yet Christ is not
simply to be viewed as our example, when we speak of the mortificaion
of the flesh; but it is by his Spirit that we are really made
conformable to his death, so that it becomes effectual to the
crucifying of our flesh. In short, as Peter at the end of the last
chapter exhorted us to patience after the example of Christ, because
death was to him a passage to life; so now from the same death he
deduces a higher doctrine, that we ought to die to the flesh and to the
world, as Paul teaches us more at large in the sixth chapter of his
Epistle to the Romans. He therefore says, arm yourselves, or be ye
armed, intimating that we are really and effectually supplied with
invincible weapons to subdue the flesh, if we partake as we ought of
the efficacy of Christ's death.

For he that hath suffered The particle hoti does not, I think, denote
here the cause, but is to be taken as explanatory; for Peter sets forth
what that thought or mind is with which Christ's death arms us, even
that the dominion of sin ought to be abolished in us, so that God may
reign in our life. Erasmus has incorrectly, as I think, rendered the
word "he who did suffer," (patiebatur) applying it to Christ. For it is
an indefinite sentence, which generally extends to all the godly, and
has the same meaning with the words of Paul in Romans 6:7,

"He who is dead is justified or freed from sin;"

for both the Apostles intimate, that when we become dead to the flesh,
we have no more to do with sin, that it should reign in us, and
exercise its power in our life. [44]

It may, however, be objected, that Peter here speaks unsuitably in
making us to be conformable to Christ in this respect, that we suffer
in the flesh; for it is certain that there was nothing sinful in Christ
which required to be corrected. But the answer is obvious, that it is
not necessary that a comparison should correspond in all its parts. It
is then enough that we should in a measure be made conformable to the
death of Christ. In the same way is also explained, not unfitly, what
Paul says, that we are planted in the likeness of his death, (Romans
6:5) for the manner is not altogether the same, but that his death is
become in a manner the type and pattern of our mortification.

We must also notice that the word flesh is put here twice, but in a
different sense; for when he says that Christ suffered in the flesh, he
means that the human nature which Christ had taken from us was made
subject to death, that is, that Christ as a man naturally died. In the
second clause, which refers to us, flesh means the corruption, and the
sinfulness of our nature; and thus suffering in the flesh signifies the
denying of ourselves. We now see what is the likeness between Christ
and us, and what is the difference; that as he suffered in the flesh
taken from us, so the whole of our flesh ought to be crucified.

2 That he no longer Here he sets forth the way of ceasing from sin,
that renouncing the covetings of men we should study to form our life
according to the will of God. And thus he includes here the two things
in which renovation consists, the destruction of the flesh and the
vivification of the spirit. The course of good living is thus to begin
with the former, but we are to advance to the latter.

Moreover, Peter defines here what is the rule of right living, even
when man depends on the will of God. It hence follows, that nothing is
right and well ordered in man's life as soon as he wanders from this
rule. We ought further to notice the contrast between God's will and
the covetings or lusts of men We hence understand how great is our
depravity, and how we ought to strive to become obedient to God. When
he says, the rest of time in the flesh, the word flesh means the
present life, as in Hebrews 5:7

3 For the time past of our life may suffice Peter does not mean that we
ought to be wearied with pleasures, as those are wont to be who are
filled with them to satiety; but that on the contrary the memory of our
past life ought to stimulate us to repentance. And doubtless it ought
to be the sharpest goad to make us run on well, when we recollect that
we have been wandering from the right way the greatest part of our
life. And Peter reminds us, that it would be most unreasonable were we
not to change the course of our life after having been enlightened by
Christ. For he makes a distinction here between the time of ignorance
and the time of faith, as though he had said that it was but right that
they should become new and different men from the time that Christ had
called them. But instead of the lusts or covetings of men, he now
mentions the will of the Gentiles, by which he reproves the Jews for
having mixed with the Gentiles in all their pollutions, though the Lord
had separated them from the Gentiles.

In what follows he shews that those vices ought to be put off which
prove men to be blind and ignorant of God. And there is a peculiar
emphasis in the words, the time past of our life, for he intimates that
we ought to persevere to the end, as when Paul says, that Christ was
raised from the dead, to die no more. (Romans 6:6.) For we have been
redeemed by the Lord for this end, that we may serve him all the days
of our life.

