I peter 4 1 10 commentary

I PETER 4 1-10 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Living for God
1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm
yourselves also with the same attitude, because he
who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
BAR ES, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh - Since
he as a man has died for us. See the notes at 1Pe_3:18. The design was to set the
suffering Redeemer before them as an example in their trials.
Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind - That is, evidently, the same
mind that he evinced - a readiness to suffer in the cause of religion, a readiness to die as
he had done. This readiness to suffer and die, the apostle speaks of as armour, and
having this is represented as being armed. Armour is put on for offensive or defensive
purposes in war; and the idea of the apostle here is, that that state of mind when we are
ready to meet with persecution and trial, and when we are ready to die, will answer the
purpose of armour in engaging in the conflicts and strifes which pertain to us as
Christians, and especially in meeting with persecutions and trials. We are to put on the
same fortitude which the Lord Jesus had, and this will be the best defense against our
foes, and the best security of victory.
For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin - Compare the notes
at Rom_6:7. To “suffer in the flesh” is to die. The expression here has a proverbial
aspect, and seems to have meant something like this: “when a man is dead, he will sin no
more;” referring of course to the present life. So if a Christian becomes dead in a moral
sense - dead to this world, dead by being crucified with Christ (see the notes at Gal_
2:20) - he may be expected to cease from sin. The reasoning is based on the idea that
there is such a union between Christ and the believer that his death on the cross secured
the death of the believer to the world. Compare 2Ti_2:11; Col_2:20; Col_3:3.
CLARKE, “As Christ hath suffered - He is your proper pattern; have the same
disposition he had; the same forgiving spirit, with meekness, gentleness, and complete
self-possession.
He that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin - This is a general
maxim, if understood literally: The man who suffers generally reflects on his ways, is
humbled, fears approaching death, loathes himself because of his past iniquities, and
ceases from them; for, in a state of suffering, the mind loses its relish for the sins of the
flesh, because they are embittered to him through the apprehension which he has of
death and judgment; and, on his application to God’s mercy, he is delivered from his sin.
Some suppose the words are to be understood thus: “Those who have firmly resolved, if
called to it, to suffer death rather than apostatize from Christianity, have consequently

ceased from, or are delivered from, the sin of saving their lives at the expense of their
faith.” Others think that it is a parallel passage to Rom_6:7, and interpret it thus: “He
that hath mortified the flesh, hath ceased from sin.” Dr. Bentley applies the whole to our
redemption by Christ: He that hath suffered in the flesh hath died for our sins. But this
seems a very constrained sense.
GILL, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh..... The
apostle having finished his digression concerning Christ's preaching in the ministry of
Noah, to men whose spirits were now in prison, and concerning the salvation of Noah's
family in the ark, by water, and concerning its antitype, baptism, its nature and effect,
returns to the sufferings of Christ he had before made mention of; and argues from
thence to holiness of life, and patience in sufferings, after this manner; seeing then
Christ, the eternal Son of God, the Lord of glory, the holy and Just One, suffered such
indignities, reproaches, and persecutions from men, the wrath of God, the curses of the
law, and death itself; and that not for himself, nor for angels, but for men, and those not
all men, otherwise his death, with respect to some, must be in vain; but for a particular
number of men, in distinction from others, described in the beginning of this epistle, as
elect, according to the foreknowledge of God; and these sufferings he endured in the
room and stead of those persons, in the days of his flesh, while here on earth, and in his
human nature, both soul and body, and was crucified through the weakness of his flesh,
and for the sins of our flesh, and which he bore in his own:
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; that was in Christ; as he suffered
for you, do ye likewise suffer for him, in his cause, for righteousness sake, for the sake of
him and his Gospel; and bear all reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions on his
account, willingly and cheerfully, with meekness and patience, as he did, and with the
same view; not indeed to make satisfaction for sin, which was his principal design, but
that being dead unto sin, you might live unto righteousness. The apostle speaks to the
saints, in this exhortation, as to soldiers, and who had many enemies to engage with, and
therefore should put on their armour, and be in a readiness to meet any attack upon
them:
for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin: meaning either
Christ, who having suffered in human nature for the sins of his people, whereby he has
made satisfaction for them, is now clear of them; the sins that were imputed to him
being took and bore away, finished and made an end of, and he justified from them, and
freed from all the effects of them, and punishment for them, as from all the infirmities of
human nature, from mortality and death: or the person that has suffered in and with
Christ, his head and representative, which is all one as if he had suffered himself, in
person; by virtue of which his sin ceases, and he ceases from being chargeable with it, as
if he had never sinned; which is the case of every criminal, when he has suffered the
penalty of the law for his crime: or else the person that is dead to sin, by virtue of the
death of Christ, and, in imitation of it, who has been baptized into Christ's death, and
planted in the likeness of it; whose old man is crucified with Christ, and he is dead with
him; who has crucified the affections with the lusts, and through the Spirit has mortified
the deeds of the body; which way the generality of interpreters go: such a man has
ceased from sin; not from the being and indwelling of it in him; nor from the burden of it
on him; nor from a continual war with it in him; nor from slips and falls by it, and into
it; no, nor from it in the most solemn and religious services; but as from the guilt of it,
and obligation to punishment by it, through the death of Christ; so from the servitude

and dominion of it, through the power of divine grace, in consequence of Christ's death:
or rather, the believer that suffers death in his body, for the sake of Christ, such an one
immediately ceases from the very being of sin, and all commission of it; he becomes at
once perfectly pure and holy, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; and a noble
argument this is to meet death without fear, and to suffer it cheerfully and willingly,
since the consequence of this will be an entire freedom from sin, than which nothing can
be more desirable by a believer: to this agrees the Syriac version, which renders the
words thus: "for whoever is dead in his body hath ceased from all sins"; but the Arabic
version more fully confirms this sense, and is the best version of the text, and is this; "be
ye armed with this (same) thought, that (not for) he that hath suffered in the flesh hath
ceased from sin"; that is, fortify your minds against all the fears of sufferings, and of
death, for the sake of Christ, with this single thought; that he that has suffered
martyrdom for Christ, in his body, or has suffered death for his sake, or dies in the Lord,
is free from sin, and so from sorrow, and is the most happy person imaginable; so that
this last clause is not a reason of the former, but points out, and is explanative of what
that same mind or thought is Christians should arm themselves with, against the fears of
death; and it is the best piece of armour for this service, a saint can make use of.
HE RY, “The apostle here draws a new inference from the consideration of Christ's
sufferings. As he had before made use of it to persuade to patience in suffering, so here
to mortification of sin. Observe,
I. How the exhortation is expressed. The antecedent or supposition is that Christ had
suffered for us in the flesh, or in his human nature. The consequent or inference is,
“Arm and fortify yourselves likewise with the same mind, courage, and resolution.”
The word flesh in the former part of the verse signifies Christ's human nature, but in
the latter part it signifies man's corrupt nature. So the sense is, “As Christ suffered in
his human nature, do you, according to your baptismal vow and profession, make
your corrupt nature suffer, by putting to death the body of sin by self-denial and
mortification; for, if you do not thus suffer, you will be conformable to Christ in his
death and resurrection, and will cease from sin.” Learn, 1. Some of the strongest and
best arguments against all sorts of sin are taken from the sufferings of Christ. All
sympathy and tenderness for Christ as a sufferer are lost of you do not put away sin.
He dies to destroy it; and, though he could cheerfully submit to the worst sufferings,
yet he could never submit to the least sin. 2. The beginning of all true mortification
lies in the mind, not in penances and hardships upon the body. The mind of man is
carnal, full of enmity; the understanding is darkened, being alienated from the life of
God, Eph_4:18. Man is not a sincere creature, but partial, blind, and wicked, till he
be renewed and sanctifies by the regenerating grace of God.
JAMISO , “1Pe_4:1-19. Like the risen Christ, believers henceforth ought to have no
more to do with sin.
As the end is near, cultivate self-restraint, watchful prayerfulness, charity,
hospitality, scriptural speech, ministering to one another according to your several
gifts to the glory of God: Rejoicing patience under suffering.
for us — supported by some oldest manuscripts and versions, omitted by others.
in the flesh — in His mortal body of humiliation.
arm — (Eph_6:11, Eph_6:13).
the same mind — of suffering with patient willingness what God wills you to suffer.
he that hath suffered — for instance, Christ first, and in His person the believer: a
general proposition.

