Peter presses home the point of 1 Peter 4:17 with words from Scripture. Barnes says Peter "seems to have had his eye on" Proverbs 11:31, and Gill notes that the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) has "the same words as here." If even the righteous reach salvation only through great difficulty, what hope is there for those who reject God altogether? Gill explains "scarcely" by the difficulty of the way, because of the corruption of nature and the afflictions and persecutions believers face. Matthew Henry says the best of believers have "so many sufferings, temptations, and difficulties to be overcome."

Peter leaves the answer unspoken because it is plain. Barnes states it: "they would certainly perish." Gill says the ungodly will not appear in the congregation of the righteous, nor in heaven. Peter then turns back to the believers with comfort: "let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator" (1 Peter 4:19).

The KJV of Proverbs 11:31, translated from the Hebrew, reads differently: "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner." Peter's wording follows the Greek Septuagint, as Gill notes, and the ESV prints the verse as a quotation.

"Scarcely" is the Greek molis, which Thayer's lexicon defines as "with difficulty, hardly." Barnes says it implies an obstacle, so that the thing "came very near not to happen." Luke uses the same word for Paul's ship, which "scarce" came over against Cnidus and was "hardly passing" Crete in contrary winds (Acts 27:7-8). The voyage was hard, yet the ship did arrive. "Appear" is phaneitai, will appear or be seen.

This question shows both how costly salvation is and how secure it is in God's hands. "Scarcely" does not mean God is unwilling or that His power is weak. Peter has already said believers are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation" (1 Peter 1:5). The difficulty is on the road, through trials, temptations, and opposition, not in God's faithfulness. That is why Peter's next word is to commit the soul to "a faithful Creator" (1 Peter 4:19).

At the same time, the question is a sober warning. Matthew Henry writes that the ungodly and the sinner "are unquestionably in a state of damnation." If the path is so hard for those whom God is keeping, those who refuse Him have nowhere to stand.