The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 177

ing to God in the 1pirit. The gospel was it is not for us, " to know the times or the preached to the dead for this end ( ,ls -rov-ro ), sea.sons" (Aots i. 7). It is enougil to know that they might be judged indeed (7va 1ep,- that our own time is short. When St. Peter 6w<T, ,,,v ), but nevertheless live ((..,,n li,'). wrote these words, the end of the holy The last clause expresses the end and city, the centre of the ancient dispensation, purpose of the preaching: the former clause, was very near at hand; and behind tLat though grammatically dependent upon the awful catastrophe lay the incomparably conjunction 1,a, states a necessity antecedent more tremendous judgment, of which the to the preaching (comp. Rom. vi. 17, "God fall of Jernsalem was a figure. That judg- be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, ment, we knO\v now, was to be separated but ye have obeyed from the heart;" and by a wide interval from the date of St. ,iii. 10, "If Christ be in you, the body Peter's Epistle. But that interval is indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit measured, iu the prophetic outlook, not by is life because of righteousness"). The months and years. We a.re now living in meaning seems to be - the gospel was "the last times" (1 Tim. iv. 1; 1 John ii, preached to the dead, that, though they were 18). The coming of our Lord was the judged, yet they might live. They had beginning of the last period in the develop- suffered the judgment of death, the punish- ment of God's dealings with mankind; there ment of human sin. Christ had been put is no further dispensation to be looked for. to death in the flesh (eh. iii. 18) for the "Not only is there nothing more between sins of others; the dead had suffered death the Christian's present state of salvation and in the flesh for their own sins. They had the end, but the former is itself nlrea.dy the died before the manifestation of the Son or end, i.e. the beginning of the end " (Schott, God, before the great work of atonement quoted by Buther). :!le ye therefore sober; wrought by his death; but that atonement rather, self-restrained, calm, thoughtful. The was retrospective-he "taketh away the sin thought of the nearness of the end should of the world;" its saving influences ex- not lead to excitement and neglect of tended even to the realm of the dead. The common duties, a.a it did in the case of the gospel was preached to the dead, that, though Thessalonian Christians, and again a.t the they were judged according to men (that is, approach of the thousandth yeo.r of our era, after the fashion of men, as all men are And watch unto prayer; rather, be sober judged), yet they might live in the spirit unto prayers. The word translated "watch " (comp. 1 Cor. v. 5, "To deliver such a one in the Authorized Version is not that unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, which we read in our Lord's exhortation to that the spirit may be saved in the day of " watch and pray." The word UBed here the Lord Jesus"). The verb ,cp,9iiiu,, "might ( v/i,t,a.-r•) rather points to tempera.nee, be judged," is aorist, as describing a. single abstinence from strong drinks, though it fact; the verb (wut, "might live," is present, suggests also that wariness and cool thought- as describing a. continual state. .According fulness which are destroyed by excess. to God. God is Spirit; and a.s they that The Christian must be self-restrained and worship him mfilt worship in spirit, so they sober, and that with a view to perseverance who believe in him shall live in spirit. in prayer. The aorist imperatives, perhaps, The future life is o. spiritual life ; the resur- imply that St. Peter's readers needed to be rection-bodies of the saints will be spiritual stirred up (2 Pet. i. 13; iii. 1), to be aroused bodies, for" flesh and blood cannot inherit the from that indifference into which men are kingdom of God." But ,ca.-ra. a,&., may also so apt to fall. The exhortation to persevere mean "according to the will of God" (as in watchfulness would be expressed by the in Rom. viii. 27), according to his gracious present. purpose, and in that life which he giveth to Ver. 8.-And above a.11 things have fervent his chosen, that eternal life which lieth in charity among yourselves; more literally, the knowledge of God, and Jesus Christ before all things, having your love towards whom Le bath sent. one another intense. 'l'he existence of Ver. 7.-But the end of all things is at charity is taken for granted. Christians hand. The mention of the judgment turns must love one another ; love is the very St. Peter's thoughts into another channel. badge of their profession. The apostle 'l'he end is at bun<l, not only the judgment urges his readers to keep that love intense, of per11t:cutors and slanderers, but the end and that before all things; for charity is of pers0cutions and sufferings, the end of the first of Christian graces. (On the word our great couflict with sin, the end of our "intense" ( l,cnv~s), see note on eh. i 22.) earthly probation; therefore prepare to For oharity shall cover the multitude of meet your God. The end is at hand ; it Bins. Read and translate, with the Revised hath drawn near. St. Peter probably, like Version, / or love covereth a multitude of the other apostles, looked for the speedy sin.s. If St. Peter ie directly quoting coming of the Lord. It wea not for 1nm, ea Prov. x. 12, he is not ueing_the Septuagint, OH. 1v. 1-19.J '.l.'HE FIRST EPISTLE GENER.AL OF PETER. 173