Christ suffered in the flesh. 1 Peter 4:1-6 Ecce Homo A. Rowland, LL. B. 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. )

Benson Commentary 1 Peter 4:1 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; 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 for your 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. 1 Peter 4:2 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. 1 Peter 4:3 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: 1 Peter 4:3-5 . For the time past of our life may suffice us — ??????? ???? , is sufficient for us; to have wrought the will of the Gentiles — The expression is soft, but conveys a very strong meaning, namely, that in no period of our lives ought we to have wrought the will of the Gentiles; and that whatever time we spent in so doing was too much. When we walked in lasciviousness — In various kinds and degrees of it; lusts — Inordinate desires; excess of wine — ???????????? , being inflamed with wine; revellings — ?????? , luxurious feastings; see on Romans 13:13 ; banquetings — ?????? , drunken entertainments; and abominable idolatries — With all the shameful vices connected therewith. Wherein they think it strange, &c. — The word ?????????? , thus rendered, was used by the Greeks to express that admiration and wonder with which a stranger is struck, who beholds anything uncommon or new. The meaning here is, On account of your former manner of life, they wonder that you now shun their company, and run not with them to the same excess of riot you formerly ran into; speaking evil of you — As proud, singular, silly, wicked, and the like; who shall give account — Of this as well as all their other ways; to him that is ready — So faith represents him now; to judge the quick and the dead — Those who are now alive, and those who shall be found alive at his coming to judgment. 1 Peter 4:4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you : 1 Peter 4:5 Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. 1 Peter 4:6 For 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. 1 Peter 4:6 . For for this cause — Or to this end; was the gospel preached — Ever since it was intimated to Adam, in the promise made to him after the fall, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head; to them that are dead — Who have died in their several generations, and especially to our forefathers, the descendants of Abraham, and the other patriarchs, by Moses and the prophets; that they might be judged according to men in the flesh — Or, that though they were judged in the flesh according to the manner of men, with rash, unrighteous judgment, were condemned as evil- doers, and some of them put to death, they might live according to God — Agreeably to his word and will; in the spirit — In their soul, renewed after the divine image, as his devoted servants and witnesses in the midst of their persecutors, and so be prepared to live with him in a future world. 1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 4:7 . The end of all things is at hand — Of our mortal lives, and of all the joys and sorrows, goods and evils connected therewith, and so of all your wrongs and sufferings. Many commentators indeed understand St. Peter as speaking only of the end of the Jewish commonwealth, city, temple, and worship. Thus Whitby understands him: “This phrase, and the advice upon it, so exactly parallel to what our Lord had spoken, will not suffer us to doubt that the apostle is here speaking, not of the end of the world, or of all things in general, which was not then, and seems not yet to be at hand, but only of the end of the Jewish state.” Thus also Macknight: “This epistle being written about a year after the war with the Romans began, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish state, Peter, who had heard his Master’s prophecy concerning these events, and the signs of their approach, had good reason to say that they had approached.” But, as Dr. Doddridge justly observes, this was an event in which most of those, to whom the apostle wrote, were comparatively but little concerned. It is probable, therefore, that the apostle either referred to death, which may be considered as the end of the whole world to every particular person; or the consummation of all things, which may be said to be at hand in the sense in which our Lord, long after the destruction of Jerusalem: says to the church, ( Revelation 22:7 ; Revelation 22:20 ,) Behold I come quickly. To the same purpose is Mr. Scott’s interpretation: “All Christians must expect tribulations in the world, but these would soon terminate; for the end of all things was at hand, and death was about to close their course of trials or services; nay, judgment would not be so long delayed, as that the intervening space should, in the estimation of faith, be at all compared with eternity.” Be ye therefore sober — Temperate in all things, and moderate in all earthly cares and pursuits; remembering their end approaches, and the fashion of this world passeth away. Or, be prudent and considerate, as ??????????? also signifies. Look before you, and provide for eternity. And watch unto prayer — To which temperance, moderation in worldly desires and cares, prudence, and consideration, are great helps, tending to produce a wakeful state of mind, and guarding against all temptations to sin and folly. And this watchfulness is so connected with prayer, that the one cannot exist without the other. See on 1 Thessalonians 5:6-9 . 