ACC ~ 1 Peter 4 v6

THAT THEY MIGHT LIVE IN THE SPIRIT. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Those who abandon their faith in this life are judged according to the above judgments, so that they might repent. This is why Peter adds “so that in the spirit they might live as God lives.” ADUMBRATIONS.

EVEN TO THE DEAD. HILARY OF ARLES: The gospel is preached to the Gentiles who are dead in sin, but this may also refer to the fact that when the Lord was buried in the tomb he went to preach to those who live in hell. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

THE GENTILES. ANDREAS: Here Peter uses “dead” to refer to the Gentiles, who are dead because of their insurmountable sins and whom he wants to see turn to Christ. Such sinners, after they accept his commandments, judge themselves in the flesh according to their human understanding, by mortifying it in fasting, prostrations, tears and other forms of suffering. They do this in order that they may live in the spirit as God wants them to, being inspired by the word of the apostle Paul, who said: “If our outer man is being destroyed, our inner man is being renewed day by day.” CATENA.

PREACHED TO THE WORST OF CRIMINALS. BEDE: So great is God’s concern, so great is his love, so great is his desire that we should be dead to the flesh but alive in the Spirit, that he even decided to preach the message of faith to those who had committed major crimes and who deserved to be put to death for their licentiousness, their lust, their violence, their gluttony, their drunkenness and their illicit worship of idols. ON 1 PETER.

PREACHING IN HELL. OECUMENIUS: This means that those who are now attacking believers will have to give account of themselves to him who judges everyone, both living and dead, for the dead are also judged, as is clear from Christ’s descent into hell. For when he went there after his death on the cross he preached in the same way as he had preached to those who were alive on earth. Moreover, he did this not in word but in deed. And just as when he came into the world in order to justify those who were ready to acknowledge him and to condemn those who refused to do so, so he did exactly the same in hell. For he went to judge those who had lived according to the flesh, but those who had lived according to the Spirit, that is, who had lived an honest and spiritual life, he raised to glory and salvation. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

CHRIST PREACHED AFTER HIS DEATH. THEOPHYLACT: It was the habit of the Fathers to take this verse completely out of context. They therefore said that the word dead has two different meanings in Scripture, referring either to those who are dead in their sins and who never lived at all or to those who have been made conformable to the death of Christ, as Paul said: “The life that I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God.” But if they had paid the slightest attention to the context, they would have seen that here the “dead” are those who have been shut up in hell, to whom Christ went to preach after his death on the cross. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

“THE DEAD” ARE SINNERS. ISHO’DAD OF MERV: Christ was preached to many who rose again at his resurrection, something which is attested in Matthew [27:52-53]. In this life sinners bear sufferings in the body by means of repentance, in order to gain a constant and blessed life in that spiritual citizenship. It seems that by the “dead” Peter means sinners and that by life in the Spirit he means repentance. COMMENTARIES.