Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
The Fiery Trial
1 Peter 4:12-14
12 Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you. · WEB
The one thing the readers are told not to do is treat their situation as abnormal.
Do not be surprised is the command, and it is aimed at an instinct rather than at a behavior. The readers' difficulty is not that they are suffering but that they had not expected to, and the letter goes after the expectation.
The phrase for what is happening is a burning among them, sent for testing — the same purpose already given for the trials of the first chapter, where the image was gold in fire 1 Peter 1:7. The metaphor has not changed; only its intensity has.
What is denied is that this is a strange thing happening to you. The word is the one used of the neighbors in verse 4, who thought the believers' new life strange. The letter takes the word back: the outsiders find the conduct strange, and the insiders must not find the consequences strange.
Verse 13 gives the reason, and it is participation rather than compensation. They share Christ's sufferings now and will rejoice at the revealing of his glory — the letter's fixed order of suffering then glory, stated for the fourth time 1 Peter 1:11 1 Peter 5:1.
Verse 14 narrows to insult, which was the readers' actual daily experience, and calls it blessedness because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. The verb for resting is the one used of the Spirit settling on the promised branch Isaiah 11:2. What looks from outside like disgrace is described as an alighting.
settled What this mark means