1 Peter 4:4

Contextual Overview

⁴ Now those "friends" think it is strange that you no longer join them in all the wild and wasteful things they do. And so they say bad things about you. ⁴ They are surprised that you do not now join them in the same wild profligacy, and they abuse you; ⁴ And it semeth to them a straunge thinge that ye runne not also with them vnto the same excesse of ryote and therfore speake they evill of you ⁴ They think it is strange that you don't run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming: ⁴ In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of debauchery, and they slander you;⁴ Nonbelievers think it is strange that you do not do the many wild and wasteful things they do, so they insult you. ⁴ wherein they think it strange that you do not run with [them] into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of [you]: ⁴ In which they think it strange that ye run not with [them] to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of [you]: ⁴ They think it is strange that you don't run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming: ⁴ Wherein they think it strange, that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

excess: Matthew 23:25, Luke 15:13, Romans 13:13, 2 Peter 2:22

speaking: 1 Peter 2:12, 1 Peter 3:16, Acts 13:45, Acts 18:6, 2 Peter 2:12, Jude 1:10

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 12:30 - How did Joshua 10:4 - we may Proverbs 18:3 - General Proverbs 23:20 - not Proverbs 28:7 - but Ecclesiastes 7:2 - better Ecclesiastes 10:3 - and he Ecclesiastes 11:9 - walk Isaiah 51:7 - fear Daniel 3:8 - and accused Hosea 7:5 - made Hosea 14:8 - What John 17:14 - the world Acts 17:20 - strange Acts 24:25 - temperance Galatians 5:19 - Adultery Ephesians 4:17 - that ye Ephesians 5:18 - excess Colossians 3:7 - General Titus 3:2 - speak Hebrews 13:13 - General 1 Peter 4:12 - think 1 Peter 4:14 - reproached 2 Peter 2:13 - to riot 1 John 3:12 - And

Cross-References

Genesis 4:16
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Genesis 4:16
And Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

Genesis 4:16
So Cain went away from the Lord and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Genesis 4:16
So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Genesis 4:16
And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

Genesis 4:16
Cain went out from Yahweh's presence, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

Genesis 4:16
So Cain went away from the [manifested] presence of the LORD, and lived in the land of Nod [wandering in exile], east of Eden.

Genesis 4:16
And Cayn yede out fro the face of the Lord, and dwellide fleynge aboute in erthe, at the eest coost of Eden.

Genesis 4:16
And Cain goeth out from before Jehovah, and dwelleth in the land, moving about east of Eden;

Genesis 4:16
So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wherein they think it strange - In respect to which vices, they who were once your partners and accomplices now think it strange that you no longer unite with them. They do not understand the reasons why you have left them. They regard you as abandoning a course of life which has much to attract and to make life merry, for a severe and gloomy superstition. This is a true account of the feelings which the people of the world have when their companions and friends leave them and become Christians. It is to them a strange and unaccountable thing, that they give up the pleasures of the world for a course of life which to them seems to promise anything but happiness. Even the kindred of the Saviour regarded him as” beside himself,” Mark 3:21, and Festus supposed that Paul was mad, Acts 26:24. There is almost nothing which the people of the world so little comprehend as the reasons which influence those with ample means of worldly enjoyment to leave the circles of gaiety and vanity, and to give themselves to the serious employments of religion. The epithets of fool, enthusiast, fanatic, are terms which frequently occur to the heart to denote this, if they are not always allowed to escape from the lips. The reasons why they esteem this so strange, are something like the following:

(1) They do not appreciate the motives which influence those who leave them. They feel that it is proper to enjoy the world, and to make life cheerful, and they do not understand what it is to act under a deep sense of responsibility to God, and with reference to eternity. They live for themselves. They seek happiness as the end and aim of life. They have never been accustomed to direct the mind onward to another world, and to the account which they must soon render at the bar of God. Unaccustomed to act from any higher motives than those which pertain to the present world, they cannot appreciate the conduct of those who begin to live and act for eternity.

(2) They do not yet see the guilt and folly of sinful pleasures. They are not convinced of the deep sinfulness of the human soul, and they think it strange that ethers should abandon a course of life which seems to them so innocent. They do not see why those who have been so long accustomed to these indulgences should have changed their opinions, and why they now regard those tilings as sinful which they once considered to be harmless.

(3) They do not see the force of the argument for religion. Not having the views of the unspeakable importance of religious truth and duty which Christians now have, they wonder that they should break off from the course of life which they formerly pursued, and separate from the mass of their fellow-men. Hence, they sometimes regard the conduct of Christians as amiable weakness; sometimes as superstition; sometimes as sheer folly; sometimes as madness; and sometimes as sourness and misanthropy. In all respects they esteem it strange:

“Lions and beasts of savage name.

Put on the nature of the lamb,

While the wide world esteems it strange,

Gaze, and admire, and hate the change.”

That ye run not with them - There may be an allusion here to the well-known orgies of Bacchus, in which his votaries ran as if excited by the furies, and were urged on as if transported with madness. See Ovid, Metam. iii. 529, thus translated by Addison:

“For now, through prostrate Greece, young Bacchus rode,

Whilst howling matrons celebrate the god;

All ranks and sexes to his orgies ran,

To mingle in the pomp and fill the train,”

The language, however, will well describe revels of any sort, and at any period of the world.

To the same excess of riot - The word rendered “excess” (ἀνάχυσις anachusis) means, properly, a pouring out, an affusion; and the idea here is, that all the sources and forms of riot and disorder were poured out together. There was no withholding, no restraint. The most unlimited indulgence was given to the passions. This was the case in the disorder referred to among the ancients, as it is the case now in scenes of midnight revelry. On the meaning of the word riot, see the Ephesians 5:18 note; Titus 1:6 note.

Speaking evil of you - Greek, blaspheming. See the notes at Matthew 9:3. The meaning here is, that they used harsh and reproachful epithets of those who would not unite with them in their revelry. They called them fools, fanatics, hypocrites, etc. The idea is not that they blasphemed God, or that they charged Christians with crime, but that they used language suited to injure the feelings, the character, the reputation of those who would no longer unite with them in the ways of vice and folly.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Peter 4:4. They think it strange — ξενιζονται. They wonder and are astonished at you, that ye can renounce these gratifications of the flesh for a spiritual something, the good of which they cannot see.

Excess of riot — ασωτιας αναχυσιν. Flood of profligacy; bearing down all rule, order, and restraints before it.

Speaking evil of you] βλασφημουντες. Literally, blaspheming; i.e. speaking impiously against God, and calumniously of you.