hath ceased — literally, “has been made to cease,” has obtained by the very fact of His
having suffered once for all, a cessation from sin, which had heretofore lain on Him
(Rom_6:6-11, especially, 1Pe_4:7). The Christian is by faith one with Christ: as then
Christ by death is judicially freed from sin; so the Christian who has in the person of
Christ died, has no more to do with it judicially, and ought to have no more to do with it
actually. “The flesh” is the sphere in which sin has place.
CALVI , “1Forasmuch then as Christ When he had before set forth Christ before us, he only
spoke of the suffering of the cross; for sometimes the cross means mortification, because the outward
man is wasted by afflictions, and our flesh is also subdued. But he now ascends higher; for he speaks
of the reformation of the whole man. The ScriptureRECOMMENDS to us a twofold likeness to the
death of Christ, that we are to be conformed to him in reproaches and troubles, and also that the old
man being dead and extinct in us, we are to be renewed to a spiritual life. (Philippians 3:10
; Romans 6:4 .) Yet Christ is not simply to be viewed as our example, when we speak of the
mortificaion of the flesh; but it is by his Spirit that we are really made conformable to his death, so that
it becomes effectual to the crucifying of our flesh. InSHORT , as Peter at the end of the last chapter
exhorted us to patience after the example of Christ, because death was to him a passage to life; so
now from the same death he deduces a higher doctrine, that we ought to die to the flesh and to the
world, as Paul teaches us more at large in Romans 6:1 . He therefore says, arm yourselves, or be ye
armed,intimating that we are really and effectually supplied with invincible weapons to subdue the
flesh, if we partake as we ought of the efficacy of Christ’s death.
For he that hath suffered The particle ὅτι does not, I think, denote here the cause, but is to be taken
as explanatory; for Peter sets forth what that thought or mind is with which Christ’s death arms us,
even that the dominion of sin ought to be abolished in us, so that God may reign in our life. Erasmus
hasINCORRECTLY , as I think, rendered the word “he who did suffer,” (patiebatur )
APPLYING it to Christ. For it is an indefinite sentence, which generally extends to all the godly,
and has the same meaning with the words of Paul in Romans 6:7 ,
“He who is dead is justified or freed from sin;”
for both the Apostles intimate, that when we become dead to the flesh, we have no more to do with
sin, that it should reign in us, and exercise its power in our life. (44)
It may, however, be objected, that Peter here speaks unsuitably in making us to be conformable to
Christ in this respect, that we suffer in the flesh; for it is certain that there was nothing sinful in Christ
which required to beCORRECTED . But the answer is obvious, that it is not necessary that a
comparison should correspond in all its parts. It is then enough that we should in a measure be made
conformable to the death of Christ. In the same way is also explained, not unfitly, what Paul says, that
we are planted in the likeness of his death, (Romans 6:5 ;) for the manner is not altogether the
same, but that his death is become in a manner the type and pattern of our mortification.
We must also notice that the word flesh is put here twice, but in a different sense; for when he says
that Christ suffered in the flesh, he means that the human nature which Christ had taken from us was
made subject to death, that is, that Christ as a man naturally died. In the second clause, which refers
to us, flesh means the corruption, and the sinfulness of our nature; and thus suffering in the flesh
signifies theDENYING of ourselves. We now see what is the likeness between Christ and us, and
what is the difference; that as he suffered in the flesh taken from us, so the whole of our flesh ought to
be crucified.
1.“Christ then having suffered for us in the flesh, arm ye also yourselves with the same mind, (for he
who suffered in the flesh ceased from sin;)
2.so as to live no longer the remaining time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
They were exhorted to resolve to follow the example of Christ, but in such a way as not to suffer for
their sins, but for righteousness’ sake. It is implied that they had been evil-doers, but they were no
longer to be so, otherwise their suffering in the flesh would not be like that of Christ. To suffer as well-

doers, and not as evil-doers, was to suffer as Christ did. — Ed.
BENSON, “1 Peter 4:1-2 . Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered — Even the ignominious and
painful death of the cross, with all those previous and concomitant evils, which rendered his death
peculiarly bitter; for us — And that from a pure and disinterested principle of love; arm
yourselves likewise with the same mind — With a resolution such as animated him to suffer all the
evils to which you may be exposed in the body; and particularly to suffer death, if called by God to do
so forYOUR religion. For this will be armour of proof against all your enemies. For he that hath — In
conformity to our Lord Jesus; suffered in the flesh — Or, who hath so suffered as to be thereby made
inwardly and truly conformable to Christ in his sufferings,hath, of course, ceased from sin — From
knowingly committing it. “He hath been made to rest,” says Macknight, “from temptation to sin,
consequently from sin itself. For if a man hath overcome the fear of torture and death, no weaker
temptation will prevail with him to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.” That he no longer
should live in the flesh — Even in his mortal body; to the lusts — The desires, of men — Either his
own or those of others; should no longer be governed by those irregular and inordinate affections
which rule in unregenerate men; but to the will of God — In a holy conformity and obedience to the
divine precepts, how contrary soever they may be to his carnal and sensual inclinations, or apparently
to his worldly interests.
COKE, “. Forasmuch then, &c.— "I have already observed, that Christ suffered, though he was
perfectly innocent: as therefore Christ,YOUR great Lord and Master, hath suffered for you in
the flesh, do you also wear the same spirit, as armour; (Ephesians 6:11 .)conscious that you
ought to suffer for the truth, if called thereunto: for it is rationally to be supposed, that he, who has
uponthisACCOUNT suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from leading an unholy life, and is resolved
to live, during the residue of his abode in the flesh, not in conformity to the lusts of men, but to the will
of God," 1 Peter 4:2 . Dr. Bentley would read these verses thus; As Christ hath suffered for us in the
flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind; for he that suffered in the flesh, hath died for our sins, 1
Peter 4:2 that we should no longer live in the flesh, &c.
COFFMAN, “The visible divisions in this chapter are: (1) theSECURITY of the faithful in
judgment (1 Peter 4:1-6 ); (2) the destruction of Jerusalem prophesied (1 Peter 4:7-11 ); (3)
SPECIAL instructions to the Christians as the approaching terror develops (1 Peter 4:12-19 ).
Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the same mind; for
he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; (1 Peter 4:1 )
Christ suffered in the flesh ... This merely means "For as Christ died."
Arm ye yourselves also with the same mind ... This is equivalent to Paul's "Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5 ).
He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin ... This does not mean that Christ, after
suffering, rested from sin; on the other hand, the entire final clause of the verse regards
theSTATUS of Christians. As Caffin said, "The apostle first spoke of the Master, then turned to the
disciple.[1] The thing primarily in view here is exactly the Christian teaching expounded by Paul
in Romans 6:1-11 ; and Barclay said of that passage in this context, "We think that is what Peter is
thinking here."[2] As baptized believers in Christ, Peter's readers, so soon to undergo persecutions are
here admonished to live above sin. "In Christ" they areALREADY dead to sin; they must live above
it. As Kelcy said, "Not that the one who has ceased from sin is without sin, but that his life is not a life
of sin (1 John 1:8 ,10 ).[3] The thought of this whole verse is that, just as Christ's suffering preceded

his glorification, so also, for the Christian, his death to sin, and the patient endurance even of physical
death itself, if necessary, shall likewise precede a similar glorification for him.[4]
[1] B. C. Caffin, Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22,1Peter (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
House, 1950), p. 170.
[2] William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p.
247.
[3] Raymond C. Kelcy, The Letters of Peter and Jude (Austin, Texas: R.B. Sweet Company, 1972), p.
82.
TRAPP, “Ver. 1. Christ hath suffered] As 1 Peter 3:18 .
In the flesh] In human nature; so must we suffer in sinful nature, subduing it to God, and ceasing from
sin, hailing it and nailing it to the cross of Christ. First have sin to the cross of Christ; force it before
the tree on which he suffered: it is such a sight as sin cannot abide. It willBEGIN to die within us
upon the first sight of Christ upon the cross. For the cross of Christ accuseth sin, shameth it, and by a
secret virtue feedeth upon the very heart of it. 2. Use sin as Christ was used when he was made sin
for us; lift it up, and make it naked by confession to God. And then pierce, 1. The hands of it, in
respect of operation, that it may work no more. 2. The feet of it, in respect of progression, that it go no
further. 3. The heart, in respect of affection, that it may be loved no longer.
BURKITT, “These words may be considered, 1. As an inference drawn from what the apostle had
asserted in the foregoing chapter, namely, That Christ Jesus suffered for our sins, the just for the
unjust; 1 Peter 3:18 .
Now, says the apostle, forasmuch as Christ has thus suffered for us, first as our surety and
representative, in a way of satisfaction;
secondly, as our pattern and example, inORDER to our imitation: let us arm ourselves with the
same mind and resolution, to be conformed to him in his death, dying to sin as he died for sin: for he
that hath crucified the flesh, and mortified hisCORRUPT nature, in imitation of Christ's suffering in
our flesh and nature, that man hath ceased from sin, that is, from living unto sin, or serving sin any
longer, but spends the remainder of his life wholly according to God's will, not according to his own or
other's lustful desires and inclinations.
2. These words may be considered as an argument to excite Christians to eschew evil and do good,
which he had pressed upon them in the former chapter, from the example of Christ.
And the force of the argument lies thus: "All Christians should be armed with the same mind and
resolution against sin, and for holiness, that Christ was. But Christ having suffered in the flesh for sin,
and ceased from sin, lived in the Spirit unto God: therefore all Christians should wholly endeavour all
they can to cease from sin, and live no more to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."
ELLICOTT, “(1) Forasmuch then . . .—Literally, a participial phrase: Christ, then, having suffered
in (or, to) the flesh—i.e., so far as the flesh is concerned. The reference is to the words “killed in (or,
to) the flesh” in 1 Peter 3:18 , to which the word “then” takes us back. It is difficult to decide about the
right of the words “for us” to stand in the text. Tischendorf and Lachmann strike them out, and they are
probably right in doing so. The authority for the reading “for you” is nearly as strong; but in fact neither
is wanted here, as the point is not the atoning character of Christ’s death, but the death itself.
Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.—Or rather, with the same conception. It does not mean
merely “put yourselves into the same disposition:” that is, “resolve to die with Him.” Though the word
which is here rendered “mind” may possibly bear the meaning “intent” assigned to it inHebrews
4:12 (the only other place in the New Testament where it occurs), the more natural and common
sense is that of conception, notion, view. Christ is therefore said to have been “armed” with a particular
“conception” or “view,” which He found to be sufficient shield in the day of suffering; and we are

