1 PETER 4

 1 For as much 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;

2 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.

LIVING IN GOD’S WORLD

Wow, what words!!

Christ suffered in the flesh, and so we are to arm ourselves with the same attitude he had when dealing with suffering and persecution. As I think about these certain things come to mind: Jesus could have called upon 12 legions of angels to protect Himself. He didn’t. He went willingly to the cross; He did not complain about it!

He had complete and total dependence upon God. When we are going through hard times; when we are in the wilderness, we need to acknowledge that God is completely in control and that He is teaching us something through these times.

We need to realise that the reason for God taking us through these times of persecution and suffering is to drive sin out of us. The person who is fully surrendered to God in these times is less inclined to sin. Why? Because this suffering comes to drive us to God and not away from Him. It doesn’t mean we totally stop sinning, but this is God’s pruning to root out sin in our life. Remember 1 Thess 4, what is God’s will for our lives… our sanctification!

God does not want us to waste our time living in man’s world. He wants us to live in God’s world, vs. 2. He wants us to live in the will of God, and what is the will of God you say?

We have already mentioned it, I Thess chapter 4:

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour,

5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God

That is what I would call general sanctification. It is God’s will for every believer to be free from things like sexual immorality and sin, but how a person gets there will be different. God has personal sanctification; look at verse 4, each one of you, it’s personal.

So, we arm ourselves with the same attitude Jesus had, because that will lead to our sanctification. God is interested in making us like His Son. We won’t see perfection until we get to heaven, but we need to aim high.

 God doesn’t want us to live in man’s world; He doesn’t want us to live in a cesspool of sin, but to be a clean and useful vessel to honour Him.

 Amen

 God bless you

kk