Indeed, none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or wrongdoer, or even as a meddler.
15. But (or, For) let one of you Here also he anticipates an objection. He had exhorted the faithful to patience, if it happened to them to be persecuted for the cause of Christ; he now adds the reason why he had only spoken of that kind of trouble, even because they ought to have abstained from all evil-doing.
The frequent repetition of counsel and comfort to Christians, considered as sufferers, in every chapter of this epistle, shows that the greatest danger these new converts were in arose from the persecutions to which their embracing Christianity exposed them. The good behaviour of Christians under sufferings is the most difficult part of their duty, but yet necessary both for the honour of Christ and their...
Commenting on 1 Peter 4:12-19
But let none of you suffer as a murderer,.... The punishment for murder was death by the law of God, Gen 9:6 or as a thief; whose fine or mulct, according to the Jewish law, was a fivefold or fourfold restitution, according to the nature of the thing that was stolen, Exo 22:1 or as an evildoer; a breaker of any of the laws of...