The Greek word translated as “household” is the same word Peter used in 1 Peter 2:5, “a spiritual house.” The point of the word is not the occupants of a house (“household” = family) but the structure. The “house” where God dwelt in the old dispensation was the temple (1 Kings 8:10–11); that temple was “the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1; Isaiah 2:3). In the new dispensation God’s house is the church (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:18). Note that in the second half of 1 Peter 4:17 the pronoun “us” stands in parallel to the word “household.”
17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?