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8-9 . Above all things — See that you remember the distinguishing badge of your religion and have, maintain, fervent charity, love, among yourselves — One toward another: for love shall cover a multitude of sins — It will cause us to excuse them in others, and will entitle us, through divine mercy to the expectation of forgiveness for our own numberless failings. See on James 5:20 . Love covereth all things, 1 Corinthians 13:7 . He that loves another covereth his faults, how many soever they be. He turns away his own eyes from them, and, as far as it is possible, hides them from others. And he continually prays that all the sinner’s iniquities may be forgiven, and his sins covered. Meantime the God of love measures to him with the same measure into his bosom. Use hospitality one to another — Ye that are of different towns or countries; without grudging — The expense which may attend the exercise of a virtue, which in present circumstances is important and necessary. Practise it with all cheerfulness. 1 Peter 4:9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. 1 Peter 4:10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:10-11 . As every man hath received the gift — Or, a gift, spiritual or temporal, ordinary or extraordinary, (although the latter seems primarily intended,) so minister the same one to another — Employ that gift for the common good; as good stewards of the manifold grace of God — Of the talents wherewith his free love has intrusted you. If any man speak — In public assemblies, or in the social meetings of his Christian brethren; let him speak as the oracles of God — Let all his words be according to that pattern, both as to matter and manner, and more especially when he speaks in public. By this mark we may always know who are, so far, the true or false prophets. The oracles of God teach that men should repent, believe, and obey; he that treats of faith, and leaves out repentance, and fruits worthy of repentance; or treats of repentance and its fruits, but omits inculcating faith; or who does not enjoin practical holiness to believers, does not speak as the oracles of God; he does not preach Christ, let him think as highly of himself as he will. If any man minister — Serve his brother in love, whether in temporal or spiritual things; let him do it as of the ability which God giveth — That is, humbly and diligently, ascribing all his power to God, and using it with his might; that God in all things — Whether of nature or of grace; may be glorified through Jesus Christ — The wise dispenser of these gifts; to whom — As our great Redeemer and Saviour; be praise and dominion — Greek, ? ???? ??? ?? ?????? , the glory of them, and the power of dispensing them; or the glory of his wisdom, which teaches us to speak, and the might which enables us to act. 1 Peter 4:11 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 for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 1 Peter 4:12-13 . Think it not strange, &c. — Wonder not at the fiery trial — The dreadful series of furious and bitter persecutions. The original expression, ?? ???? ??????? , is literally, the burning which is among you; denoting the grievous persecution which the Christians in Pontus, &c., were suffering for their faith; including both martyrdom itself, which frequently was by fire, and all the other sufferings joined with or previous to it. The metaphor is bold, but noble: it expresses in a lively manner the painful and dangerous nature of their trials. Which is to try you — Is permitted by the wisdom of God for the trial of your faith in Christ, and in the truths and promises of his gospel; of your hope of eternal life, your love to God, his people, and his ways, of your resignation to his will, your patience and meekness; as though some strange thing happened unto you — Different from, or beyond, all which you were taught to expect. But rejoice in these trials, inasmuch as ye are therein partakers of Christ’s sufferings — Sufferings endured for his sake, in defence of his truth, and in proof of your faith in him; that when his glory shall be revealed — At the great and glorious day of his second appearance; ye — In the participation of it; may be glad with exceeding joy — ?????? ???????????? , may rejoice transported with gladness. 1 Peter 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. 1 Peter 4:14-16 . If ye be reproached for Christ — Reproaches and cruel mockings were always one part of their sufferings, and to an ingenuous mind, reproach is often worse than the spoiling of goods, or even than bodily pain; happy are you — The apostle alludes to Christ’s words, Matthew 5:11 , Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, &c. For the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you — Conquering all reproach, and spreading a lustre around you, while he supports and comforts you in a glorious manner under all your trials. The apostle alludes to Isaiah 11:2 . “The Spirit of glory, which rested on the persecuted disciples of Christ in the first age, was a Spirit of fortitude, enabling them to suffer the greatest evils without shrinking, a virtue which the heathen greatly admired. For which reason, when they put the first Christians to death for refusing to worship idols, they were so struck with the constancy, patience, meekness, and benevolence wherewith they suffered, that it led many of them to think well, both of a religion which inspired its votaries with such admirable virtues, and of those votaries themselves. And as this constancy in suffering, from which the Christians derived so much