READINGS ON PETER'S FIRST EPISTILE - 1 PETER 4
READINGS ON PETER’S FIRST EPISTILE - 1 PETER 4
This chapter is the continuation of chapter 3; the connection is particularly with verse 18: “For Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. 1 Peter 3: 18. The government of God necessarily overtakes us if we sin. It says in the previous verse, “For it is better, if the will of God should will it, to suffer as well-doers than as evildoers”. 1 Peter 3: 17. So that there is no need for any one else to suffer for sins. This chapter deals with suffering, as to its bearing on us: “Christ, then, having suffered for us in the flesh, do ye also arm yourselves with the same mind”. 1 Peter 4: 1. The bearing of the teaching has in view the government of God, as already before us, and the fact that Christ’s sufferings come in on that line makes them intensely interesting; also that in suffering He was actuated by the Spirit in which He had preached of old from Noah’s time; so that the government of God and the grace of God are thus seen running side by side. It is not contemplated [p. 420] that we can fulfil the will of God and evade suffering; it could not be possible since He, who came to be the perfect Fulfiller of the will of God, experienced suffering all the way through. So that pursuing the will of God brings us into suffering from men, but pursuing our own will brings us into suffering from God.
There is a point of difference between the foregoing and Romans 12: 1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassion of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. To pursue the will of God on that line, we prove that it is good and acceptable and perfect. Peter insists that we must suffer. It comes out more strongly here than in Romans. We cannot escape suffering, whether we do God’s will or our own. In doing the latter, we come under the government of God. In doing the former, we suffer from men. Suffering has a very prominent place in the first epistle of Peter, in contrast to the second, for the reason that the government of God, generally speaking, is in the favour of the believer as viewed there. It moves on, as we say, inexorably, but it is in the believer’s favour and not as yet pronouncedly against the world; but in the second epistle, it is formally against the world, so that it is pursued there to its full and final end, in the subjection of the elements, and the clearance of the universe from sin; but what you find in this letter is, it ever has the favour of the saints in view. Nevertheless, even in them the exercise of their will brings about just judgment; we must suffer for sins if we commit them, for we always reap what we sow.
Verse 1 involves self-denial, it is suffering in the flesh as having done with sin. It is in the abstract and refers to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, for that is where sin is done with; but then we are identified with it in our chapter. The thing is done with in His [p. 421] sufferings, and we come into it abstractly. Not, of course, the atoning sufferings, they were undergone by Christ personally, but the application is to us: “No longer to live the rest of his time in the flesh to men’s lusts, but to God’s will”. 1 Peter 4:2. You work it out from the death of Christ; it has taken effect in Him, so that suffering in the flesh is therefore final.
This suffering in the flesh is absolutely true of Christ; it is taken up abstractly in our chapter, but being in the abstract it is perfect; so that any one of us could take it up. It may be that we have had to deal with the thing in our souls and have suffered in dealing with it, but the great dealing with it is in the death of Christ. Our suffering in the flesh is worked out through baptism, but there is no suffering in baptism. Some one has suffered in the flesh. You take that up as a matter of light to start with, but the more you do so, the more you realise the suffering it involves. We are to be armed with the same mind that was in Christ in suffering. The thing is all one piece, and results in living “to God’s will”.
Psalm 22 presents the suffering. It should have a great effect upon us as we read and ponder it. In doing so the light comes into our souls, and we arm ourselves with the same mind and say, I have done with sin. The opening chapters of Romans work it out doctrinally; chapter 12 of that epistle brings in the mind, on the basis of the mercy shown in the sacrifice of Christ, and you present your bodies as acceptable to God. “Arm yourselves with the same mind” 1 Peter 4:1 means the mind would be closed to all the flesh presents. In the atoning sufferings of Christ as presented in the Psalms and other scriptures, you get His very expressions when in the suffering; this gives the idea of His mind. It is an objective idea, which you take on as light, and face the whole question of sin as in the world with that armour; the result is [p. 422] you definitely take up a line of negation to it. Here it is logically worked out in the believer from the mind of Christ in His sufferings. The point is He suffered in the flesh. It was a real Man that suffered, so that you get a real Man’s experiences in the suffering and take on that mind.
