17“For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?" 19Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” (1Peter 4:17-18)

VERSE BREAKDOWN--

VERSE 17—God is going to judge the whole world and He will judge each man, woman and adolescent in accordance with their personal condition. No one will be able to save them that did not do the Will of God on the earth. (Also see Romans 2:4-6 & Matthew 26:39.) And in the second half of this verse, Peter passionately implores them as to how they can be a proper picture of salvation to those who are perishing if they remain in their uncrucified state; in rebuke of their spiritual stagnation.

VERSE 18--Peter implores his listeners to give God first place in their lives in obedience to Him, as some of them remained quite immature in the faith. He refers to them here as scarcely saved. That tells us that they were not worldly Christians, but stagnant, not growing in Christ, nor becoming rooted in grounded in Him. Peter was encouraging them to give God increasingly more of themselves; his point being that we know the fate of the ungodly is eternity in hell, therefore, shouldn’t those of us who are saved be consecrated to Him that saved us? Shouldn’t we strive purposefully to continue in Him and spiritual growth, as he and Paul have stated in so many varying ways and places in Scripture, in order that we may ALL understand?

VERSE 19—Through this verse, Peter is imploring his people, even though they suffer to commit their souls to Him, inasmuch as he is instructing them against allowing themselves to be barely saved, but rather give their all to God.

Paul has echoed the principle of spiritual growth in many Scriptures, like these in Romans and Ephesians:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

“that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning and craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ—” (Ephesians 4:14-15)

All of these passages are inspirational in and of themselves, but when we study this particular passage in first Peter, we may actually get revelation of an interesting side note: to be scarcely saved refers to the immature believer; one that has everything required to go onward in Christ, but for one reason or another is just stuck, and this is most likely only a temporary condition, as we are all on our own spiritual journey. And because of God’s Great Mercy, and as He has told us, His “Mercy triumphs over judgment” in James 2:12-13. The scarcely saved are those who have either come from dysfunction, which leads to great confusion as to how to grow and the value therein.

To the contrary, the carnal do not have the same heart as the saved, but are rather obsessed with living in a name only style Christianity, which is not of true salvation. They are so busy basking in the ways of this present and temporal world to give any acknowledgment as to the impending doom linked to their eternity.

Also noteworthy, to be considered by God as scarcely saved, should not be something in which we embrace, but rather we ought to please God through striving for a heart of circumcision and a deeply abiding relationship with God through Christ Jesus, our Lord who saves us.

Moreover, carnality is also something believers ought not embrace.

Furthermore, Jesus has declared to carnal Christians “Depart from Me, I never knew you,” in His profoundly eye-popping parable in Matthew 25:1-13. He has given us this highly ominous illustration revealing the fate of those who are carnal, which further lends credence to this difference between being scarcely saved and abiding in carnality; for the carnal may only think they are saved.

More Parallels on Spiritual Growth:

Ephesians 4:22-24, 1Corinthians 3:1-3 & Galatians 5:22-25

"And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books." (Revelation 20:12)

NKJV

Linzy is a certified Bible Counsellor, with countless republications on her viewers blogs, Bible Studies, Ezines and the like. Her portfolio includes, non-fiction articles, short stories for all ages, and Christian poetry.