Transcript & Slides: Armed With Jesus' Attitude (1 Peter 4:1-11)

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Armed With Jesus' Attitude (1 Peter 4:1-11)
By David Feddes

Let's imagine that you're joining the military—the army—and as you are about to enter, you have some thoughts and ideas about what life in the army should be like. Then, after you've been there for a little while, you've got some questions. You say, “Well, I joined the army, but I never really expected that I'd have to change anything or leave my old way of life behind. I thought that I was going to be able to join the army, put on the uniform, and then go on with life as usual. I shouldn't have to change anything. There should be absolutely zero difference between civilian life and army life. You really didn't expect me to hang out with other people who are in the army, form a squad with them, work together with them, and accomplish various missions together with them, did you? I don't really like military people, and I don't want to work together with them. And life in the army is hard. The training is hard. Sometimes when you're in the army, they even shoot at you! I never dreamed that when I joined the army, I might actually have to leave civilian life, form a squad with other people, work together with them, and that there might even be some danger and some pain involved. Nobody told me!”

Well, sometimes the actual commercials for the army do look a little more like a video game than what army life is really like, and they might not always give you the full cost of doing it. But most of the time, when you get into the military, you know that there are going to be some changes. You're going to have to say goodbye to mommy. You're going to have to say goodbye to a lot of the things that you previously lived like, and now you've got a different way of life and different disciplines. You're going to be hanging out with a different group of people and working together with them, and it's going to be more dangerous than sitting at home.

If that would be a silly attitude in joining the army, how much more silly is it to say, “I became a Christian, and upon becoming a Christian, I'm happy to report that nothing has changed. I really don't hang out with Christians very much or like them very much or do much together with them or engage in any kind of ministry or mission with them. And the thought that it would ever be hard or difficult or that somebody would ever insult me or attack me, or that the devil would take any shots at me—no way! To become a Christian is to have a life of health and ease and nothing changing unless it feels good to me.”

Sometimes that kind of message is sent by certain kinds of preaching. They'll even use the phrase from Isaiah and also repeated in the New Testament: “By his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). The prosperity gospel says, “Because Jesus suffered, you don’t have to. He got wounded so you'd never have to have any wounds.”

Now, there is a little tiny grain of truth in that, because Jesus did suffer and die in our place and took on a punishment for us that we would never have to go through. So there is a wonderful truth that Jesus is our substitute and takes upon himself sufferings of a magnitude that we’d never have to endure, and he did it so that we might be saved and made whole again. But it is not true at all that Jesus suffered so that we would never have to suffer. He didn’t suffer so that our life would be easy from then on and that trouble would never come our way. That is very false teaching.

The apostle Peter, when he speaks of Jesus dying for us, says that “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). But he says that right after he says, “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil” (1 Peter 3:17). Then he connects our suffering with Jesus’ suffering and says, “Christ died for you, and now you suffer along with him.” He never uses Jesus’ suffering as a statement that therefore you never have to suffer anything.

We need to be armed with Jesus’ attitude. It would be a huge mistake to suppose that we can just go on living the way we are. If you’re joining the army, it’s going to involve a different way of life—rejecting your former way of life and taking on a new way of life. You’re going to be banding and working together with others. You’re bonding with a band of believers. When you’re armed with Jesus’ attitude, you become part of his body, part of his army, part of his mission in the world. You’re going to take enemy fire, and you rejoice to take enemy fire because that’s why you joined in the first place—to take sides with Jesus and against all that’s wrong.

If you never have any opposition coming your way at all, you have to start asking, “What good am I? What am I actually doing in the world that would bother the devil at all? Does he ever take any shots at me or not? If not, why not? Am I that useless?” On the other hand, if you sense that you’re under attack from the evil one and from the forces of evil and you’re suffering in this life, then you say, “Well, I guess the enemy is shooting at me. I must be doing something right,” and you have the Spirit of glory and of God resting on you.

So Jesus’ attitude involves this rejection of sin that Peter pictures in verses 1 through 6 of chapter 4, this bonding with a band of believers that we see in the middle verses of the chapter, and this joy in taking on enemy fire and realizing that we’re a lot better off taking enemy fire now than being on the wrong side and fighting against God and coming under God’s judgment later. Those are the areas we want to look at as we move through this passage in Peter.

Peter says, “Therefore, 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” (1 Peter 4:1-2).

