<p>4:14 <i>If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed- </i>&quot;Reproach&quot; is the word used for how the Lord on the cross was reproached. He there is us today in our sufferings. He had such a wide range of sufferings so that none of us need ever feel alone, without anyone who understands or has trodden the path before.</p><p>This uses &lsquo;the name of Christ&rsquo; as meaning &lsquo;living in or preaching the name of Christ&rsquo;. The two ideas are so closely related. In the course of this witness, men will &lsquo;speak evil&rsquo; of us, and yet in doing so they are speaking evil of the Christ we are so identified with (:4,14). &ldquo;For his name&rsquo;s sake they went forth&rdquo; in obedience to the preaching commission (3 Jn. 7). Because we bear the Lord&rsquo;s Name by baptism into it, we <i>are</i> Christ to this world. Likewise, those in covenant relationship in the Old Testament bore Yahweh&rsquo;s Name, and were therefore in all ways to act appropriately lest their behaviour &ldquo;profane My holy name&rdquo; (Lev. 22:32).</p><p>The allusion is to the beatitude that we should rejoice and be blessed / happy if we are reproached s.w. for Christ's sake (Mt. 5:11). The Lord said that this identified us with the prophets (Mt. 5:12). And Peter has just made the point that we are as those prophets (see on :11 <i>As oracles of God</i>).</p><p><i>Because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you- </i>We have just read that we shall share the Lord's glory if we suffer with Him (:13). There is only one Spirit; the Spirit of Christ and that of God are all the same Spirit. The present tense suggests that just as the Spirit of glory shall rest upon us at the last day, when the Lord's glorious resurrection becomes ours, so even now it rests upon us. The activity of the Spirit in our lives now is a foretaste of the future glorification by the Spirit at the last day. In this sense Paul argues that the possession of the Spirit is an earnest, a guarantee, of future salvation (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14). The 'resting upon us' recalls the cloud of glory resting upon the Israelites after their Red Sea baptism and as they travelled through the wilderness. Its presence was the guarantee that they were being led on a journey which would climax in entry to the promised land. The allusion to the resting of that cloud is appropriate; because Peter's point is that the Spirit which shall glorify us at the last day is active in our lives right now. They were now the true tabernacle; the temple cult was already obsolete.</p>