What does it mean that judgment begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17)?

(Vv. 17, 18). The solemn possibility of a believer suffering for wrong-doing is a proof that the government of God is not confined to the world. As we have seen, the world will have to give an account to God, who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Here, however, that judgment begins even now at the house of God. It would be contrary to the nature of God to allow evil to pass unnoticed in His own house. This judgment of God, in connection with His house, is wholly governmental and applies to the present time. It has reference to believers, for the Apostle does not contemplate any but “living stones”. We have a solemn instance of this governmental dealing in the case of the Corinthian assembly. On account of the unworthy ways of some, God acted in chastening, as we read, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30).

Of course, in speaking thus I have the house of God before me according to its true character, not that which it has come to in the responsibility of those who never learned how to behave themselves in it. False indeed it is as a witness for God in the midst of this darkness, and therefore it shall in the end be rejected by Him (Rev. 3:10). In the days of the apostles it had already become obnoxious to the judgment of God, and Peter tells us that the time had come when judgment must begin at it. And this is not, as some have thought, mere discipline, which was ever the portion of those beloved of God (Heb. 12:6), but it is judgment in the sense of the execution of wrath. It has its parallel in Ezekiel 9, where the executors of the judgment of God were to go through the city of Jerusalem and smite, and their orders were to “begin at My sanctuary.” If God begins to judge, that which is most privileged, and which lies nearest to Himself, but has been unfaithful, must be the first to feel the brunt of His anger. Surely none of His own will be suffered to perish, but that which professes the name of Christ in this world will as certainly come under His judgment as did the sanctuary in which for centuries He had His abode.

But if one suffers as a Christian, he is encouraged not to be ashamed; for this is really worthwhile, and he may wholeheartedly glorify God on this account.The time is now come that judgment must begin at the house of God. God uses every kind of distress and trial In the discipline of His own house, the Church of God; and this includes the unjust persecutions of the world. This judgment will culminate at the judgment seat of Christ, when we shall see the precious fruits of His discipline in a way never properly known before. But since we are children of God now, then certainly we expect to have our Father's governing discipline.

And if there is such discerning judgment as to the house of God, what shall it be in His dealing (not as a Father, but) strictly as a Judge in reference to those who refuse to obey the Gospel of His grace? Simply the question as to their end is enough to awaken awesome dread in the soul. For if the righteous are, with difficulty, saved (that is, with the discipline of trial, sorrow, distress); where shall appear the ungodly, who have not known such things? Though the answer is not here given, Rev.20:11-15 is plain that they shall appear before the Great White Throne, to be judged according to their works, and cast into the lake of fire. If the believer feels inclined to be envious of the unbeliever, let him stop and consider their contrasting ends.

And the subject is concluded with an encouraging exhortation to those who find themselves suffering according to the will of God: they are not told to appeal to the world, but to God, committing their souls to Him in doing well, regardless of consequences now. For He is a faithful Creator, taking full account of all that affects His creatures, always to be depended upon, no matter what present appearances may be.

That this is God's way was manifest in Old Testament times. Read Ezekiel 8 and 9 and see. Judgment was to be set in Jerusalem and the instruction was "Begin at My sanctuary." So it had begun to be in the church of God. These early Christians had to accept these fires of persecution as permitted by God for the purifying of His house. We all know there is nothing like persecution for weeding the false out of the midst of the true.

"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" The sufferings of believers are permitted by the Lord for their own good likewise; they are His loving chastenings. Thus He deals as a loving Father with His house, whose house are we (Hebrews 3:6), permitting and using afflictions, sorrows, losses, that we may be partakers of His holiness. But if such is the case with His house, with those who belong to Him and whom He loves, what shall be the end of those that disobey the gospel of God? if the righteous, the sinner saved by grace, in his walk through the wilderness can scarcely be saved, if it needs the very power of God to keep him, what shall be the fate of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, when the believer suffers he commits his soul to Him who is able to sustain and carry him through.

But again the apostle returns to that character of the suffering of which he has already spoken. "The time," he says, "is come for judgment to begin at the house of God." There where God dwells, there must assuredly be the maintenance of that which pleases Him; and, as we have often seen, the Father's judgment is not necessarily a chastening for positive evil that has come, but will include all that is necessary to prevent its coming out. God knows us better than we know ourselves; and how much even may come out of us little worthy of Him, and yet of the character of which we are unconscious! It is thus we need so much to pray that He may search us and try us, and see whether there be any wicked way in us: any way, as the word means, of pain or grief to Him. His judgment is grounded necessarily upon this deeper knowledge, and as a Father's judgment it is for our fullest blessing. Still, it is serious; as the apostle says, we are not, on the one hand, to faint under the discipline of the Lord, nor, on the other hand, are we to make light of it. It is the witness of a holiness which must be specially maintained as to those who are brought near to Him — a holiness which, the nearer we are brought to God, the more we shall justify Him in. In the sanctuary only can we understand it; and there we shall find, as the Psalmist did, the secret of this apparently strange thing — that whereas those away from Him may be left alone to prosper and increase in riches, those who are His may have to be "plagued all the day long and chastened every morning." But how solemn is the admonition, therefore, of such ways of God with His own! If judgment begin after this manner, "first at us," says the apostle, "what shall be the end of those who obey not the gospel of God?" Judgment will pass from us. What will it be for those upon whom it must abide? "If the righteous be with difficulty saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" It is not "scarcely saved." The thought is in some sense the very opposite of this. God has to take abundant pains with them, in order that He may carry them through in a manner according to His mind; and it is because the salvation is effectual and ample that the difficulty of it is seen. When we think of what we are, and of what God is, and that God and we are called to walk together, how should we realize what is indeed the tender love of God, which works with us thus to wean us from the things around, — from all that would awaken in the heart murmuring and unrest, — in order that we may be occupied with that which is our own, with the abundance with which He has provided us, and which He is always waiting to minister to us! "Wherefore," says the apostle, "let them who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing to a faithful Creator." God is pursuing in all this the very purpose which He had with man at the beginning, for which He made him — to have communion with Himself. This might be able, indeed, to be little developed at the beginning. It is now brought out in fullest reality.

