1 Peter 1:17-21

The exhortation to a walk in holiness is followed immediately by an exhortation to a walk in godly fear. The way in which this section is connected with the preceding shows that the latter charge is given in intimate kinship with the former, as the former rises naturally out of the exhortation to hope which forms the basis of the series of counsels. ‘Fear' is presented here very much as it is in Paul's ‘perfecting holiness in the fear of God' (2 Corinthians 7:1). It is obviously the fear which is born of grace, in contrast with the fear which ‘hath torment' (1 John 4:18) as born of nature, and the fear which goes with the spirit of bondage born of the law (Romans 8:15). It stands in the nearest relation, therefore, to holiness, serving as its safeguard, acting as its incentive, encompassing it as the atmosphere in which it lives. It is enforced in the following paragraph by two large considerations, the impartial righteousness of God (1 Peter 1:17), and the price which it cost Him to redeem their life from its vanity (1 Peter 1:18-21). The ‘fear' which is thus recommended is shown thereby all the more clearly to be not only consistent with the filial freedom of the believer, but essential to a walk worthy of his calling, elevating where fear usually degrades, and helping to nearness and likeness to God where fear tends naturally to distance. The connection of the several clauses, however, and the precise succession of ideas are by no means easy to determine. Most interpreters regard the 18th verse as simply supplementary to the 17th, and as pointing the injunction to a walk in godly fear more strongly. Some (e.g. Hofmann), on the other hand, take the thought of 1 Peter 1:17 to be complete within itself. In that case the statement of the price of redemption would be introductory to the subsequent exhortation to brotherly love. Others (e.g. Schott) think that the 18th verse is intended to explain the connection between the two parts of the 17th, the price, which it has cost God to bring in a redemption that has opened so glorious a future, making the judgment which must precede that future all the more solemn, and serving, therefore, to exhibit all the more seriously the need of a walk in godly fear.