For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
Parallel Translations
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For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
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For it is sufficient for vs that we have spent the tyme that is past of the lyfe after the will of the gentyls walkinge in wantannes lustes dronkennes in eatinge drinkinge and in abominable ydolatrie.
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For it is sufficient for vs that we haue spet the time past of ye life, after the lust of the Gentiles, walking in wantonnes, lustes, drunkennes, in gluttonie, drinkings, and in abominable idolatries.
Cross-references (29)
Passages linked to 1 Peter 4:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Corinthians 6:11 Some of you were such, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
- Ephesians 5:18 Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
- 1 Thessalonians 4:5 not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God,
- 1 Peter 1:14 as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
- Ephesians 2:2-3 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
- Ephesians 4:17-19 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts. They, having become callous, gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
- Galatians 5:21 envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.
- Ezekiel 45:9 “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Let it suffice you, princes of Israel: remove violence and plunder, and execute justice and righteousness; dispossessing my people,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Galatians 5:19 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,
- Revelation 17:4-5 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth. And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
- Isaiah 28:7 They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.
- Ezekiel 44:6 You shall tell the rebellious, even the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “You house of Israel, let that be enough of all your abominations,
- Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
- Romans 13:13 Let’s walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy.
- 1 Corinthians 12:2 You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.
- Jude 1:4 For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Deuteronomy 12:30-31 be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
- 1 Kings 21:26 He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.
- 2 Chronicles 15:8 When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill country of Ephraim; and he renewed Yahweh’s altar that was before Yahweh’s porch.
- Proverbs 23:29-35 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine. Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things. Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging: “They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another.”
- Isaiah 5:11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
- Isaiah 65:4 who sit among the graves, and spend nights in secret places; who eat pig’s meat, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
- Jeremiah 16:18 First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”
- Mark 7:22 covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
- Romans 1:20-32 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse. Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
- Romans 8:12-13 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
- 2 Corinthians 12:21 that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented of the uncleanness, sexual immorality, and lustfulness which they committed.
- Titus 3:3 For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- 2 Samuel 13:28 Absalom commanded his servants, saying, “Mark now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Haven’t I commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant!”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (20 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3 For the time past of our life may…
3 For the time past of our life may suffice Peter does not mean that we ought to be wearied with pleasures, as those are wont to be who are filled with them to satiety; but that on the contrary the memory of our past life ought to stimulate us to repentance. And doubtless it ought to be the sharpest goad to make us run on well, when we recollect that we have been wandering from the right way the greatest part of our life. And Peter reminds us, that it would be most unreasonable were we not to change the course of our life after having been enlightened by Christ. For he makes a distinction here between the time of ignorance and the time of faith, as though he had said that it was but right that they should become new and different men from the time that Christ had called them. But instead of the lusts or covetings of men, he now mentions the will of the Gentiles, by which he reproves the Jews for having mixed with the Gentiles in all their pollutions, though the Lord had separated them from the Gentiles.
In what follows he shews that those vices ought to be put off which prove men to be blind and ignorant of God. And there is a peculiar emphasis in the words, the time past of our life, for he intimates that we ought to persevere to the end, as when Paul says, that Christ was raised from the dead, to die no more. (Romans 6:6.) For we have been redeemed by the Lord for this end, that we may serve him all the days of our life.
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In lasciviousness He does not give the whole catalogue of sins, but only mentions some of them, by which we may briefly learn what those things are which men, not renewed by God’s Spirit, desire and seek, and to which they are inclined. And he names the grosser vices, as it is usually done when examples are adduced. I shall not stop to explain the words, for there is no difficulty in them.
But here a question arises, that Peter seems to have done wrong to many, in making all men guilty of lasciviousness, dissipation, lusts, drunkenness, and revellings; for it is certain that all were not involved in these vices; nay, we know that some among the Gentiles lived honourably and without a spot of infamy. To this I reply, that Peter does not so ascribe these vices to the Gentiles, as though he charged every individual with all these, but that we are by nature inclined to all these evils, and not only so, but that we are so much under the power of depravity, that these fruits which he mentions necessarily proceed from it as from an evil root. There is indeed no one who has not within him the seed of all vices, but all do not germinate and grow up in every individual. Yet the contagion is so spread and diffused through the whole human race, that the whole community appears infected with innumerable evils, and that no member is free or pure from the common corruption.
The last clause may also suggest another question, for Peter addressed the Jews, and yet he says that they had been immersed in abominable idolatries; but the Jews then living in every part of the world carefully abstained from idols. A twofold answer may be adduced here, either that by mentioning the whole for a part, he declares of all what belonged to a few, (for there is no doubt but the Churches to which he wrote were made up of Gentiles as well as of Jews,) or that he calls those superstitions in which the Jews were then involved, idolatries; for though they professed to worship the God of Israel, yet we know that no part of divine worship was genuine among them. And how great must have been the confusion in barbarous countries and among a scattered people, when Jerusalem itself, from whose rays they borrowed their light, had fallen into extreme impiety! for we know that dotages of every kind prevailed with impunity, so that the high-priesthood, and the whole government of the Church, were in the power of the Sadducees.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain By putting us in mind of the dishonesty of…
By putting us in mind of the dishonesty of our former life led in the filth of sin, he calleth us to earnest repentance.
Wickedly and licentiously after the manner of the Gentiles.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 3 For the time past of our life may…
3 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:
Ver. 3. For the time past of our life may suffice us] We may every one say with Austin, Nimis sero te amavi Domine. It should be a burden to our souls that we begin no sooner to love God.
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In lasciviousness, lusts, &c.] The true picture of a pagan conversation, which yet is too common among those that call themselves Christians. The world is now grown perfectly profane, and can play on the Lord’s day without book; making it as Bacchus’ orgies, rather than God’s holy day, with piping, dancing, drinking, drabbing, &c. We may say as once Alsted of his Germans, that if the Sabbath Day should be named according to their observing of it, Daemoniacus potius quam Dominicus diceretur, it should be called not God’s day, but the devil’s.
Excess of wine] οινοφλυγιαις, or, red and rich faces, as they call them.
Revellings] κωμοις, stinks, saith the Syriac; drunkards are stinkards; as Luther called the Swenckfeldians, stink-feldians, from the ill savour of their opinions. Tacitus tells us that among the old Germans, it was no disgrace counted to continue drinking and spewing night and day, Diem noctemque continuare potando.
Banquetings] Gr. ποτοις, compotations, or good fellow meetings; some render it bibbings, sippings, tipplings, sitting long at it, though not to an alienation of the mind. How much more when they leave not till they have drank the three "outs" first; viz. Wit out of the head, money out of the purse, and ale out of the pot!
And abominable idolatries] Some idolatries then, say the Papists, are not abominable. A sweet inference. That all Papists are idolaters, Dr Reynolds hath plainly and plentifully proved in his learned work De idololatria Romana, never yet answered. Weston writeth that his head ached in reading it. But what a poor shift is that of Vasquez, expressly to maintain that the second commandment belonged to the Jews only; as holding it impossible to answer our arguments against their image worship? Other Popish writers utterly disannul the second commandment, making it a member of the first; and so, retaining the words, they destroy the sense and interpretation.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain For the time past of our be may see:…
For the time past of our be may see: the apostle doth not mean by this expression merely that they should forbear their former lusts out of a satiety and weariness, as having had their fill of them, but to stir them up to holiness by minding them of their former sinful life; q.d. Ye are concerned to run well now, when ye have for so great a part of your time run wrong. It is a figure whereby he mitigates and lenifies the sharpness of his reproof for their former sinful life: see the like, Eze 44:6; 45:9; Mar 14:41.
