suffer for Jesus and get ready for the court

4 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, ² so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. ³ For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. ⁴ With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; ⁵ but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. ¹

—1 Peter 4:1–6

Suffering does not take place in a void nor does it take place without purpose in the life of the believer. To ignore suffering or to resist it would be natural, but these are not options for the committed Christian. We have the confidence that all things work together in our lives if we are trusting in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:28).

And we know that if we trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not upon our own understanding, but instead, if we acknowledge the Lord in all our ways, He has promised to direct our steps (Prov. 3:5–6). As we have seen in our commentary on chapter 3 of 1 Peter, sometimes our Lord allows suffering to come into our lives. Just as it was His will for Christ to suffer for doing good, it is sometimes His will for His children to suffer for doing good (1 Pet. 3:17).

As Peter closes the third chapter by sharing some benefits which come to us as we suffer for doing good, he continues in the opening verses of this chapter to identify some additional benefits of suffering for Christ.

“Arm yourselves with the same mind [as Christ]” (v. 1). The word translated as “mind” is énnoia which can also be translated as “intent” or “attitude.” As we know, our conduct is greatly determined by our mind or attitude. When our attitude is right, our conduct is usually right.

If we were to have the mind or attitude of Christ, what a difference it would make in the way in which we live day by day. Peter’s teaching is clear. Since Christ suffered in the flesh for us, we should be prepared to suffer for Him. Jesus said, “‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me” (John 15:20–21).

As Peter has shared in the previous chapter, there is a kind of suffering which comes from doing good—from being identified with Christ (see commentary, pp. 167). To face such sufferings, we need to have the attitude of Christ such as He had when He agonized in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). To entrust ourselves to our Father and to His will is always right and always best.

Also in verse 1, Peter encourages us to cease from sin. Peter shares a very interesting relationship between suffering for Christ’s sake and for righteousness’ sake. It is natural for us to sin. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We have sinned by choice and by inheritance. No one had to teach us how to sin.

Since all of those things are true according to the Word of God, what could Peter mean when he says, “for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin”? (v. 1). I believe he means that the forsaking of sin, or repenting of sin, requires two specific steps. First we must, by an act of our will, turn from that sin.

But there is also a second step. When we turn from sin, we must turn to Christ. We must receive Him as Savior and then follow Him as Lord. As we follow Him and allow Him to live in and through us in the person of the Holy Spirit, we receive the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23), and the Lord enables us to do good. When we live lives that are good, and when we do good things for others, we will sometimes suffer for that good behavior (3:13–18).

Therefore, when you suffer in the flesh for doing good and for doing the will of God, it is an outward symbol of the fact that you have turned from sin or ceased from sin to follow after Jesus. It does not mean that you never stumble or slip into sin; it does mean that the major orientation and direction of your life is to follow Jesus. And it is often true that when we become serious about following Jesus as Lord, Satan becomes serious about attacking us. Indeed, we are engaged in spiritual warfare. But the Lord has promised us victory as we submit to Him and resist the devil (James 4:7–8).

Now Peter gets to the very heart of his teaching. That is, the focus of our living should be to do the will of God (vv. 2–6). Doing the will of God must begin with putting off the old life of walking in the flesh. Such a lifestyle is contrary to the will of God and to the life of walking in the Spirit. In verse 3, Peter reminds his readers of the post-Gentile ways that are no longer to be practiced:

(1) “lewdness” (asélgeia): “without self-restraint, debauchery, filthiness, license.” (2) “lusts” (epithumía): “evil desires, a longing for that which is forbidden.” (3) “drunkenness” (oinophugía): “an excess or surplus of wine.” (4) “revelries” (kÉmos): “carousing, rioting, orgies.” (5) “drinking parties” (pótos): “banqueting, drinking bouts.” (6) “abominable idolatries” (eidÉlolatría): “the forbidden worship of idols.”

Those who still live that way respond to us and the Lord by thinking it strange that we don’t run with them in the same flood of dissipation (v. 4) and by speaking evil of us (v. 4). However, they will have to give an account of themselves to the Lord (vv. 5–6).

