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  1 PETER 4:4
  by John Gill
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Summary: The world will react negatively to the saints' change, but they
must continue to live a holy and righteous life, abstaining from the
world's excesses.

Topics: "Living Differently", "Expecting Opposition"
Scripture References: John 15:18, 1 Peter 4:4

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DESCRIPTION
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John Gill emphasizes that believers should expect to be viewed as
strange by the world due to their transformed lives in Christ. He
explains that the drastic change in their behavior will lead to
misunderstanding and hostility from those who indulge in worldly
excesses. Gill encourages the saints not to be discouraged by this
opposition, as it stems from the contrast between their righteous living
and the sinful practices of others. He highlights the importance of
standing firm in faith despite being slandered or criticized for their
beliefs and lifestyle.

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CONTENT
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Ver. 4. Wherein they think it strange,.... Here the apostle points out
what the saints must expect from the men of the world, by living a
different life; and he chooses to mention it, to prevent
discouragements, and that they might not be uneasy and distressed when
they observed it; as that they would wonder at the change in their
conversations, and look on it as something unusual, new, and unheard of,
and treat them as strangers, yea, as enemies, on account of it:

that you run not with them into the same excess of riot; to their
luxurious entertainments, their Bacchanalian feasts, and that profusion
of lasciviousness, luxury, intemperance, and wickedness of all sorts,
which, with so much eagerness of mind, and bodily haste, they rushed
into; being amazed that they should not have the same taste for these
things as before, and as themselves now had; and wondering how it was
possible for them to abstain from them, and what that should be that
should give them a different cast of mind, and turn of action:

speaking evil of you; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions supply "you"
as we do; but in the Greek text it is only, "speaking evil of, or
blaspheming"; God, Christ, religion, the Gospel, and the truths of it,
and all good men; hating them because different from them, and because
their lives reprove and condemn them; charging them with incivility,
unsociableness, preciseness, and hypocrisy.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/john-gill/1-peter-44/
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