glory, proceeded from the aid of the Spirit of God, the apostle justly termed it, both the Spirit of glory, and the Spirit of God.” — Macknight. But let none of you — Who have the honour to bear the Christian name; suffer — By your own fault; suppose as a murderer, or as a thief &c. — At the time St. Peter wrote this epistle, the unbelieving Jews in Judea were extremely addicted to murder and robbery, and every kind of wickedness, as we learn from Josephus; for they robbed and killed, not only the heathen, but their own brethren, who would not join them in their opposition to the Romans. Hence the apostle judged it proper to caution the Christians, especially the Jewish Christians, in this manner, lest, being corrupted by such bad examples, they should be led to the commission of any such crimes. As the apostle is here cautioning them against those sins which, if they committed them, would expose them to punishment from the civil magistrate, by ????????????????? , here rendered a busy-body in other men’s matters, he cannot well be supposed to mean merely one who pries into the concerns of private families, as such a one could not properly be ranked with such criminals as are here mentioned. But he might mean one that affected to inspect and direct the behaviour of persons in public offices, from a factious disposition to find fault with their conduct, and thereby to raise commotions in the state; which Lardner hath shown was the practice of the Jews in Alexandria, Cesarea, and other places. Or we may, with L’Enfant. understand the word in the more general sense of meddling with other people’s affairs, from avarice, anger, revenge, malice, or other bad passions. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian — That is, because he is a Christian; and if he suffer in a Christian spirit, let him not be ashamed — Of his sufferings; but let him glorify, or praise, God on this behalf — That is, for having judged him worthy to suffer in so good a cause; and for enabling him to do it with fortitude and patience. It may be proper to observe that this, with Acts 11:26 ; Acts 26:28 , are the only passages of Scripture in which the disciples are called Christians, after their Master. 1 Peter 4:15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. 1 Peter 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. 1 Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4:17 . For the time is come — Foretold by Christ, Matthew 24:9 ; John 16:2 ; that judgment must begin at the house of God — In the Christian Church; God’s own family, which he first visits, both in justice and mercy. The judgment here spoken of is thought by many commentators to signify the particular distress which was to happen before Jerusalem should be utterly destroyed. the Christians were to expect to feel some of the first effects of that general calamity: it was to begin with them, as Christ had plainly foretold in the passages just referred to. It was God’s method of old to begin with sending calamities on his own people; and indeed a state of trial seems highly proper before a state of recompense. See 1 Peter 1:6 . There seems to be an allusion in this passage to Ezekiel 9:6 , and Jeremiah 25:29 . By us here, the apostle meant the Christians of that age, whether formerly Jews or Gentiles; for they appear to have been now persecuted generally everywhere. And if it first begin at us — Who have truly turned to God, and are taken into his favour through Christ, his beloved Son; what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? — Who, through unbelief and obstinacy, reject the counsel of God against themselves? how terribly will he visit them! The words, who obey not the gospel of God, properly describe the unbelieving Jews: they were not chargeable with idolatry; they acknowledged, and in a sense worshipped, the true God; but they rejected the gospel which God had revealed by his Son, and therefore the divine wrath was executed upon them in so dreadful a manner. See on 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 . Whoever compares the accounts in the Scriptures, or ancient fathers, concerning the persecutions which befell the Christians about this time, with the sufferings of the Jews, as related by Josephus, will easily see that the distress only began with the Christians, and was light compared with what afterward fell upon the Jews: for when Jerusalem was destroyed, the Christians escaped with their lives, and enjoyed more peace and tranquillity than they had done before. 1 Peter 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 1 Peter 4:18 . And if the righteous scarcely be saved — Escape with the utmost difficulty. So the word ????? , rendered scarcely, signifies. That is, If it be not without much difficulty that the Christians are secured and preserved in those overflowing, devouring judgments which are coming on the Jewish nation; where shall the ungodly and the sinner — The impenitent and unbelieving, the obstinate and wicked part of the Jewish nation; appear? — That is, what will become of them? Dreadful will be their destruction. The meaning of the apostle, however, may be, If the righteous, ? ??????? , the righteous man, be scarcely, or not wholly saved from suffering, that is, from chastisement, (in which light the apostle represents the persecutions to which the Christians were exposed,) if God judges, and, by various temporal afflictions and calamities, punishes him, where shall the ungodly and impenitent sinner appear? How terrible will be the wrath which will fall upon him? If the