When brethren express doubt relative to their ultimate salvation, the above passage often comes to mind. The idea with some is that if anyone is saved it will barely be so. Such is a total misunderstanding of these verses.

"Judgment" is used here of severe trial. The "house of God" is the church (1 Timothy 3:15). The meaning is that the time was coming when severe trial would fall upon the church at that time. Further, if the church (the object of God's love) was soon to fall into trial, how much greater would be the misery of those who do not rely on the Lord?

"Scarcely" denotes that which happens only with great difficulty or hardship. The "judgment" is not the final judgment, but an immediate judgment that would come upon the church at that time. Therefore, is the fact of salvation in heaven a doubtful thing for the faithful Christian? A thousand times no!

Peter said, "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:11). Two different "salvations" are contemplated by Peter in the above passages. The words of this epistle were penned shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The effects of this would be far and wide (Matthew 24:21-22). The salvation of 1 Peter 4 is deliverance from complete destruction in a worldwide persecution at the destruction of Jerusalem.