1 Peter 4:1

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough time in our past lifetime doing the will of the Gentiles... In regard to these things, they think it strange that you don't run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. (1 Peter 4:1–6)

Because Christ suffered for us, we arm our minds to count suffering for righteousness' sake as joy—a tool God uses to sanctify, redeem, and reward.

Suffering in a Broken World

You may find it strange that we would talk about suffering on Mother's Day, but we've been going through 1 Peter together since the beginning of the year, and this whole book speaks quite a bit about the issue of suffering. None of us likes to ponder the realities of suffering. In fact, our society in the United States is structured to keep us from any form of suffering as much as possible.

But there is a lot of suffering in the world, because we live in a world broken by sin. Try as we might to avoid it, not a day goes by that we are not bombarded with the reality of human suffering—on the radio, the internet, TV. Every human being suffers because of the brokenness of sin.

Only the person who has the revelation of God in Scripture fully understands where suffering comes from. Those who don't look to Scripture have all kinds of theories, but we are given the real reason in Genesis 3: through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all humanity. There is a curse because of sin.

A Second Level of Suffering

Beyond the normal suffering of disaster, disease, and death, there is another level of suffering experienced uniquely by the follower of Jesus. It is not merely the result of a fallen world; it is the result of being a follower of Jesus. The Gospels call this suffering for righteousness' sake—suffering for doing good, for representing our King and His kingdom in a world that is contrary to Him.

We live in a nation afforded great religious liberties, so we have not been bombarded with that kind of suffering. But read church history, or look at what is happening among Christians throughout the world today, and you know it is still taking place.

This is exactly the kind of suffering Jesus experienced. This past week I spoke at a conference in Germany centered on the life and ministry of Jesus, culminating on Ascension Day. When you look at the life of Christ, the punctuated part is most certainly His suffering—a suffering that was not because of anything He had done, an unjust suffering, suffering for righteousness' sake.

This is the kind of suffering Jesus told His disciples they could expect. The closer He came to the cross, the more He spoke of it: "A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you. If they hated Me, they will hate you." Every one of His first hearers suffered for righteousness' sake. Read the book of Acts, the epistles, the early Christian histories like Foxe's Book of Martyrs. In virtually every place the gospel has gone, there has been suffering for the kingdom of God.

Christ Suffered For Us

And yet, as we see again in 1 Peter 4:1, Jesus experienced this kind of suffering for us. "Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh"—while He was here, God incarnate, He suffered for us. This is such an important truth. We need to always keep in mind that His suffering on the cross had nothing to do with His own actions or sinfulness.

The author of Hebrews says Jesus was tested in all points like we are, yet He never sinned. He suffered for my sins and for your sins on the cross. Second Corinthians 5:21 says God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. Christ's suffering was on our behalf. He suffered on account of sin—the sin of the world.

Arm Yourselves With the Same Mind

"Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind." This letter is like a basic training manual for Christians in a world that is in opposition to them. There is an enemy, the devil, who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and all the world is under the sway of that wicked one.

If you are a follower of Jesus, a representative of His kingdom, you will face opposition. Almost every New Testament author—Paul, Peter, Jude—prepares believers for this. And in this training manual, Peter says we need to arm ourselves. It's a military picture: we need the armament, the armor, to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

What mind are we to arm ourselves with? Simply this: the knowledge of the unjust suffering of Jesus for the sin of others. It's like a mental armor for our hearts and minds that we, as followers of Jesus, need to put on regularly.

The Difficulty of Unjust Suffering

We would all agree that suffering in general is hard. We don't like to suffer—even minor irritations like a common cold. America is structured so we are never irritated by discomfort. Some people even preach that if you follow Jesus you won't experience any discomfort, but that is clearly not what the Bible says when we look at passages like this.

Suffering unjustly for doing the right and good thing is exponentially more difficult than the minor irritations of life. If someone speaks against you when you did the good thing, everything in your nature wants to fight back and defend yourself. And yet Peter, inspired of God, says that's not what we are to do. We are to bear it patiently—another word we don't like in the American lexicon.

The Mindset of Jesus: Joy

To handle such unjust suffering, Peter says we need to arm ourselves with the same mindset Jesus had. What was that mindset? Turn to Hebrews 12:1–2: "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

To rejoice in painful, undeserved suffering seems completely absurd—unless we understand the nature of the joy and where it comes from. This is the mindset the follower of Jesus needs: to confront opposition and suffering with joy and rejoicing.

James 1:2 may be one of the most absurd-sounding verses in the Bible: "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials." Paul says the same in Romans 5:3, "we glory in tribulations." In 2 Corinthians 12:10, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses." In Philippians 2:17 he is "glad and rejoice" even if poured out as a sacrifice. In Colossians 1:24, "I now rejoice in my sufferings."

My natural tendency, like yours, is to stay away from any suffering and to fight injustice. We are created in the image of God, who is completely just and hates injustice, so part of our nature hates injustice. Why on earth would someone ever rejoice in suffering? Peter explains.

Point One: Suffering Is an Instrument of Sanctification

"Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." Suffering for righteousness is an instrument of sanctification—God's transforming work in the lives of His followers to make them more like Him. The sufferings of this life can have a purifying effect.

Is that really what Peter is saying? Look at James 1:2–4: "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work in you, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." How many of you would like to be complete, lacking nothing? The process begins with counting trials joy, because they produce maturity in Christ.