There’s this decisive break that occurs. This doesn’t mean that if you have any suffering in your body at all, or any physical pain, that it just immunizes you—it’s your vaccination against sin and you’re never going to sin again. But it does mean that when you actually suffer for being a Christian, it does something in you. When you make the choice to suffer for Christ rather than just go with the flow and go with your own urges, you’re making a decisive break with sin. You’re choosing sides. You may in the future do something wrong again, but it’s not because that is what you want to be from then on. You want to be a follower of Christ. You’ve armed yourself with the mind of Christ, the attitude of Christ, and so you hate sin.

Part of this is because you have Jesus’ example, but part of it is because you have Christ living in you, and his mind and attitude are in you. Sometimes you’re not fully aware of that, but if he’s in you, then his mind and attitude are in you too, and you start taking on that same attitude, that same distaste, that same dislike for sin. Suffering is part of that. Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. He decided he was going, and he knew he was dying when he went. When you set your face to follow Jesus and to be like Jesus, even if it costs something, then you’re making a break with sin. You’re not just saying, “Hey, I hope I get a get-out-of-jail-free ticket and make it to heaven someday.” You say, “I’m done. Sin is not what I want to be. That’s not the way I want to live, and I’m going to live the rest of my life for the will of God, not for my sinful human desires.”

Peter says, “You have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry” (1 Peter 4:3). You lived like the Gentiles; you lived like the pagans. You got into their wild party lifestyle—debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, detestable idolatry. The detestable idolatry was part of it. When they worshiped idols in many of these pagan temples, sexual rituals were part of the worship. Getting drunk was part of it. There are religions in the world still where getting drunk and getting high are part of your religious ecstasy. Peter says, “That’s the past.” That is the worship of idols that messes you up. If you just follow every party urge, every sexual urge, and all the detestable things and religious ideas that people have worshiped throughout time, that is ruinous.

Yet if you’re a Christian living in a world where that’s taken to be normal and healthy, they’re going to think you’re weird. They’ll think you’re weird if you don’t think that every sexual urge you have is to be acted upon and that it defines who you are—your very identity. If you actually think that you ought to stay sober and not get drunk, they’ll say, “What’s the matter with you?” In those days, if you didn’t offer a pinch of incense to the gods and goddesses or to the emperor, who was claimed to be god, you were a bad citizen. You might be a traitor. They thought it was really bad if you didn’t join them in behaving that way. They would heap abuse—usually verbal abuse at the time Peter was writing—but it got worse and worse, and eventually they were killing Christians left and right.

Peter says, “But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5). You’re in a situation where the prevailing culture behaves a certain way and expects you to behave that way, and they think it’s strange and weird that you don’t. But they’ve got to answer to God, and he’s going to judge those who’ve already died and those who are living as well.

Then Peter 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” (1 Peter 4:6). This is a text that’s hard for scholars to make out exactly what it means. Some think it’s about preaching to people who died as unbelievers and wicked sinners and now get a second chance at salvation, but that contradicts all the rest of Scripture. They’re not people who have died in sin and wickedness and unbelief and now are getting a second chance.

The context and understanding of this is that there are Christians who’ve died, and some might say, “Well, what’s the use? They’re dead now.” The pagans would say, “Yeah, you had this way of following Jesus, and it was kind of weird and sometimes involved oppression—and now you’re dead. A lot of good it did you.” Peter is saying, “There was a reason the gospel was preached to people who’ve now died. They come under the judgment of men—men say, ‘Oh yeah, they’re dead; that’s it for them’—but they live according to God.” The Holy Spirit, in particular, is the one referred to here. The spirit isn’t capitalized in most translations, but it probably refers to the Holy Spirit’s work. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead also raises those who belong to Jesus from the dead. In regard to men, they’re regarded as losers and judged because they’re dead, but according to God, they are alive. The Holy Spirit who made them alive by new birth is also going to make their bodies alive.

Since that’s true, it makes a lot of sense to live for Christ in light of the resurrection. Some of you know what 1 Corinthians 15 talks about. It says, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith… But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 20). That changes everything. Peter is sending a similar message here. If people who believed in Jesus before they died and then died stayed dead and rotted away and that was the end of them, then of course the pagans would be right: “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” Have your parties, do whatever—you’re all dust anyway. But if you live by the Holy Spirit and are raised again like Jesus, then it makes great sense for the gospel to be preached even to those who have already died.

So Peter is saying, reject the sinful way of life—the pagan life. They may think it’s weird, but they don’t yet know what it is to be born again through Christ. They don’t know the reality that they’re going to be judged by God for their wickedness. They don’t know that believers, even if they die, are raised again to life—to a glorious, eternal, everlasting life. So yes, you can understand why they would think it was stupid to walk the way of Jesus and even to suffer for Jesus—but you know better. So live that way.

