Today’s message is from 1 Peter 4:1-6. It’s about living your life according to God (which is what the rest of 1 Peter is about too). As we read the passage, remember that we are reading the word of God. We are reading what God’s Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Peter to write and what God wants us to know about living our lives according to his will.
Also, as always, I encourage you to read the Bible every day. Read it from cover to cover and then read it again—and again—and then keep on reading it. And I said read, but reading alone is not adequate. You must also think very carefully about what you have read—what it means—how it affects your life. What is God telling you? When you find a passage that is especially significant to you, mark it so that you can come back to it. God rewards those who earnestly seek him. Pray!
1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. 2As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do— living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 5But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. (1 Peter 4:1-6 – NIV)
This is at least a five-commentary passage. Unfortunately, I only have four commentaries available. But even if some parts of it are difficult to understand, there is still quite a bit for God’s elect (that’s us) to learn from it.
The passage starts out with the word therefore, referring back to the last half of chapter 3. In chapter 3 verses 13 through 17, Peter has told us that, even though it is unreasonable to expect to suffer for doing good, it will happen. We will suffer for doing good. “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring [us] to God.” (1 Peter 3:17,18). Also, he “has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” (1 Peter 3:22)
So, referring to all these things, our suffering, Christ’s dying for us, and the fact that he is at God’s right hand in heaven, Peter starts out chapter 4 with these words, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” Literally, Peter says, “He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin (which is the way the NASB, the New American Standard Bible translates it). This verse may cause some confusion because it’s natural to ask, “Who has ceased from sin? Is there really anyone who has completely stopped sinning?” (Jesus never sinned. But he didn’t stop sinning either, because he never started to sin!) We can ask the question, “Is there really anyone who has completely stopped sinning?” But we can also ask the question, “Who has completely made his attitude the same as that of Christ when he suffered for our sins?” (“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves with the same attitude.”) What we can really learn from this verse is that the more our attitude is like that of Christ, the less we will sin. Finally, our attitudes will be completely like his and we will not sin any more. We will completely cease from sin. This will come true when we will see him as he is and we are like him. (1 John 3:2 says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”). And that’s a wonderful and glorious hope. It’ll happen too. The word of God says so.
So what is the ‘attitude of Christ’ that we are to arm ourselves with? The apostle Paul says that our attitudes “should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philip. 2:6-8)
Jesus’s entire purpose was to come to earth as a man and to die for our sins on the cross. He pursued that purpose steadfastly during his entire life up until his death when it was fulfilled. When it was time to go to the cross, he prayed to his Father in the garden, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Do you remember that when Jesus was on the cross, just before he died, he said, “It is finished?” His work while he was in his flesh and blood body was perfectly completed. He defeated sin and death completely and went back into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:22) When we fully have the attitude of Jesus, we will fully be done with sin!
Peter goes on to say (in today’s passage) the following: “As a result, he (the one who has the attitude of Christ) does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do— living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you.” (verses 2-4) Peter is telling you that you used to live an ungodly life, but now, the people that you used to hang out with think it’s strange that you don’t do the same things they do. But even if you are able to say that you never lived a life of drunkenness or drugs or immorality or whatever, there was still a time when you were God’s enemy! You hated God and in no way would submit to him or anyone else unless you were forced to! And even then, there was no submission or obedience in your heart! You probably were ready to heap abuse on anyone who would willingly obey anyone else, unless, by God’s grace, you were young enough in years when you accepted Christ for these things not to have fully developed in you.
But now you are changed. And to the extent that you have the attitude of Christ toward obedience to God and toward suffering on behalf of others—and toward suffering for God’s glory—you are done with sin. Jesus chose suffering—not in the way you might deliberately inflict pain (or inconvenience or any kind of self-denial) on yourself just for the sake being able to say that you did it (which is nothing but pride) but in order to help someone else who is in need. And we were in extreme, extreme, extreme need and Jesus suffered for us.
In verse 5, which says, “But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead,” God is telling us (through Peter) that there is a distinction between us and them. God is ready to judge those who have already died as well as those who are now alive. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die is really misleading. It sounds like we might as well live it up now—we might as well be completely selfish—because, when we die, we will simply go out of existence, so whatever we do now doesn’t matter at all. But the word of God says, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” (Heb. 9:27) The dead will be judged!
Verse 6 says: “For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.” There are all kinds of interpretations for this verse, but I will stay with just one.
First of all, the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are dead. (The NIV says ‘now dead’ even though the original text did not have the word now. The translators’ understanding was that Peter meant that the gospel was preached to them while they were still alive. I agree with the NIV translators.) The reason the gospel was preached to those who are now dead is so that they can be called to account—so that God will not judge them without having warned them. God is ready to judge them and they will be without excuse. This is what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:18-20. Listen while I read it:
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20 – NIV)
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” I believe that God has preached the gospel through his creation, and in other ways, from the time of the fall. Just by observing God’s creation, we can know that he exists and that we, his creatures, are accountable to him. And now, he has also preached it through his Son and through those who have followed him. So men are without excuse.
I think that when Peter says that the gospel was preached so that those who are now dead might be judged according to men in regard to the body (literally, ‘judged in the flesh’), he means the kind of judgment that is according to the Old Testament law. “The wages of sin is death.” The apostle Paul says (in Gal. 3:24) that the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Literally, it says, that the law became our pedagogue. Do you know what a pedagogue is? I looked it up in the dictionary. The first definition is that it’s a schoolteacher or educator. Definition two says that it’s a narrow-minded teacher. (You know, those people who heap abuse on you because you don’t plunge into the same flood of dissipation that they do call you narrow-minded, don’t they.) The third definition says that, in the ancient Greek and Roman cultures, a pedagogue was a slave that attended children to school. They took children to school. The purpose of the law was to take us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith.
King David, who was under the law, did not know that Jesus would die for his sins. But he did know that he was a sinner and that he was hopelessly condemned. He knew that he could not save himself but could only be saved by God’s grace and mercy, and he believed that God would really do so—save him by his grace and mercy. Let me read part of Psalm 51 (actually, most of it). This is what David said:
1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:1-17 –NIV)
God will not despise a broken and contrite spirit.
I believe the gospel was and is being preached in many ways. I also know that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. I am also confident that king David was saved. He didn’t know Jesus by name, but, nevertheless, he knew him. (I think he knows him by name now.)
The reason the gospel was preached, one way or another, to those who were already dead when Peter wrote 1 Peter was so that they would be convicted of sin so they would repent and live according to God in regard to the spirit. Not everyone repents. They will be judged. But those who do, know God and have eternal life.
In saying all these things, I have been assuming that I am speaking to those who already have eternal life, God’s elect. But if there are any of you who don’t know God, who don’t know Jesus, know this, there is a judgment, and there is salvation for you through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the judge and he is also the Savior. He is our Savior! Praise God! Praise Jesus!
Pray for all of us to arm ourselves with the same attitude that Jesus had when he suffered for us, to save us from God’s judgment in spite of the fact that we fully deserved it. Jesus is the only way of salvation.
Let’s pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.
[Prayer]