1 Peter 4

V1. The first verse of this chapter is directly connected to what is previously said. You can derive that from the word “therefore”. That word makes clear that a conclusion follows. When Christ was on earth He “suffered in the flesh”. That does not refer to His work on the cross, but to His life in the midst of people who were hostile to God, how religious as they may have been. He did not give in to their carnal desires and in no way He could be tempted to sin. The will of God was decisive for His life and to Him He entrusted Himself. The result of that was that He had to endure sufferings. He suffered because He was fully focused on God and did not want to have anything to do with sin. He did not want to do anything independently from His God. You must arm yourself with the same purpose.

The appeal to arm yourself proves that there is a battle to be fought. If you want to win the battle in the same way the Lord Jesus has won, you must arm yourself. The weapon is not a material weapon, but it consists of a purpose or a mind (Darby Translation). The content of that purpose or mind is Christ and that He has suffered in the flesh. If you are tempted to sin, then you should take out this weapon: the mind that Christ has suffered in the flesh. He has suffered and He has endured and has overcome.

The essence of this mind is that Christ has endured the suffering in the flesh, because He lived in the full confidence of His Father in doing His will. Satan tempted Him by offering Him the kingdom without having to suffer for it (Mt 4:8-10). Men have tempted Him by trying to make Him King without Him having to suffer for it (Jn 6:15). The Lord has rejected each temptation and chose to suffer because this was God’s way to glory.

One who resembles the Lord Jesus in this is Joseph. Joseph also suffered because he did not want to have any part in sin. He was not willing to cooperate with the sins of his brothers and he neither wanted to cooperate with the sin that Potiphar’s wife wanted to commit with him (Gen 37:2b; 39:9). Due to that he suffered in the same way as the Lord Jesus for the sake of righteousness. You are to arm yourself with the same mind, meaning that you choose to suffer instead of sinning.

The point is that you do not give in to sin, what the world continually seeks to tempt you to. If you suffer in the flesh, that is in the body, it is clear that you have dealt with sin and that you do not surrender to it. When you do surrender to it you do not suffer. Enjoying sin in not suffering. You can choose to enjoy sin (Heb 11:25), but you must consider that it is a passing pleasure that has a bitter and often permanent after taste. Christ did not have anything to do with sin and due to that He suffered. The same goes for you, who follows Him, as you have confessed, as I hope, with your baptism.

V2. With your conversion and baptism “the rest of the time” has come to live “for the will of God”. You have thrown away enough time in the past by trying to fulfill your lusts. May I ask you how you spend your time now in contrast to the past? It cannot be the case that you just go on to excessively consume movies and other kinds of entertainment, can it? You should have ceased being obsessed with sports and recreation together with the world, shouldn’t you? You are not continually occupied anymore with making your house more and more comfortable, are you?

It is not always about things that are wrong in themselves. The point is that these things determine the life of people who do not consider the will of God, but live after their own desires.

V3. You also belonged to those people in the past and you also lived the way they do. That must have changed when you turned to God and surrendered yourself to the Lord Jesus, hasn’t it? Since then your life has had a totally different principle and a totally different content and a totally different purpose. If that is reality for you, it will be seen by a real change in using your time.

For you have spent enough of your past lifetime in carrying out “the desire of the Gentiles”. Away with that! That time is over! Peter reminds us of that time. Sometimes it is necessary and useful to be reminded of the past. That is not to blame you again for your sins, but to show you from what you have been redeemed, from what kind of a horrible pit you were saved. It will help you to increase in gratefulness toward God and in your dedication to the Lord Jesus.

Just look at the desire of the Gentiles, what they want, and compare that to the will of God, what He has planned for you. The Gentiles live in total rebellion against God and they fully follow their own desires in which they satisfy their lusts in the most perverted way. They do not allow anyone to tell them to do anything and they swallow all unrighteousness like water. They surrender themselves to everything that can satisfy the physical and spiritual needs. Thereby they spare no one and also give up the health of their own body. Unlimited sex, uncontrollably consuming food and drink and a total surrender to demons are the ingredients of this life of debauchery.

V4. They are surprised that you do not join them in “the same excesses of dissipation”. Your new conduct is strange and incomprehensible for those who used to be your friends in the past. Because you do not have part in their dealings anymore, they will talk all kinds of evil about you. They do not understand that God takes care of you. If you have received something they may for instance talk around that you have stolen it. Do not mind about that at all and do not worry about it.