exhorted to try the same defensive armour. The “view” which Christ found so efficacious was the view
He took of the “suffering” itself. What that view was is forthwith explained.
For he that hath suffered in the flesh . . .—Rather, that he that hath suffered to the flesh is at rest
from, sin. This is the “view” which we are to take. The thought is probably derived from Romans 6:7 .
The death of the body puts a stop (at any rate, for theREDEEMED ) to any further possibility of sin.
Welcome, death! A slight difficulty is caused by the implied fact that Christ, too, in dying “ceased from
sin.” But the Greek word for “hath ceased” literally means hath been caused to rest, St. Peter using
expressly (for the only time in the New Testament) that part of the verb which does not mean a
voluntary cessation from what one was doing before, but a pause imposed from without. And that
Christ looked upon His death as a boon of rest from sin (it does not say from sinning) is not only a true
and impressive thought, but is fully justified by Romans 6:10 , “He died unto sin,” and even by His
cry, “It is finished.” Whatever harshness there is in the thought is much softened by the fact that St.
Peter names it as the view we are to take, not directly as the view He took; so that it admits of some
adjustment whenAPPLIED to Him.
VISSER, “In the fourth chapter, Peter begins to describe the resurrected Christ
and states that because of this Christians must refrain from sin on all levels.
The subject is now switched from purifying water to commands of self-
restraint and charity, of course there are many more promises of ‘suffering’
for walking the narrow Christian path but the rewards for the blameless are
much greater. Christian soldiers are commanded to ‘arm themselves’ with
the same mind (again meaning oneness) which is essential -- there is only
one Gospel.
Considering Christ died to destroy sin it’s an insult for those who know the
Truth to return to the muck of their previous flesh-serving lifestyle because
while Jesus willingly submitted to the worst sufferings he never sinned.
Proverbs 26:11 teaches; “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth
to his folly” and this wisdom certainly rings true today as Christianity is
under attack on various levels.
The enemy works through the lusts of the flesh and many teach against a
literal Satan (or ‘tempter’) but Peter himself dismisses such folly towards
the end of this letter -- always be on guard against “images” moving or not.
The media in general provides a steady stream of filth to the masses through
various sources (like television), over time the viewer becomes more desen-
sitized to the antichrist perversions being promoted and more ‘tolerant’ of
such abominations. Whatever Christians decide they should know it’s the
Will of God.
BARCLAY, “THE OBLIGATION OF THE CHRISTIAN (1 Peter 4:1-5 )
4:1-5 Since then, Christ suffered in the flesh, you too must arm yourselves with the same conviction,
that he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, and as a result of this the aim of such a
man now is to spend the time that remains to him of life in obedience to the will of God. For the time
that is past is sufficient to have done what the Gentiles will to do, to have lived a life of licentiousness,
lust, drunkenness, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatry. They think it strange when you do
not rush toJOI them in the same flood of profligacy, and they abuse you for not doing so. They will
give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

The Christian is committed to abandon the ways of heathenism and to live as God would have him to
do.
Peter says, "He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." What exactly does he mean?
There are three distinct possibilities.
(i) There is a strong line in Jewish thought that suffering is in itself a great purifier. In the Apocalypse
of Baruch the writer, speaking of the experiences of the people of Israel, says, "Then, therefore, were
they chastened that they might be sanctified" (13: 10). In regard to the purification of the spirits of men
Enoch says, "And in proportion as the burning of their body becomes severe, a corresponding change
will take place in their spirit for ever and ever; for before the Lord of spirits there will be none to utter a
lying word" (67: 9). The terrible sufferings of the time are described in 2 Maccabees, and the writer
says, "I beseech those that read this book that they be not discouraged, terrified or shaken for these
calamities, but that they judge these punishments not to be for destruction but for chastening of our
nation. For it is a token of his great goodness, when evil-doers are not suffered to go on in their ways
any long time, but forthwith punished. For not as with other nations, whom the Lord patiently
forbeareth to punish, till the day of judgment arrive, and they be come to the fullness of their sins, so
dealeth he with us, lest that, being come to the height of sin, afterwards he should take vengeance on
us. And though he punish sinners with adversity, yet doth he never forsake his people" (2
Maccabees 6:12-16 ). The idea is that suffering sanctifies and that not to be punished is the
greatest punishment which God can lay upon a man. "Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O
Lord," said the Psalmist (Psalms 94:12 ). "Happy is the man whom God reproves," said Eliphaz
(JOB 5:17). "For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives"
(Hebrews 12:6 ).
If this is the idea, it means that he who has been disciplined by suffering has been cured of sin. That is
a great thought. It enables us, as Browning said, "to welcome each rebuff that turns earth's
smoothness rough." It enables us toTHANK God for the experiences which hurt but save the soul.
But great as this thought is, it is not strictly relevant here.
(ii) Bigg thinks that Peter is speaking in terms of the experience which his people had of suffering for
the Christian faith. He puts it this way: "He who has suffered in meekness and in fear, he who has
endured all that persecution can do to him rather thanJOIN in wicked ways can be trusted to do right;
temptation has manifestly no power over him." The idea is that if a man has come through persecution
and not denied the name of Christ, he comes out on the other side with a character so tested and a
faith so strengthened, that temptation cannot touch him any more.
Again there is a great thought here, the thought that every trial and every temptation are meant to
make us stronger and better. Every temptation resisted makes theNEXT easier to resist; and every
temptation conquered makes us better able to overcome the next attack. But again it is doubtful if this
thought comes in very relevantly here.
(iii) The third explanation is most probably the right one. Peter has just been talking about baptism.
Now the great New Testament picture of baptism is in Romans 6:1-23 . In that chapter Paul says
that the experience of baptism is like being buried with Christ in death and raised with him to newness
of life. We think that this is what Peter is thinking of here. He has spoken of baptism; and now he says,
"He who in baptism has shared the sufferings and the death of Christ, is risen to such newness of life
with him that sin has no more dominion over him" (Romans 6:14 ). Again we must remember that this
is the baptism of the man who is voluntarily coming over from paganism into Christianity. In that act of
baptism he is identified with Christ; he shares his sufferings and even his death; and he shares his
risen life and power, and is, therefore, victor over sin.
When that has happened, a man has said good-bye to his former way of life. The rule of pleasure,
pride and passion is gone, and the rule of God has begun. This was by no means easy. A man's
former associates would laugh at the new puritanism which hadENTERED his life. But the Christian
knows very well that the judgment of God will come, when the judgments of earth will be reversed and
the pleasures that are eternal will compensate a thousandfold for the transitory pleasures which had
to be abandoned in this life.
PULPIT, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh. St. Peter returns, after the

digression of 1 Peter 3:19-22 , to the great subject of Christ's example. The words "for us" are
omitted in some ancient manuscripts; they express a great truthALREADY dwelt upon in 1 Peter
2:1-25 . and 3. Here the apostle is insisting upon the example of Christ, not on the atoning efficacy of
his death. Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. The word rendered "mind" ( ἔννοια) is more
exactly "thought" (comp.Hebrews 4:12 , the only other place where it occurs in the New Testament);
but it certainly has sometimes the force of "intention, resolve." The Christian must be like his Mustier;
he must arm himself with the great thought, the holy resolve, which was in the mind of Christ—the
thought that suffering borne in faithFREES us from the power of sin, the resolve to suffer patiently
according to the will of God. That thought, which can be made our own only by faith, is the Christian's
shield; we are to arm ourselves with it against the assaults of the evil one (comp. Romans 13:12 ; 2
Corinthians 10:4 ; Ephesians 6:11 ). For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from
sin. The thought is that of Romans 6:6-11 . SomeTRANSLATE the conjunction ὅτι, "that," and
understand it as giving the content of the ἔννοια: "Arm yourselves with the thought that," etc.; but this
does not give so good a sense, and would seem to require ταύτην rather than τὴν αὐτήν—" this
thought," rather than "the same thought." Some, again, understand this clause of Christ; but this
seems a mistake. The apostle spoke first of the Master; now he turns to the disciple. Take, he says,
forYOUR amour the thoughts which filled the sacred heart of Christ—the thought that suffering in the
flesh is not, as the world counts it, an unmixed evil, but often a deep blessing; for, or because, he that
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. If, when we are called to suffer, we offer up our sufferings
to Christ who suffered for us, and unite our sufferings with his by faith in him, then those sufferings,
thus sanctified, destroy the power of sin, and make us cease from sin (comp. Romans 6:10 ).
PULPIT, “1 Peter 4:1-6 - Exhortation to entire separation from sin.
I. BY UNION WITH CHRIST.
1. Through suffering. Suffering is the appointed discipline of the Christian soul. Gold is tried by fire,
the Christian's faith by suffering. Christ himself suffered in the flesh, and while we are in the flesh we
must also suffer. "In that he died, he died unto sin once;" his death separated him from sin, from the
sight and hearing of sin, from that mysterious contact with human sin which he endured when "he was
made sin for us, though he was without sin." Our suffering ought to have the like power—it ought to
remove us out of the dominion of those sins which have hitherto ruled over us. This is the end, the
blessedness, of suffering. GodSENDS it in love; he chastens us for our profit, that we may be
partakers of his holiness. But suffering doth not always save. "The sorrow of the world worketh death;"
it produces discontent and murmuring, and hardens the heart. To gain the blessed fruit of suffering,
the eye of the suffering Christian must be fixed upon the suffering Lord. We must "arm ourselves with
the same mind." "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." It must be our effort to think
the same holy thoughts, to be animated by the same high resolve, which filled the sacred heart of
Christ. Those thoughts, that resolve, are our spiritual amour. If we let our thoughts dwell on our
troubles, if we fret ourselves, we are defenseless, we are exposed to the temptations which swarm
around us. But we must look away from our own sufferings and keep the earnest gaze of faith fixed
upon the cross. Thus by an act of faith we may unite our sufferings with the Savior's sufferings, and
then suffering sanctified by faith in Christ will have its blessed work in destroying the power of sin.
2. Through the change of heart wrought by suffering. "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased
from sin." Suffering meekly borne is a great help in the daily conflict against sin; it shows us our own
weakness and the emptiness of earthly comforts; it humbles us, and makes us less unwilling
toSUBMIT ourselves to the holy will of God; it points our thoughts to the transitoriness of human life;
it is miserable folly to waste that little life in following the wretched lusts of the flesh, when we ought to
be doing the will of God. As the blessed angels do God's holy will in heaven, so we must strive to do it
in earth; we shall never dwell with the angels unless we are really trying to learn that deep and holy
lesson.
II. BY FORSAKING OLD SINS AND OLD COMPANIONS IN SIN.
1. What we must forsake. The will of the Gentiles. The Gentile world was very evil when the Lord
Jesus came; sin reigned everywhere,OPEN , rampant, unblushing. It was a shame for the heathen