Arm yourself with Jesus’ attitude because he chose the way of suffering. It was his Father’s will; that’s why he did it. He knew what his Father wanted, so he did it. And he says, “Arm yourself with the same attitude.” You know what your God and Father wants—now do it. Reject that way of life. Reject sin and live for God. That’s the main point of that first chunk of this passage.

Then he says, now bond with the band of believers. He’s just spoken of the fact that dead people still live because of Jesus Christ, and then he says, “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray” (1 Peter 4:7).

We’re living in the last days. The period between Jesus’ first coming and his second coming is the last days. God has set it up so that the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ is the great event that triggers the end of the age, and we are living in the end of the age. Jesus can come at any time. With the Lord, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day (2 Peter 3:8). So this isn’t a marker of how many years it might be, but what events are to come next. It’s God’s concern whether it’s a few more days or a few more thousand years. But it’s near, because the last days have begun in the coming of Jesus Christ, and you need to be ready to meet him when he comes.

“Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” Let me just say again: the end of all things is near. Now, how do you live when the end is near? What you do is you quickly turn on your TV and watch a reality show about survivalists, and then you do whatever they do—find a big concrete bunker somewhere, get a cache of automatic weapons, bombs, grenades, and everything else to shoot at everybody who’s coming after you when the end is near. Or maybe you try to approach the Bible and cut out this little passage, get it the right jigsaw shape, then cut out that passage, and make your whole jigsaw puzzle of prophecy to figure out exactly when Jesus is coming—down to the minute—and which of the earthly rulers is the final antichrist. Then you form the puzzle, hide in your bunker, wait with your machine gun, and see what happens.

Maybe not. Maybe you ought to be clear-minded and self-controlled—and pray and love and offer hospitality. That doesn’t sound like a bunker mentality, like a survivalist mentality, does it? Peter says, “The end of all things is near.” The suffering is looming. Be ready for the suffering. Here’s how you do it: keep your head, love somebody. The Bible is so sensible compared to the nuttiness of so much of what we do and think. It’s not because the Bible has no concept of enormous, earth-shaking events coming and the end being near and the judgments of God coming upon the earth, but how do you live in light of the end? You pray. You keep your head. You love deeply, “because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

He’s talking here especially about the way Christians relate to one another and love each other deeply. “Love covers over a multitude of sins.” What does that mean? Does that mean that if you’re really sinning like crazy but you love once in a while, that makes up for it, and God says, “Well, the sins were kind of bad, but the love was pretty good, so all in all, I’ll accept them because the good outweighed the bad”? That’s just baloney. The Bible teaches that nothing we do is going to make up for our sins or get us back in God’s favor. God gives his favor freely and forgives our sins through Jesus Christ.

Our niceness and our love don’t get rid of our sins. What love does is cover over a multitude of other people’s sins. That doesn’t mean it makes them right with God; it means that when you’re dealing with people and you love them deeply, if they sin, that doesn’t define the relationship. You say, “Well, that was bad, but I love them,” and so you forgive them, let that one go, and cover up that sin as God covers your sin. Love keeps on dealing with sin. This is based on one of the Proverbs which says, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs” (Proverbs 10:12). It’s not the way we get right with God, but it’s the way our love relates to other people who’ve sinned against us. When you’re dealing with others, you don’t focus on how they’ve wronged you, but on Jesus’ love flowing from you toward them.

“Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). That’s another way of expressing love—to be hospitable, to welcome people, to help them out, to have them in for a meal. Hospitality here might mean that if a stranger from out of town who’s a believer comes in and has no place to stay, you give them a meal, you give them a place to stay, and you don’t gripe about it. Love doesn’t grumble about its opportunities to help others.

Let’s face it: Peter is a preacher who repeats himself. If it’s bad to repeat yourself, Peter’s a bad preacher. Love, love, love, love, love. You read through Peter’s epistle, and there’s love in every chapter, suffering in every chapter, and glory in every chapter. He’s got all these themes running together all the time. He says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him” (1 Peter 1:8). “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). “Show proper respect to everyone: love the brotherhood of believers” (1 Peter 2:17). “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Greet one another with a kiss of love” (1 Peter 5:14).

Again and again, in every chapter of this epistle, we have that theme of loving one another coming through and being that band of believers who love one another and have deep affection for each other.

I began with the military metaphor or word picture that Peter uses: “Arm yourselves with Christ’s attitude.” Part of arming yourself is being part of a platoon. One of the things essential to military effectiveness is that the platoons are looking out for each other and will do almost anything for each other. They don’t want to leave anybody behind. They care for each other and do what needs doing for one another.

Very often, for some military people, it’s not just the big cause—though that may be part of it—and what the generals behind the lines are doing, but it’s about looking out for each other in your own band of brothers who are working together. That love among Christians is also very key to being effective in our mission.

