Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Peter 4:17

"For the time [is come] for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if [it begin] first at us, what [shall be] the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" — 1 Peter 4:17 (ASV)

Paul said, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Before the full unfolding of the messianic kingdom, there are to be judgments. In the Prophets, mention is made of judgment coming first upon the people of God (Ezekiel 9:6; Zechariah 13:7–9; Malachi 3:1–5) before coming upon the nations. Here in 1 Peter the idea seems to be that the coming of the Lord in his eschatological judgment has, as a harbinger, a beginning of “birth pains” that will purify believers (cf. 1:7). (This judgment is not, of course, a punishment for the believers’ sins, which were laid on Jesus.) Now if the preliminary judgment (Christian suffering) is already taking place, the final doom on the disobedient is certain to follow shortly. Peter cites Pr 11:31 (in LXX) to reinforce this thought. The righteous are barely saved. The rest come far short, and only a great disaster awaits them.