Us; some copies read, ye, and that agrees with the following verse, where the second person is made use of: or if we read, according to our translation, us, it is a figure called anacoenosis, whereby Peter assumes to himself in common with them what yet, in his own person, he was never guilty of, as Isa 64:6,7; Da 9:5, &c.; or else it may be an analogy of the person, whereby the first is put for the second.
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To have wrought the will of the Gentiles; viz. those that were profane and ignorant of God and Christ, and so it is the same as the lusts of men, 1Pe 4:2.
When we walked; had our conversation, as Eph 2:3, walking being taken for the course of man’s life; and sometimes in an evil way, as 2Pe 2:10; 3:3; Jud 1:16,18; and sometimes in a good, as Luk 1:6.
In lasciviousness; especially outward acts, here set in distinction from lusts, which implies those inward motions from which those outward defilements proceed.
Excess of wine, revellings; unseasonable and luxurious feasting, Rom 13:13; Gal 5:21.
Banquetings: compotations, or meetings for drinking, Pro 23:30; Isa 5:11,12.
And abominable idolatries:
Question. Why doth Peter charge the Jews with idolatry, who generally kept themselves from it after the Babylonish captivity?
Answer.
1. Though most did, yet all might not.
2. It is a sort of idolatry to eat things sacrificed to idols, which many of the Jews, being dispersed among the idolatrous Gentiles, and being invited by them to their idol feasts, might possibly do; and, being under the temptation of poverty, might too far conform themselves to the customs of the nations among which they were.
3. Probably this idolatry might be the worship of angels, frequent among the Gentiles, particularly the Colossians, inhabiting a city of Phrygia, which was a part of Asia where many Jews were, 1Pe 1:1.
4. The churches to which he wrote might be made up of Jews and Gentiles, and the apostle may, by a synecdoche, ascribe that to all in common, which yet is to be understood only of a part.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Observe here, 1. That this epistle was written and…
Observe here, 1. That this epistle was written and directed, not only to the Jewish natives, but to the Gentile proselytes and converts; this is evident from the apostle’s putting them in mind that there was a time, namely, before their conversion, when they wrought the will of the Gentiles.
Observe, 2. The black and dismal sins which the Gentiles were guilty of, and wallowed in, before their conversion to Christianity, namely, all manner of sensuality, uncleanness, excess in drinking, reveling, banquetings and idolatries, joined with the rest of their abominations. Lord, how endearing our obligations, who were sinners of the Gentiles, for calling us out of this darkness (worse than Egyptian) into marvelous light by the gospel.
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Observe, 3. The argument used to excite them to quit and abandon the fore-mentioned sins now in their converted state, which they had before indulged themselves in the practice of, in their heathen state: the time past may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles; as if he had said, "Surely you have had enough, enough of sin, and too much, in your unregenerate state; your lusts have taken up too much of your lives, and had too much of your love."
Learn hence, That the true penitent, and sincere convert, is one that has had enough of sin, yea, more than than enough: one moment’s service of sin is more service than we owe it: we can never serve Christ too long, and our lust too short a time.
Learn, 2. That this consideration, how long some of us served sin before conversion, should be a forcible argument to excite and quicken us unto greater measures and degrees of holiness in our regenerate and converted state.
Observe, 4. What usage such Christians must expect from the men of the world, who must come out from among them, and refuse to run any longer into the same excess of riot with them.
1. They think it strange; they admire and wonder at them, as we do at strangers that come out of another country.
And, 2. They speak evil of them, because they will not be as bad and as mad as themselves. They think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.
Learn hence, 1. That wicked men are excessively riotous, or that there is an excess of riot and sin, which wicked men upon all occasions run into.
Learn, 2. That such men wonder and think it very strange, that good men are not as excessively riotous as themselves.
3. That because they will not so run, therefore they speak evil of them.
Observe, lastly, The impartiality and severity of that account which the wicked men of the world must render to God, the universal Judge, for all their hard speeches which they have uttered against the righteous: Who shall give an account to him that is really to judge the quick and the dead.
Note here, 1. There must and shall be a day of account: there must be one, because there never yet was one; there shall be one, because God has made man an accountable creature: he can give, and therefore he shall give, an account of his actions; for he has a principle of reason to know what he does, and a liberty of choice to govern himself, and a rule to direct him what to choose, and what to refuse; and consequently the actions, proceeding from him, just and shall be accounted for by him.
Note, 2. That this account must be given to Christ, the supreme and universal Judge both of quick and dead; partly, as a fitting reward for his great humiliation and sufferings; and, partly, that the world may see what a great and excellent Person he was, who came to visit them in great humility; and partly, to give advantage to the future judgment, in that God has appointed a man for our judge, who is flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, one that is sensible of the follies, temptations, and infirmities, of mankind, and pities them, and will make favourable allowances for them; nay, one that is God as well as man, from whom we may expect all the goodness of a God, and all the tender compassion of a man, in their utmost perfection; so that no man need fear such a judge, who has not out-sinned the mercies of a God, and the tender compassions of a man: for if either God or man help us, we are safe in that day, when we shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For the time past of our life may suffice…
For the time past of our life may suffice us,.... The word "our" is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions. The Arabic version reads, "the time of your past life"; and to the same purpose the Ethiopic version; and which seems to be the more agreeable reading, since it can hardly be thought that the apostle would put himself among the Jews dispersed among the Gentiles, who had walked with them in their unregeneracy, in all the sins hereafter mentioned, and best agrees with the following verse:
to have wrought the will of the Gentiles; or "when ye wrought", as the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions;
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when we walked, or "were walking in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries". These converted persons, in the past time of their life, before conversion, "walked" in sin; which denotes a series and course of sinning, a persisting and progress in it, with delight and pleasure, promising themselves security and impunity: the particular sins they walked in are reducible to these three heads, unchastity, intemperance, and idolatry:
in lasciviousness, lusts; which belong to the head of uncleanness, and take in all kinds of it; as fornication, adultery, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts:
excess of wine, revellings, banquetings; which refer to intemperance of every sort, by eating or drinking: as gluttony, drunkenness, surfeitings, and all luxurious feasts and entertainments, attended with riotings, revellings, and obscene songs; and which are here mentioned in the Syriac and Arabic versions, and which lead to lasciviousness, and every unclean lust:
and abominable idolatries; which some understand of worshipping of angels; but they seem rather to intend the idolatries the Jews were led into by the feasts of the Gentiles, either at their own houses, or in the idol's temple; by which means they were gradually brought to idolatry, and to all the wickedness and abominations committed by them at such times: and it is easy to observe, that the two former, uncleanness and intemperance, often lead men into idolatry; see Exo 32:6. Now when they walked in these things, they "wrought the will of the Gentiles"; they did the things which the sinners of the Gentiles, the worst of men, that knew not God, took pleasure in, and what they would have others do; and therefore, since the past time of their life had been spent in such a way, it was sufficient, and more than sufficient; see Eze 44:6, for no time is allowable for sin; and therefore it became them for the future, and in the remaining part of life, to behave in another manner; not to do the will of the Gentiles, but the will of God; to which that grace of God obliged them, that had made a difference between what they were themselves formerly, and themselves now, and between themselves, and others.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Revellings, banquetings - Have these words any meaning now?…
Revellings, banquetings - Have these words any meaning now? They had, seventeen hundred years ago. Then the former meant, meetings to eat; meetings, the direct end of which was, to please the taste: the latter, meetings to drink: both of which Christians then ranked with abominable idolatries.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. The time past of our life] This…
Verse 3. The time past of our life] This is a complete epitome of the Gentile or heathen state, and a proof that those had been Gentiles to whom the apostle wrote.
1. They walked in lasciviousness, ενασελγειαις. every species of lechery, lewdness, and impurity.
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2. In lusts, επιθυμιαις. strong irregular appetites, and desires of all kinds.
