1 Peter 4:6 Commentary and Bible Study

The purpose of this verse is to offer comfort to the church regarding those believers who have died and over whom the world has appeared to triumph. The unbelieving world had seemed to succeed in carrying out its murderous intent against some who had been persecuted to the point of giving their lives. This state of affairs might be profoundly discouraging to the early church which looked forward to the same triumph that Christ had achieved through his resurrection, but for which they had to learn to wait. They must be confident that God’s purposes had not been in the least disturbed by the untimely death of some faithful witnesses, for he planned and purposed it all.Peter moves from the thought that persecutors will be judged when Christ comes to judge the dead in verse 5, to other who will not be judged in the same way. Among the dead whom he has just said that Christ will come to judge are some who are saved by grace. It was for this cause – that they might live according to God in the spirit – that the gospel was preached to them. Admittedly, he says, some to them have since died, but that is not the end of the story. During their life times they heard the gospel preached and they responded in repentance and faith. By trusting in the Lord their eternal security was ensured. How then have they died, if they were given life? Is the gospel lacking in power if it allows those who trust in it to die physically? No, they die according to God’s perfect purposes. They are ‘judged according to men in the flesh’, that is, they suffer the common, universal sentence of God on sin. He is not talking about a judgment which evil men impose on Christians when they put them to death, but to a much higher judgment, the judgment of God. Like all men (even saved people) they must die, because there is that judgement of God on the human race, that we must physically die. The curse has not yet been removed, and there are many important lessons that God has to teach us by allowing us as saved people to continue to be mortal. But though we must still die physically and ‘be judged according to men in the flesh, in the flesh’, if we come to Jesus Christ, we already have spiritual life in us, even though we are mortal, and that spiritual life will prevail over the deadness of the flesh. What has been applied to our souls at the new birth, will be applied to the whole of us at the resurrection when we are given new bodies suitable to the life within us.The second half of the verse contains three contrasts: between being judged and living, between the flesh and the spirit, and between men and God. At first sight the idea of judgment does not seem to fit. Why should he say that believers must be judged in the flesh even though they end up being saved, and by whom are they judged? We expect a more positive statement about the destiny of God’s people. The best way to make sense of this is to regard it, as Calvin says, as a concession to the implied objection that the gospel does not profit those who end up giving up their lives at the hand of the wicked. How does the gospel profit them when they seem to be totally defeated and their enemies live on and inherit the earth? Peter concedes that they are swallowed up by death for a time, and to avoid weakening the force of his concession he deviates from the natural contrast between death and life and instead contrasts judgment and life. Yes, the righteous in dying come under the sentence of death, and this is in a sense a judgment of God on them, for they must suffer the same sentence that all men suffer because of the fall. We are used to the idea that believers must face death before they experience the resurrection, but Peter goes further and says that this is a form of universal judgment on the race that still affects saved men and women, and it comes because Adam’s sin affects all, even little children who have not sinned personally. But though we are judged like men, we live in a way that is altogether different. It is the nature of God to give life and so he does. This life starts in the spirit and will one day be extended to the body also in spite of the current mortality of the flesh.