V5. You can surrender it to Him Who judges righteously (1Pet 2:23). He is ready to “judge the living and the dead”. The judgment on the living will be carried out by the Lord Jesus when He comes to establish His kingdom (Mt 25:31). He will carry out the judgment on the dead between the end of the millennial kingdom of peace and the beginning of eternity (Rev 20:11). Both the dead and the living will have to “give account” to Him with Whom they did not want to have anything to do and they therefore mocked, persecuted and slandered those who confessed Him.

V6. With a view to that judgment a joyful message was already proclaimed in the past. The Scripture calls that the “everlasting gospel” (Rev 14:6-7). The content of that gospel is that each one who acknowledged himself guilty before God and accepted God’s judgment over his life as a man in flesh as just, was made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit. So through all ages it has been the Holy Spirit Who gives life and in that way enables us to partake of the risen Christ and His future. This is an encouragement for the believers to whom Peter writes and it is also an encouragement for you who also has accepted the gospel, though it is both for those and for you in its richer form: the gospel of grace.

In verse 5 you have read that the Lord Jesus is ready to come and judge all ungodliness (cf. Jam 5:9). That means that the end of all things is near. That is already the situation when Peter writes this letter. How much more does that apply to the time we live in. That it still has not come, is due to the patience of God, Who does not wish for any to perish (2Pet 3:9).

V7. When you think of the end that is near, it may encourage you. It will not last long anymore and then all boasting of man will cease. Also everything, in which a man may put his hope, will come to an end. Hereby you may think of his self-made religion with his self-shaped imaged of God. Materialism and spiritualism will be judged at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Then also all slandering, mocking and persecution will come to an end for those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus.

When the Lord Jesus comes and when He has judged all unrighteousness, the millennial kingdom of peace can begin. If you focus on that, it will give you strength to bear and to endure what otherwise you are not able to bear and endure. Don’t be rushed by the delusion of the day, which would lead you to act wrongly.

“Be of sound judgment”, respond calmly and thoughtfully. Let yourself be led by God’s Word. Keep your eyes fixed on the coming of the Lord. Then you will be able to see all things around you in its true perspective.

Be of “sober [spirit]” too, meaning that you do not allow the spirit of the age to cloud your view, but keep it pure. See everything that comes toward you in the light of God and of the future, so that you may see the things as they really are and not as they seem to present themselves to you. That watchfulness does not make you overconfident, but it leads you to “pray”. The real awareness that you live in the end time will lead you to a deep dependence on God.

V8. After having presented the relationship with God like that, attention is now paid to the relationship of Christians to one another. What is important “above all”, is that they have “fervent … love for one another”. A true and firm relationship among Christians is especially noticeable by the interest in one another. Then you also get to know each other in terms of both strengths and weaknesses.

In the end time it is more than ever important that the company of believers meet and encourages one another (Heb 10:24-25). True love seeks what benefits the other. Then one does not dig up the weaknesses and sins (Pro 16:27a), but on the contrary, covers them (Pro 10:12). Seeing other people’s mistakes and enlarging on them is not the love of the Lord. He does not see sins anymore in those who are His, but He covers them with His love.

That does not mean that you should not call evil by its name. It certainly does mean that sin is to be judged as soon as possible and after that there is also forgiveness. Love cannot live with sin. If a brother commits a sin, love will do everything to convince him of it so that the sin can be confessed and put away (Mt 18:15). The devil will always try to cause disharmony among believers, often by using small matters. He will not succeed if we have fervent love for one another.

V9. That love will also be expressed by being “hospitable”. This includes not only your friends, but precisely people who you do not know. ‘Hospitality’ literally means ‘love for strangers’. If a believer, whom you do not know, comes to you, you not only ought to offer him a meal, but also a home. Let him feel to be welcome and that your whole house is available to him. That doesn’t mean that you should be naive, but that you must have such an attitude.

It is also for a reason that Peter adds to it that you must do it without complaint, for that can easily happen. An unexpected guest can disturb your program considerably. You may find it also awkward because you may just have cleaned up and put everything in the right order and now have to pull out all sorts of things for that strange guest. And not to mention the costs that this visit may possibly bring. Therefore, take this word to heart and do not complain or even calculate, but show an abundance of hospitality. Invite one another, receive one another and serve one another.

Now read 1 Peter 4:1-9 again.