thus to live, for they had the light of conscience; it is a shame of far deeper guilt for us Christians, who
have the full light of the gospel, to live as did the Gentiles. Converted men must cast off those old
sins; the sins of the flesh, uncleanness, drunkenness, and such like, ruin body and soul. Men set up
idols in their hearts—money, station, honor; they fall down and worship these things. Christians must
forsake these unlawful idolatries. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God; him only shalt thou serve."
Him only; Satan stands behind these idols—it is he whom men really worship when they give their
hearts to this or that earthly idol. We have given too much time, far too much, to these idolatries. Let
the time past suffice which we have miserably wasted; the residue may be very short. There is much
to be done, let us take heed that we waste our time no more.
2. Whom we must forsake. Our old companions, it may be, think it strange that we no longer live as
once, perhaps, we did; we were as bad as themselves once, they say. It may be so, but we are
changed, and they, alas! are not; we have, we humbly trust, put on the new man; we are
He must exercise self-restraint. The etymology of the Greek word points to the safeguard of the mind;
the mind, with all its thoughts, must be kept safe, restrained within due limits. Tim fancies, aspirations,
desires, must not be allowed to wander unrestrained. For "the end of all things is at hand," and the
Christian must school himself into thoughtful preparation for that solemn hour. His mind should be
filled, not with castles in the air, not with visions of earthly prosperity (a mischievous and enervating
habit), but with thoughts of death, judgment, eternity. To keep the end steadily in view requires much
self-restraint; it implies a well-ordered mind, a life guided by the eternal law of God, not frittered away
in trifles and idle pleasures, not spent in pursuits and ambitions which do not rise above the
atmosphere of earth. This self-restraint is the sobriety, the soundness of mind which the apostle here
inculcates upon us; it extends over all the relations and circumstances of life; in all his desires and
actions the Christian must be thoughtful, calm, composed; for he lives in the anticipation of the coming
end, and his aim is the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
II. THE NECESSITY OF CHARITY IN ITS VARIOUS MANIFESTATIONS.
1. In forgiveness. In view of the coming judgment charity is necessary above all things; for it is they
who love the brethren in Christ and for Christ who shall hear the joyful welcome, "Come, ye blessed of
my Father." They see Christ in his people, and for the love of Christ love and care for those whom
Christ loved. But "he that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love;" he cannot enter into heaven,
which is the home of love: there is no room there for the selfish, unloving heart. Love is necessary
above all other graces; it is the exceeding great love of our Master and only Savior Jesus Christ which
draws the hearts of men unto the cross; and those who come to the cross, which is the school of love,
must learn of him who loved them even unto death to love all the brethren; for love is the very badge
of our profession: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
Love was the character of the Master; it must be the mark of the disciple. They must not only love one
another; but that love, St. Peter says, must be earnest, intense; for it needs the strength of great love
to forgive perfectly, and they who do not forgive cannot hope for forgiveness. True charity covers sins;
it "believeth all things, hopeth all things;" it puts the fairest construction on the actions of others; it
considers all possible extenuations of theirERRORS —antecedents, circumstances, temptations; it
does not willingly speak of faults and shortcomings; it hides them as far as may be. And if it is
necessary for the good of the sinner, or of society, to uncover sins, charity does it with gentle, loving
tact, seeking to win the sinner, to save his soul, forgiving him and seeking God's forgiveness for him.
He who thus covers the sins of others, who forgives in the faith of Christ and in the love of the
brethren, shall be himself forgiven; his sin shall be covered through the atonement once made upon
the cross.
2. In Christian hospitality. It is not costly display and sumptuous entertainments that St. Peter
recommends; these things are often sinful waste; men spend their money in selfish ostentation instead
of holy and religious works. The Lord had said to his disciples, "He that receiveth you, receiveth me;"
and again, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the
name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose hisREWARD ." St. Peter re-echoes
his Master's words. Christians must show hospitality to one another, and that freely, liberally;
murmuring destroys the beauty of the gift. Christ hath received us into the kingdom of God; he feeds
us with heavenly food, the Bread that came down from heaven; we must receive our brethren, and that
gladly, for his sake.
3. In the use of spiritualGIFTS . They are given to individual Christians for the benefit of the whole
Church. Whatever gifts we may possess, they are but what we once received; they were entrusted to
us to be used in our Master's service; that service is the edification of his people. Christians are
stewards of these spiritual gifts; they should be good stewards, not like the unjust steward, who

wasted his master's goods, and showed foresight and worldly prudence only in providing for himself.
They should discharge their stewardship with unblemished honor, with a diligence and zeal which are
beautiful in the sight of the truly good. The grace of God varies in its manifestations, in the diversities
of gifts which issue from it, according to the needs of the Church, according to the capacity of the
individual servant; it is like a piece of beautiful embroidery, various in color and design, but combined
in one harmonious whole. Every Christian, even the humblest, has some gift; each should contribute
his part, however small, to the general welfare; charity will guide him in the use of his particular gift.
The apostlePROCEEDS to give instances.
LESSONS.
1. "The end of all things is at hand." "Prepare to meet thy God."
2. Be self-restrained; be sober. Much prayer is needful for preparation against the hour of death; the
self-indulgent cannot pray aright.
3. Above all things, follow after charity.
4. Make proof ofYOUR love in the forgiveness of injuries, in hospitality, in the use of spiritual gifts
for the welfare of others.
5. Seek first the glory of God, and that through Jesus Christ our Lord.
PULPIT, “1 Peter 4:1-7 - The persecuted Christian reminded of the necessity of suffering for
righteousness.
This passage is the most difficult in the entire Epistle. We can see a meaning in each of its sentences
taken separately, but when we take them together their meaning, as a whole, is obscure. As far,
however, as I can understand it, I would entitle the paragraph, The persecuted Christian reminded of
the necessity of suffering for righteousness. Peter here states the fact that suffering for righteousness
is no strange thing, but what Christians must reasonably look for.
I. CHRIST'S SUFFERING BIDS HIS PEOPLE BE READY TO SUFFER. The sufferings of our Lord
alluded to here are not his substitutionary sufferings—they are referred to in the eighteenth verse; of
them, to the world's last moment, it will be true, "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the
people there was none with me." But there is another class of our Lord's sufferings in which his
people can, and according to their likeness to him must, shape—the suffering he bore in the
maintenance of holiness in an evil world; of this he could say, "The disciple is not above his Master."
There is sometimes confusion in Christian minds, in finding that Christ is said to suffer for us, and yet
that in many places we are called to suffer with him. Let us be clear on this point, we
are REDEEMED by the precious blood of Christ;" God requires nothing from us for our
redemption, but, when thus redeemed, much of Christ's suffering becomes the pattern of ours; and of
that he says, "He that taketh not up his cross and cometh after me cannot be my disciple."
1. Christ's experience would lead us to expect that holiness must suffer on earth. For three and thirty
years he, the Embodiment of perfect love to God and man, lived and moved upon this earth, and what
was the result? He was "despised and rejected of men;" the longer he lived, the more he wrought, the
wider he was known, the wilder and louder and fiercer became the cry, "Away with him! Crucify him!"
Goodness condemns wickedness when the lips say nothing; the very presence of a good man in an
ungodly circle is a protest against evil. On one side at least there will always be enmity between the
seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman; and the nearer his people approach conformity to
their Lord's character, the more may they be sure of conformity to their Lord's death.
2. What Christ's sufferings have made possible to us should lead us to be willing to suffer for its
attainment. Our Lord's sufferings had no other end than our sanctification, toSECURE God-likeness
in us. How great a boon must this be, when it could be purchased at no less a price than what comes
to mind, when we speak of our Lord as "the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" and for which
he did not regard that Drice as too great to pay! And if we find, when we try to secure and maintain
this great blessing, that it can only be done at much cost to ourselves, how impossible it is for us to
shrink from it, when we remember the greater cost of this to him ] It were a solemn thing to refuse
through cowardice to "fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ."
3. The claims of Christ should lead us to resolve to suffer if need be for him. Where Christ's sacrifice is
present to the mind, there is noROOM for self left; the "I" in us is destroyed; the blood of Christ,

