1 Peter 4:15

1 Peter 4:15. For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer. The ‘but' with which the A. V. begins the verse is wrong. Peter's word is ‘for;' which is used here with an explanatory force, going back generally upon the ruling idea of the preceding verse. It is as if it had run thus ‘It is of reproach in the name of Christ, and of that only, that I speak; for let no one suppose that he can suffer with just cause as an evil-doer, and yet have the blessedness that I affirm.' The ‘as,' therefore, here has again the sense of ‘in the character of.' Four different forms of evil are named, of which these first three go together as of one kind. The first two terms denote well-known specific forms of sin which deserve all the reproach that they entail. The third (on which see chap. 1 Peter 2:12) is a general term covering other like offences, which would give just occasion for the reviling of heathen neighbours.

or as a busy-body in other men's matters. The fourth form of evil is marked off, by the repetition of the ‘as,' from the former three as of a different kind and gravity. The word is one which is found nowhere else in the New Testament. There seems, indeed, to be no other independent occurrence of it in the whole range of Greek literature, except once in the late writings of the so-called Dionysius the Areopagite, where it is applied to the man who rashly intrudes into a strange office. Some suppose it, therefore, to have been constructed by Peter himself for his present purpose. The Vulgate, and some eminent interpreters, including Calvin, take the sense to be ‘one who covets what belongs to others.' So Wycliffe gives ‘desirer of other men's goods,' and the Rhemish Version ‘coveter of other men's things.' Others take it to denote an ‘informer' (Hilgenfeld). These meanings, however, are scarcely consistent with the elements of which the word is composed. Etymologically it may mean ‘one who assumes oversight of matters not within his province,' or ‘one who pries into other men's matters.' The K. V. rightly adopts the less official of these two senses ‘a meddler in other men's matters.' Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan agree with this, all translating ‘busy-body in other men's matters.' The term points, therefore, to an offence, which came as close to the peculiar temptations of Christians, as the other three forms of evil (although these may have been once all too familiar to some of the early converts from heathenism) seemed to lie at a distance from them. It is that of officious interference in the affairs of their Gentile neighbours, in excess of zeal to conform them to the Christian standard. How this might be a temptation to some Christians may be seen from the appeal made to Christ Himself by one who heard Him ‘Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me' (Luke 12:13). That these busy-bodies were already troubling some of the churches, at least in the form of triflers bustling about what was not their own, may be gathered from what Paul had to say to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 4:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:11).