CHAPTER ONE

 

 

1:1:  “strangers” = That is, chiefly those of Jewish extraction scattered by the persecution mentioned in Acts 8:1.  The Greek literally would read, “sojourners of the dispersion,” where it is also only found in the New Testament in John 7:35 and James 1:1.  In the “Septuagint,” in Psalm 147:2 it reads like this:  “the outcasts of Israel.”

 

“Pontus” = Pontus was an important province in the northeastern part of Asia Minor, lying along the south shore of the Black Sea.

 

“Galatia” = The use of Galatia can be used to designate a country in the northern part of the central plateau of Asia Minor, touching Paphlagonia and the Bithynia North, the Phrygia West and South, Cappadocia and Pontus in the Southeast and East.  It was near the headwaters of the Sangarios and the middle course of the Halys.  When the word was used politically, it designated a large province of the Roman Empire, including not merely the country Galatia, but also Paphlagonia and parts of Pontus, Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycaonia and Isauria.

 

“Cappadocia” = An extensive province in eastern Asia Minor, bounded by the Taurus Mountains on the South, the Anti-Taurus and the Euphrates rivers on the East, and, less definitely, by Pontus and Galatia on the North and West.

 

“Bithynia” = A coastal province in northwestern Asia Minor on the Propontis Sea, which is just below the Black Sea, and the Euxine Sea, which was the original name of the Black Sea.  Basically, the areas around today’s Istanbul, Turkey.

 

1:2:  “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God” = See my Bible Study:  “ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED.”

 

“The Father sets His Love upon His elect people who live in the midst of men.  These are the people whom Christ has redeemed by the price of His Own blood; and because they respond to the drawing of Christ, through the sovereign mercy of God, they are elected to be saved as His obedient children.  Upon them is manifested the free grace of God, the Love wherewith He hath Loved them.  Everyone who will humble himself as a little child who will receive and obey the Word of God with a child’s simplicity, will be among the elect of God.”  ST, January 2, 1893, paragraph 2; 6BC:1114.3.

 

“sprinkling of the blood” = This is an interesting statement, because at this point all of Christ’s blood has been spilled, not sprinkled.  Thus, this is Sanctuary language, of which Peter, being a devout Jew, understood to mean a purification process, which is done through the operating word before this phrase, “obedience.”

 

1:3:  “begotten us again” = Another way of saying, being “born again.”

 

1:5:  “Who are kept” = See my Bible Study:  “ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED.”  Taking this verse alone, no one is “kept,” or “saved,” without the “faith,” see verse 7 also; for no “trial” is needed if you are “kept,” “faith,” in this verse, being the reason you are “kept.”  Therefore, there is a condition, as is consistently taught throughout the Bible. And who cares if you are experiencing “manifold temptations,” verse 6, if you are, “Once Saved Always Saved?”  Verse 7 is clear, in that you “might be” saved.

 

1:9:  “end of your faith” = See my Romans 10:4 Note.  Read it this way:  “Receiving the conclusion of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”

 

“. . . which is the salvation of our souls.”  SAT1:218.

 

1:10:  “salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently” = Not that they were searching for “salvation;” but that they were searching the Scriptures daily to see when the Messiah would Come; which is the context of the passage (see verse 7). 

 

1:12:  “Unto whom it was revealed” = “Even the prophets who were favored with the special illumination of the Spirit, did not fully comprehend the import of the revelations committed to them.  The meaning was to be unfolded from age to age, as the people of God should need the instruction therein contained.”  GC:344.

 

“which are now reported unto you” = “Each of the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours, so that their prophesying is in force for us.”  3SM:337; CTr:357; 7MR:417. 

 

“which things the angels desire to look into” = See Deuteronomy 29:29.

 

“Never are we absent from the mind of God.  God is our joy and our salvation.  Each of the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours, so that their prophesying is in force for us. [1Co. 10:11 & 1Pe. 1:12 quoted].” 3SM:338.1; 7MR 417.1.

 

“God’s wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming Love, is the theme into which ‘angels desire to look,’ and it will be their study throughout endless ages.  Both the redeemed [20] and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song.”  DA:19-20.

 

“The cherubim of the earthly Sanctuary looking reverently down upon the Mercy-Seat, represent the interest with which the Heavenly host contemplate the work of redemption.  This is the mystery of mercy into which angels desire to look, that God can be just while He justifies the repenting sinner, and renews His intercourse with the fallen race,” 4SP:262.