when rightly apprehended, not only blots out our sin, but also our self. We come now to the difficult
part of this passage, but I think it brings before us this truth—
II. THE SUFFERING OF CHRIST'S PEOPLE NECESSARILY ARISES FROM THREE CAUSES.
1. Suffering through mortification of the flesh. It seems natural to suppose that when, having said,
"Christ hath suffered in the flesh," the apostle goes on to say, "For he that hath suffered in the flesh
hath ceased from sin," he is still referring to Christ. But it cannot be so, for of him" who did no sin" it
cannot be said that he hath "ceased from sin;" it must refer to us. Yet how can it be said of them
whom he has called to arm themselves with the same suffering mind as Christ, that they have "ceased
from sin"? I think we have here a parallel to what we read in Romans 6:6-11 ," Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him," etc. That contains a priceless truth, which we do not half realize. It
speaks of a death in us, corresponding to our Lord's death; that this is to be the sublime result of his
death—the death of sin in his people; and it is this which Peter here holds up to us, "He that hath
suffered in the flesh [hath put to death the flesh], hath ceased from sin," etc. But that destroying the
flesh is suffering, to take our natural desires and passions and nail them to the cross is crucifixion—
aSLOW , lingering death, which involves unutterable pain till it is complete.
2. Suffering through difference from the world. "For the time past may suffice to have wrought the
desire of the Gentiles," etc. We have here a true picture of the pagan character, and it is hardly
possible for us to imagine the contrast which was manifest when such a one became converted to
Christ. Glaring evils had to be renounced at once, lifelong associations had to be severed at a blow.
That was the case here; and what was the result? They were evil spoken of, and that is where the
suffering always comes in when we break with wrong associations. We shall be thought strange by
others, and shall seem to be condemning them, assuming that we are better than they. And to be
misjudged, misrepresented, reviled, is suffering; but, as Christians, there is noHELP for it, we must
sever ourselves from what is worldly.
3. Suffering through, spiritual discipline. "For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the dead"
etc. The word "dead" here must be taken to mean those who are dead whilst they live. But. even with
that alteration, it is difficult to see clearly what the verse means. Now it is said that
theCONSTRUCTION of the Greek allows of the insertion of the word "although;" just as in a
passage in Romans 6:17 , which we never read without mentally inserting the word "although." If that
be so, the meaning is evident: "For to this end was the gospel preached even to them who were dead
in sins, than [although] they might be judged, condemned, persecuted, put to death according to men
in the flesh, they might live according to God in the spirit." Spiritual life is God's end with us, let men do
with us what they may. And the spiritual life is often developed by means of what men do to us. Every
act of persecution is to be followed by a deeper peace, a holier purity, a higher power.
III. THE COMING END ASSISTS CHRIST'S PEOPLE TO BEAR SUFFERING IN A RIGHT SPIRIT.
Looking at this superficially, some might think this a hard gospel; the follower of Christ is to arm
himself with the expectation of suffering. But look what comes before, and what follows after this.
What comes before? "Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh." What follows it? "The
end of all things is at hand." This hard demand stands between the cross and the crown; that makes
all the difference.
1. The coming end calls us to estimate reasonably the extent of the sneering. Read it as it is in the
Revised Version. "Be ye therefore of sound mind." The apostle is here calling the persecuted to regard
their sufferings reasonably, in connection with the fact that "the end of all things is at hand." The earth-
trials of God's people are, after all, but the momentaryCLOUD in the day of heavenly sunshine,
which shall have no evening, of which now in Christ we have the dawn.
2. The coming end calls us to vigilance lest we lose the coming blessing. That "coming end" wilt be
theBEGINNING of the glorified life—that life in which what we have sown here we shall reap; that
life in which we may have "an entrance ministered to us abundantly," or in which we may be "saved yet
so as by fire." Beware lest under the pressure of temptation you conform to the world, you be ashamed
of Jesus, you refuse your cross, and thereby lose your crown. Suffering there must be; look to the end,
anticipate the glory which it begins, and against all that would rob you of the fullness of that glory,
watch unto prayer – C.N.

KRETZMANN 1-6, “The apostle hereRESUMES the thought connection which he had touched upon
in chap. 3:18, that of the sufferings of Christ and its lessons: Christ, then, having suffered for us in the
flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same disposition of mind; for he that suffers in the flesh has
desisted from sin, When Christ assumed true human nature, when He became a man for our sakes,
He was obliged to suffer a great deal in this flesh, not only during His ministry, but especially during
His last great Passion. The idea of Christ's acting as our Substitute is brought out also in this case, in
order to give additional force to the admonition. We should arm, or shield, ourselves with the same
disposition or state of mind, with the same intention and purpose. For he that suffers in the flesh, he
that willingly takes upon himself the cross which is the lot of all true Christians in the world, thereby
has desisted from sin. If Christians take their cross upon themselves and follow Christ, they have
chosen the best way of combating and overcoming sin; in fact, they have left sin behind as a ruling
power.
The purpose of being armed with the mind of Christ as with a weapon is now stated by the apostle: In
order no longer to spend the remaining part of his life to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. If God
inflicts a chastisement, sends some suffering, this will indeed be disagreeable, full of bitterness, to the
flesh. But God is acting like a wise physician; for He therebyPROTECTS the Christians themselves.
Their life, which would ordinarily have been spent in serving the lusts and desires in which the
unbelievers delight, is now devoted to battling against the temptations to sin and in fulfilling the will of
God. They give up the delights of this short life, but they gain the bliss of everlasting salvation as
God's gift of mercy.
This thought is now brought out with all the force of a strong contrast: For the time now gone past
suffices that you worked the will of the heathen, conducting yourselves in acts of licentiousness, lusts,
carousings, revelings, banquetings, and unlawful, idolatrous acts, in which they are taken aback that
you do not run with them into the same overflowing of profligacy, blaspheming This is a picture of the
life of unbelievers when they give way to their natural desires and passions and live in every form of
sensual sin, as most of the heathen Christians had done before their conversion. Peter reminds his
readers that their behavior in their unconverted state certainly was sufficient and more than sufficient
toPAY the debt which they may have thought they were owing to the flesh. Note the irony in the
words. A few of the sins of the flesh are now enumerated. They conducted themselves, they spent
their life in acts of licentiousness, or sensuality, in giving free rein to all their lusts and desires. They
were wine-bibbers, using intoxicating liquors to excess; they held night revels, with banquets where
eating as well as drinking was carried far beyond the limits of decency; they became guilty of all the
unlawful, heathen, idolatrous acts and practices whereby the proper honor was taken away from the
living God. Of these acts of sensuality, of carnal mindedness, of godlessness, the Christians to whom
this letter was addressed were now heartily ashamed, and they were straining every nerve to spend
the rest of their lives in such works as were well-pleasing to God. This change of attitude, of course,
was a surprise to the heathen, it took them aback in a very unpleasant way. That these former boon
companions of theirs should now no longer be willing to accompany them to the places where
licentiousness and profligacy went beyond all bounds, that they considered an insult. That the
Christians should now consider their former dissolute life with abhorrence and should do everything in
their power to forget the indecencies of that period of their life, put them into such a fury of rage that
they set out to curse and blaspheme the Christians. Also herein history repeats itself, as many a
believer that was converted in adult life will be able to testify.
The apostle wants the Christians not to be intimidated or otherwise influenced by the attitude of the
unbelievers: They shall have to giveAN ACCOUNT to Him who is ready to judge the living and the
dead. A time is coming, and that very soon, when the unbelievers will think of their blasphemous
behavior with a regret which will be too late. For the Lord is prepared even now to return for the
judging of the living and the dead, for the final Judgment; and from His sentence there will be no
appeal. These heathen who now abuse the Christians will then have to answer for their hatred and
persecution of the Christians, and since they cannot give an account that will satisfy the holiness and
justice of God, their portion will be that of eternal damnation. This fact is a consolation to all believers
that are subjected to such maledictions more or less.
For the same reason the apostle adds: For to this end was the Gospel preached also to them that are
(now) dead, that they might be judged in the flesh indeed after the manner of men, but might live in the
spirit after the manner of God. This statement has no connection with the fact given in chap. 3:19, but
belongs into this connection. To certain people that are now dead the Gospel was preached during
their life, they became partakers of its wonderful blessings, in order that they, although subject to the

general curse of death according to their mortal body, yet might live in the spirit, so far as their soul
was concerned, and that after the manner of God, that is, in a spiritual, divine, glorified existence, until
the day when God would reunite their bodies with their souls. Thus the purpose of the preaching of the
Gospel was realized in the case of those that died in the Lord. The connection of thought, then, is this:
While death does not remove the blasphemer from the final Judgment and condemnation,
itCONFIRMS the hope of the Christians that their souls, which are safe in the hands of God, will be
reunited with their bodies on the last day and enjoy everlasting salvation and glory in the presence of
God.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “Christ suffered in the flesh.
Ecce Homo
The Redeemer of the world is in one sense infinitely above us; but in another sense He is
actually beside us. His sympathy is as true as His sovereignty.
I. Try to understand what the sufferings of Jesus were. “He suffered in the flesh.” No one
can read the Gospels without seeing indications of those sufferings.
1. There can be no doubt that Jesus was exempted from many of the physical ills
from which we suffer. We can only think of Him as healthy, not only because of His
birth, but because the exacting nature of His self-forgetful work required a perfect
physique. Besides this, we must remember that many of our physical sufferings we
bring on ourselves. Idleness, self-indulgence, artificial modes of life, irregularities,
are the causes of many of the ills which flesh is heir to; but the life of Jesus was
exquisite in its simplicity and unstained by a single vicious propensity. And this
reminds us further that He could not have suffered, as we do, from a sense of
personal sin, from the remorse which follows after our utterance of an unkind word,
or the indulgence of an evil propensity, or from the tumult of passion which rises up
within a sinful heart. Yet He was a sufferer. “He was a Man of Sorrows, and
acquainted with grief.” “Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.” But
besides these His whole life was a martyrdom. His sensibility, not only to physical
pain, but to mental and moral agony, must have been exquisite.
2. Think, too, of His utter loneliness. His was the solitude of a holy soul surrounded by
sinners; of a heavenly spirit in contact with things earthly and sensual; of a mind whose
higher thoughts not a single being on earth could appreciate; whose truest objects in
living and dying as He did none could comprehend.
3. That expression, “in the flesh,” reminds us of His uncongenial surroundings. He lived
and died among a despised people, and was regarded as an outcast even by some of
them! Often must He have felt as the Jews did when, exiled from home and fatherland,
they hanged their harps upon the willows, and wept as they remembered Zion, saying,
“How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
II. How these sufferings were endured by Him.
1. It is evident that He accepted them as God’s appointment for Him here. “The cup
which My Father hath given Me shall I not drink it?” indicates His attitude to trouble
right through. If a day’s ministry brought Him no result, He did not repine; if His
own nation rejected Him, He meekly accepted the result, though with unutterable
sorrow over the issues of it to them; if the Cross was to be faced, He went forth
willingly to Calvary, there to die-the just for the unjust-to bring us unto God.
2. Notice also that our Lord never allowed Himself to be absorbed in His own sorrows.
He was always ready to enter into other people’s joys and griefs, whatever His own
sorrows might be. He is not so absorbed in the joys of heaven that He will not listen to

