Planning To Suffer

My preaching friend Hershael York told about a time he had gotten up early one Sunday morning to review his sermon before preaching at the historic, Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. He had risen early, showered, got dressed, and put on an old pair of comfortable shoes that he wore around the house. Like most old shoes, they had become a bit ugly over time and, for that reason, his wife hated them. In fact, she had thrown them out once, but Hershael found them and pulled them out of the trash, hiding them from her so he could wear them around the house in the mornings.

So on this particular Sunday morning, he had put on these old shoes as at other times. Later, when time came to travel to the church to preach, he had gotten his stuff together and drove to the church building. And it wasn’t until he was standing on the platform later that morning, preaching that first worship service, when he looked down and he saw he was still wearing those old, ugly shoes!

Imagine how he must have appeared, standing there in a nice, pressed suit, a starched shirt, a beautiful tie–and an old, raggedy pair of ugly shoes! The shoes didn’t match what he was wearing. They seemed out of place. They didn’t suit him. He would have looked better wearing his newer pair of shoes.

It’s like Paul’s metaphor of the Christian life being about “putting off the old;” putting off the things of the old lifestyle, and then “putting on the new;” adorning ourselves with new attitudes and behaviors in Christ (Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-13).

Peter’s teaching is similar in 1 Peter 4:1-6. He writes in verse 2 we should “no longer live the rest of our time in the flesh for the lusts of men.” In fact, he says in verse 3, “For we have spent enough of our past lifetime doing the will of the Gentiles (unbelievers).”

We’re finished with the old way of living.  And if we ever fall back to that old lifestyle, engaging in some of the behaviors of our lives before Christ, such behavior is out of place with who we now are. It’s as if we’ve gone to the trash can and dug out an old, raggedy pair of shoes that we’re trying to wear. The old doesn’t match who we now are. It just doesn’t suit us. 

Peter calls for Christians to abandon the old ways of thinking and behaving, especially when suffering for their faith. Today’s post examines just the first two verses of the passage:

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, 
2 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. (1 Peter 4:1-2)

The very first word in the passage, “Therefore,” is a gate that swings in two directions: it swings backward into the preceding passage, and forward into the following passage. This is why we often say, “When you see a ‘therefore’ in the text, ask what is the ‘therefore’ there for?” The word works like a gate that reaches backward and forward to ensure we interpret the passage contextually.

So when we “swing back” into the preceding paragraph, we recall from our previous post on 1 Peter 3:18-22 that, among other things, Peter is teaching about suffering, making the larger point that Christ suffered for doing good (1 Peter 3:17).

Peter returns now to this teaching on Christian suffering as the gate swings forward into the first verse of chapter 4: “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind” (or, the same thinking).

Arm Yourselves!

Peter is teaching Christians to prepare for suffering. We must plan to suffer for our faith, resisting the temptation to avoid suffering by going back to our former ways of thinking and living, living for ourselves and abandoning the Lord.

When you set a burglar alarm at your house or workplace, you are making certain before you leave that everything is ready when trouble comes. That’s what Peter is teaching: “Arm yourselves! Be ready when trouble comes.” 

Christians often suffer at the hands of unbelievers who “speak evil” (1 Peter 4:4) of them for not engaging in behaviors popular among non-Christians. This is why Peter challenges Christians to “arm themselves.”

The idea is something like this: “Plan to face suffering just as Christ did. Prepare to suffer for doing good, just as He did. They ridiculed Him. They will ridicule you. So arm yourselves! Don’t live for the glory of man, but for the glory of God!”

One way to “arm ourselves” for suffering is to remember what Christ did for us when He suffered.

My running friend Paul Brantley forwarded me a video clip of marathon runner Ryan Hall. When Ryan Hall ran the Boston Marathon a number of years ago, he gained the distinction of running the fastest marathon ever by an American. Ryan Hall is a committed Christian who, in the video clip, shared how he would visualize the sufferings of Christ as a motivation to keep running. Whenever he felt pain as he ran, he just remembered the pain Christ suffered for him, and it spurred him on to keep moving forward, to keep on running.

That’s similar to what Peter teaches in these verses. When you face ridicule, remember they ridiculed your Lord. Remember what He did for you, and it will motivate you to keep going.

So when you suffer for Christ, don’t be surprised, but be ready. Jesus reminded his followers they would suffer hatred just as He suffered hatred:

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

John 15:18-19

If you are a Christian, arm yourself with the same way of thinking as your Lord. 

Show others you are not living for the passing pleasures of this world, but are living for the greater glory of God.