Text: 1Peter 4: 1-8
Lutheran pastors can get a little nervous when preaching what we call Sanctification. By sanctification, I mean the way God says we should live as his people. That nervousness can come from thinking, who am I stand up here and tell you how to live. But of course, it’s not me.
But there’s also another reason for this nervousness when preaching sanctification. The main message of the Bible is not what we should do for God. It’s what he has done for us in his Son, Jesus Christ. So any Lutheran pastor worth his salt is going to make sure you see Jesus in every sermon. He’s also going to make sure you can’t escape from this fact. We are lost on our own. Without Jesus, we are like those weeds in Jesus’ parable, ripe for judgment.
But with Jesus and through faith in him, we are saved, forgiven, reconciled to God. We who once were without God and without hope, now are God’s dearly loved children with an awesome hope.
Lutheran pastors love to share that in their preaching. They love to remind you of how God touches you personally with his grace in baptism and our Lord’s supper. But God’s Word also is like a set of road signs that say, go this way, don’t go that way. That Word comes to people touched by God’s grace who have a new heart of faith and love for God. And it answers for us this question. And How Should We Live?
There are plenty of places in the Bible that speak to that. But here I think of Jesus’ parable of the weeds and the wheat growing side by side. Jesus is talking about this world, how believer and unbeliever share the field of this world until the day of judgment.
At times that can make life complicated, even tough, wheat and weeds growing side by side. In the workplace or classroom where you are the only believer. In the home, or as you do business. And that especially goes for the new believer whose friends or family might turn against him. The new believer in a place like Iran where it’s downright dangerous to follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior. It seems to me these words of the apostle Peter speak to that.
And how should we live?
I. Under the Cross
II. Expecting the Day of Judgment
Peter is writing to people like many Christians in this world. They often take it on the chin for their Christian faith and life. That probably surprised many of them. Why is this happening to us? No doubt it discouraged them. A neighbor might bring his Christian neighbor up on charges of worshiping another king, called Christ, instead of the emperor. That could lead to arrest, jail time even torture.
But Peter doesn’t just console these Christians. He tells them how they and we should live as we face the prospect of suffering. Under the cross of Jesus Christ.
Peter reminds us: Christ suffered in the flesh. Not by accident, not by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Christ suffered with intention, the intention to suffer and die for you. I think of Jesus speaking through the prophet Isaiah: I have set my face like flint. (Is 50:7) That’s a picture of his determination as he made his way to Jerusalem knowing full well what awaited him. The Lamb of God would take all our sins to the cross, suffer our hell and die. So that today your pastor can stand before you and say: In the name of Jesus, your sins are forgiven. Go in peace. We live by faith under that blessed cross.
But living under the cross means more than that. It also means there are going to be crosses for us to bear. Things that we suffer because we follow Jesus. That’s what Peter is talking about here: Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude …What attitude? Follow Jesus with the same attitude he had towards his suffering for you. ‘I am going to endure it to follow you Jesus.
Then Peter goes on to say: because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. What is Peter saying? First, what he’s not saying, He’s not saying you and I don’t sin anymore. So what is he saying? Think about it. If you are willing to suffer for something or someone you are committed. I think of a mother for her children or a soldier for his buddies.
Well whoever is willing to suffer for Jesus who suffered for us is committed to him. When faced with a sinful choice we say to ourselves, how could I? And when our sinful weakness gets the best of us, we say the same, how could I and repent. We want to be done with that sin.
Look at verses 2 & 3. 2 As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3 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. The world of their day was not much different than our own. Now we have drug abuse to go with alcohol abuse. Now we have internet porn. Or think of a movie about to come out. Based on a very popular series of books called Fifty Shades of Gray. It’s not just about sleazy sex. It’s about twisted and violent sex. And the books can’t stay on the shelves. To live under the cross is to never forget how Jesus suffered for you and then to turn your back on the ways of this fallen world. That’s how we should live.
But when we do, there comes that cross to bear. Your choices can make people feel uncomfortable. Their conscience bothers them. Your light exposes their darkness. People may avoid you, mock you or worse. So Peter writes what these people experienced. 4 They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. Yet it comes with the territory-part of our life under the cross.
But there’s something else that Peter reminds us. This world is in motion. Not just moving through the solar system. Not just revolving on its axis. This world is moving ever closer to a Day that is surely coming. So how show should we live? Expecting the day of judgment.
Listen. Peter is talking about those who heap abuse on God’s people for living their faith. 5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. God is ready to judge. You can sense that readiness in our Old Testament lesson from Joel. 13 Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the wine press is full. God is ready to judge the living and the dead. And that includes those who attack God’s people.
This is hardly reported by our media. I saw it on a website of the Catholic church. Gruesome horrible killings being carried out by these ISIS people in Iraq. One picture said it all: A father holding up the body of his little daughter who they had beheaded.
But God is not absent or far away. One day He will bring such men to account and the scales will be righted. And that is a comfort for those who suffer for their faith. That is a comfort for us who sit frustrated and helpless on the other side of the world. God will act and he is ready to act on the day he has appointed.
So Peter turns his focus back on us-and how should we live? Listen to verse 6. 6 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. It’s a little hard to follow but let me help. Peter wants them to think of those Christians who came before them and are now dead. The gospel was preached to them and the Spirit brought them to faith. And yes at times, they were brought before authorities and judged. Today we might think of someone like Miriam Ibrahim, in the Sudan, condemned for her faith. But thanks be to God, set free. We might think of Christian businesses sued and sometimes ruined because they would not go against God’s Word on abortion or gay marriage. But here Peter reminds us that the really important thing is this. The gospel was preached, that gospel intended to save us and give us hope for that day to come. But also this. Listen again: that we live according to God in regard to the spirit.
What’s Peter saying? That we live our lives under God, his ways, his Word, his will. But look at that last phrase, in regard to the spirit. In other words, we live under God because we want to not because we have to. For that’s what the gospel does. We expect the day of judgment. The end of all things is near. But we need not be afraid of that day. In Christ, in his gospel, God has given us a wonderful hope. You and I will look up to our Judges face and see our Savior there. That good news changes hearts. It changes lives.
And how should we live? Peter writes these things for us as that Day draws near. First be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Be clear minded to recognize the devil’s lies. Like there are many ways to God. And be self-controlled. Fight the good fight against your sinful nature. For it’s kind of hard to pray when we’ve let ourselves sink into the muck and mire of sin.
But here’s the thing that Peter raises up high before us. The same as Paul. The same as our Lord Jesus. Above all, love each other deeply, for love covers over a multitude of sins. That speaks to each one of us as we get closer to that day. Jesus tells us. It’s going to get worse for Christians before it gets better. So we need each other’s love and not a love of just words, but action. We need each other’s love because we are sinners. We hurt and disappoint each other. You and me. So we need each other’s love. That we repent, forgive and move on as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Yes, Above all, love each other deeply. That’s how we should live. Amen.