Peter shares some insights regarding “how to live for the will of God” in the succeeding verses, particularly verses 7–11 in chapter 4. The contrast between doing the will of God and living in the Spirit and doing the will of the pagans and living in the lusts of the flesh is vivid. The two are diametrically opposed to one another. It is the difference between light and darkness, between life and death. Let us examine the truths of the following verses.²

Peter says you are now identified with Christ. When you came to the Lord Jesus and were born again, the Spirit of God baptized you, that is, He identified you with Christ. Now let that mind, that thought, be in you which is in Christ. Christ is up yonder at God’s right hand in a body totally devoted to the service of God for you and me. Do you think, my friend, if you have really been born again, if you are really a child of God with a new nature, that you can go on living in sin? Now I am a Calvinist and I emphasize the security of the believer. However, I think that there is such an overemphasis on that point that many of our Arminian friends also need to be heard today. This is one reason I feel as kindly as I do toward the Pentecostals; they are preaching a doctrine that has been largely forgotten, the doctrine of holiness. They emphasize that believers should live a holy life for God today. My friend, you cannot be a child of God and go out and live in the pigpen. Let’s face it—if you do, you are a pig. Pigs live in pigpens and they love it, but sons do not love the pigpen.³

My friend, I do not believe that you can go on in sin if you are a child of God. You have the nature of Christ; you are joined to Him. He suffered down here once; He is suffering no more, but He can help you. He sent the Holy Spirit down to indwell those who are His own. We have been baptized into the body of believers, as Peter has pointed out to us, and now, being filled with the Holy Spirit, we can live for God. We cannot do it in our own strength but in His strength.⁴

Think of what sin did to Jesus (v. 1). He had to suffer because of sin (see 1 Peter 2:21; 3:18). How can we enjoy that which made Jesus suffer and die on the cross? If a vicious criminal stabbed your child to death, would you preserve that knife in a glass case on your mantle? I doubt it. You would never want to see that knife again.

Our Lord came to earth to deal with sin and to conquer it forever. He dealt with the ignorance of sin by teaching the truth and by living it before men’s eyes. He dealt with the consequences of sin by healing and forgiving; and, on the cross, He dealt the final deathblow to sin itself. He was armed, as it were, with a militant attitude toward sin, even though He had great compassion for lost sinners.

Our goal in life is to “cease from sin.” We will not reach this goal until we die, or are called home when the Lord returns; but this should not keep us from striving (1 John 2:28–3:9). Peter did not say that suffering of itself would cause a person to stop sinning. Pharaoh in Egypt went through great suffering in the plagues, and yet he sinned even more! I have visited suffering people who cursed God and grew more and more bitter because of their pain.

Suffering, plus Christ in our lives, can help us have victory over sin. But the central idea here seems to be the same truth taught in Romans 6: We are identified with Christ in His suffering and death, and therefore can have victory over sin. As we yield ourselves to God, and have the same attitude toward sin that Jesus had, we can overcome the old life and manifest the new life.⁵

Who shall give account. There will come a time when they shall have to settle up with God who is ready to judge the quick (living) and the dead. For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead. The idea here parallels 3:19, although the word preached (Gr euangelizemai) here is different and means specifically to “evangelize.” It is probably impossible to be sure, but to the dead could mean that they are dead when Peter writes, but were alive when the gospel was preached to them. At least we know that the Bible does not teach that men have a second chance to be saved after death. That they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. If this refers to the opportunity these Gentiles had to be saved while they were still alive, we might rephrase it, “They had a choice between human condemnation by wicked men, or divine life by the Spirit.” This interpretation at least allows a consistent meaning throughout the passage for “flesh” and “Spirit.”⁶

4:6 to those who are dead. The preaching of the gospel not only offers a rich life (3:10), a ceasing from sin (v. 1), and a good conscience (3:21), but also an escape from final judgment. Peter had in mind believers who had heard and accepted the gospel of Christ when they were still alive, but who had died by the time Peter wrote this letter. Some of them, perhaps, had been martyred for their faith. Though these were dead physically, they were triumphantly alive in their spirits (cf. Heb 12:23). All their judgment had been fully accomplished while they were alive in this world (“in the flesh”), so they will live forever in God’s presence.⁷