the faltering cry of the lowliest penitent. I have known some sufferers who have been
armed with the same mind. Their unselfishness has been sublime. Their couch of pain
has proved the centre of joy and peace to those who circle round them.
III. But how can we do this? (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
Christ’s sufferings
I. Christ suffered in human nature. His sufferings in the flesh were-
1. Great, corporeal, social, mediatorial.
2. Ignominious. Poverty, obloquy, persecution, crucifixion.
II. Christ suffered for men.
III. Christ suffered with a spirit which men should cultivate.
1. Profoundly religious.
2. Self denyingly philanthropic.
IV. The possession of this spirit is the power to deliver us from moral evil. (D. Thomas,
D. D.)
Sin pierced
Use sin, as Christ was used when He was made sin for us; lift it up, and make it naked by
confession to God. And then pierce-
1. The hands of it, in respect of operation, that it may work no more.
2. The feet of it, in respect of progression, that it go no further.
3. The heart, in respect of affection, that it may be loved no longer. (J. Trapp.)
Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.-
Conformity with Christ
I. The high engagement to this conformity. “He suffered for us in the flesh.” We are the
more obliged to make His suffering our example, because it was to us more than an
example; it was our ransom. This makes the conformity reasonable in a double respect.
It is due that we follow Him, who led us as the Captain of our salvation; that we follow
Him in suffering and in doing, seeing both were for us. What can be too bitter to endure,
or too sweet to forsake, to follow Him? Were this duly considered, should we cleave to
our lusts or to our ease? Should we not be willing to go through fire and water, yea,
through death itself, yea, were it possible, through many deaths, to follow Him?
Consider, as this conformity is due, so it is made easy by His suffering for us. Our chains
which bound us over to eternal death being knocked off, shall we not walk, shall we not
run, in His ways?
II. The nature of this conformity, to show the nearness of it, is expressed in the very
same terms as in the pattern; it is not remote resemblance, but the same thing, even
“suffering in the flesh.” But that we may understand rightly what suffering is here meant,
it is plainly this, “ceasing from sin.” So that this “suffering in the flesh” is not simply the
enduring of afflictions, which is a part of the Christian’s conformity to His Head, but it

implies a more inward and spiritual suffering. It is the suffering and dying of our
corruption, the taking away of the life of sin by the death of Christ: the death of His
sinless flesh works in the believer the death of sinful flesh, that is, the corruption of His
nature, which is so usually in Scripture called “flesh.” “Ceased from sin.” He is at rest
from it, a godly death, as they who die in the Lord rest from their labours. Faith so looks
on the death of Christ, that it takes the impression of it, sets it on the heart, kills it unto
sin. Christ and the believer do not only become one in law, so that His death stands for
theirs, but one in nature, so that His death for sin causes theirs to it (Rom_6:3).
III. The actual improvement of this conformity. “Arm yourselves with the same mind,”
or thoughts of this mortification. Consider and apply the suffering of Christ in the flesh,
to the end that you with Him suffering in the flesh, may cease from sin. Think that it
ought to be thus, and seek that it may be thus with you. “Arm yourselves.” There is still
fighting, and sin will be molesting you; though wounded to death, yet will it struggle for
life, and seek to wound its enemy; it will assault the graces that are in you. You may take
the Lord’s promise for victory in the end; that shall not fail; but do not promise yourself
ease in the way, for that will not hold. If at sometimes you be undermost, give not all up
for lost; he hath often won the day who hath been foiled and wounded in the fight. But
likewise take not all for won, so as to have no more conflict, when sometimes you have
the better in particular battles. Now the way to be armed is this, “the same mind.” How
would my Lord Christ carry Himself in this case? And what was His business in all
places and companies? Was it not to do the will and advance the glory of His Father?
Thus ought it to be with the Christian, framing all his ways, and words, and very
thoughts, upon that model, the mind of Christ, and studying in all things to walk even as
He walked; studying it much, as the reason and rule of mortification, and drawing from
it, as the real cause and spring of mortification. (Abp. Leighton.)
Cardinal truths
I. The cardinal truth of Christianity Christ hath suffered for us.”
II. The Christian’s cardinal duty-“Christ having suffered for us, arm yourselves with the
same mind.”
1. Arm yourselves with the same mind as to the method of conduct.
2. Arm yourselves with the same mind as to the purpose in view.
III. The Christian’s daily course of life-that we should no longer live, etc. (J. J. S. Bird.)
Christ the grand necessity of man
I. Christ’s “mind” is the weapon with which man is to fight his way on to moral
perfection. His moral perfection is here taught. But to reach this what a battle man has
to fight! By the “mind of Christ” we are to understand, of course, not His mere intellect,
great as it was, nor His conscience, sublimely pure though it was; but the moral spirit
that inspired and directed all His intellectual and moral powers. By His “mind” we mean,
in one word, His moral character. Now this is the weapon by which alone man can win
victories over evil, and obtain the crown of life, namely, conformity to the “will of God.”
Doctrines will not do it, however Scriptural; religious rites will not do it, however
studiously observed. Who is the man in our world the most successful in putting down
wrong? Not the legislator, however just the laws he enacts; not the moralist, however
cogent his arguments and powerful his rhetoric; but the man who has the “mind of

Christ” as his armour.
II. Christ’s “sufferings” are the argument for the employment of this weapon. First, the
sufferings of Christ were “in the flesh.” He was in the flesh, but not flesh. Secondly,
Christ suffered “in the flesh” in order to establish human holiness. “That he no longer
should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God.” (D.
Thomas, D. D.)
The rest of his time in the flesh.-
“The rest of his time in the flesh”
Who can tell how long that may be for any one of us? The sands run swiftly through life’s
hour glass. The shadow hastens to go down upon the dial. The waves eat away so quickly
the dwindling shoal of land which crumbles beneath us. The Christian finds nothing in
such thoughts to make him sad. Every milestone marks the growing nearness of his
home. The waves cannot be crossed too swiftly by the eager traveller. Before us lie the
ages of eternity, filled with a blessedness of personal enjoyment and rapturous ministry
which defy tongue to tell or mind to picture. But the blessed future must not divert our
thoughts from the duties to be discharged during the rest of the time which we are to
spend in the flesh. We must not be dreamers, but warriors. To arms! Arm yourselves
with the same mind; and when we ask, “What mind?” we are told to arm ourselves with
the mind that took Jesus to His death. In a venerable old church at Innsbruck, famous
for containing the tomb of the great Emperor Maximilian, there is a magnificent bronze
statue of Godfrey of Boulogne, the illustrious crusader. His head is covered with a
helmet, and on the helmet rests a crown of thorns. Of course, there was a meaning in the
mind of the artist other than that with which we now invest the strange conjunction. He
doubtless designed to represent the sacred cause for which that helmet was donned. But
we may discover an apt symbol of the teaching of our apostle, who unites in these verses
the armour of the Christian soldier, and the recollection of Christ’s suffering in the flesh.
This witness of the sufferings of Christ first takes us to the Cross; and after gazing
reverently on that spectacle of love, we are brought to a point where two ways diverge.
And the only way of discovering and maintaining the right path is to imbibe the spirit of
that wondrous death; nay, to bind it around us as a talisman of victory. “In hoc signo
vinces.” (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The right use of the residue of our time
I. Negatively. “Not to the lusts of men!” This does not mean that we are to neglect our
bodily interests. What are the lusts? Animal instincts grown to a dominant force.
II. Positively. “To the will of God.” This implies-
1. That God has a will.
2. That God has a will concerning men.
3. That God’s will is revealed.
What is the will of God concerning men? First, it is His will that we should believe in
Christ (Joh_6:29; 1Jn_3:23). Secondly, it is His will that we shall be purified from sin.
“This is the will of God, even your sanctification” (1Th_4:3). Thirdly, it is His will that
we should cultivate a practical gratitude for all the blessings of life (1Th_5:18). Fourthly,
it is His will that every man shall be saved (1Ti_2:4). (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The time in the flesh
I. Our time in the flesh is chequered.
II. Our time in the flesh is short.
III. Our time here is uncertain.
IV. Our time here is important. (Homilist.)
To the lusts of men.
Men’s lusts opposed to God’s will
1. To live after the lusts of men and to the will of God are opposite each to other as
light and darkness.
2. We cannot at one and the same time both walk after our lusts and live to God’s will.
One lust loved, sufficient to condemn.
3. In the course of sanctification, we must begin at renouncing our own will, and the
lusts of men. None sow a plant till weeds be pulled up; none put on new apparel till they
have put off their rags.
4. It is not sufficient that we renounce our lusts and evil, except we yield obedience to
the will of God.
5. It is not one action or two whereby a man is discovered what he is, but his constant
course of walking or living. (John Rogers.)
The flesh rightly used
The flesh itself, under the calm subduing influence of your purer spirit, will become a
dignified servant in waiting on its superior. Good gardeners know a better way of
conquering the wild thorn than by uprooting and destroying it. They set it in their
garden. They graft it on some queenly rose. Then the wild thorn expends its energy not
upon itself, but upon that which is above itself; and as a reward is crowned with a glory
which itself could not possibly produce. (G. Calthrop.)
To the will of God.-
Will of God
1. It is a good will.
2. A holy will.
3. A just will.
4. An impartial will.
5. A practicable will.
6. A supreme will.
7. An obligatory will. (John Bate.)
Living to God’s will
I. This is the lesson of man’s past evil life.