faults of the loyal subject, yea, of the dutiful son, be not passed over unnoticed, unchastised, by the holy and just Governor and Judge of the world, what has not the enemy and rebel to fear? Perhaps this may be the chief meaning of the apostle, and not the deliverance of the Christians from the Roman invasion, in which very few of them were concerned, to whom the apostle addressed his epistle; namely, those sojourning in Pontus, &c. See chap. 1 Peter 1:1 . And the passage may be intended to signify also the difficulty with which pious men get to heaven, through this dangerous and insnaring world. Compare Acts 14:18 ; Acts 27:7-8 ; Acts 27:16 . where the word ????? , here used, signifies with difficulty. “The turn of the latter clause of the verse in the original, ??? ???????? , is very lively; it seems as if the apostle were solicitous to lead the sinner to consider where he should hide his head, since wherever he was he would find God immediately appearing against him as an irresistible enemy. This he might say, by way of warning to persecutors, and to encourage Christians to hope that God would vindicate their cause, and preserve them from turning aside to crooked paths. And this the connection with the following verse favours.” — Doddridge. 1 Peter 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. 1 Peter 4:19 . Wherefore let them that suffer — This temporary chastisement; according to the will of God — Namely, for a good cause, and in a right spirit; commit the keeping of their souls to him — Intrust themselves to God’s care, either to preserve their lives, if he see good, or to save their souls if they suffer death; or, whatever becomes of their bodies, let them commit their souls to him as a sacred depositum: in well-doing — Persevering to the end in the way of duty and obedience, notwithstanding all the sufferings to which they are exposed. In other words, let it be their care to do well, and suffer patiently, and God will take care of the rest. As unto a faithful Creator — In whose wisdom, power, goodness, truth, and faithfulness to his promises, they may safely trust: for as he called them into existence when they were not, he is able to preserve them without any visible means, and will dispose of them as he sees will conduce most to their eternal welfare. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 1 Peter 4:1 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; Chapter 12 THE LESSONS OF SUFFERING 1 Peter 4:1-6 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," { John 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, { Revelation 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". { Revelation 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". { Psalm 119:67 ; Psalm 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." { Isaiah 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". { Psalm 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. { 1 Peter 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 ( ?????? ) 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 ( ??????? ) 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". { 2 Timothy 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. { Romans 1:24-32 ; Colossians 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". { Proverbs 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; { Psalm 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". { Judges 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. { 1 John 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"; { Exodus 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 { Galatians 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, { Hebrews 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, { 1 Corinthians 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 1 Peter 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". { Genesis 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. 1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. Chapter 13 CHRISTIAN SERVICE FOR GOD’S GLORY 1 Peter 4:7-11 "BUT the end of all things is at hand." Well-nigh two thousand years have passed away since the Apostle wrote these words. What are we to think of the teaching they convey? For it is not St. Peter’s teaching only. Those who labored with him were all of the same mind; all gave the same note of warning to their converts. St. Paul exhorts the Philippians, "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand"; { Php 4:5 } and in the first letter to the Corinthians the last words before his benediction are to the same purport: "Maranatha"; { 1 Corinthians 16:22 } that is, The Lord cometh. St. James preaches, "Stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh". { Jam 5:8 } To the Hebrews the Apostle writes, "Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry". { Hebrews 10:37 } While St. John, who lived longer than any of the rest, conveys the warning even in more solemn tones: "Little children, it is the last hour". { 1 John 2:18 } Are we to look on these admonitions as so many mistaken utterances? Are we to think that the disciples had misunderstood the Lord’s teaching, or would they say the same words if they were with us today? We may allow that those who had been present at the Ascension, and had heard the words of the angels declaring that "this same Jesus should so come as they had seen Him go into heaven," { Acts 1:11 } might expect His return to judge the world to be not far distant. But, in whatever they say in reference thereto, their main concern is that men should be