Then Peter says that part of this love for each other is also using the gifts and graces that God has given you to serve others and bless them, doing it in the mind and strength of God. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. ^11If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4:10-11).

He’s saying that when you form this band and are part of this body of believers, everybody’s got a gift—sometimes more than one—and the purpose of that gift is not to show off. The purpose of the gift is to help other people and to glorify God, not to say, “Aren’t I wonderful?” So serve others, and do it in the strength that God provides so that God gets the honor and people get the blessing.

In translations that are a little more literal, it says, “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve others as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” You’re a steward—a caretaker, a manager—of God’s grace. Some of you have seen The Lord of the Rings, where there’s a steward who gets a little too haughty and thinks he has the right to rule everything. He doesn’t even want the king to come back because the steward should run the show. Well, when you’re a steward, you’re not the king, and when the king is calling the shots, you have to give way to the king. Peter is saying you are a steward of God’s varied grace. He’s the king; you’re the steward. You’re managing it on his behalf. You’re not the supreme ruler, and when you do that, you’re doing it for the benefit of other people.

When you read in the Bible, there are a number of passages that speak about spiritual gifts—abilities that the Holy Spirit gives each of us to honor God and to bless others. Some of those passages go into quite a bit of detail. If you read 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, or Ephesians 4—those three passages—you’ll get more detail and longer lists of spiritual gifts. Peter doesn’t. He just gives a big summary of what those gifts look like. There are speaking gifts and serving, or action, gifts.

If you read the passages I just mentioned, you’d see some of the details. In the realm of speaking, there are apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, the gift of tongues and interpreting tongues, a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom—words that God gives in various shades of gifting. Peter simply says, “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” If speaking is your gift—and it could be one of these varieties that the other passages mention—whatever it may be, if you have a gift of speech, keep this in mind: you’re speaking on God’s behalf.

There’s a danger of saying, “I am God’s spokesman,” and therefore assuming that everything that comes out of your mouth is straight from God and expecting everybody else to treat it that way. Peter’s saying you need to treat it that way before you open your mouth. Realize that you’re to be speaking words from God, and if it isn’t coming from God, please don’t say it. That’s a great guide in every aspect of life—when we’re speaking, we should seek to speak words that God gives and that build others up.

The basic two questions you need to ask before you open your mouth—whether you’re an apostle, an evangelist, or just somebody talking to a fellow Christian—are these: Is this from God? And is it going to do them any good? You can complicate it if you want, but those are the two questions to ask about anything that comes out of your mouth: Is it from God? Does it do them any good?

When it comes to serving, Peter says there are different gifts: encouragement, leadership or administration, helping, giving financially, showing mercy, healing, doing miracles. These are all action gifts. Peter captures it all under this: “If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in everything God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” So when you talk, it’s got to be God’s words; when you serve, it’s got to be God’s power, energy, and strength.

Peter says all this because of that underlying consciousness that runs through the whole New Testament and through everyone who really belongs to Jesus Christ—the life of God in the soul of man. That’s the title of one of my favorite books: The Life of God in the Soul of Man. A young pastor named Henry Scougal wrote it. He died when he was only twenty-nine, but his little book has lived a long time afterward.

You find the apostle Paul saying, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). You have “the fullness of Christ dwelling in you” (Colossians 1:27). John’s Gospel has Jesus telling us of the Holy Spirit living in us and of the Father coming to us and Christ himself living in us. This indwelling of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within us is the life of Christ, and what does that mean?

Peter’s applying it here. When you’re living the Christ life that’s in you, then you have Christ’s mind and attitude when it comes to your relationship and attitude toward suffering. When you’re doing God’s work, you have God’s will, God’s decision-making, the Father’s words and energy working in you. That’s why Peter isn’t just saying, “Try to make your words a little better.” He’s saying, “You’ve actually got God in you, and you have gifts from the Holy Spirit in you for speaking. Let that express the life of God in you.”

When you’re working, don’t let it just be more oomph from you, trying harder and doing things that make you look good. Do it in God’s energy. You’ll accomplish a lot more in God’s energy and power flowing through you than in anything you do through your own effort.

I love this statement from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of my favorite preachers. He said, “The man who has the love of God in his heart can do more in an hour than the busy kind of man can do in a lifetime.” If you have the energy of God’s love working and flowing through you, you can do a lot more than by being busy, busy, busy—trying, trying, trying.

So Peter’s saying you have spiritual gifts from God, whether they’re word gifts or action gifts. They’re God’s gifts, so let God’s mind and words flow through you, and God’s energy too.

