As we continue our verse-by-verse study of 1 Peter, we recall our previous post on 1 Peter 4:1-2 where Peter challenges us to “arm ourselves” (1 Peter 4:1), preparing to suffer just as Christ suffered. In today’s post we pick up at verse 3 as we consider two more principles related to Christian persecution.
Better To Be Ridiculed Than To Live Like The World (Verses 3-4)
3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles (non-Christians)—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries
4 In regard to these (these old behaviors), they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.
Here’s a rough, 21st century application of these verses; especially verse 4: “Hey, Johnny. We’re going out drinking and partying tonight. Come run with us.” You say, “No, thank you. I’ve given my heart to Christ and I just can’t do that anymore.” Response: “Johnny, you’re an idiot. You’re a prude. You’re a hypocrite. Who do you think you are, anyway? I’ve seen the way you’ve lived in the past. Sorry you’re just too good for us–Christian!”
See what Peter says in verse 4: “In regard to these, they think it strange you do not run with them, speaking evil of you.”
When I was a parole officer, I used to counsel my parolees about their “old running buddies,” the folks they used to run with when they got into trouble. I would caution: “Don’t run with them anymore. If you run with them, they’ll run you right back into prison.”
The phrase “run with them” suggests an ongoing, frenetic, fast-paced search for pleasure. It also suggests that those who run never ultimately find what they are looking for; always disappointed and needing to “run” again. Some people live their entire lives that way, week after week, running after things that continually elude them. It reminds me of some rock lyrics popular when I was in high school:
Everybody’s workin’ for the weekend
Everybody wants a new romance
Just running week after week, living for the weekend, hoping to find pleasure, purpose, and meaning.
Does that describe you? Just living for the weekends? Looking for love in all the wrong places? Can you relate to these behaviors in verse 3: “lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties,” and so forth? Are you self-medicating with behaviors you know in your heart are wrong?
Hear again what Peter says to Christians who used to live that way: “We have spent enough of our past lifetime doing the will of the Gentiles (non-Christians).” That is, “We’ve spent enough of our past lifetime living in ungodly ways.”
Whether you lived a long time that way or you came to know Christ as a young person, Peter says, “It is enough!” You needn’t wonder whether you missed anything. Long time or short, it is enough. You’re living differently now.
People will ridicule you for living for Christ, especially those you knew before you really started living for Jesus. Consider the New Living Translation of this verse:
“Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.”
When I was in high school I was in the marching band and the first year I was in band camp, they taught us about marching in-step. You have to be in-step with everyone else; marching to the same tune. The person to your left put his left foot first, and you did the same. This way, everybody is in-step. If you’re not paying attention, or dancing to a different tune, then you’re out-of-step with everyone else, and it looks funny.
Here’s the thing: in the Christian life, It’s okay to be out of step with the world.
It’s okay to be out of step with the culture. It’s okay to swim against the tide; to go against the flow; to stand for Christ against the world. That is, in fact, what we are to be doing.
Many in the church of today are trying desperately to be “in step” with the culture; so much so that many modern churches look more and more like the world and less and less like the Lord. Especially in Western culture it seems many contemporary churches are doing their best to mimic the things of the world. Consequently, they are producing professing Christians who really don’t look or act very differently from non-Christians.
In these cases, Peter’s statement in verse 4–“They think it strange you do not run with them”–doesn’t really apply. After all, who thinks these Christians and their churches are different from the world? Or, who finds these Christians and their churches strange in the way they live? Answer: Very few, because they really are no different from the world.
We are to stand for Christ against the world, not in a high and mighty, arrogant way, but with loving conviction. And when you do that, be ready to suffer ridicule. They will–last part of verse 4–“speak evil of you.”
Watch what happens when you take a stand for Christ. Watch what happens when you share with worldly people that you believe sex outside of marriage is wrong. Share your biblical convictions about the sinful, destructive nature of adultery, or homosexuality, and be prepared to suffer ridicule. Share your conviction about Christ being the only way to heaven and be prepared to suffer ridicule. In fact, take a stand against any sin and be ready to suffer for doing good. Peter says, “They will speak evil against you; they will slander you, Christian.”
Just why do they slander you? Ever thought about it? Why do non-Christians speak evil, or slander, or, as the NIV puts it, “heap abuse on you” when you refuse to run with them?
“Why…? No doubt because silent, non-participation in sin often implies condemnation of that sin, and rather than change their ways unbelievers will slander those who have pained their consciences, or justify their own immorality by spreading rumors that the ‘righteous’ Christians are immoral as well.”
Wayne Grudem, 1 Peter
In other words, when a lost person stands in the light, he sees his own dirt. It’s convicting. So rather than repent, it’s easier for the unbeliever to heap abuse on the one whose righteous living condemns him. It’s easier to ridicule others than face up to our own sin.
But watch this: Peter says that unbelievers cannot escape responsibility for their actions. A day of judgment is coming:
They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:5)
Judgment Day is coming. God will judge both living and the dead. That’s a way of saying, “No one escapes the judgment.” You can’t escape judgment by dying. Death will allow no unbeliever to escape judgment. Unbelievers will give an accounting to Him who is ready to judge everyone; the living and the dead. All people will one day stand before their Creator to face the judgment.
Peter mentions this judgment to encourage Christians who face ridicule for living for the Lord.
Look To The Future When All Is Made Right (Verses 5-6)
You may suffer now. You may face ridicule today, but look to the future when all is made right. Judgment Day is coming and those who ridicule you will one day face their Creator. So leave your suffering in God’s hands.
This is similar to what Peter wrote back in chapter 2, about Christ’s suffering for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps: “when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously (1 Peter 2:21-23).”
So when others ridicule you–and it seems like they’re getting away with murder–remember they’re not getting away with it. Leave it to God. Put it in God’s hands.
Look to the future when all is made right: God will judge the living and the dead.
Then in verse 6, Peter encourages the Christian to remember his or her own future:
For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead (those who believed in Christ and later died), that they might be judged according to men in the flesh (that is, Christians will die just as non-Christians), but live according to God in the spirit. (1 Peter 4:6)
Here’s a paraphrase of verse 6: “The gospel was preached to Christians who have since died so that they would be saved them from eternal judgment.”
Even though Christians will experience physical death (“judged according to men in the flesh”), they will “live according to God in the spirit.” That is, Christians will live on; they will continue living in the spirit,” and they will be saved from eternal judgment.
Christian: it’s okay to be ridiculed for being out of step with the world. Look to the future when all is made right!
The Apostle Paul agrees: “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).”
So keep on marching out of step.
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