1. Sadness.
(1) Enough of sin, because of its-
(2) Degradation to self.
(3) Injuriousness to others.
(4) Rebellion against God.
2. Hope.
(1) Forgiveness for time past.
(2) Deliverance from time past.
II. Notwithstanding bad men’s wonder at good men’s conduct, what Peter said two
thousand years ago is true today. The thoroughly corrupt man finds it impossible to
understand the Christly man.
1. He thinks his conduct strange, and so, perhaps, ignores him altogether.
2. Or he thinks his conduct strange, and is aggravated by it.
3. Or he thinks his conduct strange, and it leads him to inquire. This is the good effect.
III. Both Christ’s judgment and Christ’s Gospel are for all. (U. R. Thomas.)
God’s win
The perfection of a man’s nature is when his will fits on to God’s like one of Euclid’s
triangles superimposed upon another, and line for line coincides. When his will allows a
free passage to the will of God, without resistance, as light travels through transparent
glass; when his will responds to the touch of God’s finger upon the keys, like the
telegraphic needle to the operator’s hand; then man has attained all that God and
religion can do for him, all that his nature is capable of.
The will of God
What a glorious contrast to the will of the flesh is “the will of God”! This was the food of
Jesus. To do this He came to earth. It was the fire cloud that lit His pathway, the yoke in
carrying which He found rest, the Urim and Thummim, which dimmed or shone with
heavenly guidance. There is no course more safe or blessed than to live in the will of
God. God’s will is good will. Where the will of God lies across the wilderness pathway,
there flowers bloom, and waters gush from rocks of flint. Sometimes the flesh rebels
against it, because it means crucifixion and self-denial, but under the rugged shell the
sweetest kernel nestles, and none know the ecstasy of living save those who refuse the
broad, easy road of the lusts of men, to climb the steep, upward path of doing the will of
God from the heart. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
EBC, “THE LESSONS OF SUFFERING
IT is always hard to swim against the stream; and if the effort be a moral one, the
difficulty is not lessened. These early Christians were finding it so. For them there must
have existed hardships of which today we can have no experience, and form but an
imperfect estimate. If they lived among a Jewish population, these were sure to be
offended at the new faith. And when we remember the zeal for persecution of a Saul of
Tarsus, we can see that in many cases the better the Jew the more would he feel himself
bound, if possible, to exterminate the new doctrines. Among the heathen the lot of the
Christians was often worse. Did the people listen a while to the teaching of the

missionaries, yet so unstable were they that, as at Lystra, today might see them stoning
those whom yesterday they were venerating as gods; and they could easily, by reason of
their greater numbers, bring the magistrates to inflict penalties even where the
multitude refrained from mob violence. The cry, "These men exceedingly trouble our
city," or "These who turn the world upside down are come among us," was sure to find a
ready audience; while the uproar and violence which raged in a city like Ephesus, when
Paul and his companions preached there, show how many temporal interests could be
banded together against the Christian cause. On individual believers, not of the number
of the preachers, the more violent attacks might not fall; but to suffer in the flesh was the
lot of most of them in St. Peter’s day. Hence the strong figure he employs to describe the
preparation they will need: "Arm ye yourselves" - make you ready, for you are going
forth to battle. St. Paul also, writing to Rome and Corinth, uses the same figure: "Let us
put on the armor of light," "the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the
left."
"Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the same
mind." Though some strokes of the foe will fall on the flesh, the conflict is really a
spiritual one. The suffering in the body is to be sustained and surmounted by an inward
power; the armor of light and of righteousness is the equipment of the soul, which
panoply the Apostle here calls the mind of Christ. Now what is the mind of Christ which
can avail His struggling servants? The word implies intention, purpose, resolution, that
on which the heart is set. Now the intention of Christ’s life was to oppose and overcome
all that was evil, and to consecrate Himself to all good for the love of His people. This
latter He tells us in His parting prayer for His disciples: "For their sakes I sanctify
Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth," (Joh_17:19) while every
action of His life proclaims His determined enmity against sin. This brought Him
obloquy while He lived in the world, and in the end a shameful death; but these things
did not abate His hatred of sin, nor lessen His love for sinners. For still into the city
where He reigns there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth, (Rev_21:27) though
to the faithful penitent "the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and he that is athirst, let him
come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely". (Rev_22:17)
Christ bare willingly all that was laid upon Him that He might bring men unto God. This
is the spirit, this the purpose, the intent, with which His followers are to be actuated: to
have the same strenuous abhorrence of sin, the same devotion in themselves to
goodness, which shall make them inflexible, however fiercely they may be assailed. Let
them only make the resolve, and power shall be bestowed to strengthen them. He who
says, "Arm yourselves," supplies the weapons when His servants need them. Jesus
Himself found them ready when the tempter came, and drew them in all their keenness
and strength from the Divine armory. Satan comes to others as he came to Christ, and
will make them flinch and waver, if he can. At times he offers attractive baits; at times he
brings fear to his aid. But, in whatever shape he comes or sends his agents, let them but
cling to the mind of Christ, and they shall, like Him, say triumphantly, "Get thee behind
me, Satan."
"For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." God intends it to be so, and
the earnest Christian strives with all his might that it may be so. To help men God sends
them sufferings, and intends them to have a moral effect on the life. They are not penal;
they are the discipline of perfect love desiring that men should be held back from
straying. Men cannot always see the purposes of God at first, and are prone to bewail
their lot. But here and there a saint of old has left his testimony. One of the later
psalmists had discovered the blessedness of God-sent trials: "Before I was afflicted I
went astray; but now I observe Thy word"; and, in thankful acknowledgment of the love

which sent the blows, he adds, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might
learn Thy statutes". (Psa_119:67; Psa_119:71) Hezekiah had learnt the lesson, though it
brought him close to the gates of the grave; but he testifies, "Behold, it was for my peace
that I had great bitterness. Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back." (Isa_38:17) God
had blotted out the evil record that he who had suffered in the flesh might cease from
sin. It is good for us thus to recognize that God’s dispensations are for our correction
and teaching, and that without them we should have been verily desolate, left to choose
our own way, which would surely have been evil; and though we cannot cease from sin
while we are in the flesh, God’s mercy places the ideal state before us-"He that hath
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin"- that we may be strengthened, nevermore to
submit ourselves to the yoke of wickedness. How shall he that is dead to sin live any
longer therein? Live therein he cannot. Of that old man within him he will have no
resurrection, for though the motions, the promptings to evil, are there, the love of evil is
slain by the greater love of Christ.
"That ye no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to
the will of God." Christians must live out their lives till God calls them, and for the rest of
their time in the flesh they will be among their wonted surroundings. Just as Christian
slaves must abide with their masters, and Christian wives continue with their husbands,
so each several believer must do his duty where God has placed him. But because he is a
believer it will be done in a different spirit. He is daily cutting himself away from what
the world counts for life; he has begun to live in the Spirit, and the natural man is
weakened day by day; he knows that what is born of the flesh is flesh, and bears the taint
of sin: so he refuses to follow where it would lead him. Men often plead for evil habits
that they are natural, forgetting that "natural" thus used means human, corrupt nature.
The birth of the Spirit transforms this nature, and the renewed man goes about his
worldly life with a new motive, new purposes. He must follow his lawful calling like other
folks, but the sense of his pilgrimage makes him to differ; he is longing to depart, and
holds himself in constant readiness. Worldly men live as though they were rooted here
and would never be moved. "Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for
ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own
names". (Psa_49:11) To the servant of Christ life wears another aspect. He is content to
live on, for God so wills it, and has work for him to do. To continue in the flesh may be,
as it was to St. Paul, the fruit of his labor. And he welcomes this owning of his work, and
will spend his powers in like service. Yet, with the Apostle, he has ever "the desire to
depart and be with Christ, for it is very far better". (Php_1:23) And as he strives to fulfill
God’s intent by crucifying the old man and ceasing from sin, the Christian rejoices in a
growing sense of freedom. To follow the lusts of men was to serve many and hard
taskmasters. Riches, fame, luxury, sensual indulgences, riotous living, are all keen to win
new slaves, and paint their lures in the most attractive colors; and one appetite will make
itself the ally of another, lust hard by greed, so that the chains of him who takes service
with them are riveted many times over, and difficult, often impossible, to be cast off. But
the will of God is one: "One is your Master"; "Love the Lord your God with all your
heart"; "And all ye are brethren"; "Love your neighbor as yourself." Then shall you enter
into life. And the life of this promise is not that fragment of time, which remains to men
in the flesh, but that unending afterlife where the natural body shall be exchanged for a
spiritual body, and death be swallowed up in victory.
"For the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles." The Apostle
here seems to be addressing the Jews who, living among the Gentiles, had, like their
forefathers in Canaan, learned their works. The nation was not so prone to fall away into
heathendom after the Captivity; yet some of them in the dispersion, like Samson when

he went down unto the Philistines, may have been captured and blinded and made to
serve. The proximity of evil is infectious. To the Gentile converts St. Peter speaks
elsewhere as having been slaves to their lusts in ignorance. (1Pe_1:14) But whether Jew
or Gentile, when they had once tasted the joy of this purer service, this law of obedience
which made them truly free, they would be strengthened to suffer in the flesh rather
than fall back upon their former life. The time would seem enough, far more than
enough, to have been thus defiled. All was God’s; all that remained must be given to Him
with strenuous devotion.
St. Peter seems to place in contrast, as he describes the two ways of life, two words, one
by which he denotes the service of God, by the other devotion to the world and its
attractions. The former (θεληµα) implies a pleasure and joy; it is the will of God that
which He delights in, and which He makes to be a joy to those who serve Him. The other
(βουληµα) has a sense of longing, unsatisfied want, a state which craves for something
which it cannot attain. St. Paul describes it as "led away by divers lusts, ever learning"
(but in an evil school), "never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, corrupted in
mind, reprobate". (2Ti_3:7) Such is the desire of the Gentiles. The Apostle describes it in
his next words: "To have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, winebibbings, revellings,
carousings, and abominable idolatries." How gross heathendom can be our missionaries
from time to time reveal to us. All the corruptions, which they describe, were reigning in
full power round about these converts. When men change the glory of the incorruptible
God for the likeness of corruptible man or even worse, and worship and serve the
creature, their own animal passions, rather than the Creator, there is no depth of
degradation to which they may not sink. St. Paul has painted for us some dark pictures
of what such lives could be. (Rom_1:24-32; Col_3:5-8) But though Christianity in our
own land has forced sin to veil some of its fouler aspects, vice has not changed its nature.
The same passions rule in the hearts of those who live to the lusts of men, and not to the
will of God. The flesh warreth against the Spirit, even if the Spirit be not utterly
quenched, and brings men into its slavery. For the sake of Christ, then, and for love of
the brethren, the faithful have need still to be proclaiming, "Let the time past suffice,"
and by their actions to testify that they are willing to suffer in the flesh, if so be they may
thereby be sustained in the battle against sin and may strengthen their brethren to walk
in a new way.
"Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them into the same excess of riot,
speaking evil of you." The godless love to be a large company, that they may keep one
another in heart. Hence they who have been of them, and would fain withdraw, have no
easy task; and to win new comrades sinners are ever most solicitous. Their invitations at
first will take a friendly tone. Solomon understood them well, and described them in
warning to his son: "Come with us," they say: "let us lay wait for blood; let us lurk privily
for the innocent without cause; let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole as those
that go down into the pit. We shall find all precious substance; we shall fill our houses
with spoil. Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; we will all have one purse". (Pro_1:11-14)
This is one fashion of their excess of riot, but there are many more. The Apostle’s words
picture their life as an overflow, a deluge. And the figure is not strange in Holy Writ.
"The floods of ungodly men made me afraid," says the Psalmist; (Psa_18:14) and St.
Jude, writing about the same time as St. Peter and of the same evil days, calls such
sinners "wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shames". (Jud_1:13) "Shames," he
says, because the floods of excess pour on in overwhelming abundance, and those who
escape from them do so only with much suffering in the flesh, sent of God, to set them
free from sin.
And if there be no hope of winning recruits or alluring back those who have escaped, the

