1st Peter Chapter 1 verse 4 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. The Christian's hope maketh not ashamed. The inheritance is sure; it is better than the inheritance promised to Abraham; for it is (1) incorruptible. All things earthly have in themselves the seeds of decay and death; but "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption," the redeemed of the Lord shall receive a kingdom that cannot be moved, where "neither moth nor rust doth corrupt." (2) It is undefiled. The inheritance of Israel was defiled (Leviticus 18:27, 28), but into the heavenly inheritance entereth not "anything that defileth" (Revelation 21:27). (3) It fadeth not away. "The grass withereth, the flower falleth away;" it is not so in the "land that is very far off." The crown reserved for its blessed inhabitants is an amaranth wreath (comp. Wisd. 6:13 and 1 Peter 5:4, where see note). There are no tendencies to corruption there, no possibilities of defilement, not even that fading which must pass over the fairest things of earth. Reserved in heaven for you. The many mansions in our Father's house have been kept from the beginning, and still are kept for his elect; Satan cannot rob them of it, as he robbed man of the earthly paradise. Some of the Greek commentators find in the words, "in heaven," an argument against the millenarians. Some manuscripts read "for us," but the received reading is best supported. St. Peter passes from one person to another, as St. Paul often does, sometimes addressing his readers directly, sometimes including himself among them.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) To an inheritance.--This is structurally parallel to and explanatory of, the clause "into a living hope" We are, as the saying is, born to an estate. This notion of an "inheritance," or property, that we have come in for, is particularly Hebrew, occurring very frequently in the Old Testament. The Pontine dispersion had lost their "inheritance" in Palestine, but there is a better in store for them.Incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.--Exuberant description of the excellencies of the new Canaan. The first epithet contrasts its imperishable nature (see Romans 1:23; 2Timothy 1:10) with the fleeting tenure of the earthly Canaan. The second speaks of its freedom from pollutions such as desecrated the first "Holy Land." Perhaps it may specially mean that the new Holy Land will never be profaned by Gentile incursions and tyrannies. The third, and most poetical of all (which is only found besides in Wisdom Of Solomon 6:12), conveys the notion of the unchanging beauty of that land--no winter ill the inheritance to which the Resurrection brings us (Song of Solomon 2:11).Reserved--The perfect tense, which hath been reserved unto you, i.e., either in the temporal sense--"kept all this while until you came," or "with a view to you." (Comp. Hebrews 11:40.) He now adds explicitly that it is no earthly, but a heavenly possession. . . .