ready. "In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh," is the ground-text of all their exhortations. Now had arrived the fullness of the time { Galatians 4:4 } in which God had sent forth His Son, born of a woman; and if we take the verb of St. Peter’s sentence ( ?????? , "has come near"), we feel that he viewed the new era on which the world had entered in this light. And so did the other Apostles. One says, "Now once in the end of the ages hath Christ been manifested"; { Hebrews 9:26 } another teaches that things of old "were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come". { 1 Corinthians 10:11 } God has spoken aforetime "in many portions and in many ways, but in the end of these days He hath spoken in His Son". { Hebrews 1:2 } All things are now summed up in Christ; He is the end of all things. Prophecy, type, sacrifice, all have passed away. There will come no new revelation; no word more will be added to the Divine book. Its lessons will find in each generation new illustrations, new applications, but will admit no change of form or substance. The Christian dispensation, be it long or short, is the last time; it will close with the Second Advent. And continual preparedness is to be the Christian’s attitude. And this is the purport of St. Peter’s next exhortations, which are as forceful today as they were eighteen hundred years ago. "Be ye therefore of sound mind." Exactly the counsel which should follow the previous lesson. It was misinterpreted at first, as it has been since. We know how unwisely the Thessalonians behaved when they had been told by St. Paul, "The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night". { 1 Thessalonians 5:2 } The Apostle learnt that they were sorely disturbed, and wrote them a second letter, from which we can gather how far they had wandered from soundness of mind. At first the Apostle speaks gently: "Be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present". { 2 Thessalonians 2:2 } But soon he shows us how the excitement had operated. Some among them had begun to walk disorderly, apparently thinking that they might live upon the community, working not at all, but being busybodies. These made, no doubt, the approach of the day of the Lord their pretext. St. Paul bids such men in quietness to work and eat their own bread. To be found at their duty was the best way of preparing for the end. How soundness of mind may serve the Church of Christ is seen in the settlement of that murmuring which arose { Acts 6:1 } as soon as the Christian disciples began to be multiplied in Jerusalem. It was the Grecian Jews who complained that their widows were neglected. The Apostles wisely withdrew from the distribution about which the complaint was made, and more wisely still gave the oversight into the hands of Greeks (as the forms of all their names bear witness) who would be fully trusted by the murmurers. "And the word of God increased." The pages of Church history supply examples in abundance of the need in religious matters for this soundness of mind. We need not go back to very ancient times. What sore evils led to and arose out of the peasant war in Germany in the days of the Reformation, followed by those excesses, which disgraced the name of Christianity in Munster and other parts of Westphalia! And in our own land, both at that time and subsequently, the unwise enthusiasm of those who acted as though whatever had been must be wrong hindered sorely the temperate efforts of the more conservative and sober minds; while undue prominence given to single doctrines of the Gospel has many times warped men’s minds; and does so still, making the cause of Christ to be hardly spoken of. A sense of proportion is a gift which the Church may fitly pray for in her members, and that, while they seek to foster the sevenfold graces of the Holy Spirit, they may ever keep in mind the mercy of Him who bestows only a portion on each of us as we can receive it, and makes no man the steward of them all. "And be sober unto prayer." The Apostle selects one example wherein the sound mind ought to be sought after, and he has chosen it so as to be of general application. The wisdom to which he is exhorting is needed for all men, both those who teach and those who hear, those who serve tables and those who are served thereby. Many members of the Christian body, however, will not be concerned with such special duties. But all will pray, and so to prayer he applies his precept. "Be sober." A sound mind will preserve us from extravagance in our approach unto God. For even here extravagance may intrude. The Corinthian Church had gone very far wrong in this respect. Overelated, losing soundness of mind, through the bestowal of certain gifts, they had introduced such irregularities into their religious meetings that St. Paul speaks of occasions when they might have been regarded as madmen. { 1 Corinthians 14:23 } These were public prayers. St. James applies the same standard to private prayers: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss". { Jam 4:3 } There is no true prayer in your petitions. You have selected in your own hearts what you would fain have and do, and you come before God with these as your supplications. There is no thought in them of yielding to God’s will, but only the sense that if your petitions were granted you would reap a present satisfaction. Ye ask amiss. Many a heart can testify to the proneness to err thus by want of sobriety. "Above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves." Soundness of mind and sobriety should