1 Peter 4:15 Commentary and Bible Study

Many see Peter as following the order of the commandments: not to kill, not to steal. ‘The evil doer’ is then the commandment not to bear false witness. The commandment not to be a busybody in other men's matters, as Calvin so rightly points out, must logically mean, covetousness. The Greek means a spy in other people's affairs. This is about the person who is always noticing what the others have and he wants that, and he is envious of this and envious of that. Each commandment is the head of a family of sins, and there is no doubt that Peter, in using these terms, is meaning all the murder sins. There are some professing Christian husbands and some professing Christian wives too, who have murdered the happiness of their spouse, and treat the spouse very badly. That is the murder family of sins. He repeats his warning from chapter 2:20 that there is no profit in suffering if we suffer for doing evil. Suffering is seen by the believer as a source of gain, but all gain is taken away when we suffer justly, and are reduced to the level of transgressors of human laws. Clearly suffering is profitable only because we rise above man’s law and we voluntarily set ourselves far higher standards – the standards of the kingdom of heaven, which define a more perfect obedience. The commandments of men only address the outward man and say nothing about his inner motivation or desires. As long as he conforms to the outward prescription of the law, he is said to abide by the commandment. Human law may investigate the motive but only as a way of discerning the nature of the outward act. Under man’s law, murder is a crime but hatred is not, as long as it is not expressed. But God’s law scrutinises the whole man and no part of his being escapes its precepts. It is a law for the soul and spirit as much as for the body. This caution is given in the context of persecution, and as you read it, you may think, ‘Do Christians really need to be told this?’ Christians generally do not go about murdering people, but consider this in context. A tremendous persecution is going to break out. Christians are going to be murdered. All kinds of things are going to happen and what is being said here is this: there is no excuse to strike anybody down, to murder in return. There is no place for violence in the Christian life. Everything may have been taken from you; even so, it is no reason for a Christian to go and steal from a neighbour. We pray to God and look to him, whatever the level of suffering. The last phrase, ‘a busybody in other people’s matters’, might be translated, ‘a meddler in the affairs of others’. The assumption is that this undue scrutiny is not for a good reason – to help others in their troubles or to encourage them or advise them, but it is for the personal gain of the busybody – to obtain ammunition with which to gossip, to gain power over other people for some evil purpose, to gain access to their possessions, to simply enjoy controlling and manipulating others. Each one is entitled to his or her own privacy and the busybody should learn to manage his own affairs and not try to take over the affairs of others.