The first part of 1 Peter 4:17 says: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God:”

The word in the Greek text here for “judgment” is krima (the sentence of a judge or the punishment with which one is sentenced).

The word in the Greek text here for “begin” is archomai (to begin to do or to make a beginning).

The word in the Greek text here for “house” is oikos (a household; an inhabited place: a building).

Ezekiel chapters 8 and 9 illustrate judgment beginning at the house of God.  Ezekiel sees a vision where the wicked in Jerusalem are killed for all the abominations which are happening there.  

The slaughter begins right inside the Temple; the house built for the true God’s name by His own appointment.  

The Lord brought an end to the Temple system associated with the Jewish nation.  The Temple was destroyed (for the second time) by the Romans in AD 70 (likely just a handful of years after Peter wrote 1 Peter).  The Temple has not been rebuilt by God’s appointment (like He eventually appointed it to be rebuilt after it was destroyed the first time by the Babylonians).

Now, there is not an exact, unchanging physical location where the Lord has appointed His prescribed worship to center around.  His prescribed worship is rather now where two or more are gathered in Jesus Christ’s name (that is, two or more are gathered together who are submitted to His Word/are in subjection to His authority).  There is not a more dangerous place on earth than where that is occurring.  

If you really want God to go out of His way to kill or severely harm you, don’t command Him to strike you dead with lightning.  He is not going to let you command Him what to do.  Yet go and corrupt where His true people are gathered by immorality or false doctrine, meddle with their unity which is authentically in the real Jesus Christ, and/or lead their children astray- and then your chances of experiencing a direct and severe judgment from the living God on earth go up by a lot.  

That is not even to mention how God lets His people who are on the right road in Jesus Christ to suffer in order to try them as gold to purify them deeper and to restore His image in them (Peter spoke of this throughout the Book of 1 Peter).  We must cooperate with that process by exercising a living faith in Christ and enduring in doing so- even as being faithful to Him involves suffering in the midst of a corrupt age which is at odds with Him and His righteous ways.  

There is no other way to be saved and escape eternal damnation.  

Though the house of God is the most dangerous place on earth, and those who corrupt it are the most eligible for swift judgment in this life, to avoid it and the righteous ways which are supposed to accompany it is to ultimately invite eternal judgment anyways.  The rest of verse 17 and verse 18 of 1 Peter chapter 4 go on to say the following:

1 Peter 4:17b-18:  “…. and if it (i.e. judgment) first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?  And if the righteous scarcely (my note: meaning- hardly; not easily; or, with much difficulty) be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR FRONT PAGE FOR ALL THE STUDIES

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR 3RD WORLD MISSION TO THE IMPOVERISHED