1Pe 4:4-5, 14 | JFB | STEP | 4. Wherein —In respect to which abandonment of your former walk ( ). run not with them —eagerly, in troops [BENGEL ]. excess —literally, "profusion"; a sink: stagnant water remaining after an inundation. riot —profligacy. speaking evil —charging you with pride, singularity, hypocrisy, and secret crimes ( ). However, there is no "of you" in the Greek, but simply "blaspheming." It seems to me always to be used, either directly or indirectly, in the sense of impious reviling against God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit, and the Christian religion, not merely against men as such; Greek, , below.

1 Peter 4:4-5

4. Wherein—In respect to which abandonment of your former walk (1Pe 4:3).

run not with them—eagerly, in troops [BENGEL].

excess—literally, "profusion"; a sink: stagnant water remaining after an inundation.

riot—profligacy.

speaking evil—charging you with pride, singularity, hypocrisy, and secret crimes (1Pe 4:14; 2Pe 2:2). However, there is no "of you" in the Greek, but simply "blaspheming." It seems to me always to be used, either directly or indirectly, in the sense of impious reviling against God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit, and the Christian religion, not merely against men as such; Greek, 1Pe 4:14, below.

5. They who now call you to account falsely, shall have to give account themselves for this very evil-speaking (Jude 15), and be condemned justly.

ready—very speedily (1Pe 4:7; 2Pe 3:10). Christ's coming is to the believer always near.

1 Peter 4:14

14. for—Greek, "IN the name of Christ," namely, as Christians (1Pe 4:16; 3:14, above); "in My name, because ye belong to Christ." The emphasis lies on this: 1Pe 4:15, "as a murderer, thief," &c., stands in contrast. Let your suffering be on account of Christ, not on account of evil-doing (1Pe 2:20).

reproached—Reproach affects noble minds more than loss of goods, or even bodily sufferings.

the spirit . . . upon you—the same Spirit as rested on Christ (Lu 4:18). "The Spirit of glory" is His Spirit, for He is the "Lord of glory" (Jas 2:1). Believers may well overcome the "reproach" (compare Heb 11:26), seeing that "the Spirit of glory" rests upon them, as upon Him. It cannot prevent the happiness of the righteous, if they are reproached for Christ, because they retain before God their glory entire, as having the Spirit, with whom glory is inseparably joined [CALVIN].

and of God—Greek, "and the (Spirit) of God"; implying that the Spirit of glory (which is Christ's Spirit) is at the same time also the Spirit of God.

on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified—omitted in the two oldest Greek manuscripts and Syriac and Coptic versions, but supported by one very old manuscript, Vulgate, Sahidic, CYPRIAN, &c. "Evil spoken of," literally, "blasphemed"; not merely do they "speak against you," as in 1Pe 3:16, but blasphemously mock Christ and Christianity itself.