1 Peter 4:3-5 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have worked the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts… God's law is a guide which conducts surely to the goal. His precepts are nought but communications of free favour. But what does the blinded world see in these precepts, testimonies, and statutes? First, we are told, it surprises, seems unaccountable to them, that believers run not in their ways. They put on an air of astonishment when you decline doing so. "Why then," they ask, "do you refuse? Thousands upon thousands are on this side, and among them so many men of note, so many prominent members both in Church and State!" But we are told they blaspheme all who are not moved from their stedfastness. Their blasphemy consists, first, in their accusing God's true witnesses of blasphemy. They stand up and say, "This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law"; or, this is the man "that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place" (Acts 6:13; Acts 21:28). They abide by the old slander, "We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5). To the righteous acts of the pious man unworthy motives are attributed, and he is made a mark for the arrows of evil tongues, solely because he seeks the good of Israel all his life long. If he rest in the promises of God, even these are made the subject of mockery! But such blasphemy and pretended surprise is very painful to the righteous, and a real snare to their feet, out of which they do indeed need to be helped. How often are the weak, and even the apparently strong in faith, induced for a time to run with those who make either a mock or a sport of sin! Yes, verily, nothing short of almighty grace will suffice to enable a man calmly to take on himself the dishonour with which his Lord was dishonoured, and to bear with a chivalrous courage the contempt and shame which, for Christ's name's sake, the world heaps upon him! (H. F. Kohlbrugge, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: |
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