Suffering with Christ.—1 Peter 4:12-19

Notes

The Fiery Trial.—Our common version makes the "fiery trial" future, but the Revised Version makes it present. When the end is at hand (verse 7), when the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God (verse 17), then, "beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you." These are a part of our heritage; for "hereunto were ye called" (chap. 2:21). The last days will be days of especial peril (2 Tim. 3:1); every wind of doctrine will be blowing (Eph. 4:14); men will put darkness for light and light for darkness (Isa. 5:20); false prophets will do great signs and wonders, to deceive if possible the elect of God (Mark 13:22); Satan himself will appear as an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:14, 15); persecution will break forth upon those who honor God's law in the gospel of Christ (Rev. 12:17; 13:11-17); Satan will work with all power and signs and lying wonders (2 Thess. 2:9-12); in short, every delusion of the past, every device of the devil adapted for the present, a very flood of iniquity and persecution, will roll in upon the world and the people of God in these days of peril (Isa. 59:19), culminating in the hour of temptation such as the world has never before seen (Rev. 3:10). These are the perils.

On the other hand, the Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered Satan, has promised, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." He has given his precious truth to meet all the wiles of the adversary (2 Thess. 2:10-12); he has promised that when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him (Isa. 59:19); God will keep his people in the hour of temptation which is coming on all the world to try those who dwell on the earth (Rev. 3:10).