Reflection: What is the most important thing in the end of times?

V10. The Lord has given something to each one to serve the other. With your gift you can serve those, who are the most important people on earth to God: the companionship of believers. What is given to you to be able to do that, is called “a [special] gift” as a grace of God. Grace plays a major role in this letter. The Lord wants to use His own to pass on His grace to His own.

You are able to pass on the grace that you have received to other believers. The Lord has distributed the gifts in such a way that you are able to serve all believers and that you can be served by all believers. Therefore you are not supposed to keep the gift that you have received, for yourself, but to pass it on. Your gift is not given to you for your own pleasure or for your own honor or importance, but it ought to be useful and for the joy of the other. In that way there is an interaction between the believers. Each of the believers is a gift to all others (Eph 4:7).

If you do with the gift you have received from the Lord what the Lord wants you to do with it, you are a ‘good steward’. A steward is someone who manages something that belongs to another person. What you have received belongs to the Lord and He expects you to be faithful in making use of it (1Cor 4:1-5). He will once ask you to account for your use of it (cf. Lk 16:1-13).

What God has given of His grace is “manifold”. Hereby you should think of a multitude of proofs of grace. Haven’t you already experienced in your life how much grace you have received? Has the Lord not often used brothers and sisters for that too?

Just think about all you owe to your brothers and sisters and thank God for arranging it this way. Have you not often been richly blessed at the gatherings and have the meetings in the homes not often been encouraging for you?

The fact the God has arranged things like that at the same time makes clear that a ‘one-man-ministry’ in the church is not according to His will. God did not concentrate all gifts in one person, but He gave a great diversity of gifts. Thereby He for instance gives to one the word of wisdom and to another the word of knowledge (1Cor 12:8-10).

V11. The gifts are divided in two main categories by Peter. The one category is ‘speaking’, the other category is ‘serving’ (cf. Acts 6:2-4). First he deals with ‘speaking’. What an encouraging and edifying effect can words have on you! Speaking to edify especially happens in the meeting. Of course it should be speaking “the utterances of God” and not giving one’s own opinion on certain things. It should undoubtedly be in accordance with God’s Word, but it should also be according to God’s will that it is said at the right time.

If it happens like that in the meeting it will be a great blessing of all attendants. Each attendant will feel himself personally addressed. That may imply that you are edified or exhorted or consoled by what is said (1Cor 14:3). It is just what you need, and God, Who guides the speaker by His Spirit in speaking ‘the oracles of God’, knows that. That, however, doesn’t elevate the speaker above criticism, for he remains in himself a fallible person. Therefore, everything that has been said must be tested whether it is according to God’s Word (1Cor 14:29).

‘Serving’ is distinguished from ‘speaking’. ‘Serving’ regards to the sharing with others of the material goods. We can all serve others with the means we have. That must happen with sincere motives and not for attaining a good reputation. It should not be to one’s own honor, but to God’s honor. Therefore God has to give the power to do it, He has to work it in your heart.

If you are open to the will of God in both your speaking and your serving, He will make clear to you what you should say or do. He gives the gifts and also the power to use those gifts. He first gives you an order to do something and then He gives you everything you need to execute that order. It is a service that in no way can happen in one’s own power, in the power of the flesh. Only then it can happen to the glory of God. The Lord Jesus is the One through Whom you are capable to do everything to God’s glory. He will give the power for that forever and ever.

V12. Peter comes back to suffering. By addressing his readers as “beloved”, he makes them feel his warm love. With this word “beloved” he certainly does not only indicate his own love, but he also means by that, that they are beloved of God. They may have been doubting about that because of the persecution they have to endure.

There is another warmth besides the warmth of love. That warmth is more of a heat. It is the “fiery ordeal” of the persecution that they are experiencing in their midst. The enemy wants to intimidate them and wants to bring them to deny the Lord Jesus as the glorified Lord. That persecution can cause them to start doubting the love of God. However, the suffering that comes in their midst, they should not see as something that accidentally happens to them and less as something that God sends to make their life miserable.

If people light a fire, it destroys everything that it comes into contact with. If God lights a fire, He also controls it so that it comes into contact only with what He allows to burn. The fire in which the three friends of Daniel found themselves, chose, under the guiding hand of God, only the ropes of the three friends, while it did not affect the other parts of their body; not one hair of their head was singed (Dan 3:24-27).

