1:17 {10} And if ye {i} call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning [here] in fear:
(10) As before he distinguished true faith and hope from false, so does he now obedience, setting the quick and sharp sight of God, against an outward mask, and earnest reverence against vain severity.
(i) If you will be called the sons of that father.
1:17 If ye call on the Father. In prayer and worship. All call upon him who pray.
Who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work. He judges us and all men according to the deeds, not station or race. Hence, those who seek his blessings and promises show a reverential fear. That is the first reason given for being holy.
Pass the time of your sojourning [here] in fear. The whole life is a period of sojourning on the earth.
1:17 Who judgeth according to every man's work - According to the tenor of his life and conversation. Pass the time of your sojourning - Your short abode on earth. In humble, loving fear - The proper companion and guard of hope.
1:17-25 Holy confidence in God as a Father, and awful fear of him as a Judge, agree together; and to regard God always as a Judge, makes him dear to us as a Father. If believers do evil, God will visit them with corrections. Then, let Christians not doubt God's faithfulness to his promises, nor give way to enslaving dread of his wrath, but let them reverence his holiness. The fearless professor is defenceless, and Satan takes him captive at his will; the desponding professor has no heart to avail himself of his advantages, and is easily brought to surrender. The price paid for man's redemption was the precious blood of Christ. Not only openly wicked, but unprofitable conversation is highly dangerous, though it may plead custom. It is folly to resolve, I will live and die in such a way, because my forefathers did so. God had purposes of special favour toward his people, long before he made manifest such grace unto them. But the clearness of light, the supports of faith, the power of ordinances, are all much greater since Christ came upon earth, than they were before. The comfort is, that being by faith made one with Christ, his present glory is an assurance that where he is we shall be also, Joh 14:3. The soul must be purified, before it can give up its own desires and indulgences. And the word of God planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eternal life. In contrast with the excellence of the renewed spiritual man, as born again, observe the vanity of the natural man. In his life, and in his fall, he is like grass, the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away. We should hear, and thus receive and love, the holy, living word, and rather hazard all than lose it; and we must banish all other things from the place due to it. We should lodge it in our hearts as our only treasures here, and the certain pledge of the treasure of glory laid up for believers in heaven.
