1 Peter 4:14

1 Peter 4:14. If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed (are ye). A reassertion, but with a more definite reference to sufferings for Christ's sake, of the blessedness already affirmed in chap. 1 Peter 3:14. The sentence is another echo of Matthew 5:11. The phrase ‘in the name of Christ,' which is paraphrased by both the A. V. and the R. V. as ‘for the name of Christ,' is best interpreted, as is done by most, in the light of Christ's own explanation in Mark 9:41 in my name, because ye belong to Christ. It covers, therefore, all kinds of reproach endured on account of bearing Christ's name and belonging to Him.

because the Spirit of glory and of (god resteth upon you. The form of this sentence in the original is uncommon, and has led to different interpretations. According to some, it means, ‘the element of glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you' (Plumptre, etc.); a pos s ible rendering and one yielding a good sense here. According to others the sense is, ‘the name of glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you' (Hofmann); a rendering which gives the pertinent idea that the name of Christ, which is the cause of reproach, is nevertheless the name of honour. Bengel, supposing that in James 2:1 we should translate ‘the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Glory' (instead of ‘the Lord of glory'), suggests that the term ‘glory' here may be a title of Christ, as if = the Glorious One; a partial analogy to which may be found in Simeon's designation of the infant Saviour ‘the glory of Thy people Israel' (Luke 2:32). The sentence, however, is understood by most to contain two titles (some of the oldest manuscripts, indeed, make them three, by inserting the words ‘and of power' after ‘glory') of the same Spirit. He is first described as the Spirit of glory, i.e to whom glory belong whose nature is glory, and whose gilt, therefore, is also glory; as God also has the titles ‘the God of glory' (Acts 7:2), and ‘the Father of glory' (Ephesians 1:17). And it is then added that this Spirit is God's Spirit. His relation to suffering Christians is described as a resting upon them. The word is one which, either in itself or in a compound form, occurs in several suggestive passages of the O. T., in Numbers 11:25-26, of the prophetic Spirit resting on the seventy elders; in 2 Kings 2:15, of the spirit of Elijah resting on Elisha; and above all in Isaiah 11:2 (which is probably in Peter's mind here), of the Spirit of the Lord that was to rest upon Messiah. It is found also in some interesting connections in the N. T., as e.g. of the resting apart awhile which Christ enjoined on the Apostles (Mark 6:31); in His charge to the slumbering three in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:45; Mark 14:41); of the resting of the blessed dead from their labours (Revelation 14:13, etc.). It implies, therefore, the restful complacency with which He makes His abode with them. This is the reason why even in reproach and persecution they are ‘blessed.' They whom the Spirit thus visits, though the shame of the Cross in heathen eyes may be theirs, have glory already with them; for He is the Spirit whose nature glory is, and where He enters, there the earnest of all glory is. They with whom the Spirit is pleased to dwell, have God Himself with them; for He is the Spirit of God, and where that presence is, there is rest. It is possible that Peter's designation of the Spirit here is shaped by his thoughts going back to the abiding presence of God as witnessed of old to Israel by the glory-cloud in the Holy of Holies. The words ‘on their part... glorified' have such weight of ancient documents, both Manuscripts and Versions, against them as to make it more than doubtful whether they belong to the original text. They see in to have been a marginal explanation or addition which found its way at an early period into the text.