The fire is used by God to test the believer. The test of your faith is necessary because it purifies your faith from the elements that may cloud the faith in one way or another. Faith is clouded by, for instance, still trusting in your own power or by thinking that you need to fulfil certain conditions to gain God’s favor. That all has to be removed, for you must learn to unconditionally trust in God alone.

The idea that as soon as a person comes to faith, all difficulties and worries belong to the past, is a serious misconception. The gospel is not a success formula for a life without problems. False evangelists may want you to believe that by accepting the gospel you will be healthy and wealthy and that you will gain prosperity and a good reputation. Those are liars, who bring a message that they themselves invented. If you believe such foolishness you will surely find it strange that you as a believer still have to face suffering.

The reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is different. If you believe in it and you desire to live in that faith, you will on the contrary have to do with sufferings. Such a life identifies you with Christ. And what was His part on earth? It was nothing more than suffering, was it?

V13. Peter is encouraging you. Instead of being discouraged by suffering that is your portion because of your relationship with Christ, you may rejoice in it. You may “share the sufferings of Christ”, which of course refers only to the sufferings inflicted on Him by human beings and not to the sufferings for the atonement of sins. Sharing the sufferings of Christ, meaning going through something of which you know He also went through, gives a deeply inward joy (Acts 5:41; Lk 6:22-23). Paul very much wanted to share the sufferings of Christ (Phil 3:10) because he wanted to be like Christ as much as he possibly could. The more you share the sufferings of Christ the deeper you can rejoice in the joy of it now already.

This joy will extend to “rejoice with exultation” when the Lord Jesus comes in His glory. Then He will reveal Himself and will be seen by all (Rev 1:7). They will be present at that time and accompany Him with exceeding joy. The situation will be completely changed. From suffering Christians they will be changed to glorified Christians. The joy of the sufferings has not been changed, but it has been expanded to an expression of a joy tempered by nothing. It’s an exuberant expression of joy. The time of suffering is over. The time of singing has arrived (Song 2:11-12). The glory has come in the Person of Jesus Christ Who reveals Himself to the world as the Victor.

Now read 1 Peter 4:10-13 again.

Reflection: How could you serve to others and be served by others?

V14. The glory that is spoken about in verse 13 has not yet come. At present you may still be reviled “for the name of Christ”. It is the same suffering as the suffering that is called ‘Christ’s sufferings’ in the previous verse, but with another emphasis. There the emphasis is more on the suffering itself; it is a suffering that also Christ has endured for doing the will of God. It is the portion of each who follows Him. With the suffering ‘for the name of Christ’ the emphasis is more on the relationship with Himself.

To be reviled for His Name is a suffering that is a direct consequence of coming out for His Name in word and in deed. The world sees in the believer the representative of Christ, Who Himself, when He was here, was the great Representative of God. Due to that He experienced: “The reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me” (Psa 69:9). To Him it was no disgrace and that goes also for you if you are reproached for His Name. Peter even says “you are blessed” if that happens.

The suffering of Christ and the suffering for the Name of Christ are an exceptional way of the revelation of “the Spirit of glory and of God”. In the suffering you experience that the Spirit brings you in your inner being into contact with ‘the glory’ that is His home. He is also the Spirit ‘of God’, the Spirit Who gives you the awareness of God’s full interest and support in the suffering you find yourself in.

That is without a doubt a wonderful encouragement to endure this suffering with joy. You go through an unprecedented experience of God’s presence that others will also notice, for that Spirit “rests on you” (cf. Acts 6:15). While you’re enduring suffering on earth, you possess something that comes from the glory which connects you to it. You not only have a promise of a coming glory, but you have Him Who belongs there.

I have read the biography of a Chinese church leader who had spent twenty years in detention barracks, because of his faith in the Lord Jesus. In that book he speaks all the time about God as ‘the Present One’. To him the presence of God and His Spirit was an almost tangible reality in the midst of the suffering. They were ‘present’, he knew he was in Their presence. That gave him the strength to do the hard forced labor and to testify of his Lord and Savior toward his fellow prisoners.

V15. After presenting the privileges of suffering because of the relationship with Christ, Peter warns of a form of suffering that should not happen to you. That form of suffering is the suffering because of the sins you committed. Peter mentions some of them. The “murderer, or thief, or evildoer” are people who take or damage the life or possessions of other people (materially or spiritually).