3. In excess of wine, οινοφλυγιαις. wine, and φλυω, to be hot, or to boil; to be inflamed with wine; they were in continual debauches.
4. In revellings, κωμοις. lascivious feastings, with drunken songs, c. See Clarke on Ro 13:13.
5. In banquetings, ποτοις. wine feasts, drinking matches, &c.
6. In abominable idolatries, αθεμιτοις ειδωλολατρειαις. that is, the abominations practised at their idol feasts, where they not only worshipped the idol, but did it with the most impure, obscene, and abominable rites. This was the general state of the Gentile world and with this monstrous wickedness Christianity had everywhere to struggle.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Pe 4:3-5. For the time past of our life…
1Pe 4:3-5. For the time past of our life may suffice us — Αρκετος ημιν, is sufficient for us; to have wrought the will of the Gentiles — The expression is soft, but conveys a very strong meaning, namely, that in no period of our lives ought we to have wrought the will of the Gentiles; and that whatever time we spent in so doing was too much. When we walked in lasciviousness — In various kinds and degrees of it; lusts — Inordinate desires; excess of wine — Οινοφλυγιαις, being inflamed with wine; revellings — Κωμοις, luxurious feastings; see on Rom 13:13; banquetings — Ποτοις, drunken entertainments; and abominable idolatries — With all the shameful vices connected therewith. Wherein they think it strange, &c. — The word ξενιζονται, thus rendered, was used by the Greeks to express that admiration and wonder with which a stranger is struck, who beholds anything uncommon or new. The meaning here is, On account of your former manner of life, they wonder that you now shun their company, and run not with them to the same excess of riot you formerly ran into; speaking evil of you — As proud, singular, silly, wicked, and the like; who shall give account — Of this as well as all their other ways; to him that is ready — So faith represents him now; to judge the quick and the dead — Those who are now alive, and those who shall be found alive at his coming to judgment.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For the time past of our life may suffice…
For the time past of our life may suffice us - “We have spent sufficient time in indulging ourselves, and following our wicked propensities, and we should hereafter live in a different manner.” This does not mean that it was ever proper thus to live, but that, as we would say, “we have had enough of these things; we have tried them; there is no reason why we should indulge in them any more.” An expression quite similar to this occurs in Horace - Lusisti satis, edisti satis, atque bibisti. Tempus abire tibi est, etc. Epis. ii. 213.
To have wrought the will of the Gentiles - This does not mean to be subservient to their will, but to have done what they willed to do; that is, to live as they did. That the Gentiles or pagan lived in the manner immediately specified, see demonstrated in the notes at Rom 1:21-32.
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When we walked in lasciviousness - When we lived in the indulgence of corrupt passions - the word walk being often used in the Scriptures to denote the manner of life. On the word “lasciviousness,” see the notes at Rom 13:13. The apostle says we, not as meaning that he himself had been addicted to these vices, but as speaking of those who were Christians in general. It is common to say that we lived so and so, when speaking of a collection of persons, without meaning that each one was guilty of all the practices enumerated. See the notes at 1Th 4:17, for a similar use of the word we. The use of the word we in this place would show that the apostle did not mean to set himself up as better than they were, but was willing to be identified with them.
Lusts - The indulgence of unlawful desires. See the notes at Rom 1:24.
Excess of wine - The word used here (οἰνοφλυγία oinophlugia) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means “overflowing of wine,” (οἶνος oinos, “wine,” and φλύω phluō, “to overflow”;) then wine-drinking; drunkenness. That this was a common vice need not be proved. Multitudes of those who became Christians had been drunkards, for intemperance abounded in all the pagan world. Compare 1Co 6:9-11. It should not be inferred here from the English translation, “excess of wine,” that wine is improper only when used to excess, or that the moderate use of wine is proper. Whatever may be true on that point, nothing can be determined in regard to it from the use of this word. The apostle had his eye on one thing - on such a use of wine as led to intoxication; such as they had indulged in before their conversion. About the impropriety of that, there could be no doubt. Whether any use of wine, by Christians or other persons, was lawful, was another question. It should be added, moreover, that the phrase “excess of wine” does not precisely convey the meaning of the original. The word excess would naturally imply something more than was needful; or something beyond the proper limit or measure; but no such idea is in the original word. That refers merely to the abundance of wine, without any reference to the inquiry whether there was more than was proper or not. Tyndale renders it, somewhat better: “drunkenness.” So Luther, “Trunkenheit.”
Revellings - Rendered rioting in Rom 13:13. See the notes at that verse. The Greek word (κῶμος kōmos) occurs only here, and in Rom 13:13, and Gal 5:21. It means feasting, revel; “a carousing or merrymaking after supper, the guests often sallying into the streets, and going through the city with torches, music, and songs in honor of Bacchus,” etc. Robinson, Lexicon. The word would apply to all such noisy and boisterous processions now - scenes wholly inappropriate to the Christian.
Banquetings - The word used here (πότος potos) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means properly drinking; an act of drinking; then a drinking bout; drinking together. The thing forbidden by it is an assembling together for the purpose of drinking. There is nothing in this word referring to eating, or to banqueting, as the term is now commonly employed. The idea in the passage is, that it is improper for Christians to meet together for the purpose of drinking - as wine, toasts, etc. The prohibition would apply to all those assemblages where this is understood to be the main object. It would forbid, therefore, an attendance on all those celebrations in which drinking toasts is understood to be an essential part of the festivities, and all those where hilarity and joyfulness are sought to be produced by the intoxicating bowl Such are not proper places for Christians.
And abominable idolatries - Literally, unlawful idolatries; that is, unlawful to the Jews, or forbidden by their laws. Then the expression is used in the sense of wicked, impious, since what is unlawful is impious and wrong. That the vices here referred to were practiced by the pagan world is well known. See the notes at Rom 1:26-31. That many who became Christians were guilty of them before their conversion is clear from this passage. The fact that they were thus converted shows the power of the gospel, and also that we should not despair in regard to those who are indulging in these vices now. They seem indeed almost to be hopeless, but we should remember that many who became Christians when the gospel was first preached, as well as since, were of this character. If they were reclaimed; if those who had been addicted to the gross and debasing vices referred to here, were brought into the kingdom of God, we should believe that those who are living in the same manner now may also be recovered. From the statement made in this verse, that “the time past of our lives may suffice to have worked the will of the Gentiles,” we may remark that the same may be said by all Christians of themselves; the same thing is true of all who are living in sin:
(1) It is true of all who are Christians, and they feel it, that they lived long enough in sin:
(a) They made a fair trial - many of them with ample opportunities; with abundant wealth; with all that the fashionable world can furnish; with all that can be derived from low and gross indulgences. Many who are now Christians had opportunities of living in splendor and ease; many moved in joyful and brilliant circles; many occupied stations of influence, or had brilliant prospects of distinction; many gave indulgence to gross propensities; many were the companions of the vile and the abandoned. Those who are now Christians, take the church at large, have had ample opportunity of making the fullest trial of what sin and the world can furnish.
(b) They all feel that the past is enough for this manner of living. It is “sufficient” to satisfy them that the world cannot furnish what the soul demands. They need a better portion; and they can now see that there is no reason why they should desire to continue the experiment in regard to what the world can furnish. On that unwise and wicked experiment they have expended time enough; and satisfied with that, they desire to return to it no more.
(2) The same thing is true of the wicked - of all who are living for the world. The time past should be regarded as sufficient to make an experiment in sinful indulgences; for:
(a)The experiment has been made by millions before them, and has always failed; and they can hope to find in sin only what has always been found - disappointment, mortification, and despair.
They have made a sufficient experiment. They have never found in those indulgences what they flattered themselves they would find, and they have seen enough to satisfy them that what the immortal soul needs can never be obtained there. They have spent sufficient time in this hopeless experiment. Life is short. Man has no time to waste. He may soon die - and at whatever period of life anyone may be who is living in sin, we may say to him that he has already wasted enough of life; he has thrown away enough of probation in a fruitless attempt to find happiness where it can never be found.