 

1:13:  “be sober” = The Greek is, “G3525; nepho,” meaning, “to abstain from wine.”  That is pretty clear instruction.  See my Bible Study:  “BIBLICALLY ACCEPTABLE WINE.”

 

1:14:  “lusts in your ignorance” = I wonder how “ignorant” we really were.  For all the wicked will be held responsible.  In other words, we knew and had evidence enough (see Psa. 19:1; Rom. 1:20).

 

1:22-23:  “purified your souls in obeying the truth. . . Being born again” = This comes from Isaiah 40:8.  Verse 22is the sign in which you can know whether or not you are “born again,” or renewed with the Spirit of God in verse 23, or both.

 

1:23:  “the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” = See Numbers 23:19; First Samuel 15:29; Psalm 89:34; 102:27; Ecclesiastes 3:14-15; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 1:11-12; 13:8; James 1:17.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

2:4-5:  “living stone” = According to Exodus 20:25, a “[living] stone” is natural, untoched, not altered in any way.  Whereas a hewn stone is cut and fashioned by man.  The principle is not to cut or tattoo oneself.  Spiritually speaking, not to defile the body which should be the temple of the Holy Spirit.

 

2:5:  “spiritual sacrifices” = A “spiritual sacrifice” is being an acceptable sacrifice; giving total credit to God for whatever action; with total abstinence of self.

 

2:8:  “whereunto also they were appointed” = Because of their own will.  See my Bible Study:  “ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED.”

 

2:10:  “in time past were not a people” = You are nothing until you are a child of God:  “but are now the people of God.”

 

2:11:  “strangers and pilgrims” = This is what you should be:  a “stranger and pilgrims” to and in this world; constantly Heavenly minded, not worldly minded.

 

2:12:  “evildoers. . . [will] glorify God in the day of visitation” = So don’t expect them to do it now.

 

2:13:  “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man [Why?] for the Lord’s sake” = Why else?  “. . . for the praise of them that do well.”  Verse 14 (see also verse 15).

 

2:25:  “For ye were as sheep going astray” = Here is the main reason Peter is writing to those Christians in First Peter 1:1.

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

 

3:1:  “ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands” = Here Peter gives us more insight, or rather, makes this instruction even more clear than Paul (Eph. 5:22-24), in that:  “if any [husband] obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives.”

 

3:3:  “wearing of gold” = “Here the Lord, through his apostle, speaks expressly against the wearing of gold.  Let those who have had experience see to it that they do not lead others astray on this point by their example.  That ring encircling your finger may be very plain, but it is useless, and the wearing of it has a wrong influence upon others.”  RH, July 8, 1880.

 

3:4:  “man” = The subject and context was written to “the wives.”  To then switch to “man,” he must mean [both] mankind.

 

3:6:  “whose daughters ye are [God’s daughters; verse 5]” = Only, “as long as ye do well.”

 

“are not afraid with any amazement” = From “Robertson’s Word Pictures Bible Commentary,” we read the literal translation:  “. . . are not put in fear by any terror (kai me phoboumenai medemian ptoesin).  Free quotation from Pro. 3:25, ‘and not fearing any terror’ (cognate accusative of ptoesis, after phoboumenai, present middle participle, late and rare word from ptoeo, to terrify, as in Luke 21:9, here only in N.T.).”

 

3:7:  “weaker vessel” = The Jews have a saying:  “If thy wife be short of stature, bow thyself, and whisper to her.”  “T.Bab. Bava Metzia, fol.” 59. 1.  The meaning of the proverb is, that he ought to suit himself to her capacity and weakness.  The general thought process here is not only physical, but [so sorry] mental [of which we know not to be true for most men today; for there are more women than men in the Church today; or more men go to Church because their wives ask them to].

 

3:11:  “eschew” = The Greek is, “ekklinoo,” meaning, “to deviate, to shun (literally or figuratively), or (relatively) to decline:  avoid, go out of the way.”

 

3:18:  “once” = The Greek word used here is “hapax,” and therefore a better translation would be, “once for all.”

 

3:19:  “spirits in prison” = Here is an excerpt from my Bible Study, “DEATH, THE BIBLICAL TRUTH ABOUT:”

 

FIRST PETER 3:19 & 4:6:  “WAS PREACHED & SPIRITS IN PRISON”

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Let us begin with First Peter 4:6:  “was preached” = Peter’s statement is “was preached,” not “is preached,” the Greek being positively aorist passive.  The meaning is that the Gospel “was preached” to them when they were alive.  That should end this discussion on these verses.  But I digress.