To this sphere of profession responsibility is attached, and account is taken of it by the Lord as to the way in which it represents Him down here, upon earth, during His absence. Therefore, we have the statement made very early in its history, that “the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). When God begins to judge He will begin at the circle nearest to Himself, for He is no respecter of persons. As it was in the days of Ezekiel, when they had defiled the house of Jehovah with their idolatries, and when the city of Jerusalem was to be smitten, those who were charged with the execution of the judgment of the Lord were told to begin at His sanctuary (Ezek. 9:6); so when God begins to execute judgment upon the world He will begin at His own house. Then it will be without its august Tenant, for the true church, the body of Christ, will have been removed from this world, and the Spirit with it; the false will have been spued out of the mouth of Christ (Rev. 3:16), and its apostasy and acceptance of the Antichrist will be the consummation of its wickedness. Then the long-merited judgment will fall upon it mercilessly.

So it had been in the awful judgment which befell Jerusalem and the Jews as described by Ezekiel. "Begin at my sanctuary," said Jehovah, where man assumed indefectibility, and such is the vain confidence of tradition, in the face of the plainest testimonies to the contrary in the Gospels, the Epistles, and the Revelation. The glory of Jehovah refused to dwell in His house defiled by abomination, and yet greater abominations, the last of which was that eastern attitude which has ever stamped the idolator, never the true worshipper of our God and Father. No doubt, salvation ever was of God and in sovereign grace; and this in Christianity is made more evident and indisputable than it ever had been. But God from the first maintained His title to judge every departure from Him; and none ought to be so ready and so thorough in confessing their sins as those who own that all they enjoy and boast is of His grace. Whereas the plague-spot in Christendom, as in Israel, is to claim for its most guilty and apostate state the immunity that belongs to the counsels of grace. Never was Judah loftier in its pretensions and louder in its sense of security than on the eve of unsparing judgment. And now it is still more guiltily the fact with Christendom.

Now if this conformity should so fail that the testimony of God is injured by its absence, God, who judges His people, and who will judge evil everywhere, does so by means of the chastisements which He inflicts. Judgment begins at the house of God. The righteous are saved with difficulty. It is evidently not redemption or justification that is here intended, nor the communication of life: those whom the apostle addresses were in possession of them. To our apostle "salvation" is not only the present enjoyment of the salvation of the soul, but the full deliverance of the faithful, which will take place at the coming of Christ in glory. All the temptations are contemplated, all the trials, all the dangers, through which the Christian will pass in reaching the end of his career. All the power of God is requisite, directed by divine wisdom, guiding and sustaining faith, to carry the Christian safely through the wilderness, where Satan employs all the resources of his subtlety to make him perish. The power of God will accomplish it; but, from the human point of view, the difficulties are almost insurmountable. Now, if the righteous — according to the ways of God, who must maintain His judgment conformable to the principles of good and evil in His government; and who will in nowise deny Himself in dealing with the enemy of our souls — if the righteous were saved with difficulty, what would become of the sinner and the ungodly? To join them would not be the way to escape these difficulties. In suffering as a Christian, there was but one thing to do — to commit oneself to Him who watched over the judgment that He was executing. For, as it was His hand, one suffered according to His will. It was this that Christ did.

Observe here, that it is not only the government of God, but there is the expression, "as unto a faithful Creator." The Spirit of God moves here in this sphere. It is the relationship of God with this world, and the soul knows Him as the One who created it, and who does not forsake the work of His hands. This is Jewish ground — God known in His connection with the first creation. Trust in Him is founded on Christ; but God is known in His ways with this world, and with us in our pilgrimage here below, where He governs, and where He judges Christians, as He will judge all others.

And so, now, it is because His people are precious to Him, and comely in His eyes, that He will not suffer aught in them, or in their ways, contrary to His holiness. "The time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God." (1 Peter 4:17) God is not judging the world now. He is judging His people now. He will judge the world by-and-by. But, be it remembered, that it is as a "holy Father" He judges His people; it is as a righteous God He will judge the world. The object of the former is practical holiness; the issue of the latter will be eternal perdition. Solemn thought!