1 Peter 4:18

31 , Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner? This the LXX. translates exactly as the apostle here quotes it. Hence we may learn, [1.] The grievous sufferings of good people in this world are sad presages of much heavier judgments coming upon impenitent sinners.

(1.) He tells them that the time had come when judgment must begin at the house of God. The usual method of Providence has been this: When God brings great calamities and sore judgments upon whole nations, he generally begins with his own people, Isa. x. "Such a time of universal calamity is now at hand, which was foretold by our Saviour, Matt. xxiv.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

And if the righteous scarcely be saved,....

SOME people suppose that it is a very easy thing to be saved, but our Lord said, "Strive ("Agonize" is the original word) to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able." When men hear a simple Gospel sermon of which the pith and marrow is the great soul-saving message, "Believe and live," they say, "If it is such a simple matter, will not all believe?"

The "scarcely" marks the severity of the ordeal, and the unlikelihood (in a mere human point of view) of the righteous sustaining it; but the righteousness of Christ and God's everlasting covenant make it all sure. ungodly--having no regard for God; negative description. sinner--loving sin; positive; the same man is at once God-forgetting and sin-loving. appear--in judgment.

SOME people suppose that it is a very easy thing to be saved, but our Lord said, "Strive ("Agonize" is the original word) to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able." When men hear a simple Gospel sermon of which the pith and marrow is the great soul-saving message, "Believe and live," they say, "If it is such a simple matter, will not all believe?" But the Prophet Isaiah spoke not so, for his sad inquiry was, "Who has believed our report ("our doctrine" is the marginal reading)?" Faith seems so easy that one might ask, "Where will it not be found? But our Savior thought not so, for He asked, "When the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?" He who knows where to look for it and who has the quickest eyes to discern it, asks whether He shall be able to find, anywhere on the earth, that scarce thing called faith—"the faith of God's elect." Believe me that though "the way of holiness" is so plain that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein," yet on account of the hardness of our hearts, it is no easy thing for any of us to enter that way and to continue in it until it leads us to our everlasting Home above. I do not intend to keep strictly to my text, but to give you the meaning of it in this way. First, here is a fact stated— "The righteous are scarcely saved." Then, secondly, there is an inference drawn from that fact—if they are truly saved with great difficulty, "where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" When we have considered that inference, we shall take the liberty to draw two other inferences which may afford us further instruction. I. First, then, HERE IS A FACT STATED—"The righteous are scarcely saved." That is to say, they are only saved with great difficulty.

And if the righteous scarcely be saved - If it shall be with extreme difficulty that the Christians shall escape from Jerusalem, when the Roman armies shall come against it with the full commission to destroy it, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Where shall the proud Pharisaic boaster in his own outside holiness, and the profligate transgressor of the laws of God, show themselves, as having escaped the Divine vengeance? The Christians, though with difficulty, did escape, every man; but not one of the Jews escaped, whether found in Jerusalem or elsewhere.

And if the righteous scarcely be saved - If they are saved with difficulty. The word used here (μόλις molis) occurs in the following places: Act 14:18, “scarce restrained they the people;” Act 27:7, “and scarce were come over against Cnidus;” 1Pe 4:8, “and hardly passing it;” 1Pe 4:16, “we had much work to come by the boat” - literally, we were able with difficulty to get the boat; Rom 5:7, “scarcely for a righteous man will one die;” and in the passage before us. The word implies that there is some difficulty, or obstruction, so that the thing came very near not to happen, or so that there was much risk about it. Compare Luk 13:31. The apostle in this passage seems to have had his eye on a verse in Proverbs, Pro 11:31, and he has merely expanded and illustrated it: “Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.” By the question which he employs, he admits that the righteous are saved with difficulty, or that there are perils which jeopard their salvation, and which are of such a kind as to make it very near not to happen. They would indeed be saved, but it would be in such a manner as to show that the circumstances were such as to render it, to human appearances, doubtful and problematical. This peril may have arisen from many circumstances: (a) The difficulty of forming a plan of salvation, involving a degree of wisdom wholly beyond that of man, and of such a character that beforehand it would have been problematical and doubtful whether it could be. There was but one way in which it could be done. But what human wisdom could have devised that, or thought of it? There was but one being who could save. But who would have supposed that the Son of God would have been willing to become a man, and to die on a cross to do it? […]