In Romans 12 it is your own mind, here it is the mind of the suffering One, He suffered in the flesh and you take that up. The expression, “arm yourselves”, is a military one; you are on the defensive as having seen the end of sin in the sufferings of Christ and have done with it. The thing is all worked out and settled by Him, so that no investigations are necessary. Take the Book of Ecclesiastes; it is the working out of things by one who tested all “under the sun” by the Spirit; the man that cometh after the king could do only the same, So we in like manner take this up without investigation. As soon as sin came in, God’s first movements in regard to recovery were based on the fact that it could only be on the ground of sacrifice and suffering.
In the first sufferer, Abel, you have this principle set forth. We are not told what mind Abel had in the actual suffering, but when we come to Joseph we have a definite word as to his “anguish of soul”, Genesis 42: 21. This mind was expanded in other men of faith right up to Christ, where the perfection of it is seen. It is a settled thing now for us, so that no further investigation is necessary. The detail of the suffering would be seen in one like Paul: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may he manifested in our body”, 2 Corinthians 4: 10. There it is worked out in a man’s whole life. In verse 13 we are looked at as sharing in the sufferings of Christ, which is another thought entirely. But suffering for sins is atoning, and we are in relation to that. We are not, for the moment, occupied with what He suffered from man, but what He suffered [p. 423] vicariously, and from God. He dealt with sin in His flesh, so that one begins one’s Christian career armed with that mind, and that armour is never given up. It is worked out in bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, and is to characterise your whole life but you begin with this, that you are connected with Him, the sin He suffered for, as if you suffered yourself.
The believer’s whole course on earth is in relation to the government of God, but the sufferings of Christ have taken him out of its range as a punitive government, whereas the unbeliever is still exposed to punishment. If there is departure from righteousness the believer, as under the government of God, comes in for discipline, for judgment must begin even from the house. Judgment affects us in the way of discipline; hence the grace of God is so wonderfully interwoven with His government, and the believer understands this. Affection for Christ, no doubt, enters into this arming, for Christ is presented to the soul as an object in the gospel, and we naturally shrink from suffering; but the point is, you are in the presence of sin, and this part of the passage enables us to take up a right attitude in regard of it, so that you are quite clear as to what to do. Ninety percent of Christians do not know how to deal with sin; they have not armed themselves with this mind.
The Lord, in 1 Peter 3: 18, 19, is said to have been “made alive in the Spirit, in which also going he preached to the spirits which are in prison”; that is, to those that were disobedient in the days of Noah. 1 Peter 4: 6 refers to that again, in view of the government of God having a clear field; on the one hand, if they refused the gospel preached to them, they would “be judged, as regards men, after the flesh”; but, if they accepted the gospel, “live, as regards God, after the Spirit”. Wherever the gospel was accepted, as, for instance, in Abraham’s case,
they lived. As the Lord says, “God is not God of the dead, but of the living” Matthew 22: 32, referring to the patriarchs; whereas others, such as the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, and the Sodomites, were “judged, as regards man, after the flesh”. 1 Peter 4: 6.
The gospel underlies everything. These passages in chapters 3 and 4 show that the gospel extends backward as well as forward, and clears the whole field for the government of God. God’s mind for man was that he should get the benefit of the death of Christ. No one can raise a finger against God’s government, for He preached the gospel in Noah’s day, as verse 6 shows, to the end that those who heard might live. Christ Himself is the Preacher He preached in Old Testament times and is preaching at the present time. The gospel will be the basis of judgment for all, inasmuch as men will be judged according to their works, the crowning feature of which will be the rejection of the testimony rendered by Christ. Romans 2 shows that the heathen were responsible to hear the voice of God in creation.
But there is more than one preacher; creation itself is one great testimony, which is prominent from the outset; then you have Noah’s preaching and it says that the gospel was preached to Abraham; Galatians 3: 8. In that instance it was preached to one man. Then you have Solomon, Jonah, and Nebuchadnezzar, who were preachers, so that God saw to it that the testimony was carried through. Peter speaks of the Spirit of Christ that was in the prophets of Old Testament times; and so in regard to the creation the sun, which is the one mighty centre of light, rule, and life, speaks of Christ. It is an interesting fact that the sun is not said to have been created by itself, like other things; it was set in the heavens by God as a witness of Christ. It was “made” on the fourth day (Genesis 1:16), and so was adapted to control the new order of things in which man was [p. 425] placed. Throughout the Old Testament you have constant reference to it as a witness, particularly in Psalm 19, where you have a spiritual man contemplating it; he says that God has set in the heavens “a tent for the sun; and he is as a bridegroom going forth from his chamber; he rejoiceth as a strong man to run the race”, Psalm 19: 4, 5. There is no doubt that the heavens are intended by God to be a general testimony of Christ to man, to the end that man should live and not die; but if he refused the testimony, the government of God had a clear field.