Then, when he starts talking about suffering again, he says, “Keep in mind that when you suffer, the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Peter 4:14). That Spirit of glory that filled the tabernacle and the temple with the shining cloud, that Spirit of glory that surrounded Jesus with the shining cloud—when you suffer, that Spirit of glory is hovering over you. He’s living in you, and his glory and goodness are what make the difference.

So when we look at any passage of the Bible, think about the fact that God’s life is working within you. Very early in 1 Peter he says, “You have been born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3), and “You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). You’ve been born again. You have this Christ life.

Therefore, you have his mind, his sufferings, God’s will, his words, his energy. You have the third person of the Trinity—the Holy Spirit—his glory, his goodness, his gifts. So reject sin, live for God, bond with a band of believers, knowing that you’ve got the Christ life in you, and they have the Christ life in them if they’re fellow believers. It is the life of God in you helping and encouraging the life of God in them, and the life of God in them and their gifts encouraging and building up the life of God in you.

It’s not just humans trying to help each other out a little. There’s something more amazing and mysterious going on, where God is at work in each of us, bringing together a synergy—a coming together of God’s life and truth and energies—that is much more than the sum total of us together than any one of us by ourselves. If you want to get close to God and experience more of his fullness, one element is to get alone with God—to pray to him, to focus on him, to love him. But another element is to get connected with people who don’t have all the same gifts or personality you do. The Christ life in them can do something for you that God isn’t going to send straight down the pipeline from heaven.

Sometimes we say, “I want to really be filled with the Holy Spirit. I want to have a greater fullness of God’s life in me.” If you think the only way to do that is to get alone with God, you’re mistaken. If you think you can never get alone with God and that would happen, that would be a big mistake too. But God gives you other people, and they are channels of God’s life and love and goodness into you. You’re going to miss out if you don’t take advantage of the channels God has given you, and they’re going to miss out if you don’t use your gifts to bless and serve them.

That’s why, when the Bible uses the picture of a body, it says one part of the body can’t say to the others, “I don’t need you,” and neither should a part of the body say, “I’m worthless; nobody could ever benefit from me.” Instead, you say, “I need others; they need me,” and the Christ life that fills the whole body is building up the whole body when we’re working together.

Then we face enemy fire, and Peter says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. ^13But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. ^14If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ^15If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. ^16However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name” (1 Peter 4:12-16).

Again, we have to ask, what’s normal and what’s strange? Don’t consider it strange when you suffer—that’s normal Christian living. Don’t consider it embarrassing or shameful to be laughed at or mocked for living as a Christian—that’s not embarrassing. He says, “Don’t be ashamed; you bear the name of Christ.” What better thing could you ask?

We need a new standard of what’s normal and what’s embarrassing. When you have the attitude of Christ, you consider it normal to live for Christ and suffer for Christ—and abnormal to follow sinful human urges. You consider it embarrassing to fall into sin and shameful, and you consider it glorious when other people pick on you for living for the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to redefine what’s normal and what’s not.

Peter says, “Don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal.” Literally, it’s the “fiery ordeal,” not just a painful thing or general suffering. In this, he says, “If you suffer, it shouldn’t be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal or as a meddler.” Throughout this epistle, he’s talking about stupid suffering. Earlier, he says, if you’re working for your boss—or in that context, if you’re a slave—what’s so noble about getting a beating for doing something wrong? “For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? (1 Peter 2:19-20)

There’s nothing so noble about going to jail because you’re a criminal and you actually committed really bad crimes. There’s something noble when you suffer and you didn’t deserve it. So “stupid suffering” is a theme that runs through Peter, and he says don’t do it.

One kind of stupid suffering is being harmed by the natural consequences of wild parties and idols. You get poor when you spend too much on booze and drugs—it makes you a poorer worker. You often end up losing your job or having other major problems in your life. Driving while drunk and getting in an accident, going to a wild party and getting pregnant, or getting a sexually transmitted disease—all of these cause trouble. It’s not nice to say, but it’s stupid suffering when we do stupid stuff and bad things happen to us as a result.

Idolatry works the same way. A bad, misguided religion does a lot of harm in and of itself. Even if God didn’t send great punishments down from heaven, just the natural consequences of living a certain way are very bad for you. Then there’s the punishment that the government brings. There are things that are crimes.

