Grace Means Suffering: Reasons For (Part 3)
Grace Means Suffering: Reasons For (Part 3)
1 Peter 4:1-6
People approach life in a variety of different ways. No two people here today are exactly the same in how they think about what lies ahead and how or even whether they prepare themselves in advance for what is to come.
Some people hardly give a second thought to what the day may hold. They just take it as it comes. They are not the type that plans and prepares or tries to anticipate what is around the corner, while other people have every hour mapped out the night before, maybe even the week before. Some people don’t like to think about the future, whether short term or long term. Other people have a life plan in place and it would take an act of Congress to change it.
I mention this because Peter says in verse 1: “… arm yourselves also with the same attitude,” Peter believed that at least some degree of readiness and forethought should be given to life. But the language he uses is intriguing.
We aren’t just to “have” a way of thinking nor are we simply to “plan” or “prepare” in advance. We are to “arm” ourselves. What Peter is calling for here is difficult; it requires the same commitment, discipline, and spiritual fortitude that are expected of a soldier entering battle. So, there’s a real sense of urgency in Peter’s language that we need to hear.
But note also that it isn’t with a weapon in any traditional sense of the term that we are to “arm” ourselves. Don’t think in terms of purchasing a Smith & Wesson 38 special. But, it is a way of thinking, an idea, an intention, a purpose, a point of view.
But with what point of view? With what intention or idea or way of thinking are we to arm and prepare ourselves? He tells us: the “same” one that Jesus had. With what way of thinking or purpose did Christ approach life? He approached and lived life determined to embrace the suffering that comes from obedience to God.
Jesus willingly embraced the suffering that a Godly life often provokes. So should we. We are to “arm” ourselves with this perspective on daily life. Be prepared to endure unjust treatment for being a Christian. Think in advance and strengthen your faith to face opposition and persecution.
I know this is hard for some of you. One reason is that you’ve been misled by well-meaning Christian pastors or teachers. They’ve told you that if you will obey and pursue righteousness and align your life with the Word of God that you will escape suffering, that you will prosper financially and socially and physically. They’ve tried to persuade you that if you do end up suffering it is because of some defect in your faith, some fault in your commitment to God, some sin in your life that you’ve failed to confess.
Others of you struggle with this because no matter how obedient you may be, you don’t see much suffering in our safe, western, insulated environment. After all, how many of you are well acquainted with someone who was imprisoned, tortured, and eventually martyred for their faith in Christ?
For us, it may be the loss of a well-deserved promotion at work or as small as the way your next door neighbor ignores you simply because you’re a Christian. And all of us know how to avoid it. We know to keep our mouths shut, we avoid certain topics or how not to bring up Jesus in a crowd of people who’d rather tell filthy jokes or laugh about adultery.
But Peter’s simple yet forceful word to us all is this: arm yourself with a way of thinking about life and about how to live and move and relate among people who hate God and want nothing to do with Jesus Christ. This is all about encouragement to suffer for righteousness’ sake. And Peter gives us five reasons why we should “arm” our hearts, minds, and wills with the readiness to suffer.
The first reason we should be resolved in our hearts to embrace unjust suffering is because Jesus did! This wasn’t something that fell upon him by chance. He chose it. He willingly embraced it.
This tells us, among other things, that there is a fundamental, entrenched hostility on the part of the world towards God and truth. The fact that Jesus suffered as he did points to the underlying conflict in values and morals and perceptions of truth between this world and us.
Could it be that Peter is saying that to suffer physically for our faith serves to purge and purify us from sin, even if we should never reach a state of sinless perfection? There is an element of truth in this. But, I believe what this means is that if you trust God enough to suffer for doing what is right (as 3:17 says), then you have made a decisive break with sin.
Peter’s point here is that whoever suffers for doing what is right and continues to serve and love God in spite of it has experienced a reversal in their relationship to sin. That doesn’t mean he or she will never sin again, but that by their decision to embrace rather than deny God and turn from it. They give evidence that their lives have taken a decisive turn for holiness and away from sin.
In other words, choose suffering because if you don't, you will choose sin. But if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will prove that your bondage to sin has been broken. Get the thought in your head that Christ is worth suffering for; live out that conviction when the choice comes between suffering and sin. If you come to the point where you suffer for righteousness' sake, you have ended sin, not in the sense of sinless perfection, but a clean break with your former history of indulgence.
What it means to make a clean break from sin is then explained in v. 2. To make a break with sin is to resolve not to live for human passions but for God’s will, a resolve that is clearly seen by one’s willingness to endure what the world gives. When you suffer for what's right, it's a sign that you have renounced sinful desires and embraced the will of God.