godless follow another course. They hate, and persecute, and malign. Ever since the days
of Cain this has been the policy of the wicked, though not all push it so far as did the first
murderer. (1Jn_3:12) For the life of the righteous is a constant reproach to them. They
have made their own choice, but it yields them no comfort; and if one means of making
others as wretched as themselves fails, they take another. They point the finger of hatred
and scorn at the faithful. To the Greeks Christ’s faith was foolishness. The Athenians, full
of this world’s wisdom, asked about Paul, "What will this babbler say?" and mocked as
they heard of the resurrection of the dead. With them and such as they this life is all. But
the Christian has his consolation: he has committed his cause to another Judge, before
whom they also who speak evil of him must appear.
"Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." The
Christian looks on to the coming judgment. He can therefore disregard the censures of
men. Neither the penalties nor the revilings of the world trouble him. They are a part of
the judgment in the present life; by them God is chastening him, preparing him by the
suffering in the flesh to be more ready for the coming of the Lord. In that day it will be
seen how the servant has been made like unto his Master, how he has welcomed the
purging which Christ gives to His servants that they may bring forth more fruit. He
believes, yea knows, that in the Judge who has been teaching and judging him here day
by day he will find a Mediator and a Savior. With the unbeliever all is otherwise. He has
refused correction, has chosen his own path, and drawn away his neck from the yoke of
Christ; his judgment is all yet to come. The Judge is ready, but He is full of mercy. St.
Peter’s phrase implies this. It tells of readiness, but also of holding back, of a desire to
spare. He is on His throne, the record is prepared, but yet He waits; He is Himself the
long-suffering Vinedresser who pleads, "Let it alone this year also."
Such has been the mercy of God even from the days of Eden. In the first temptation Eve
adds one sin upon another. First she listens to the insidious questioning which
proclaims the speaker a foe to God: then without remonstrance she hears God’s truth
declared a lie; hearkens to an aspersion of the Divine goodness; then yields to the
tempter, sins, and leads her husband into sin. Not till then does God’s judgment fall,
which might have fallen at the first offence; and when it is pronounced, it is full of pity,
and gives more space for repentance. So, though the Judge be ready, His mercy waits.
For He will judge the dead as well as the living: and while men live His compassion goes
forth in its fullness to the ignorant and them that are out of the way. "For unto this end
was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged according to men in
the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." "Unto this end" what does it signify?
What but that God has ever been true to the name under which He first revealed
Himself: "The Lord God, merciful and gracious"; (Exo_34:6) that He has been preaching
the Gospel to stoners by His dispensations from the first day until now? Thus was the
Gospel preached unto Abraham (Gal_3:8) when he was called from the home of his
fathers, and pointed forward through a life of trial to a world-wide blessing. Heeding the
lesson, he was gladdened by the knowledge of the day of Christ. In like manner and unto
this end was the Gospel sent to God’s people in the wilderness, (Heb_4:2) even as unto
us; but the word of hearing did not profit them. With many of them God was not well
pleased. Yet He showed them in signs His Gospel sacraments. They were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, did all eat the same spiritual meat, and all drank
the same spiritual drink, (1Co_10:2-4) for Christ was with them, as their Rock of
refreshing, all their journey through the desert, preaching the Gospel by visitations now
of mercy, now of affliction. Unto this end He brought them many a time under the yoke
of their enemies; unto this end He sent them into captivity. Thus were they being judged,
as men count judgments, if haply they might listen in this life to the gospel of trial and

pain, and so live at last, as God counts life, in the spirit, when the final judgment-day is
over. They are dead, but to every generation of them was the Gospel preached, that God
might gather Him a great multitude to stand on His right hand in the day of account.
Some have applied the Words of this verse to the sinners of the days of Noah, connecting
them closely with 1Pe_3:19; and truly, though they be but one example out of a world of
mercies, they are very notable. They were doomed; they were dead while they lived:
"Everything that is in the earth shall die". (Gen_6:17) Yet to them the preacher was sent,
and unto this end: that though they were to be drowned in the Deluge, and so in men’s
sight be judged, their souls might be saved, as God would have them saved, in the great
day of the Lord. But every visitation is a gospel, a gospel unto this end: that through
judgment here a people may be made ready in God’s sight to be called unto His rest.
Few passages have more powerful lessons than this for every age. The world is full of
suffering in the flesh. Who has not known it in many kinds? But it is in consequence, to
those who will hear, very full of Gospel sermons. They cry aloud, Sin no more; the time
past may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. Suffering does not mean that
God is not full of love; rather it is a token that, in His great love, He is training us,
opening our eyes to our wrong-doings that we may cast them off, and giving us a true
standard to judge between the desire of the Gentiles and the will of God. And though
men may look on us as sore afflicted, our Father, when the rest of our time in the flesh
shall be ended, will give us the true life with Him in the spirit.
HAWKER, “1 Peter 4:1-11
Forasmuch 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. (3) For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the
Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings,
banquetings, and abominable idolatries: (4) Wherein they think it strange that ye run
not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: (5) Who shall give account
to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. (6) For this cause was the gospel
preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the
flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. (7) But the end of all things is at hand: be ye
therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. (8) And above all things have fervent charity
among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. (9) Use hospitality one to
another without grudging. (10) As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the
same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (11) If any man
speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the
ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to
whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Certainly there are no arguments, in a way of persuasion, equal to those, which are
drawn from the view of the love of Christ to his Church; and especially as manifested
towards the Church in Christ’s sufferings and death. And when God the Holy Ghost
sweetly blends his grace with his word, the child of God, cannot but feel the
persuasiveness of it, on his soul. We have in this Chapter, some very blessed directions
of the Holy Ghost, to this amount. And, Reader! why may we not hope, that He who so
affectionately recommends, will as effectually give his blessing; and work in us both to
will, and to do, of his good pleasure?
And, perhaps of all the arguments, within the compass of these verses, there is not one

which comes home to the soul, of the regenerated with more endearedness, than that of
Christ having suffered for us in the flesh, that we no longer should live to ourselves, but
to him. Jesus having all fulness, emptied himself for his people. And when redemption
work was finished, and he returned to glory, yet will he now not consider himself again
filled, until the whole purposes of his sufferings and death be answered. If it could be
supposed possible for one of Christ’s little ones to remain behind, in the ruins of this
world, Jesus could not consider himself completely blessed without him. He must have
his members by tale and number. The flocks must all pass under the hand of him that
telleth them, Jer_33:13. Reader! what think you of being armed with the same mind.
Can we be content without Christ? Will a fulness of the creature, a fulness of ordinances,
a full house, a full table, yea heaven itself, and Jesus not there, would these satisfy?
I detain the Reader no longer over these verses, (for they are all too plain to need a
comment,) than just to observe, how blessedly the direction is given, for the ministering
to God’s glory, by all the redeemed, whether private believers or public preachers, when
they are called upon to do it, according to the ability which God giveth. And the reason
is, because God must give in to his people grace, before that they can give out to Him
praise. But when the heart is turned in all its chords, with God’s love, then, and not
before, the true melody of the soul will vibrate on every string. The soul wound up to
praise, is in perfect harmony with the numberless chants of old saints, and finds Christ,
and enjoys Christ in every one. I will love thee, he will say, O Lord my strength. I will
extol thee my God and King. I will bless thy Name forever and ever. If the Reader would
desire hymns to this purpose, the Bible is full of them, Exo_15:11; Ps 18; 41:13; Isa_25:1;
Psa_104:33-34. On the subject of covering a multitude of sins, see Jas_5:20 and
Commentary.
MEYER, “ THE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST
1Pe_4:1-11
The Apostle urges the disciples to make a clean break with sin. As our Lord’s grave lay
between Him and His earlier life, so there should be a clean break between our life as
believers and the earth-bound life, which was dominated by lawless passions. Sometimes
God employs the acid of persecution or suffering to eat away the bonds that bind us to
our past. Let us accept these with a willing mind. The one condition of reigning with the
enthroned Christ is to submit to His cross. Of course, we must die to animal instinct, to
the blandishments of the world, and to the temptations of the evil one; but it is quite as
important to die to our self-life, whether it be clothed in white or black!
We are summoned to a life of prayer. But in order to promote fervency in prayer we
must be sober-minded and self-controlled, 1Pe_4:7; loving, 1Pe_4:8; and faithful to our
stewardship of all God’s entrusted gifts, 1Pe_4:10. Let us cultivate the invariable habit of
looking up from our service, of whatever kind, to claim the ability to do it for the glory of
God, 1Pe_4:11.
MACLAREN, “CHRISTIAN ASCETICISM
Christian morality brought two new things into the world—a new type of life in sharp
contrast with the sensuality rife on every side, and a new set of motives powerfully aiding
in its realisation. Both these novelties are presented in this passage, which insists on a
life in which the spirit dominates the flesh, and is dominated by the will of God, and

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