For any purpose whatever for which anyone could ever suppose it to be desirable to live in sin, the past should suffice. But why should it ever be deemed desirable at all? The fruits of sin are always disappointment, tears, death, despair.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain For the time past is sufficient, &c. As if…
For the time past is sufficient, &c. As if he said, you who were Gentiles, have already lived too long in vices before your conversion; so that they who are not yet converted, admire [1] at the change they see in you, make a jest of you, talk against you for your not running on with them in the same wicked and shameful disorders: but they shall render an exact account of all to the just Judge of the living and the dead. For as I told you before, in the last chap. (ver. 19.) for this cause (i.e. because Christ is judge of all) he descended to the place where the souls of the dead were, and preached to them, shewing himself, their Redeemer, who judgeth and condemneth those who had lived according to the flesh, but gave life to those who had lived well, or done penance according to the spirit of God. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
In quo admirantur, Greek: xenizontai, from Greek: xenos, hospes, peregrinus. The same word is used ver. 12, nolite peregrinari in fervore, Greek: me xenizesthe te en umin purosei: in ustione, meaning the heat of persecutions.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain may suffice--Greek, "is sufficient." Peter takes the lowest ground:…
may suffice--Greek, "is sufficient." Peter takes the lowest ground: for not even the past time ought to have been wasted in lust; but since you cannot recall it, at least lay out the future to better account.
us--omitted in oldest manuscripts.
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wrought--Greek, "wrought out."
Gentiles--heathen: which many of you were.
when, &c.--"walking as ye have done [ALFORD] in lasciviousness"; the Greek means petulant, immodest, wantonness, unbridled conduct: not so much filthy lust.
excess of wine--"wine-bibbings" [ALFORD].
abominable--"nefarious," "lawless idolatries," violating God's most sacred law; not that all Peter's readers (see on Pe1 1:1) walked in these, but many, namely, the Gentile portion of them.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. The will of the Gentiles—Βουλημα, in contrast with…
3. The will of the Gentiles—Βουλημα, in contrast with θελημα, will of God. The latter has more of authority, the former is here more expressive of strong desire, which the Gentiles would persuade Christians to follow again as before conversion. But the apostle tells them, sufficient is the time past to have wrought that which they would have you still do, and may try to compel you to do.
When we walked—The habitual Gentile conduct. The passage shows those addressed, even if Jews, had been liable to Gentile vices.
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Lasciviousness—Unbridled conduct; a general term, with its particulars following.
Lusts—Sensual impurity.
Excess of wine—Swillings of wine; beastly drunkenness.
Revellings—Night carousals; going, after supper, into the streets with torches, frolic, and drunken songs.
Banquetings—Drinking bouts.
Abominable—Lawless. All idolatry is against God’s law; but in this connexion, doubtless, are included the obscene and filthy practices at many of the idol feasts.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. For the time past of our life may…
3. For the time past of our life may suffice] The language is that of grave irony. Enough time, and more than enough, had been already given to the world. Was it not well to give some time now to God? The general line of thought runs parallel to that of Rom_13:11-12.
to have wrought the will of the Gentiles] The question meets us whether these words imply that the writer was, here at least, contemplating converts from heathenism, or still thinking only of the Jews of the dispersion. On the one hand, it may be said that it was more natural for a Jew writing to Jews to speak of “the heathen” or “the Gentiles.” If the reading “may suffice us” be the right one, the fact that the Apostle joins himself with those to whom he writes strengthens that conclusion. The better MSS., however, omit the pronoun. The “abominable idolatries,” on the other hand, may seem decisive in favour of the supposition that this part of the Epistle was intended for Gentile readers: but here also the word of warning would be as applicable to lax and licentious Jews, or to those who had been proselytes to Judaism, and who had not given up their attendance at idol-feasts or eating things sacrificed to idols (comp. 1Co_8:10, Rev_2:14; Rev_2:20).
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lasciviousness] The Greek word is in the plural as expressing the manifold forms or acts of impurity. The word is always applied to the darker forms of evil (Mar_7:22; Rom_13:13; 2Pe_2:2; 2Pe_2:7; 2Pe_2:18).
excess of wine] The Greek word is found in the LXX. of Deu_21:20, Isa_56:12, but not elsewhere in the New Testament.
banquetings] Literally, drinking-parties. The word went naturally as in other Greek writers with “revellings.”
abominable idolatries] The Greek adjective means, as in Act_10:28, simply “unlawful:” but as in the Latin nefas, nefanda, nefarius, the idea of that which is at variance not merely with human but with natural law tends to pass into that of a guilt which makes men shudder. It has been suggested above that even here the Apostle may have present to his thoughts the lives of licentious Jews falling into heathen ways rather than of Gentiles pure and simple. The Books of Maccabees (1Ma_1:13-14; 2Ma_4:13-14) shew that there had been a strong drift to apostasy of this kind under the Syrian Monarchy. The Temples, Gymnasia and Theatres built by the Herods had recently shewed a like tendency. At the very time when St Peter wrote there were Jews hanging about the court of Nero and Poppæa, taking part as actors in the imperial orgies (Joseph. Life, c. 3). It has been suggested that St Peter may have meant to refer to the old worship of Baal and Moloch and Ashtoreth and the groves and the calves which had prevailed in the history of Israel and Judah, so that the words “the time past may suffice” call on them to turn over a new leaf in their national existence, but the explanation of the words just given seems more natural and adequate.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) For the time past of our life.—There are…
(3) For the time past of our life.—There are two words in the English here which do not stand in the true text, and sadly impede the sense. They are “of our life,” and “us.” The first is added by some scribe to point the contrast with “the rest of his time.” The second—which should be “you,” if anything at all—is simply put to fill the gap after the word “suffice.” If “our life” and “us” were right, we should have St. Peter, quite unlike his wont, identifying himself with the bad life here described, as though he himself had shared in it.
May suffice.—It is the same word as in Mat_6:34; Mat_10:25, and would be, literally, For sufficient is the past. There is an irony in the word similar to that in 1Pe_3:17, “it is better.”
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To have wrought.—Rather, to have perpetrated. The Greek word denotes the accomplishment of a criminal purpose, as in Rom_2:9; 1Co_5:3; and one passage more horrid still.
The will of the Gentiles.—Just as, in 1Pe_4:2, there was a contrast between man’s manifold and conflicting lusts and God’s unity of will, so there is a contrast now between God’s “will” and (for the Greek word is quite different) the heathen’s “wish.” “To have perpetrated the heathen’s wish” means to have done the bad things which the heathen wanted them to be guilty of. The heathen were fain to catch them at malpractices. (See Note on 1Pe_2:12, and the word “speaking evil” below.)
When we walked.—A participle in Greek, which gives no support to the use of “we,” but means simply having proceeded. Thus it does not directly state that they had so proceeded, for the participle explains the foregoing verb: “The past is sufficient to have done what the heathen want you to have done—viz., to have walked.”
Lasciviousness.—It should be plural, expressing the repeated acts of sin. The word in Greek means any outrageous debauchery, so that it may be said to include all the words that follow.
Excess of wine, in like manner, should be plural. It is a contemptuous word (wine-swillings), and differs from the word translated “banquetings”, below, because the latter is more refined, and also implies company, which the first need not. The “revellings” might mean any roystering parties, but contains more of the notion of making a pretext of a meal than “banquetings,” which consist solely of drinking.