In Matthew’s account of the transfiguration he states that the Lord’s face shone as the sun. Matthew takes up the government of God, and Luke the grace of God. One must hold these two gospels together in one’s soul. Matthew’s gospel would divert the disciples from Jerusalem to Galilee, whilst Luke’s gospel would have them first preach there. Matthew’s gospel begins with “wise men from the east” Matthew 2: 1; their wisdom lay in the fact that they could read the heavens. The ordinary astronomer reads them like the face of a watch. These wise men read the heavens from a moral point of view; they said they had seen “his star”. No mere astronomer ever saw the star of Jesus! It takes a spiritual person to see that. A star will direct a mariner to the sun; so the wise men from the east arrived at the true Sun by following His star; for they found Him, not in the manger, but in the house.
The testimony of the heavens as set forth in the Old Testament culminates in the house where Jesus was found by the wise men; but now they have the Sun, as chapter 17 says, “His face shone as the sun” Matthew 17: 2. Matthew presents the royal side, Luke the side of humility; so that it is in the manger the shepherds found Him, whereas the wise men found Him in the house. Matthew presents the house, it is more dignified; and the wise men recognise that He is [p. 426] King of the Jews, the Man who is to rule, and bring their gifts in suitability. They did not trace Him in the “fourteen generations” of chapter 1; that was for those who had the Scriptures. It is how any disciple entering into the kingdom of the heavens would follow and find Him. The wise men did not possess the Scriptures; but they had the heavens, and followed the testimony that God gave them. A star would have been entirely out of place in Jerusalem because the chief priests and scribes had the Scriptures; they could tell where Christ was to be born, but had no desire to find Him. The star did not help the wise men in Jerusalem at all. They missed their way, the heavens pointed to Christ, not to Jerusalem. God says to Job, “Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens?” Job 38: 33. These wise men did, and discovered the star of the King, and followed it. It is an answer to all the questions that are raised as to the heathen, and men of Old Testament times. So Balaam spoke of a Star, referring to Christ, and the Day Star is said to arise in our hearts, so that the principle continues. In Matthew, the Child is seen in the house, with His mother, and worshipped. It is the key to that gospel, but the great end reached is in chapter 26, where the woman anoints His head in the house, as if to say, This is the Man to govern me.
When God resumes His ways with Israel, the Lord will be seen as the “Sun of righteousness”. The “everlasting gospel” of Revelation 14: 6 seems to have reference to God’s creatorial rights, since the Gentile had the testimony of the heavens and creation, whereas the “glad tidings” suggest Christ, backward or forward.
All this converges upon our personal position as in the assembly. Judgment is to begin at the house of God, and what is referred to as the house is composed of real Christians. The glory of God is in His house,
[p. 427] just as in Ezekiel, save that in Ezekiel 9: 3 it was “gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house”. The judgment began at the elders who were before the house, representing the responsible element of the people. The glory, that is, the Spirit, could hardly continue with us, any more than with Israel, were it not that the government of God applies; God rescues and preserves us through His governmental dealings. We are experiencing this in the world today; the government of God becomes a help in God’s disciplinary dealings with us, so that the glory of God remains with us. Ananias and Sapphira would illustrate judgment beginning at the house; so in 1 Corinthians 11, where many among them were weak and infirm, and a good many had fallen asleep. Also in Revelation 3: 19, where the Lord says, “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love”.
There is a beautiful instance of self-judgment in the book of Ezra. When Ezra discovers the unseparated state of things, and makes his prayer and confession to God, then come the men of responsibility and unbosom themselves, and say, “We have acted unfaithfully toward our God”. (See Ezra 9 and 10.) The house is brought in here simply to show that judgment begins there. The believer’s position in the house is in relation to privilege as considered in chapter 2; that is, the Jews of the dispersion had part in the house although outside of Jerusalem. Here it is more the responsible side; those who form the house come under the discipline of God.