In lasciviousness He does not give the whole catalogue of sins, but
only mentions some of them, by which we may briefly learn what those
things are which men, not renewed by God's Spirit, desire and seek, and
to which they are inclined. And he names the grosser vices, as it is
usually done when examples are adduced. I shall not stop to explain the
words, for there is no difficulty in them.

But here a question arises, that Peter seems to have done wrong to
many, in making all men guilty of lasciviousness, dissipation, lusts,
drunkenness, and revellings; for it is certain that all were not
involved in these vices; nay, we know that some among the Gentiles
lived honourably and without a spot of infamy. To this I reply, that
Peter does not so ascribe these vices to the Gentiles, as though he
charged every individual with all these, but that we are by nature
inclined to all these evils, and not only so, but that we are so much
under the power of depravity, that these fruits which he mentions
necessarily proceed from it as from an evil root. There is indeed no
one who has not within him the seed of all vices, but all do not
germinate and grow up in every individual. Yet the contagion is so
spread and diffused through the whole human race, that the whole
community appears infected with innumerable evils, and that no member
is free or pure from the common corruption.

The last clause may also suggest another question, for Peter addressed
the Jews, and yet he says that they had been immersed in abominable
idolatries; but the Jews then living in every part of the world
carefully abstained from idols. A twofold answer may be adduced here,
either that by mentioning the whole for a part, he declares of all what
belonged to a few, (for there is no doubt but the Churches to which he
wrote were made up of Gentiles as well as of Jews,) or that he calls
those superstitions in which the Jews were then involved, idolatries;
for though they professed to worship the God of Israel, yet we know
that no part of divine worship was genuine among them. And how great
must have been the confusion in barbarous countries and among a
scattered people, when Jerusalem itself, from whose rays they borrowed
their light, had fallen into extreme impiety! for we know that dotages
of every kind prevailed with impunity, so that the high-priesthood, and
the whole government of the Church, were in the power of the Sadducees.

4 Wherein they think it strange The words of Peter literally are these,
"In which they are strangers, you not running with them into the same
excess of riot, blaspheming." But the word, to be strangers, means to
stop at a thing as new and unusual. This is a way of speaking which the
Latins also sometimes use, as when Cicero says that he was a stranger
in the city, because he knew not what was carried on there. But in this
place, Peter fortifies the faithful, lest they should suffer themselves
to be disturbed or corrupted by the perverse judgments or words of the
ungodly. For it is no light temptation, when they among whom we live,
charge us that our life is different from that of mankind in general.
"These," they say, "must form for themselves a new world, for they
differ from all mankind." Thus they accuse the children of God, as
though they attempted a separation from the whole world.

Then the Apostle anticipated this, and forbade the faithful to be
discouraged by such reproaches and calumnies; and he proposed to them,
as a support, the judgment of God: for this it is that can sustain us
against all assaults, that is, when we patiently wait for that day, in
which Christ will punish all those who now presumptuously condemn us,
and will shew that we and our cause are approved by Him. And he
expressly mentions the living and the dead, lest we should think that
we shall suffer any loss, if they remain alive when we are dead; for
they shall not, for this reason, escape the hand of God. And in what
sense he calls them the living and the dead, we may learn from the
fifteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians
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[44] The subject of this passage, from 1 Peter 3:14 to 1 Peter 4:6, is
suffering unjustly, or for righteousness' sake, and Christ is brought
as an example, he being just, suffered for the unjust. After a
digression at the 19th verse of the third chapter, the Apostle returns
here to his former subject, the example of Christ suffering in the
flesh or in his body and in order to retain still the idea that he was
just when he suffered, this clause seems to have been put in
parenthetically, "For he who suffered ceased from sin," that is, had no
sin, but was just. And hence in the following verses he exhorts them to
lead a holy life whatever might be the opposition from the world, so
that they might be like their Savior, suffering unjustly, they
themselves being innocent. 1. "Christ then having suffered for us in
the flesh, arm ye also yourselves with the same mind, (for he who
suffered in the flesh ceased from sin) 2. so as to live no longer the
remaining time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of
God." They were exhorted to resolve to follow the example of Christ,
but in such a way as not to suffer for their sins, but for
righteousness' sake. It is implied that they had been evil-doers, but
they were no longer to be so, otherwise their suffering in the flesh
would not be like that of Christ. To suffer as well-doers, and not as
evil-doers, was to suffer as Christ did. -- Ed.