Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Peter 4:17

17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God ; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Or Season; viz. that which is fixed by God: The Afflictions that befall God's People, come in the time appointed, and so are never unseasonable. Or, this may imply, that what the Prophets spoke in their time, Isa. 10.12. Ier. 25.29. doth especially agree to Gospel-times, viz. that Judgment begins at the House of God.

Viz. Temporary, and for good, in opposition to the destructive Judgment he implies in the latter part of the Verse; he means all those Afflictions God brings upon his Children for their Correction, Trial, Instruction, Mortification, 1 Cor. 11.31, 32.

The Church of God, and the Members of it, called here his House, as 1 Tim. 3.15. Heb. 3.6. and typified by the material House or Temple of God under the Old Testament.

How miserable? how dreadful will be the end of all those that would not obey the Gospel? implying, that they shall be in a much worse condition if God take them in hand. If he spare not his Children, much less will he his Enemies. If the one sip of the Cup of God's Wrath, the other shall wring out the Drigs and drink them, Psal. 75.8.

Marginal references: Mal. 3.5.; Luke 23.31.; Luke 10.12, 14.