Bad Theology

Text for today: I Peter 4 xvi-xix

Posing as a Galilean peasant, a highly educated Greek-speaking forger instructs the faithful to submit to those whom God has placed above them. Subjects must obey emperors, slaves their masters and wives their husbands, and unjust punishment from any of these reliable sources is to be welcomed, as implied by the Saviour (Matthew 5 xi-xii). Towards the end of the epistle, the forger invites his audience to rejoice and be exceedingly glad at the prospects of still greater suffering for their inferiors.

Proclaiming the continued imminence of God's final glorious genocide, the forger cites His assaults on the righteous as grounds for quiet contentment, since the privations of the pious will indubitably pale into insignificance compared with His punishment of those who disobey. While we are not permitted to judge our neighbours, the teachings of Jesus make it abundantly clear that there is nothing wrong with anticipating their judgement by the Father and rejoicing in the agonies to which He has predestined them. The more the righteous suffer, the more they should rejoice in their faith that their loving Father will increase in due proportion the sufferings of their enemies.