Romans 5:3–4 says the same: "Tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope, and hope does not disappoint." Second Corinthians 12:9 again: "My grace is sufficient for you, and My strength is made perfect in weakness... for when I am weak, then I am strong." Strength in Christ comes from the weakness of my flesh brought about through the instrument of suffering for righteousness' sake.

Suffering is not enjoyable—it's not a tool we like—but it is essential. Years ago I came home from church, tried my brother's friend's dirt bike, and ended up in the ER with road rash all over my hands. The nurse took a little scrub brush, the most hideous tool I've ever seen, and for twenty minutes scrubbed my hands while my eyes watered. It was painful, but essential to remove what would cause major problems later. Humanity has crashed and burned because of sin, and we are riddled with road rash. The tool God has chosen to remove it is suffering.

Point Two: Suffering Frees Us From the Flesh

"That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." Suffering for righteousness helps free me from the lusts of the flesh to live for the will of God. Suffering in the flesh for the sake of Christ is a crucifying, a putting to death, of my sin nature.

This is why we can rejoice—not because we are sadistic and like suffering, but because we can see through it with the mind of Christ that God is purifying us. A lot of us live as immature followers of Jesus, never fully growing, because we try to stay away from anything uncomfortable. But these trials are a tool used by God for our ultimate good.

It is like the sick child whose medication tastes bad. Sometimes, for the healing of the child, mom and dad have to restrain them while they cry and can't understand why. Our Father in heaven, watching us go through these things, no doubt has His heart pained, but He knows this is the only way to remove the carnality from my life so I can live for His will.

In the moment of suffering, our flesh wants to make excuses and deals, begging God to take it away. When He doesn't, we sometimes think we lacked faith, or the person who prayed for us lacked faith, or the oil wasn't good Israeli olive oil. No—God is sanctifying us, and the sanctifying work is painful, yet ultimately for our good. These are moments in an already very brief life. Life is short, and the longer you live it, the more you realize how short it is. We tend to fixate on a moment of suffering, turning into Eeyore, not realizing there is eternity beyond this life.

Point Three: Suffering Redeems Wasted Time

These moments of suffering also have a redeeming quality. Verse 3: "For we have spent enough time of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries."

For some of you, the second half of verse 3 is your BCR—your "Before Christ Resume." Lewdness is crude and vile behavior; lust is shameless, sinful craving; then drunkenness, endless carousing, and illicit idolatry. I meet people walking with the Lord who say, "I wasted so much time doing those things." Peter writes, we have spent enough time involved in these wicked things.

So suffering for righteousness reminds us how much time we wasted on unrighteousness. Have you ever suffered for doing something foolish? The pain of that suffering is compounded by the guilt over the foolish thing you did. But when you suffer for doing what is right, you suffer with joy and no guilt—because it is suffering for righteousness, it is sanctifying, it is redeeming the time of your past life, and it will be rewarded in eternity.

Point Four: A Purified Life Baffles Unbelievers

Verse 4: "In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you." A purified life baffles unbelievers. It confounds and confuses them. "He used to do these things with us—what happened to Joe? What happened to Dave? He doesn't drink with us anymore. He doesn't cut corners or step on people anymore. Why doesn't he do that?"

They think it's strange because you've changed. And Peter says not only do they think it's strange, but they speak evil of you.

Point Five: The Sanctified Life Invites Ridicule

Even where we enjoy great religious liberty and may not suffer beating or bloodshed, we might suffer this. And Jesus says this is persecution. In Matthew 5:11, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake." When they speak evil of you, it is persecution in the eyes of Jesus—a real form of suffering.

The sanctified life invites ridicule because it is convicting. It convicts unbelievers of their sin, of righteousness, and of coming judgment when they see the work of the Spirit in your life. You may lose a friendship or two, because the friendship was built around the lust of the flesh, and now your desire has shifted to do the will of God. One of the greatest transformations Christ works in us is this desire to follow Him in the face of opposition.

Leave Your Case With the Judge

Verse 5: "They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." Peter turns us back to eternity. You walk through this knowing it is redeeming, sanctifying, suffering for righteousness, and that it will be rewarded. And those who will not repent and turn to Christ for His forgiving grace will give an account.

That is why you don't need to take your own defense into your own hands or revile back. God will defend you; you can leave your case with Him. That is exactly what we saw with Jesus earlier in 1 Peter 2—He left His case with God the Father, trusting that God would judge righteously.

Verse 6: "For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." There is a day of judgment and a righteous Judge who will reward you openly. As Jesus says in Matthew 5, "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven."

So the Spirit, by inspiration, says: fix your focus on things above, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. God help us.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I need Your help, because my flesh, this carnal body, doesn't like to suffer and wants to do anything it can to get away from being reviled or spoken against. But Lord, I pray that You would stir us this week to walk through these things, looking to You, trusting that You will judge, trusting that You will reward, trusting that this is redeeming the past time we have wasted, and that this is sanctifying us as we suffer for righteousness' sake. And should we be called to do that, give us the ability by Your strengthening power, because we are not sufficient in ourselves—our sufficiency comes from You. And would You shine brightly in our lives to those who do not yet know You, that as they see our lives transformed before their eyes, they would want to know the God who transforms. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those who agree say, Amen.