dominate every part of the believer’s life; but there are other virtues of preeminent excellence, unto which, though they be far above him, he is encouraged to aspire. Of these St, Peter, like 1 Corinthians 13:13 , places love at the summit, above all things. The word he uses signifies that perfect love which is the attribute of God Himself. To frail humanity it must ever be an ideal. But the Apostle in his second epistle { 2 Peter 1:7 } has given a progressive list of graces to be sought after in a holy life, a series of mountain summits each above the other, and each made visible through the one below it. Here, too, love comes as the climax; and the Revised Version marks it as far above mere human affection: "In your love of the brethren supply also love." Here is no anticlimax, if we once appreciate the grandeur of the concluding term. In the present verse, however, the Apostle exhorts that this Divine quality is to be exercised by the converts among themselves, and exercised with much earnestness and diligence. It is to be the grace, which pervades all their lives, and extends itself to every condition thereof. But we understand why St. Peter has used this word for love as soon as we come to the clause, which follows: "For love covereth a multitude of sins." To cover sin is godlike. It has been often asked, Whose sins are covered by this love, those of him who loves, or of him who is loved? The question can have but one answer. There is nothing in the New Testament to warrant such a doctrine as that love towards one’s fellow-men will hide, atone for, or cancel any man’s sins. When our Lord says of the woman who was a sinner, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much," { Luke 7:47 } it is not love to the brethren of which He is speaking, but love to God, which she had manifested by her actions toward Himself; and when He presently adds, "Thy faith hath saved thee," He tells us the secret of her availing love. But when men are animated by that love toward their neighbors which shows likest God’s, they are tender to their offences they look to the future more than to the past, hoping all things, believing all things; they have tasted God’s mercy in the pardon of their own sins, and labor to do thus unto others, to cast their sins out of sight, to put them, as God does when He forgives, behind their back, as though in being forgiven they were also forgotten. The phrase is quoted by St. Peter from Proverbs 10:12 , where Solomon says, "Love covereth all sins," and our Lord’s words to St. Peter himself { Matthew 18:22 } about forgiving until seventy times seven times practically set no limit to the extension of pardon to the repentant. Thus taught, the Apostle uses the noble word ????? of human tenderness to offenders, because he would urge men to a boundless, all-embracing, godlike pity for sinners. "Using hospitality one to another without murmuring." We need only reflect on the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles to realize how large a part hospitality must have played in the early Church as soon as the preachers extended their labors beyond Jerusalem. The house of Simon the tanner, where Peter was entertained many days; { Acts 9:43 } the friends who at Antioch received Paul and Barnabas and kept them for a whole year; { Acts 9:26 } the petition of Lydia, "Come into my house, and abide there"; { Acts 16:15 } and Jason’s reception of Paul and Silas at Thessalonica, { Acts 17:7 } are but illustrations of what must have been the general custom. Nor would such welcome be needed for the Apostles alone. The Churches must have been very familiar with cases of brethren driven from their own country by persecution, or severed from their own kinsfolk by the adoption of the new faith. To such the kind offices of the Christian congregations must have been constantly extended, so that hospitality was consecrated into a blessed and righteous duty. To be "given to hospitality" { Romans 12:13 } is reckoned among the marks whereby it shall be known that believers, being many, are one body in Christ; and from the salutations in the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans we can frame a picture of the large work of lodging and caring for strangers as it entered into the duties of a Christian life. The brethren at Rome are exhorted to receive and help Phoebe, the bringer of the Epistle, because she had been a succourer of many, and of Paul himself. Of Priscilla and Aquila, who are next named, we know that they were friends and fellow-workers with St. Paul in Corinth, and that in Ephesus they showed their Christian love toward the stranger Apollos; and not only so, but they provided a place where the brethren might assemble for their worship. Later on are mentioned Mary, who bestowed much labor on the brethren; Urbanus, a helper in Christ, and the households of Aristobulus and Narcissus, whole families made friends through the extension of hospitality. Of the mother of Rufus St. Paul speaks tenderly as his own mother also. The coupling together of Philologus and Julia suggests that they were husband and wife and had opened their doors to the brethren, and the notice of Nereus and his sister points to similar good offices. And from whatever place the Epistle was sent to Rome, there Tertius, St. Paul’s amanuensis, was under the hospitable roof of Gaius, whom he speaks of as the host of the whole Church. Doubtless at times the burden might fall heavily on some of the poorer brethren. Hence the need for the Apostle’s addition "without murmuring." The word is