Abominable idolatries.—It is not as idolatries that they are called abominable, but because of the abominable adjuncts of the idol-festivals. This clause is the main support of those who think that the Letter was written to converts from heathenism and not from Judaism. How, it is urged, could St. Peter have said to persons who had been brought up as Jews, “The time past is long enough for you to have proceeded in abominable idolatries”? The argument is most convincing as it stands. If they had been living in idolatry, it is incredible that they were of Hebrew race: if they were of Hebrew race, it is incredible that they should have lived in idolatry. But, as a matter of fact, St. Peter does not say that they ever had lived in those sins. Quite on the contrary, he says, in 1Pe_4:4, that the heathen found, to their surprise, that the Christians would not go with them in these things; and that, finding it to be so, they “blasphemed” or slandered them in this very respect. It may, perhaps, be answered that the Apostle is alluding to a period long past, and contrasting it with the present which so puzzled the Gentiles. But there is no ground for taking “the time past” to mean the time up to the date of their conversion to Christianity. It is simply “your past time” (i.e., the whole up to the date of the Letter), in contrast with “the rest of your time” (1Pe_4:2, literally, your remaining time), i.e., the whole subsequent to the date of the Letter; so that it cannot mean, “The heathen think it strange that you do not join their profligate courses as you used in old days,” in which case we should naturally have expected him to say, “They think it strange that ye no longer run with them.” Besides, it seems plain, from 1Pe_4:2, that. whatever may be meant by “perpetrating the wish of the Gentiles,” it was still a present danger when St. Peter wrote, or there would be little point in mentioning it at all. But if he means that, up to the date of the Letter, some of the recipients of it had been living in “abominable idolatries,” how could he continue that the Gentiles were astonished that they did not do so? for if the idolatries meant were the heathen’s own idolatries, the heathen would have been aware of their joining them, and it would have been no “slander” to say so. The conclusion is, that neither before nor after their conversion had they been really proceeding thus. St. Peter is, in fact, only putting in words the slander of the Gentiles, at which he had hinted in 1Pe_2:12-15; 1Pe_3:16. “For the future,” says he, “live to the will of God, not to the lusts of men. The past is long enough (without invading the future) to have perpetrated what the heathen want you to have perpetrated—viz., to have been proceeding in debaucheries and abominable idolatries—slandering you in that very point wherein they are puzzled if you do not run with them to the same excess of riot.” As an historical fact, these are the very calumnies which we find to have been brought against the early Christians—idolatries and all. The filthy idolatry ascribed to the Christians by the heathen may be found recorded in Tertullian’s Apology, and (so it is said) on the walls of Pompeii. But what, then, does St. Peter mean when he says that the past is sufficient to have perpetrated what the heathen wanted? It certainly implies that some of them had, even since their conversion, been doing what the malicious heathen would be glad to see them do. But we have already noticed that he is speaking ironically in using the word “sufficient,” and the irony continues through the rest of the clause. “Some of you have been living, up to the present time, more or less to human lusts (1Pe_4:2). You have done so quite long enough now. You have quite sufficiently gratified the Gentiles, who long to prove that you are no better than themselves.” The argument is like that which Nestor, in Homer, addresses to the wrangling Greek captains:—
“Sure Priam would rejoice, and Priam’s sons,
Could they but learn this feud betwixt you twain.”
We may observe, further, that all through the Epistle St. Peter appears to have dread of a doctrine which was fast beginning to rise among the Asiatic Christians—that such sins as fornication and idolatry, being but bodily, were venial, especially in time of persecution. (See 1Pe_1:4; 1Pe_1:15; 1Pe_2:11; 1Pe_5:8.) Such pernicious doctrine was probably founded on a “wresting” of St. Paul’s teaching (2Pe_3:16) on eating things offered to idols; from which it was concluded that the accompanying impurities were innocent likewise. This doctrine becomes very prominent in the Second Epistle; and in the Apocalypse there is even some reason to connect it specially with the Jewish element in the Church. (Comp. together 2Pe_2:15; Rev_2:6; Rev_2:14-15, with Rev_2:9.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For the time past of our life may suffice…
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles; rather, as in the Revised Version, the time past may suffice. The words, "of our life" and "us," are not found in the best manuscripts. St. Peter could not include himself among those who wrought the will of the Gentiles. The Greek word for "will" here is, according to the best manuscripts, boulhma; in ver. 2 "the will of God" is qelhma. The general distinction is that qelw implies choice and purpose, boulomai merely inclination. (compare, in the Greek Phm_1:13, Phm_1:14) The change of word seems to point to such a distinction here. God"s will is a fixed, holy purpose; the will, or rather wish, of the Gentiles was uncertain inclination, turned this way or that way by changeful lusts. The perfect infinitive, "to have wrought," implies that that part of life ought to be regarded as a thing wholly past and gone. The whole sentence has a tone of solemn irony. "Fastidium peccati apud resipiscentes" (Bengel); comp. Rom_6:21. St. Peter is here addressing Gentile Christians. Fronm objection is peculiar: "Suppose that the readers of Peter"s Epistle had formerly been heathens, his reproaching them with having formerly done the will of the Gentiles would surely be singular." They had done the will of the Gentiles; they were now, as Christians, to do the will of God. When we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries; better, as in the Revised Version, and to have walked. There is no pronoun. Lusts are the hidden sins of unclean thought, which lead to outbreaks of lasciviousness. The Greek word for "revellings" (kwmoi) is one often used of drunken youths parading the streets, or of festal processions in honor of Bacchus. The word translated "banquetings" means rather "drinking-bouts." The word for "abominable" is ajqemitoiv, unlawful, nefarious, contrary to the eternal principles of the Divine Law; "quibus sanctissimum Dei jus violatur" (Bengel). St. Peter is probably referring, not only to the sin of idolatry in itself, but also to the many licentious practices connected with it. After the persecution of Nero, in which St. Peter perished, Christianity was regarded by the state as a religio illicita. Christianity was condemned by the law of Rome; idolatry is opposed to the eternal Law of God. This verse could not have been addressed to Hebrew Christians.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Ver. 3.
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The time past," a sermon for the last day of the year.
Every day and every moment closes and commences a year; yet the artificial arrangement by which it is agreed that a year shall close at one certain fixed moment of a certain fixed day is an arrangement both convenient and contributive in many ways to our moral and religious advantage. The review of the closing year is a very proper, and may be a very profitable, exercise. The newspapers review the events of the year which are of political, financial, or commercial interest. Man has, however, higher interests those which are moral and spiritual. It is desirable that we should take a retrospect of "the time past," with a view of tracing God"s providential dealings with us, with a view of estimating our own spiritual progress, and of learning lessons of wisdom and of helpfulness.
I WHAT DOES REFLECTION SUGGEST TO US CONCERNING TIME PAST IN ITSELF?
1. Its passage has been rapid, yet it has been filled with events of great importance.
2. It is perfectly irrecoverable; we cannot live the expiring year over again.
3. It has left ineffaceable traces upon our character. We are all changed by its influences, its occupations, its lessons some for the better, some for the worse.
4. It is not forgotten by the Lord and Judge of all. In this sense he "requireth that which is past.
II IN WHAT SPIRIT SHOULD THE CHRISTIAN CONSIDER THE TIME PAST?
1. His first and most prominent thought should be of the mercy and loving-kindness of God revealed to him as the days and weeks have passed by.
2. Especially should he remember the long-suffering and forbearance which has been displayed towards him by his heavenly Father upon repeated occasions, when such consideration has been called for by failures in duty and by forgetfulness of Divine love.
3. He should remember with regret and repentance the opportunities of obedience and usefulness which he has neglected.
4. Nor should he lose sight of the discipline which he may have been called upon to endure, and which he should remember, not with a rebellious, but with a submissive spirit.
III IN WHAT SPIRIT SHOULD THE IRRELIGIOUS AND UNDECIDED REVIEW THE TIME PAST?
1. He should remember with humiliation and shame that he has broken the Law of God, and rejected the gospel of Christ.
2. He should reflect upon the evil influence which his example of religion has exercised over his fellow-men, especially over those within his family and social circle.