4:5 give account. This verb means “to pay back.” People who have “pursued a course of lewdness” (v. 3) and who “malign” believers (v. 4) are amassing a debt to God which they will spend all eternity paying back (cf. Mt 12:36; Ro 14:11, 12; Heb 4:13). to judge the living and the dead. All the unsaved, currently alive or dead, will be brought before the Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11–15; cf. Ro 3:19; 2Th 1:6–10).⁸

Christians do have a judgment to face but since their sins have already been forgiven it is not a judgment to condemnation (Rom. 8:1). It is a judgment of works following conversion and to assess rewards (2 Cor. 5:10, see also Matthew 25).

However those who do not accept Christ as Saviour will face him as Judge. Jesus warned that there would be those who could offer some of the best credentials but that ‘on that day’ he would have to say to them, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers’ (Matt. 7:23)! Never has the human ear heard such dreadful words. It is the cross and its appeal that Peter has been writing about, and if the cross is rejected then there is no other antidote for sin. Almost no judgment today appears to be final. There always seems to be a higher court to which we can appeal. But not for those who hear the judgment words from Christ. His is the final word.

It is therefore important that those who understand the message of the cross, should live out the practicalities of that message in order that others might see and believe, even if there are those who will not understand. Part of their reaction stems from envy, and that in itself might be a means to an end. Chuck Swindoll puts it like this: ‘Let’s not forget that God has left us here on purpose. We’re here to demonstrate what it is like to be a member of another country, to have citizenship in another land, so that we might create a desire for others to emigrate.’

There will be times when we must speak, but there will be even more occasions when our lives will be the challenge to their lifestyle. Blasphemy will offend us but as Swindoll says: ‘you cannot clean up anybody’s lips until you’ve cleaned up his or her heart. And ultimately that’s Christ’s job.’ What we are seeing and hearing in their lives are the signs of being spiritually lost, and so we must be sure that the contrast in our lives is clearly visible.⁹

WWJD bracelets were the primary component of a fad that swept through the Christian world some years ago. The bracelets were marked with the letters WWJD, which stood for “What Would Jesus Do?” People wore these bracelets to remind themselves to behave in a manner that would reflect Jesus. I was ambivalent about whether such trinkets are helpful, because, in the final analysis, the question is not what would Jesus do in a particular situation, but what would Jesus have me do? Obviously, Jesus had a mission to fulfill that is well beyond anything we could ever be involved in. He was the Savior of the world, so He is not asking us to redo what He has already done. At the same time, the New Testament does call us to be imitators of Christ, as Christ was an imitator of God. If we are going to be Christlike, if we are going to be armed as Christians for spiritual warfare, what we need is the mind of Christ.

I know no other way to gain the mind of Christ than to immerse ourselves in His Word. Studying the Scriptures is the way by which we learn the mind of Christ, because the Scriptures reveal Christ. We are living in the most anti-intellectual period in the history of the Christian church. The application of the mind to the search for understanding of the things of God is dismissed in some quarters and actually despised in others. Feeling is substituted for thinking. Christians, we are called to think, to seek understanding of the Word of God; there is no other way to get the mind of Christ.¹⁰

1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (1 Pe 4:1–6). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

2 Cedar, P. A., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1984). James / 1 & 2 Peter / Jude (Vol. 34, pp. 172–174). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

3 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (1 Peter) (electronic ed., Vol. 54, p. 81). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

4 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (1 Peter) (electronic ed., Vol. 54, p. 85). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

5 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 419–420). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

6 Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (p. 2613). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

7 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (1 Pe 4:6). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

8 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (1 Pe 4:5). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

9 Cleave, D. (1999). 1 Peter (pp. 123–124). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.

10 Sproul, R. C. (2011). 1-2 Peter (pp. 140–141). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.