1 Peter 1:6

Wherein ye greatly rejoice The English verb and adverb answer to the single Greek word which expresses, as in Matthew 5:12; Luke 1:47; Luke 10:21, the act of an exulting joy. The verb occurs three times in this Epistle, not at all in St Paul's, and may fairly be regarded as an echo from our Lord's use of it as recorded above in the Sermon on the Mount.

though now for a season, if need be Literally, for a little, but as the words almost certainly refer to the duration, not to the degree, of the sufferings spoken of, the English version (or for a little while) may be accepted as correct. In the "if need be" we have an implied belief that the sufferings were not fortuitous, nor sent without a purpose. They had their necessary place in the process by which God was working out the sanctification of His children.

ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations The sense of the Greek participle would, perhaps, be better expressed by ye were grieved, or, made sorry. He writes of what he had heard as to their sufferings. He does not actually know that they are still continuing. In the "manifold temptations" we note the use of the same phrase as in James 1:2, with which St Peter could hardly fail to have been acquainted. Here, as there and in Acts 20:19, the "temptations" are chiefly those which come to men from without, persecutions, troubles, what we call the "trials" of life.