Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations:
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Wherein--in which prospect of final salvation. greatly rejoice--"exult with joy": "are exuberantly glad." Salvation is realized by faith (Pe1 1:9) as a thing so actually present as to cause exulting joy in spite of existing afflictions. for a season--Greek, "for a little time." if need be--"if it be God's will that it should be so" [ALFORD], for not all believers are afflicted. One need not invite or lay a cross on himself, but only "take up" the cross which God imposes ("his cross"); Ti2 3:12 is not to be pressed too far. Not every believer, nor every sinner, is tried with afflictions [THEOPHYLACT]. Some falsely think that notwithstanding our forgiveness in Christ, a kind of atonement, or expiation by suffering, is needed. ye are in heaviness--Greek, "ye were grieved." The "grieved" is regarded as past, the "exulting joy" present. Because the realized joy of the coming salvation makes the present grief seem as a thing of the past. At the first shock of affliction ye were grieved, but now by anticipation ye rejoice, regarding the present grief as past. through--Greek, "IN": the element in which the grief has place. manifold--many and of various kinds (Pe1 4:12-13). temptations--"trials" testing your faith.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.