 

What prison are we then talking about?  Surely not death and hell.  But rather, if we go to Isaiah 14:17 & 61:1 & Luke 4:18 & John 8:32-34, these teach us that the Scriptures mean, “In the prison house of sin.”

 

Peter did not imply that the Gospel was then being preached to the souls of the dead, as some teach about First Peter 3:19 (ignoring with their other teachings that Jesus went to Heaven when He died; you can’t have it both ways).  He said the Gospel “was preached” to those who “are [now] dead.”  The preaching was done while they were still alive, and they will be judged on the basis of how they lived “according to men in the flesh,” or while they were still alive and accountable, “but live according to God in the spirit,” First Peter 4:6.  

 

The main point is that this is speaking of Christ, speaking through Noah, during the “days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,” First Peter 3:20.  Not that Christ was now speaking, during His three-day period of “death,” First Peter 3:18, as some teach.

 

In regards to First Peter 3:19, preaching to “spirits in prison,” that is, the “prison” house of sin.  See verse 20, i.e., “Which sometime were disobedient.”  See also Psalm 142:7 & Isaiah 61:1:  “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”  See also Luke 4:18-21 & Romans 8:10-11, which confirm the same thing.  The context of First Peter 3:20 sets the timing as clear, in that Christ spoke to the people while they were still alive through the preaching of “Noah, while the ark was a preparing,” or better, for this discussion, while they were still alive.

 

In a side note, when the Scriptures mention the word “spirit” or “Spirit,” they can be referring to God’s “breath,” or “living beings.”  For examples of speaking to “living beings,” see Hebrews 12:23 & First John 4:1-2.  For its usage as “God’s Breath,” see Ecclesiastes 12:7, and so many more.

 

Let’s discover context and go to verse 18.  This verse clearly teaches that Jesus, “being put to death in the flesh,” meaning, His Humanity “died bodily.”  Then it tells us that (three days later) Jesus was “quickened [Greek; G2227; “zoopoieo;” meaning, “to produce alive; to cause to live”] by the Spirit.”  Then verse 19 states, “By which.”  The “By which” would mean, that the same “Spirit” that “quickened” Him, is the same “Spirit” that “preached unto the spirits in prison” of sin.  Then we come to the point of Peters teaching here in verse 20, where Peter makes the point that the same “Spirit” that “quickened” Jesus is the same “Spirit” that spoke to those “in the days of Noah,” as recorded in Genesis 6:3.  Peter is just making a point about God’s Spirit “striv[ing] with men.”  And notice he only emphasizes Noah’s period of time.  If Peters point were something else, he would have listed many other events (or could have using the same point).

 

Finally, a little common sense here.  Considering the false doctrine that has come from this misused passage, there would be no point in Christ preaching to spirits in hell, since your false teaching already accepts that they are there for the entire duration anyway.  Nowhere in the Bible is it ever taught that repentance and salvation can be accepted or given of God while one is eternally dead (or your false doctrine of eternally burning in hell).  Therefore, it is clear that this passage is referring to those whom Christ preached to while they were alive, but in the “prison” house of “sin.” Only while they still had an opportunity to repent could our Lord thus “preach” to them.

 

3:20:  “by water” = The Greek word for “by” is “dia,” and is here used as a “primary preposition,” and therefore, a better translation would be, “through,” or “during” the “water” deluge.

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

 

4:1:  “he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin” = Here is given us one formula for “ceased[ing] from sin.”

 

4:6:  “the Gospel was preached also to those who are dead” = Note the structure, “was preached,” i.e., when they were alive; not “is preached.”  This is because of the Godly life that was lived as an example to these unrighteous people, expressed in verses 3-4.

 

See my Bible Study, “DEATH, THE BIBLICAL TRUTH ABOUT.”

 

4:7:  “the end of all things is at hand” = Every generation has had the hope that Christ would Come in their time.

 

4:8:  “charity shall cover the multitude of sins” = “The love that suffers long and is kind will not magnify an indiscretion into an unpardonable offense, neither will it make capital of others’ misdoings.  The Scriptures plainly teach that the erring are to be treated with forbearance and consideration.  If the right course is followed, the apparently obdurate heart may be won to Christ.  The love of Jesus covers a multitude of sins.  His grace never leads to the exposing of another’s wrongs, unless it is a positive necessity.”  “Counsels To Parents, Teachers, And Students,” page 267.

