I Peter 4
|
I Peter 4:1-2:
Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. |
1 Peter 4:1 records the only command in this passage: “arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.” The rest of the passage explains why we should obey this command. This call to arms pictures the Christian as a soldier ready for battle. Victory requires weapons. An unarmed soldier will suffer defeat. He must be dressed for battle with armor to fight. The language assumes conflict. Christianity is a battleground, not a playground. We are at war against the flesh, the world, and the devil.
--H.B. Charles Jr |
|
I Peter 4:3-4:
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: 4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: |
The Holy Spirit gives me the strength to remain hanging on the cross – to keep saying “No!” to the demands of my flesh – until the lusts die. Then I truly become free from sin.
As a human being, my flesh is full of selfishness. That is why Jesus says that I have to deny myself and take up my cross every day, all my life. As I use this cross day by day, bit by bit, I am overcoming sin and becoming more like Jesus. Life gets better and better when I’m no longer bound to reacting the way I used to, and it also gets better for others to be around me! -Active Christian |
Lust maintains power over us only when we submit to its worldly authority. Allowing sin of any kind to sit on the throne of our lives brings devastation and destruction. However, with Christ reigning over our lives, the Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome our temptations. When we run the race with endurance (Hebrews 12:1), God directs our way through the hazards of life and beyond the burden of sexual sin. -Living Ministries
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. (Galatians 5:16-17)
I Peter 4:5-6:
but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 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 sprit the way God does.
but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 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 sprit the way God does.
|
I Peter 4:12:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: |
Some translations use "Do not be surprised." instead of "think it not strange". Religious persecution was commonplace among Jewish people. But it may have been a surprise to the Gentile believers in these churches. Some believers may have subscribed to an ancient form of Prosperity Theology that guaranteed health and wealth. Or maybe these saints believed the previous passages of 1 Peter. They had living hope in the risen Savior. As a result, they were surprised by suffering. Verse 12 says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”
“Surprised” indicates more than initial shock and awe. It suggests disillusionment that results in bitter resentment. Peter says do not be surprised when the “fiery trial” comes. The term foreshadows the persecution that was to come. Nero would blame Christians for the burning of Rome. During this Imperial suffering, Christians would be set on fire as torches. The term is a graphic description of suffering. Picture precious metal put in a fire or furnace to reveal, purify, and strengthen it.
|
| Let not the unlearned Christian be alarmed, “as though some strange thing had happened to him,” and modern philosophy had discovered arguments to demolish religion, never heard of before. The old ornaments of deism have been “broken off” upon this occasion, “and cast into the fire, and there came out this calf.” These same difficulties have been again and again urged and discussed in public; again and again weighed and considered by learned and sensible men, of the laity as well as the clergy, who have by no means been induced by them to renounce their faith.
Indeed, why should they? For is any man surprised that difficulties should occur in the books of Scripture, those more particularly of the Old Testament? Let him reflect upon the variety of matter on which they treat; the distance of the times to which they refer; the wide difierence of ancient manners and customs, from those of the age in which we live; the very imperfect knowledge we have of these, as well as of the language in which they are described; the conciseness of the narratives, sufficient for the purpose intended, but not for gratifying a restless curiosity; above all, the errors and defects of translations. Many and painful are the researches sometimes necessary to be made, for settling points of that kind. Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. When this is done, the same question shall be triumphantly asked again the next year, as if nothing had ever been written upon the subject. And as people in general, for one reason or another, like short objections better than long answers, in this mode of disputation (if it can be styled such) the odds must ever be against us; and we must be content with those for our friends who have honesty and erudition, candor and patience, to study both sides of the question.—Be it so. |
