1 Peter 4:1-7

1 Peter 4:1-7   Therefore, 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. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and pray (NIV).

   For four and a half years, starting in November of 1992, I lived in a basement one room “efficiency” near the Court House subway station in northern Virginia. White cinder blocks walls, exposed pipes on the ceiling, and a black tiled floor were reminders I was in a basement. The rest of the apartments were above ground, rising to three stories. They were normal, though it was an old place, surely the cream of the crop in the early 1900’s. The place has since been torn down. The size of my room was 13 feet by 22 feet; seriously. My bookshelf, desk, large dresser, and sofa were all scrunched up in the single room, where there was also a refrigerator, sink, and stove all there in the small space. There was a closet-like room that was the bathroom, and there was an indentation in the wall where there was a narrow shower. At the time I thought the room was cool. But years later I was praying about the fact that there were some health hazards in that basement, and that I should have worked to find a better place to live. I felt God indicate that the hazards would have been worse had I continued to engage in sin.

   As a young Christian, my years in that apartment were a period of serious sanctification. Justification means that you are forgiven, whereas sanctification means you are changed to be holy like God. Sanctification is a process that is only complete once a person is with Jesus in full, yet it is a process a child of God should seek all of her or his life. Repenting of sins is only supposed to be one aspect of the Christian life. Opening up to God to improve needs to be another. As a new Christian in that basement apartment, God worked to guide me to recognize how certain sins like lust and anger had become a norm in my life before I turned to Christ, and He also worked to get me to trust Him as He changed me. I am such a different person now compared to when I was a young Christian, and a huge step in that improvement process was the change God worked through in me during that early period when I was a rather new follower of Jesus.

   Peter gives a list of sins that the recipients of his epistle had done in the past, and which they needed to shun. Obviously the list of sins is general concerning the audience, with particular sins applying to particular recipients. Yet it indeed applies in particular manners to us. I was considered a goody-two-shoes before I was a Christian, but I assure you I was doing at least one thing on the list: I was lusting much. Yet that began to change. In fact, I remember one specific occasion when I was sitting on a stool in that room. Having recently come home from work, with my coat still on, I was thinking on that stool. I considered the will of God for what it is: good. I said a prayer to God asking that I would do His will, and not my own. That was a landmark day of victory in my walk with Jesus.

   Regarding verse four, I think of a short interview with Lou Gramm I watched.  I also watched an interesting long interview with him once. Lou was the lead singer of the rock group Foreigner for many years. I saw that group in concert at Constitutional Hall in Washington, D.C. in November of 1992, only a week or so after I moved into that basement apartment, and it was a rocking concert. Lou Gramm is a man who has been changed by Jesus. For example, when Foreigner would tour years ago, drugs were a standard activity in that environment.  Lou Gramm told of how one night after a concert at Madison Square Gardens, he realized he was out of control with drugs, and he checked himself into a rehabilitation facility. While staying there, he befriended a pastor. After talking with that pastor about Christ, Lou Gramm gave his heart to Jesus.  When Lou resumed touring, he had not told any of the other band members about his decision. This is normal by the way. Many times it takes a new Christian awhile to be ready to articulate his or her faith or even to come to a full realization of his or her decision. Once the tour bus was rolling down the road, cocaine and pot started getting passed around as usual. When they handed the cocaine to Lou, he said no, and that he would not being doing that anymore. The response of his band members: "What in the world's wrong with you?" Doing that which is apart from the will of God is often attractive to people who do not know God. All of these sins that Peter was talking about 2000 years ago are still done by folks today. Yet if God says not to do something, that means such is harmful, thus do not do it.

   I add that Lou Gramm has suffered much in his life due to a brain tumor, yet God has blessed Lou as he has submitted to the Lord. If you are interested, learn more about Lou on the Internet.  These days, I really like the song "Willing to Forgive" by the Lou Gramm Band!

   Verse six is a key verse, since it is verifying what Jesus did as was stated in I Peter 3:19. Jesus preached the gospel to people “who are now dead.” Those people were physically dead, but not yet spiritually dead. This is a key revelation of Scripture. If I see a dead squirrel, my thought is that its life is over, and I have remorse because I like squirrels. Why should it be different for a person? The revelation from God in Scripture is that people have a spiritual nature, and that physical death is not the end of life. However, just as physical death came to people because of their separation from God, spiritual death is an eventual result if the separation from God is permanent. There is only one way to be spiritually saved, and that is to be reunited with God. Jesus makes that possible, because Jesus died as the substitute for the sins of all people. Jesus died physically and spiritually, and spiritually he took on the sins of everyone. What Jesus did must be received. A person saved by Jesus will still physically die, yet spiritually that person will live eternally. If you believe in Jesus, your soul will live forever bonded with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

   Once when living in that basement apartment, I was praying next to my bed. While trying to talk to God, I started having some sexual thoughts from a movie I had seen in college or such. Those thoughts ended right quick as I did one thing: I thought of Jesus dying on the cross. Jesus died as the substitute for all sins, thus all sins contributed to Him suffering. That is how bad sins are, and that is a reason alone to flee from sin. Plus sin always hurts the individual doing wrong and often other people. Hurt is always the result of sin. To know that Jesus, who was God incarnate, God in the flesh, suffered solely because of the wrongdoings of every single human being, will lead a person who wants to do God’s will to recognize the harm of wrongdoings. The desire to cease doing that which is wrong will result.
Hunter Irvine