3. He should consider that he is the worse at the end of the year than at its beginning, because of his delay to repent and to commence by God"s grace a new and better life.
IV How SHOULD THE MEMORY OF THE TIME FAST AFFECT THE TIME TO COME?
1. We may be helped to realize the brevity of life, and the uncertainty and probable brevity especially of what of life yet remains.
2. We may be induced to turn away from the evil which has been indulged in during bygone years, and to enter upon the holier life and more consecrated service which our conscience approves and enjoins. The sands are fast falling; the tide is fast ebbing; the light is fast fading. Let the future see our vows fulfilled, our hopes realized, our aims achieved! J.R.T.
HOMILIES BY U.R. THOMAS
Vers. 3-6.
Living to the will of God.
We have seen that the apostle the large-hearted, sympathetic, experienced apostle is showing the scattered Christians he is addressing how to fortify themselves against the persecution that in stormful violence had fallen upon them here and there, before and since they became fugitives or exiles. This is part of a long paragraph beginning at the thirteenth verse of the last chapter, in which he is teaching that amid such persecution a good conscience is the only charm; that whatever befalls their circumstances or their bodily life, a consistent character will be as an asbestos robe enwrapping their spirits. Nothing can violate the charm of that good conscience, nothing burn or even singe the asbestos robe of that true character. Remember his defiant inquiry, "Who is he that can harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" This he has been showing in many verses; and the possession of that charm, the possession of that character is the burden of his exhortation here. The key-note of this chapter is Live to the will of God.
I LIVE TO THE WILL OF GOD. This is the lesson of man"s past evil life. St. Peter urges that "the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles. " What was the desire of the Gentiles in time past? What they desired for themselves and others. The life of that century throughout the Roman empire, where these scattered Christians were, has never, perhaps, been equaled in the hideousness of its private and public vices. The names of the Emperors Tiberius, Gaius, and Claudius Nero are so many symbols of cruelty, lust, and buffoonery. The walls of Pompeii, the pages of the poets, the annals of the historian, all testify how voluptuous, how debased, how heinously immoral, were the desires of the Gentiles.
1. Lasciviousness; outrageous debauchery in general, including all that follow wine-swillings, roysterings, revels, and the filthy festivals of idolatry. So many forms alas! scarcely exaggerated of selfism prevalent in cultured and Christian England today. The apostle says, "The time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles." There is deep sadness in the irony here about time past. And yet there is deeper hope, for the past is past, and need not return.
2. Sadness. Enough sin! and such sin as we have been gazing at! Enough; for such time past hour, or day, or year, or years was simply
(1) A time of degradation to self. Men in such indulgences become coarse, vulgar, low, bestial.
(2) A time of imperiousness to others. Such a life was the breathing out of pollution into the social atmosphere; the opening up of fetid and poisonous fountains that pour forth disease and death.
(3) A time of rebellion. The human misery in scenes of riot and shame tell of Divine anger. Enough; let not the wheels of time bring back an hour of such life as that to you, my brother.
3. Hope. Time past may be left behind.
(1) There is forgiveness for time past. "Depths of the sea;" not shallow river, not near shore, where the tide may wash on to the beach.
(2) There is deliverance for time past. The charm of evil can be broken; the spell of wrong-doing can be dissolved. With all the energy you have, get away from that past time. The pirate bears down upon the vessel and captures her when her sails are down and she is making no headway. Oh, press on! "Escape for thy life!
Let the dead past bury its dead. Act, act in the living present Heart within, and God o"erhead.
II LIVE TO THE WILL OF GOD, NOTWITHSTANDING BAD MEN"S WONDER AT GOOD MEN"S CONDUCT. St. Peter said, nearly two thousand years ago, what can be truly said today, that worldly men, sinful men, sensual men, think it strange that Christian men do not run with them into the same excess of riot. Dissimilar characters often find it difficult to understand each other; the thoroughly corrupt man seems to find it impossible to understand the Christian.
1. He thinks his conduct strange, and so perhaps he ignores him altogether. He does not invite him to his carousals; he does not know him in society; still less is he on visiting or calling terms with him. He is an enigma he does not care to understand.
1. Or he thinks his conduct strange, and he is aggravated by it. He is contemptuous; he sneers; he tempts. He says about him, or to him, with
2. curled lip, as he declines the wine-party, or gaming-talkie, or clubs of voluptuous pleasure. "Oh, you are "green;" you are "soft;" you are "melancholy;" you"re not "half a man. And soon their irritation makes them scandal-mongers and slanderers, as were the pagan scandal-mongers and slanderers of -the early Christians.
3. Or, better far, he thinks his conduct strange, and it leads him to inquire. Wonder ends in respect, and respect in admiration, and admiration in imitation. Not a few of the men who have been reclaimed from lives of silly, not to say sensual, self-indulgence, began to climb the higher path and to breathe the purer air of Christian manhood because they saw a change come over some old companion that they at first thought strange, but soon found to be fascinating and ennobling. Who of you would not wish so to live that men should say, "We will go with you, for we have seen that God is with you"?
III LIVE TO THE WILL OF GOD, FOR BOTH CHRIST"S JUDGMENT AND CHRIST"S GOSPEL ARE FOR ALL. The point the apostle is here pressing is that these bad men these Gentiles and pagans of that day, who find their counterpart and succession in all worldly, sensual, selfish men of today will have to give account to him who will judge quick and dead. The last time he mentioned Christ it was as having ascended to the right hand of God; just before that, as having suffered and died and gone to Hades; now, as in the very order in which the Apostles" Creed enshrines the great biography, he mentions him as judging the quick and the dead. All the living and all the dead shall stand at that tribunal. "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God." But if all are to be judged, all must have the gospel preached to them; or the judgment would be partial, unjust, unrighteous. "Unto this end," that is, that all may be righteously judged, all have the gospel preached to them. The gates of mercy are as vast as the seat of judgment; the cross of Christ is as stupendous as the great white throne. Hence the good tidings had been preached "to the dead." "Spirits in prison" were visited by the Redeemer; to the dead Christ goes with his boundless gospel of righteousness and mercy. The myriads in the Roman empire in Peter"s day who died without a single note of the evangel falling on their ears died in gross corruption and bewildering superstitions of heathenism, are yet to be met with the offers of mercy, with the provisions of the gospel, and with the love of Jesus Christ. So that though according to the flesh their life on earth they were judged by men, and rightly judged, as evil and wicked men, they may, if they will yet receive the gospel preached to them, if they will read its blessed writing in the lurid light of the very flames of hell, yet be trophies of its unspeakable grace, and live to God in the spirit. Their life in the flesh was a ruin and a wreck, a scourge and a curse; so they are judged according to men. But, wondrous ray of hope! their life in the spirit may, after the purgings of those terrific fires, and through the influence of the gospel of our blessed Lord, yet become a life unto God.
That is the object and only sufficient end of the preaching of the good tidings of Christ anywhere and at any time now and here, or then and yonder. Has it led us to live unto God, as the flower lives to the sun, turning to it to paint its petals and to distil its odors and to nourish its exquisite life; as the subject lives to his sovereign, in unflinching and loyal fidelity; as the child lives unto his parent, in loving, watchful, eager obedience? Some men are alive to pleasure, or gain, or ambition, or friendship, and no more. Are we alive unto God? U.R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The time past of our life may suffice us.
1Pe_4:3-5
The time past of our life may suffice us.
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The consideration of misspent time an incentive to repentance
1. The time spent in sin, we know how much it is, but what is behind we know not. The devil is sure of his part, but what God shall have, whether half or a quarter, so much is uncertain. If we knew we should live twenty years more to serve God as we have done twenty years in sin, God should have but the half, but we know not whether we shall live twenty days. Should we then defer?