 

4:10:  “every man hath received the gift” = The only “gift” that “every man hath received” is that of “God’s grace.”

 

4:12-13:  “fiery trial which is to try you” = If there are to be Chapter breaks, this would have been the better place to have put It.

 

“Trial is part of the education given in the school of Christ, to purify God’s children from the dross of earthiness.  It is because God is leading His children, that trying experiences come to them.  Trials and obstacles are His chosen methods of discipline, and His appointed conditions of success.  He who reads the hearts of men knows their weaknesses better than themselves can know them. . . Often He permits the fires of affliction to burn, that they may be purified.”  RH, August 8, 1912; AA:524; RC:362.

 

4:17:  “judgment must begin at the house of God” = See Ezekiel 9:6 & Revelation 9:4.

 

4:18:  “the righteous scarcely be saved” = Those that believe salvation is easy need to read their Bibles again.

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

 

5:1:  “who am also an elder” = Paul also labels himself as an “Apostle,” Romans 1:1.  In Second John 1:1 & Third John 1:1, John also calls himself an “elder.”  The “Syriac Version” renders it, “who am a fellow elder,” which expresses his office, as opposed to giving the impression of his age.

 

5:2:  “Feed the Flock of God” = This verse tells us what Church leaders should do.  But it also tells us what Church leaders will do when they become un-Christ-like.  What are these things?  (1) They will not “feed the flock of God. . . taking the oversight thereof,” but take advantage of them; (2) They will “constrain” in order to get “filthy lucre,” i.e., monetary gains.].

 

5:3:  “being ensamples” = The verse does not say, “being examples,” but “being ensamples.”  The point is, one can be an “example,” meaning outwardly, easier than an “ensample,” meaning inwardly.  Total commitment to our Lord does not mean to fool people outwardly; but to be a Christian entirely by both inward and outward thoughts and actions.

 

5:5:  “ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.  Yea, all of you be subject one to another” = This would seem like an oxymoron, but order requires a leader for a final decision.  However, all may be in agreement for righteous [Godly] principles which will take everyone’s opinion into consideration.

 

5:8: “roaring lion” = According to the Bible, a lion roars when it has prey in sight.  The question is asked in Amos 3:4, “Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?”  The context of the verse is that, no, he will not.  The lions roar because it brings fear to the lion’s prey.  Thus Amos 3:8 says, “The lion hath roared, who will not fear?”  The roaring of the lion when he has prey causes fear in the victim and this fear makes escaping harder for the victim and thus aids the lion in capturing his food.   “Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions:  yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it,” Isaiah 5:29.

 

With this Biblical fact established, I believe the context of this verse follows most closely to Ezekiel 22:25:  “There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls;” i.e., Satan using false prophets along with himself.

 

A “lion” never stops eating (as long as it lives [in you]).

 

5:9:  “knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” = This is just another way of Peter stating:  “ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations,” First Peter 1:6; or Paul’s statement in First Corinthians 10:13; or as we might state it today:  “You should understand that you are enduring trials that your fellow-Christians also suffer from, i.e., the same things.”

 

5:12:  “By Silvanus” = This postscript most likely was in Peter’s own handwriting, as Paul did (see 2Th. 3:17; Gal. 6:11-18).  If so, then “Silvanus” would correlate to “Silas,” who was the bearer of this Epistle also.  Paul uses this same name in Second Corinthians 1:19 & First Thessalonians 1:1, whom we know to be referring to Silas.

 

5:13:  “church” = This is a supplied word and not in the original.  However, According to “Albert Barns Notes On The Bible,” “. . .the Arabic, Syriac, and Vulgate, as well as the English versions, supply the word ‘church.’  This interpretation seems to be confirmed by the word rendered ‘elected together with’ -- ‘suneklekte.’  This word would be properly used in reference to one individual if writing to another individual, but would hardly be appropriate as applied to an individual addressing a church.”

 

However, Peter is writing to those in the “Church” at Rome.  By calling “Rome,” and not the “Church,” “Babylon,” Peter is letting all know he understands the persecuting nature of the Roman city.

 

“Marcus my son” = Or Mark, the author of The Book of Mark.  This fact agrees with the numerous statements by the early Christian writers that Mark, after leaving Barnabas, became Peter’s “interpreter,” and under Peter’s influence, wrote the Gospel of Mark.