The “troublesome meddler” doesn’t seem to fit in this list, but Peter still puts him next to these other crystal clear sins. The troublesome meddler is someone who meddles unasked in other people’s affairs. Meddling limits the room for others, it takes away the freedom of others to act according to what the Lord makes clear. The busybody is doing a work of which the devastating effects often become visible in the longer term. The world has no appreciation for it, like it has not for the other three sins. It is shameful if a person, who calls himself a Christian, has to endure such suffering.

V16. However, a person may suffer because he really behaves as a Christian, after the meaning of the name ‘Christian’. That is because he shows the features of Him to Whom the name ‘Christian’ refers, that is Christ. The name ‘Christian’ appears only here and two times in the book of Acts (Acts 11:26; 26:28). In both verses in the book of Acts the name is used by unbelievers who refer to those who testify of their faith in Christ. Therefore it is the world that came up with that name. By what Peter writes here we see that the Spirit acknowledges this name formally.

A Christian is therefore a true follower of Christ. If you suffer “as a Christian”, that is, because you are known as a follower of Christ and act as such, you need not be ashamed of it. On the contrary, you are allowed “to glorify God in this name”. Christ has always suffered for the Name of God and glorified Him therein. You are allowed to imitate Him in this. That is a great privilege.

V17. There is another reason why God uses the suffering of the persecution on behalf of His own. The time for judgment on the world is still to come. Peter speaks about that in his second letter. We will see that when we read and examine that letter together. In this first letter it is about God’s reign over His children. Therefore Peter speaks now about God’s judgment on His house, which is the church, but seen as a whole that consists of all believers who are held responsible for their behavior.

That you are a member of the church is not only a privilege, but also a great responsibility. That is what this is about. This responsibility is greater than that of the world. The church as the people of God and the house of God, as a matter of fact, confesses to know God and to obey Him. Therefore God’s judgment has to begin here before He judges the world (cf. Jer 25:29; Eze 9:6).

God first judges what is the closest to Him, what is most responsible (Lev 10:3; Amos 3:2) to remove what is not according to His will. He wants that the wrong should be confessed and removed. For that reason He uses the world in its persecution of His own. Therefore persecution is besides a test of faith also a speaking of God to the conscience of His people. He wants to bring His own to have the same judgment as He has. That will cause them to judge what He judges, so that they may not be judged with the world (1Cor 11:31-32).

By speaking about “us” Peter puts himself under the judgment that God executes on His house. “For [it is] time” for that judgment while the church is still on earth. To the unbeliever the time has not come yet to be judged, but that will happen in future (Pro 11:31). The execution of God’s judgment on the world contains a serious warning for us not to be absorbed in the world. The judgment on the world is still to come and it will be terrible and definite. There will be no way to escape.

V18. You are a righteous one and look what an effort God is making to bring you saved to the final goal. In the midst of all trials He continues His work in you. He guards you from falling away and from sliding into the world and He purifies your faith, so that you continue to respond to Who He is. Therefore “difficulty” here is with regard to all efforts of God to lead you safely through all dangers to finally give you the inheritance that He reserved for you (1Pet 1:4-5). That is a great encouragement.

To the world it is a great warning. That is embedded in the question “what will become of the godless man and the sinner”, that is, those who live without God and only for themselves. The answer to that question is: they will appear before the great white throne to be judged there according to their deeds (Rev 20:11-15).

V19. If you are aware of the previous you will be able to understand the admonition to, if you are suffering to God’s will, entrust your soul “to a faithful Creator”. You will surely not think of escaping the suffering by adapting yourself to the world and entrust your soul to it. The world, consisting of godless men and sinners, rushes toward judgment. Therefore it is not wise to take refuge in the world to escape suffering. You rush toward the inheritance. Then remember that the degree of suffering is the basis for the joy you will have when you may take possession of the inheritance at the revelation of the glory of Christ (verse 13).

The “faithful Creator”, your Maker, He Who completely knows you and knows how you feel, leads everything to the goal for which He has created all things. He is faithful and will achieve His goal with the world, with the inheritance and with you. On the way to His goal you are allowed, by doing good, to show that you have entrusted your whole life to Him. You do not seek to adapt yourself to the world, but you neither rejoice in the judgment that will come on the world. As long as you are here you may seek good for the people of the world, so that, in doing what is right many more will get to know Him on behalf of Whom you are working.

Now read 1 Peter 4:14-19 again.

Reflection: What does your suffering as a Christian consist of?