2. Time is very precious, above gold and silver, and hereof we have squandered a great part.
3. There is no time to be spent in sin, but we are to serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. Therefore, having robbed Him of some of His due, is it not well He will take this that remains?
4. Whatsoever time is spent till we return to God is all going out of the way; and if a man hath gone out of the way but till eight or nine oclock, assuredly that is more than enough.
5. Whatsoever time is spent that way is but doing that that must be undone again and repented of. Is not a little of this too much? Who will willingly so do his work that it must be ravelled out again?
6. All that is done this way is for the devil, our sworn enemy, for whom even the least is too much; for the flesh, to which we owe nothing; and for the world, which is our deadly enemy.
7. It is all done against God, to whom we owe all; and is it not then sufficient we have wronged Him so far?
8. And all is against our own souls; and have we not wounded them enough already? (John Rogers.)
Departed years
What is time? Without regard to philosophic niceties, I may say that it is limited duration, vouchsafed to man for moral purposes, through the mediation of Christ.
I. As a portion of probationary existence. Time past of our life. Take three views of the years that have departed.
1. Look at what they have given us.
2. Look at what they have taken away from us. The warm impulses and tender sensibilities of childhood and youth. Precious gifts are these! What friends are gone!
3. Look at what they have left us. They have left us life, reason, memory, religious privileges, augmented responsibility, wider memories, and greater power for good and evil. Many precious germs of blessedness.
II. As a course of wrong moral conduct. The apostle intimates that those to whom he wrote had, during the past years, wrought the will of the Gentiles. During the time past of their lives they had not been passive but active. What was this will of the Gentiles? The will of corrupt humanity. Nothing more, nothing less. Every wheel in its vast and complicated machinery is moved and ruled by this. It is true that this will works in different men with different instruments and under different phases of character. Its language in some is vulgar, in others classic; in some obscene, in others refined.
1. That this will is generally the ruling power in the first stages of mans history.
2. That there is a danger even of good men yielding to its influence.
III. As an argument for immediate improvement. For the time past of our life may suffice, etc. The urgency of this will appear from two considerations.
1. The will of God ought to have swayed with an absolute power from the commencement of our responsible life.
2. All the time that has been spent in neglect of this has been spent in contracting guilt and increasing our exposure to ruin. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The voice of the past
Life! What mystery is wrapped up in life! How great the power needed to originate it! What transcendent worth be longs to human life! to-
I. Our life. Our life is redeemed life. It was great to speak a world from nought; greater to create moral life and fashion it after the Divine original; greatest to redeem.
II. The past of life. How little we know of the past-taking the word in its comprehensive relationship to the world! As question of history we know something of the worlds civilisation, science, art, human laws, etc. But what do we know of the individual experience of mankind-its joys and sorrows? But there is a past for which God holds us responsible-an individual past.
III. The time past of our life. Nothing that I have is my own. I belong to God, in body, soul, and spirit. I am, therefore, accountable to Him for my time. Life is Gods loan to man, and time mans life rent of the world. In the great day we are to stand before God to give an account of our stewardship. The life rent which the great Proprietor claims is service. He has put us into His beautiful world to make it more beautiful by adding moral to material beauty. If we fail to render this service we shall lose our life, in a sense which human language is not adequate to express. And now what have we to say with respect to this strange, solemn thing-Time?-that men do with it through life just what the apostles did for one precious irreparable hour of it in the garden of Gethsemane-they go to sleep! What opportunities have we lost! What privileges forfeited! What work for God neglected! The secret of all the failures which have been enumerated is expressed by the apostle in one word, self-will-the will of the Gentiles. Man doing his own will is the history of the worlds sin and woe. Adoption into the family of God does not exempt us from its insidious workings. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ asks us to let the past suffice to have wrought the wilt of the Gentiles, to renew our early vows, our first love, to be henceforth inspired with the holy ambition to be conformed to the image of His Son. To attain unto this we must yield our wills to God. What are we living for?-for God or for self? (A London Suburban Minister.)
The old year and the new
Look at the qualities that are here forbidden. Lust, lasciviousness, drunkenness, carousings-all these are especially mentioned; and the apostle declares that the time past suffices. You have had experience enough in regard to those things; it is time to leave them. There are multitudes of men that are sacking their very constitution; for whatever may be the opinions of men as to the morality of lascivious conduct, there can be no doubt as to the folly of it. And what shall I say of the concurrent danger of drunkenness, or excessive indulgence of the appetite? Surely I need not point out how base the life of a man is whose whole being circles around about that carnal, animal appetite; upon whom the habit is growing, and, like a maelstrom, swings into its centre, destroying everything that is pure and beautiful that comes near it. It sacks and ransacks the whole nobility of a man. The time past is sufficient for such things. But then there are a great many men that do not consider themselves either lascivious or drunkards. Nevertheless, carousings are familiar to them. What an ignoble way of living to make the whole of life consist, not in building up, but in the commerce of the lower feelings, and the prostitution of the sanctities of friendship to make the friendship of the cup, in all that wild excitement which breeds no single new idea, cleanses no single passion, throws light upon no single element of beauty, but is pure buoyancy of the flesh and the enjoyment of animal life! Higher than these, but still under the ban, are all forms of life where feeling and endeavour are concentrated upon frivolous social enjoyments, with their very selfishness and vanity and pride. I would not restrict the enjoyment of the young, except it trenched upon higher and nobler obligations. I love elasticity of spirit, overflow of pleasantry. All these things I believe belong to life; and just as much under the gospel as outside of it-yea, more. Now in regard to these passions, and the lower forms of intense self-indulgence particularly, the apostle is speaking here, and says, The time past ought to suffice. All these wastes and degradations ought to cease absolutely. They shut out a mans reason. They shut out his best nature. They stand in the way of the accomplishment of the final ends of life. There are times when all these indulgences may be left. The time past gives men sufficient experience and knowledge, both of their uselessness and of their wastefulness, and also of their peril; and that is the time when men should stop and say, Well, I have had enough of that, now and forever. Time enough to bring the higher qualities of your mind to sit in judgment over the lower. The conscience is Chief Justice. Call up those criminal appetites. Let them hear the judge decide, and follow the decision. The time past is sufficient for knowledge and for judgment. That which is true of these lower passions and appetites is lust as true of the higher and inanimate one of a frivolous, self-indulgent, wasteful life that proposes nothing, but dances on from hour to hour, with no more purpose than the butterflies or the insects of a summer day have. The time past is sufficient. Now, allow me to ask you: Are there not in your life some things palpitating, fresh and warm in your bosom, that you know to be wrong in your career? Is it not time for a change? And if your faults are superficial, if they are simply faults of temper, or of balance in the development of your life outwardly, is there nothing in your home life, is there nothing in your friendship life, is there nothing in your business life, judged by the canons of morality, and still more judged by the higher forms of supreme duty, that needs to be changed? Are you the chief occupant of your own self? or are there vermin that dwell in the cracks and crevices and partitions of the soul house? And if there is something more than faults, if there is something that lies deeper, ought you not, above all, for this to make a solemn pause? Be manly, and take a nobler view of what a man is born for, and of what his duty is to himself, to his fellow men, to society, to God, and to eternity; and form a judgment of your self for the old year; and on that deliberate personal investigation of facts and dispositions in your own case put the question to yourself, Have not I carried this thing far enough? If you will do that, you will have taken one step; and will you follow that up by proposing to yourself a deliberate decision? Now, in all these changes that are going on in the human soul it is too often the case that a man says, I mean to try it; but I am not going to expose myself to ridicule, because I may not be able to carry this thing out; and if I dont, well, nobody will know it, and I will be no worse off than I was before. That is to say, you leave a door of retreat open for yourself. I would not give the turn of my hand for a mans purpose who says he is going to change, but leaves all the old influences at work, and all the means of escape from his resolution at command. It is an illusion, and it is the repetition of these things that discourages men finally, and makes them believe they cannot reform and cannot do what they ought to do. If you are going to make a decision, do it on business principles. As all resolutions are so fugitive, so unstable, and as experience has shown that they are so unless when a man wants to correct a habit, commit yourself. What is the effect of committing yourself? Your pride and your vanity now work toward you and for you, whereas otherwise they would work against you. It is going with the current, instead of against it; with the wind, instead of against the wind. Therefore, hedge yourself; trust in somebody. Now is the time for thought; now is the time for purpose; now is the time for declaring your purpose; now is the time to begin. Whatever changes are necessary, will you make them now? (H. W. Beecher.)
