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1Pe_1:17. From here to the end of the verse the preceding exhortation is continued; the connection is shown by the copula καί .
καὶ εἰ πατέρα ἐπικαλεῖσθε ] corresponding to the ὡς τέκνα ὑπακοῆς , 1Pe_1:14. εἰ is here: “particula non conditionalis, sed assertiva, non dubitantis, sed rem notam praesupponentis” (Calvin). The form of the sentence is, however, hypothetical; the sense is: “if you act thus and thus, as ye are indeed now doing.” By this form the language is made more impressive than it would have been by a simple causative particle.
ἐπικαλεῖσθαι ] as medium, means to “call upon” (for the meaning “to name,” as Wiesinger, de Wette, Brückner take it, is supported in the classics only by a doubtful passage in Dio Cass. lxxvii. 7). πατέρα is the accusative of more precise definition (thus Hofmann also); Luther: “since ye call on Him the (i.e. as, ὡς ) Father.” The sense is: “if ye look on Him as Father who, etc., and ye acknowledge yourselves as His children.”[87] It is to be noticed that the ἐπικαλεῖσθε corresponds to the καλέσαντα , v. 15; God has called believers,—and they answer with the call to Him, in which they name Him Father. This mutual relationship lays the Christians under obligations to be holy as He is holy.[88]
τὸν ἀπροσωπολήπτως κρίνοντα τὸ ἑκάστου ἔργον ] a circumlocution for God full of significance, instead of the simple ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ , corresponding to the ἍΓΙΟΝ , 1Pe_1:15.
ἈΠΡΟΣΩΠΟΛΉΠΤΩς , a ἍΠ . ΛΕΓ ., formed on the noun ΠΡΟΣΩΠΟΛΉΠΤΗς (Act_10:34), which is composed of ΠΡΌΣΩΠΟΝ and ΛΑΜΒΆΝΕΙΝ ; see Meyer on Gal_2:6.
The present ΚΡΊΝΟΝΤΑ indicates that impartial judgment is a characteristic function of God. The apostle mentions ΤῸ ἜΡΓΟΝ as that according to which the judgment of God is determined; in this connection the plural is generally found (Rom_2:6); by the singular the whole conduct of man (outwardly and inwardly) is conceived as a work of his life.
ἙΚΆΣΤΟΥ ] not without emphasis. It implies that the Christian also—a son of God though he be—will, like all others, be judged according to his work; it is arbitrary to limit the application of the general term ἙΚΆΣΤΟΥ to Christians only (Schott); there is no thought here of the distinction between Jew and Gentile (Bengel).
The term judge, as applied to God, stands in a peculiar contrast to πατέρα . The Christian, while conscious of the love of God shed abroad in his heart (Rom_5:5), must still never forget that God judges the evil, that His love is an holy love, and that sonship involves obligation of obedience towards a just God.
ἐν φόβῳ τὸν … ἀναστράφητε ] corresponding to the ἍΓΙΟΙ ἘΝ ΠΆΣῌ ἈΝΑΣΤΡΟΦῇ ΓΕΝΉΘΗΤΕ , 1Pe_1:15; the feeling which harmonizes with the thought of the impartial judge is the ΦΌΒΟς ; thus Peter places ΦΌΒΟς first by way of emphasis. ΦΌΒΟς is here, indeed, not the slavish fear which cannot co-exist with love (see 1Jn_4:18); no more is it the reverence which an inferior feels for a superior (Grotius, Bolten, etc.); but it is the holy awe of a judge who condemns the evil; the opposite of thoughtless security. Calvin: timor securitati opponitur; cf. chap. 1Pe_2:17; 2Co_7:1; Php_2:12.[89]
τὸν τῆς παροικίας ὑμῶν χρόνον ] specifies the duration of the walk ἐν φόβῳ ; παροικία : “the sojourn in a foreign country;” in its strict sense, Act_13:17 (Ezr_8:34, LXX.); here applied to the earthly life of the Christian, inasmuch as their κληρονομία is in heaven, 1Pe_1:1. This expression serves to give point to the exhortation expressed, hinting as it does at the possibility of coming short of the home; cf. chap. 1Pe_2:11.
[87] It is possible, and as Gerhard and “Weiss (p. 172) think probable, that Peter here alludes to the Lord’s Prayer.
[88] Schott rightly remarks that ἐπικαλεῖσθαι is based on the same common relationship as in the preceding verses; but here it is not considered as established by God, but as realized in practice by the readers, i.e. as subjectively known and acknowledged by them.
[89] Weiss (p. 170) thinks that the passage, Rom_8:15, proves Paul’s fundamental views of Christian life to have been different from those of Peter; this opinion, however, is sufficiently contradicted by Weiss himself, who admits that in 2Co_7:1, “Paul mentions the fear of God as a peculiar mark of the Christian’s life, and that he often speaks of a fear of Christ.”—Schott insists, in the first place, that φόβος be understood absolutely (without special reference to God as the judge) as the consciousness of liability to err, but afterwards more precisely defines the expression as that fear which is anxious that nothing should happen which might cause God, as the righteous judge, to refuse the inheritance to him who hopes to attain it.