1 Peter 4:17

‘For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?'

In context the ‘judgment beginning at (or more literally ‘from') the house of God' refers to the persecution that they are undergoing. It is a precursor to, and picture of, the judgment that will come on all men. Peter may well have in mind here the vivid picture in Ezekiel 9:6 where judgment began at the house of God and then spread outwards from there. The difference here is that those in the house of God here have hope because Another has suffered on their behalf.

The idea behind ‘judgment' is that they are experiencing the milder form of God's judgment against sin, that which chastens and purifies (1 Peter 1:7). Compare Malachi 3:2. He has come to His temple and ‘He is like a refiner's fire and a launderer's soap.' And if that is necessary for those who have become children of obedience (1 Peter 1:14), how much greater will be His judgment against those who do not obey Him and are not open to being cleansed. Thus what is happening to them now, will happen to all men later. There is irony here in that the people's judgment of the church, will bring God's judgment upon them.

We note again the underlying theme of the letter, the purpose of the persecution is to bring into the obedience of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2) those who believe, while the following judgment will then be on those who are disobedient to the Good News from God. And the point is that the saving suffering of His people on the one hand will finally issue in an unsaving suffering to be meted out on the ‘disobedient'.