The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 199

II. THl!RE IS TRE JOY OF GLORIFYING THE SPIRIT rn t!UFFEnING. 1. Be sure that yonrs is really C}w~tian suffe,·ing. "Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as a busybody." (Strange company that, by the way, for busybodies I) Is it not strange that Peter should suggest that Church-members might be guilty of such things? The fact is that the early Church contained many from the criminal classes, :rn<l. sorue of them were too easily admitted to fellowship; their adhesion to Christ being simply an endeavour to atone for a life of misdeeds while the misdeeds secretly remained. Let us see to it tuat we do not take to ourselves the comforts of those who suffer for Christ's sake, when we really suffer for our sins' sake. It is not the suffering that makes the martyr, but the cause of it. 2. If ours be Cliristian suffe1·ing, its end1tranc.e _qlo1·ffi.es the Spirit. " If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." The word "resteth" here is the same word our Lord uses when he says, "Come unto me and rest." On the seventh day God rested from liis works, but he also rested in them : "He saw all that he had made, and behold it was very good." God in his works was satisfied. So the Spirit of God rests on the Christian martyr, for be sees his work there-the fruit of the sacred love be bas inspired, of the sustaiuing grace he has imparted; and the gracious Spirit reposes in the glorious result of his mission. 3. Reproach becomes our glory rather than 011,1· shame. "If any man suffer as a Christian," etc. Christian was a name of scorn at first, and Peter says, "Be not ashamed, glorify God in this name; respond to the reproach of earth by praise to hearnn." Wby should we do this? Because in us at that moment the Spirit of God finds a resting-place. Do we not often forget the claims that gracious Spirit has on our service and our love? We ewe all that Christ is to us, and all that the Father is to us, to him. III. THERE IS THE JOY OF TnUSTING THE F ATHEn. " For the time is come that judgment mnst begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God co,:,imit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator." " The time is come that judgment," etc. We understand these words when we remember that the Epistle was written before the awful judgment which terminated in the destruction of the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the Jews, which our Lord bad foretold: "wars, rumours of wars, famines, pestilences, earth- quakes," as "the beginning of sorrows; " and added to his people, "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all men for my Name's sake.n "And if the righteous scarcely [with difficulty] be saved," etc. "\\'hat fires of discipline, and what deep waters of sorrow, they have to go through to enter the kingdom!. If this is what God's children endure, what of those who are not his? If so heavy is the hand of chastening, educating love, what will the hand of judgment and ,wrath be! Christian, shrinking under the one, remember that you aro delivered from the other. Trustfully acquiesc.e in t/ie endurance of Christian suffering. This suffering is according to God's will, the other is not, and can only be unmingled curse; but that of his people in the way of righteousness is his choice, he selects that, presides over it, tempers it, and leads it on to unmingled blessing. Here, then, is a fresh possibility of joy in suffering for .Christ-the joy of resting in the will of the Father. Do we know anything of suffering for righteousness' sake? Other sufferings we are each familiar with, but have we suffered for Christ? do we live a life of voluntary suffering for him? If not, I might say we have reason in that to wonder whether we are bis followers at all. If we are strangers to Christian suffering, we are strangers to the deepest Christian joy. Christian joy is a flower which bears its fairest blossoms only when it grows on the grave where selflies buried.-C. N. Vers. 3-6.-Living to the wz1l of God. We have seen that the apostle-the large- hearted, sympathetic, experienced apostle-is showing the scattered Christians he is addressing how to fortify themselves against the persecution that in stormful violence had fallen upon them here and there, before and since they became fugitives or exiles. This is part of a long paragraph beginning at the thirteenth verse of the last chapter, in which he is teaching that amid such persecution a. good conscience is the only charm ; that whatever befalls thtir circumstances or their bol"Hy life, a. consisteni OH, IV. 1-19.J THE FIRS'r EPISTLE GENERAL OF I--E'l'ER. 1()5