There’s also such a thing as sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong—that’s meddling. If you’re punished for that, you’re just bringing trouble on yourself. If you’re getting into quarrels that aren’t yours, you’re making trouble. Sometimes we do that—we step into a situation where there’s a fight going on, and it wasn’t our fight. There was nothing we could do about it, but we took sides anyway. Proverbs says, “Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passerby who meddles in a quarrel not his own” (Proverbs 26:17). “Oh, that’s none of my business, but I think I’ll go over and grab that Doberman by the ears and yank him a few times just to see how that goes.” Well, when you get bit after yanking the Doberman’s ears, it’s not because you were noble or a lover of dogs—you were stupid. So don’t meddle in situations that aren’t yours.

Don’t commit crimes. And the worst kind of suffering is for unrepented sin and unbelief—you’re damned for rejecting God’s gospel. The Bible says that those who don’t believe the gospel of God “will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5). Peter’s saying that suffering for the sake of Christ is glorious, but there’s nothing glorious about bringing bad things on yourself.

Remember the story of the prodigal son. The prodigal son wanted all his money, wanted to get away from his father, and spend it all in another country. He had what he thought was a high old time—drinking and sleeping with various prostitutes, doing what he thought was the fun life. But when his money ran out, so did his friends. They wanted nothing to do with him. Times got tougher, and that life he thought was so great suddenly wasn’t so hot. The poor man was out in the muck with the pigs, envying the pig food. When you envy the pig food, it’s time to reassess.

He came to his senses and said, “Back home, my father’s servants have it better than I do here among the pigs. I think I’ll go home.” His father ran out to him and welcomed him. The wonderful thing about that story is that despite stupid suffering and bringing it all on himself, the nitwit at least remembered home. When he went home, the father welcomed him back as his beloved son, gave him his robe and his family ring, and restored him.

So the good news is that if you’ve been trapped or find yourself in a spiral of suffering because of dumb things you’ve done, that doesn’t mean it’s all over. You need to return home again.

But then there’s the terrible story of King Belshazzar. He was living the same way as the prodigal son, except he was a king. He was drinking wine, having drunken parties, and bringing in all his concubines and wives. His father had been warned, had enough chances to repent, but one day, in the middle of one of these huge parties, a finger appeared and wrote on the wall: “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting” (Daniel 5:27). That night, the king’s kingdom was overthrown, he was killed, and his party life came to a dreadful end.

There is suffering, and when you repent, you can be rescued from it. But there’s also a way of life where, if you persist in it and don’t repent and put your faith in the Lord, all is lost.

“It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ^18And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” (1 Peter 4:17-18).

Think about that. What does it mean for judgment to begin with the family of God? It means that God already now sends hard things into life, and the general judgments on the world often affect Christians as well—but with a different purpose. When a pandemic comes, when unsettled times come, when an economy is shaken, that can come as judgment on the wicked, but it can also come as a judgment to get the heads of the righteous on straight again, to make us more ready for the Lord and more fit to serve him.

There’s a doctrine called purgatory that says that after death, God sends certain punishments to purify you. As a doctrine, that’s wrong, because after death, when you’re with the Lord, you’re made pure and are with him in glory and gladness forever. But there’s a smidge of truth to that doctrine if you just move it into this life. God does judge the family of God here in this life. He does send things into our lives that we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves, and he does it to get us more focused on him, to walk with him more faithfully, and to love him.

Peter says that if God sends judgments, and if that’s hard even for Christian people to go through, what’s going to happen to those who don’t have the gospel? “It is hard for the righteous to be saved” (1 Peter 4:18). It’s hard for a couple of reasons.

It was hard for God to save the righteous. It was hard for Jesus to come to earth, to give up all of his prerogatives as King of the universe, to live among us, to be born in a manger, to face opposition over and over, and to be crucified—to suffer that terrible agony and bear all the sins of the world. That was hard. It was hard to save the righteous.

And for the righteous who are saved by Christ’s death and resurrection, it’s hard to live the life of suffering and self-denial and of following God’s will. That path of salvation can be very challenging and difficult—it’s narrow and hard (Matthew 7:14).

Well then, how hard do you think it is when you’re ungodly and a sinner and you don’t have Jesus doing the heavy lifting for you? It’s not just hard—it’s impossible. All the wrath of God is poured out on you. Now that’s hard. So Peter is reminding us: if you think it’s hard to go through some suffering in this life, keep your head on straight. You’re getting just a little taste of God’s judgments in this life so you won’t have them in the life to come. But there are people who will face those judgments undiluted, with God’s full wrath. So don’t envy them. Don’t get back into their company or back into their patterns of behavior.

“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (1 Peter 4:19). Commit and continue—it’s about that simple. If you’re going to suffer according to God’s will, then you’ve got a faithful Creator. He made the whole universe; he’s running all of its details. Put your life in his hands. What did Jesus say just before he died? “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). That’s a good place to commit—to your faithful Creator. When you’re going through something hard, he’s got it. It may be suffering that comes from the wicked. It may be suffering that comes from Satan. It may be sickness—terrible, frightening sickness in your life. Commit yourself to your faithful Creator and continue to do good.