There is a sure-fire way to avoid suffering. Just join with the world in their practice of sin. Blend in with the surrounding culture. Become one of them. Become like them. Don’t stand out in a crowd because of your moral convictions. Embrace the moral values of the world and the people in that world will leave you alone. Or they may praise you. But you will surely escape ridicule and mockery and the suffering that comes with it.
Peter appears to be saying that there are only two alternatives. Either you embrace suffering as the inevitable calling of all those who follow Christ, or you continue in sin together with those who reject him.
Verse 3 is a simple and remarkable statement: The time already past is sufficient for sin. It's enough. So don't do it anymore. Suffer if you must. But don't do any more sin.
Arm yourself with this thought: any amount of past sinning is enough. If you sinned a little before you were converted, it's enough. If you sinned a lot and for many years before your conversion, it's enough. You can never sin so little that you could say, "I need some more time to sin."
How many people say, "I know I need to get right with God. I know I need to stop what I’m doing. I know I need to put an end to this life I’m leading and turn things around. But maybe just a little more. Maybe just a little longer.” Peter says NO, arm yourself with this thought: the time you've spent sinning is sufficient. Make the break; choose the will of God. And suffer for it if you must.
When Peter talks about living like the Gentiles, you know unbelievers, when he talks about sin, what specifically does he have in mind? It is striking how similar life is now to what life was like then. Human passions haven’t changed. “living in sensuality”, “passions”, “drunkenness”, “orgies”, “drinking parties” or “lawless idolatry”. Does this mean against God’s law or against civil law? This suggests that sensual living is wrapped up in idolatry and it is difficult to engage in “living” without falling into “lawless”.
Here we see again what it means for Christians to regard themselves as sojourners and exiles on earth: we do not share the values of the world and thus do not fit into the social or moral fabric of the culture.
The response among unbelievers and those who want nothing to do with Christ is one of both surprise and contempt: they “malign” you, they revile, ridicule, they verbally abuse you and laugh at you. Discrimination in daily life; cut out of the “in” crowd. Resolve that you will probably never be among the “insiders” in modern society.
Why do they react this way? Because silent withdrawal or refusal to participate implies condemnation of the action. By your refusal to join with them they feel the judgment of God. They are forced to reckon with a higher standard of conduct and it makes them feel horribly uncomfortable.
But here’s Peter point: simply because they are surprised and angry does not get them off the hook. They will be held accountable by God. When you suffer for His sake, you do not need to resort to sinful vengeance. You do not need to have the last word. God stands ready to settle all accounts. And he will do it far better than we.
Be like Jesus and arm yourself for suffering, because suffering in the flesh does not separate us from God.
It seems, in verse 6, that Peter is talking about the gospel being preached to Christians who are now dead. These people had heard and believed the gospel while they were alive but had subsequently died.
Hence the “dead” of v. 6 are people who are physically dead at the time of Peter’s writing this letter. The preaching is that done by Christian ministers and missionaries, like us. Christ isn’t the one who preaches. He is rather the content or focus of the message we preach. These people weren’t physically dead when they heard the gospel. They are people who heard the gospel and believed and have subsequently died physically. Thus, the gospel was preached to people who are now dead; it wasn’t preached to them while they are dead.
The pagan scoffers of Peter’s Day seemed to have good grounds for their unbelief and their ridicule of Christians. The promised second coming of Christ hasn’t occurred. Meanwhile Christians are dying physically just like everyone else. Unbelievers viewed the death of believers as proof that there is no advantage in becoming a Christian, because everyone ends up dying anyway.
Was it in vain, therefore, that the gospel was preached to people who have since died? No. The gospel was preached to them in order that they might live in the presence of God even though to the eyes of unbelievers they appear to have suffered the penalty of death and gone the way of all mankind. Probably one of the ways that the adversaries were maligning the Christians was by saying: "You say that you have such good news. You say that you escape judgment. You say your God is great and saves you and gives you joy. Well, all we've got to say is: you are missing a lot of parties and you die just like everybody else. So, if you die and go to the worms, and we die and go to the worms, we say, Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die!"
Peter's armor against this slander and his words to help us embrace suffering like Jesus is simply: The gospel was not preached to your dead Christian friends in vain. The reason the gospel was preached to those who have died is so that even though it looks like they have been judged like everybody else, they haven't. They are alive in the spirit. They are with the Lord. And the sufferings that they experienced here are not worthy to be compared to the glory that has been revealed to them (Romans 8:17f.).
The point of this verse is to encourage us that even though there is a judgment coming beyond the grave, and even though all of us die, nevertheless those who hear and believe the gospel will "live in the spirit according to the will of God."