John Calvin Commentary 1 Peter 4:18

"And if the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" — 1 Peter 4:18 (ASV)

When the faithful see that it is well with the wicked, they are necessarily tempted to be envious; and this is a very dangerous trial; for present happiness is what all desire. Hence the Spirit of God carefully dwells on this in many places, as well as in Psalm 37, lest the faithful should envy the prosperity of the ungodly.

Peter speaks of the same thing, for he shows that afflictions ought to be calmly borne by the children of God when they compare the lot of others with their own. But he takes it for granted that God is the judge of the world, and that, therefore, no one can escape his hand with impunity.

He therefore infers that a dreadful vengeance will soon overtake those whose condition now seems favorable. The purpose of what he says, as I have already stated, is to show that the children of God should not faint under the bitterness of present evils, but that they ought, on the contrary, calmly to bear their afflictions for a short time, as the outcome will be salvation, while the ungodly will have to exchange a fading and fleeting prosperity for eternal perdition.

But the argument is from the less to the greater; for if God does not spare his own children whom he loves and who obey him, how dreadful will be his severity against enemies and those who are rebellious! There is, then, nothing better than to obey the Gospel, so that God may kindly correct us by his paternal hand for our salvation.

And if the righteous It has been thought that this sentence is taken from Proverbs 11:31; for the Greek translators have thus rendered what Solomon says,

“Behold, the just shall on the earth be recompensed; how much more the ungodly and the sinner?”

Now, whether Peter intended to quote this passage or repeated a common and proverbial saying (which seems more probable to me), the meaning is that God’s judgment would be dreadful against the ungodly, since the way to salvation was so thorny and difficult for the elect.

And this is said so that we do not securely indulge ourselves but carefully proceed in our course, and so that we also do not seek the smooth and easy road, the end of which is a terrible precipice.

But when he says that a righteous man is scarcely saved, he refers to the difficulties of the present life, for our course in the world is like a dangerous sailing between many rocks and exposed to many storms and tempests; and thus no one arrives at the port except one who has escaped from a thousand deaths.

In the meantime, it is certain that we are guided by God’s hand and that we are in no danger of shipwreck as long as we have him as our pilot.

Absurd, then, are those interpreters who think that we will be saved only with difficulty when we come before God in judgment.

For Peter refers to the present and not the future time. Nor does he speak of God’s strictness or rigor; rather, he shows how many and what arduous difficulties the Christian must surmount before reaching the goal.

Sinner here means a wicked man, and the righteous are not those who are altogether perfect in righteousness, but those who strive to live righteously.