We saw in a previous message how good overcomes evil: by staying good and suffering until God takes away the suffering, not by becoming evil and fighting fire with fire. So commit yourself to your faithful Creator and continue to do good.

There’s stupid suffering, and we’ve looked at that. Smart suffering means you deny the old urges and habits—and that hurts. It hurts to say no to something you feel like doing. It hurts to break old habits. Even if you’ve become a Christian, if you’ve got ingrained habits that are hard to deal with, it hurts to get rid of them. It hurts when people laugh at you, attack you, or when cancel culture decides to cancel everyone with Christian convictions. You’ve got to be ready to face the attacks of the worldlings. But it’s worth it, because that’s smart suffering—you’re enduring what I described as God’s purifying judgments that he sometimes sends into the lives of believers to help us become more disciplined, more focused, and more reliant on him than we often are when times are good.

Part of smart suffering is recognizing that we live in a broken, fallen world. As long as we’re in this world, some things are going to hurt, because we still share in the common lot of humanity. We may wish that God would get rid of all evil in the next ten minutes—but what if he had decided to do that before he saved us? Then we would have been lost. God is patient; he’s got a plan for his fallen creation. So if part of that plan means we have to put up with some suffering a little longer, we’ll do it, because we know he’s got other people he plans to save before he puts an end to everything.

Smart suffering means you deny your old urges, you’re ready to face attacks, you endure God’s purifying judgments, and you say, “God is patient. He still has people to save. He’s still got work to do in my life, so I’ll endure what it takes.”

If you have any doubt about the fiery ordeal and which side you want to be on, think of one of those fiery ordeals we read about in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Remember how they were told to bow down and worship the king’s idol? If they didn’t, they’d be thrown into a fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—three young men who followed the Lord—remained standing when everybody else bowed to the idol. King Nebuchadnezzar was furious. He had them brought before him and said, “Why didn’t you bow down to my idol?” They said, “We worship God. We’re never going to bow down to your idol. We believe God can deliver us, but even if he doesn’t, we’re not bowing down to your idol, O king.”

So they took the consequences. Nebuchadnezzar’s troops bound them and heated the furnace seven times hotter, then threw them in. But what happened? The men who threw them in were burned up by the flames that flew out of the furnace. The furnace was so hot. But the three young men—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—were in the flames, and the king couldn’t believe what he saw. They were in the middle of the fire, but the flames weren’t burning them up. And there was somebody else in the fire with them. “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!” (Daniel 3:25).

Peter’s saying, when you face a fiery ordeal, remember—there’s somebody else in the fire with you. “Since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves with the same attitude” (1 Peter 4:1). He’s going to be right there in the fire with you. In the case of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were rescued from the fire. When they came out, Daniel even goes into detail: you couldn’t even smell smoke on them, and not one hair of their head was singed. They came out of it with no smoke, no scorching, nothing—while the soldiers who worked for the king were burned up by the flames intended for God’s people.

Keep that in mind when you’re deciding which kind of suffering you want. Everybody’s going to suffer, so pick your poison. Do you want the suffering that comes from being in the fire with Christ, or the suffering that comes from having fire come at you without Christ?

Richard Wurmbrand was a pastor who served in the mid-1900s and who suffered very much for his faith. For fourteen years he was in prison and endured torture because he was a follower of Jesus Christ—physical torture, pain, and years in a 12-by-12 cell. For three of those years, he was in solitary confinement with no window and no access to anyone. Think of that—no window, seeing nothing, speaking to no one for three years except the people who shoved food under the door.

He said, “The prison years did not seem too long for me, for I discovered alone in my cell that beyond belief and love there is a delight in God, a deep and extraordinary ecstasy of happiness that is like nothing in the world.” Extraordinary ecstasy of happiness that is like nothing in the world—and this is a man who was tortured and sat in a cell.

He said something else, not just about this tremendous joy under fire: “It was in prison that we found the hope of salvation for the Communists who were torturing us. It was there that we developed a sense of responsibility toward them. It was in being tortured by them that we learned to love them.”

How is that possible? How can you have the ecstasy of joy and learn to love the people who are torturing you? It’s only possible for someone who has the Christ life in him, and more and more of Christ comes out as the sufferings are poured out on him. He reached a level of love and joy he had never attained before those sufferings were thrust upon him.