A sinner changed by grace
I. The walk of a natural man described. He works the will of the Gentiles, and lives in sin.
II. The great change that the grace of God makes in a natural man. The change we mean is far more than the mere reformation of a sinners life; it is an inward, supernatural change wrought by the Spirit of God, and by means of the gospel of Christ (Rom_1:16).
III. The reasonableness of this change.
1. Sin is a dreadful waste of precious time.
2. Sin is a useless thing.
3. Sin is extremely hurtful and dangerous to ourselves and others.
4. Sin is highly dishonourable to the blessed God.
5. A life of sin is directly contrary to our Christian profession.
IV. The usage which a changed person may expect to meet with from a wicked world. Now, here observe that where such a change as this takes place it is visible; for if the world did not see it, they could not hate it. The change cannot be hid. Carnal companions will be deserted; places of vain amusement forsaken. This will excite hatred. The carnal mind is enmity against God, and everything godly and Godlike (Rom_8:7). (G. Burder.)
Christian consistency
I. The world silently condemned by the Church. This is often done not so much positively as negatively. It is very peculiar, for they condemn them without saying a word, simply by not running into the same excess of riot; and this, it seems, is exceedingly well understood by the worldly party. Noah condemned the world by what he did, as well as by what he said; every stroke of his hammer was a sermon. The marked avoidance of the prevailing sins and follies of the world is often felt to be a powerful condemnation of them. But why should Christians thus refuse to mingle themselves up with the evil of the world?
1. Love to Christ requires it. Forasmuch, then, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves, therefore, with the same mind.
2. The painful remembrance of the past prompts it. The time past may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. It is always a sad thought to the Christian to look back upon his past devotedness to the sins of the world.
3. Christian consistency requires it. Let every one depart from iniquity. A wicked life in a Christian is an indignity committed upon his Master in the disguise of a friend, and an outrage against the gospel. It seems to declare either that this religion tolerates immorality, or that it has not sufficient authority to enforce its own laws.
4. Your own highest interests demand it.
II. The Church censured by the world.
1. In their thoughts. They think it strange that ye run not into this excess of riot; but pardon me if I say they would think it stranger if you did. They may dislike you now, but they would certainly despise you then. They think it strange. Why? Because they know nothing of the high standard of excellence which Christians possess; nor of the elevated principles by which they are actuated; nor of the superior sources of pleasure which are open to them. The Christian and the worldly man have both reason to wonder at each other. The worldling wonders that the Christian loves Christ so much: the Christian wonders that the worldling loves Him so little.
2. In their speeches. They speak evil of you, and contemptuously, as precise, formal, unsocial, repulsive. The Jews spoke evil of the prophets; Ahab spoke evil of Micaiah: I hate him, for he always prophesies evil of me. The disciples were a sect everywhere spoken against.
3. In their writings. Pliny wrote to the Roman emperor to complain of the Christian converts, as addicted to a morose and severe superstition. Infidel and irreligious men have indited many a sarcasm against the Christian cause.
4. By their conduct. That is, towards Christians, whom they persecute in various ways.
III. The judgment of God concerning both. Who shall judge both quick and dead.
1. The certainty of the judgment. They shall give an account.
2. The speediness of the judgment. He is ready to judge.
3. The universality of the judgment. The quick and dead.
4. The consequences of the judgment. The awards of eternity are final, and they are extreme. (The Evangelist.)
Counteracting the good
Gods 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 Gods 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 (Act_6:13; Act_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 (Act_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 Christs names sake, the world heaps upon him! (H. F. Kohlbrugge, D. D.)
The pleasures of a holy life inexplicable to the ungodly
The Roman soldiers, at the sacking of Jerusalem, entered the temple, and went into the Sanctum Sanctorum; but seeing no images there, as they used to have in their own idolatrous temple, gave out in a jeer that the Jews worshipped the clouds. And thus because the pleasures of righteousness and holiness are not so gross as to come under the cognisance of the worlds carnal senses (as their brutish ones do), therefore they laugh at the saints, as if their joy were but the child of fancy, and they do but embrace a cloud instead of Juno herself, a fantastic pleasure for the true; but let such know that they carry in their bosom what will help them to think the pleasures of a holy life more real, and that the power of holiness is so far from depriving a man of the joy and pleasure of his life, that there are incomparable delights and pleasures peculiar to the holy life, which the gracious soul finds in the ways of righteousness. (J. Spencer.)
Excess of riot
A strong and expressive metaphor, especially in countries where, after violent rain, the gutters are suddenly swollen and pour their contents together with violence into a common sewer. Such is the apostolic figure of vicious companies rushing together in filthy confusion for reckless indulgence and effusion in sin. (C. Wordsworth.)
Amusements
to virtue are like breezes of air to the flame: gentle ones will fan it, but strong ones will put it out. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Pleasure
must first have the warrant that it is without sin; and then the measure, that it is without excess. (T. Adams.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 3. The time past. That was enough time for…
3. The time past. That was enough time for sin. Have wrought the will of the Gentiles. Lived the unholy lives common among the heathen. To have walked. Peter describes the common sins, sins of the Gentile world, sins in which too many Jews imitated them. The first two are sins of uncleanness. Excess of wine. Drunkenness. Revellings. See Rom. 13:13, and Gal. 5:21. Riotous merry making is meant. Banquetings. Carousings, as in Revision.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 drunken celebrations, having wild parties
drunken celebrations, having wild parties
These terms refer to activities in which people gather to drink alcohol excessively and behave in a shameful manner.
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floods of reckless behavior
These examples of wild, boundless sin are spoken of as if they were great floods of water that sweep over people.
reckless behavior
doing everything they can to satisfy the desires of their bodies
the one who is ready to judge
Possible meanings are 1) "God, who is ready to judge" or 2) "Christ, who is ready to judge"
the living and the dead
This means all people, whether they are still alive or have died. AT: "every person" (See: Merism)
the gospel was preached also to the dead
Possible meanings are 1) "the gospel was preached also to people who had already died" or 2) "the gospel was preached also to those who were alive but are now dead"
the gospel was preached
This can be stated in active form. Possible meanings are 1) Christ preached. AT: "Christ preached the gospel" or 2) men preached. AT: "men preached the gospel" (See: Active or Passive)
they have been judged in the flesh as humans
This can be stated in active form. Possible meanings are 1) God judged them in this life on earth. AT: "God judged them in their bodies as humans" or 2) men judged them according to human standards. AT: "men judged them in their bodies as humans" (See: Active or Passive)
judged in the flesh as humans
This is a reference to death as the ultimate form of judgment. (See: Euphemism)
live in the spirit the way God does
Possible meanings are 1) "live spiritually as God lives because the Holy Spirit will enable them to do so" or 2) "live according to God's standards by the power of the Holy Spirit"
translationWords
Gentile
drunk
false god
evil
judge
life
die
good news
preach
God
spirit
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:3 godless people (literally the Gentiles): Peter takes this…
4:3 godless people (literally the Gentiles): Peter takes this term from his Jewish heritage to describe those who do not know God.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.