1 Peter 4:6

The judgment is imminent because all necessary preliminaries have been accomplished. There is no ground for the objection “perhaps the culprits have not heard the Gospel”. As regards the living, there is a brotherhood in the world witnessing for Christ in their lives and the missionaries have done their part. As regards the dead Christ descended into Hades to preach there and so was followed by His Apostles. And the object of this was that though the dead have been judged as all men are in respect of the flesh they might yet live as God lives in respect of the spirit. εἰς τοῦτο, with a view to the final judgment or = ἵνα, κ. τ. λ. νεκροῖς, to dead men generally, but probably as distinct from the rebel spirits who were presumably immortal and could only be imprisoned. Oecumenius rightly condemns the view, which adds in trespasses and sins or takes dead in a figurative sense, despite the authority of e.g., Augustine (Ep., 164, §§ 1 18). εὐηγγελίσθη, the Gospel was preached, the impersonal passive leaves the way open for the development of this belief according to which not Christ only but also the Apostles preached to the dead. Hermas, Sim., ix. 16.5 16.7; Cl. Al. Strom., vi. 645 f. So was provision made for those who died between the descent of Christ and the evangelisation of their own countries. ἵνα, κ. τ. λ., that though they had been judged in respect of flesh as men are judged they might live in respect of spirit as God lives. The parallel between the dead and Christ is exact (see 1 Peter 3:20). Death is the judgment or sentence passed on all men (Sir 14:17 = Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:19). Even Christians, who have died spiritually and ethically (Romans 8:10), can only hope wistfully to escape it (2 Corinthians 5:2 ff.). But it is preliminary to the Last Judgment (Hebrews 9:27), at which believers, who are quickened spiritually, cannot be condemned to the second death (Revelation 20:6).