For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

1 Peter 4:6

The above verse in some ways it is similar to 1 Peter 3:19-20, where Peter writes of how Christ “went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they did not formerly obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.”  There Peter had brought out how God’s Word had been preached to spirits during the time in which they had been alive but who are now dead.  In that particular case, he was referring to the wicked of Noah’s day who had refused to listen to God’s message which Noah had proclaimed to them and had thus perished in the flood and found themselves after death imprisoned in Hades.  1 Peter 4:6 also speaks of how “the gospel was preached” to people during the time in which they had been alive, but who now “are dead.”  The reason he speaks of them as presently dead, instead of simply saying that they had heard the gospel when they were alive, is because he had just mentioned that those who malign Christians “will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” (v. 5).  Having mentioned God judging those who are dead, the apostle continued that thought by bringing out how the dead had received the gospel when they had been living.  Just as with 1 Peter 3:19-20, we should not look at 1 Peter 4:6 to mean that the gospel is preached to those who are currently dead and residing in prison and torment in the Hadean world.  It would be superfluous for the gospel, “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16), to be preached to lost souls who are already dead because judgment comes after death (Heb. 9:27).  Forgiveness of sins is one of the primary purposes for preaching the gospel; yet after death, there remain no more opportunities for God to forgive.  Thus, we who are living are reminded again of the need to obey the gospel and continue to stand in it by obediently and penitently holding fast to God’s Word while we are living this life (1 Cor. 15:1-2; James 4:13-17).

Unlike those in 1 Peter 3:19-20, those in 1 Peter 4:6 who had received the gospel during their lifetimes had obeyed it.  We know this because Peter gives both the reason and the result of their hearing the gospel: “that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”  This harkens back to how we as Christians should live our lives in this world of sin, which is the overall point the apostle had been making (4:1-5).  While living in this world, our Lord put the will of His Father first in every aspect of His life…and suffered as a result (v. 1a; cf. John 3:19-20).  We too must be willing to suffer as a result of living faithfully for God (v. 1b; cf. John 15:18-25).  By doing so and thus “liv(ing) for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (v. 2), we will no longer join the lost in living lives filled with unrepentant debauchery (v. 3).  The lost, seeing this, will at first be surprised that we have changed; their surprise will then turn to mockery as they “malign” us (v. 4).  We can take comfort in the fact that they will ultimately answer to God for their persecution of us (v. 5).  However, we can also find solace in the fact that by changing to be more like Christ (“live in the spirit the way God does”) and thus earning their contempt (“judged in the flesh the way people are”), we are fulfilling the reason the gospel was preached both to us and to those who lived before us: to change us to be more like our Lord.

— Jon