Peter and the other apostles, those great ambassadors of Christ in the early centuries, experienced the same thing. When times got harder, the love shone through all the more. It might be persecutors, or it might be hardships, illnesses, or disappointments that come into our lives. But in those too, when the things we found happiness in are taken away, we may find a happiness we never dreamed of. When some of the things we cared so much about are taken away, we may find ourselves caring more about others who need salvation. We find God doing more through us at our weakest than he ever did at our strongest.

I remember in the first church that I served, we went through a lot with the long suffering and death of our daughter. Years later, when I visited there again, I talked to a girl who had been a teenager then—now a young woman. She said, “I don’t remember that much from the sermons back then, but I remember when Rebekah died. I remember what you were like when she died.” That’s about all she remembered of my ministry. I had preached many sermons and done much while I was there, but she remembered what I was like when my daughter died.

There will be times in your own life when your growth, and others’ benefit from you, will depend—sorry to say it—on your being crushed, on your being hurt. But as Richard Wurmbrand said, it was in his tortures that they brought salvation to many of their jailers.

That’s Jesus’ attitude. Are you armed with it? Are you going to forget that prosperity gospel that says, “All is going to be well, you don’t have to change anything, you don’t have to get close to other believers, and you don’t have to expect bullets from the enemy”? Or are you going to reject sin and live for God? Are you going to bond with that band of believers and share each other’s gifts in the life and power of the Holy Spirit? And are you going to rejoice when the bullets start flying?

Prayer

Father, help us have a sense of what’s normal as believers and followers of Jesus—to be able to walk the way of the cross. We want to know you, Lord Jesus, and the power of your resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in your sufferings, becoming like you in your death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11). We pray, Father, that you will make this more and more a reality in our lives—that even suffering, especially suffering, can transform us into your image and make us people who are mighty in your service and in the lives of others. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

Armed With Jesus' Attitude (1 Peter 4:1-11)
By David Feddes
Slide Contents

¹ Therefore, 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. ² As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.³ 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. ⁴ They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. ⁵ But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.⁶ 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.

⁷ The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. ⁸ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

¹⁰ Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

 ¹² Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵ If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. ¹⁶ However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.¹⁷ For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” ¹⁹ So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. (1 Peter 4)

Jesus suffered

Christ suffered for you… He bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. (2:21, 24)

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (3:18)

Armed With Jesus’ Attitude

• Reject sin; live for God. (4:1-6)

• Bond with band of believers. (4:7-11)

• Rejoice to face enemy fire. (4:12-19)

¹ Therefore, 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. ² As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.³ 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. ⁴ They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. ⁵ But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.⁶ 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.

Armed With Jesus’ Attitude

• Reject sin; live for God. (4:1-6)

• Bond with band of believers. (4:7-11)

• Rejoice to face enemy fire. (4:12-19)

⁷ The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. ⁸ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Love, love, love

You love him. (1:8) Now that… you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. (1:22) Love the brotherhood of believers. (2:17) Love as brothers. (3:8) Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (4:8) Greet one another with a kiss of love. (5:14)

¹⁰ Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Stewards of grace

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (4:10 ESV)

• Speak: apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, evangelist, tongues,

• Serve: encourage, lead, help, give, show mercy, heal, do miracles

God’s life within us

• Christ’s mind and sufferings

• God’s will, words, and energy

• Spirit’s glory and goodness

Armed With Jesus’ Attitude

• Reject sin; live for God. (4:1-6)

• Bond with band of believers. (4:7-11)

• Rejoice to face enemy fire. (4:12-19)

¹² Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵ If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. ¹⁶ However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.¹⁷ For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” ¹⁹ So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Stupid suffering

• Harmed by wild parties & idols

• Punished for crimes or meddling

• Damned for rejecting God’s gospel

Smart suffering

• Denying old urges and habits

• Facing attacks of worldlings

• Enduring purifying judgments

• Embracing God’s patient plan for us in a fallen creation

Joy under fire

The prison years did not seem too long for me, for I discovered, alone in my cell, that beyond belief and love there is a delight in God: a deep and extraordinary ecstasy of happiness that is like nothing in this world. (Richard Wurmbrand)

Love for the lost

It was in prison that we found the hope of salvation for the Communists. It was there that we developed a sense of responsibility toward them. It was in being tortured by them that we learned to love them. (Richard Wurmbrand)

Armed With Jesus’ Attitude

• Reject sin; live for God. (4:1-6)

• Bond with band of believers. (4:7-11)

• Rejoice to face enemy fire. (4:12-19)

Armed With Jesus’ Attitude

• Cross-shaped living: suffer with Christ as decisive break from sin.

• End-times living: watch, pray, love, serve, share God’s gifts and grace.

• Joy-filled living: embrace suffering with Christ as the path to glory