Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join Peter Englert, a pastor, and Dr. Ron Hall, professor and pastor, as they delve into the book of 1 Peter. This book helps readers cope with suffering in an antagonistic world by offering hope in Jesus. Whether you're exploring faith or a long-time follower of Jesus, read through the book of 1 Peter on your own or with a group of friends with insights to better understand this book of the Bible.
Podcast_1 Peter 4-11_Edit_01.wav
Transcript generated by Transcript LOL
=========================================
Speaker 1
00:00 - 00:14
Welcome to the Reading 1 Peter passage. I am Peter Englert, one of your co-hosts. I am here with the Reverend Dr. Professor Pastor Ron Hall. Ron, 1 Peter 4, 1-11, are you excited today?
Speaker 2
00:14 - 00:21
We are moving along. Three chapters behind us, and here we have chapter 4 and then chapter 5, making good progress.
Speaker 1
00:22 - 00:29
I love it. Love it. Well, let me read it, and then we're going to just kind of give a big picture for it. So 1 Peter 4, 1 through 11 says this.
Speaker 1
00:31 - 01:02
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourself also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans do, living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living and they heap abuse on you.
Speaker 1
01:02 - 01:23
But they will have to give an 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 human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and sober minds so that you may pray.
Speaker 1
01:24 - 01:43
Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sin. Offer hospitality to one another without crumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you've received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in various form. If anyone speaks, they should do so as the one with the very words of God.
Speaker 1
01:43 - 02:08
And if anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. So Ron, before we talk about the big picture, you and I, before we started recording, talked about how this is very much like Paul's writing in Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians.
Speaker 1
02:09 - 02:22
I think Peter adds a lot of weird references, too. So he wants to be like Paul, but then there's some stuff that you're like, hey, man, where are you going? I think some people say that about me, so that's why I bring it up. There you go.
Speaker 2
02:25 - 02:48
Well, I think there are parallels, and it's dealing with our character and conduct, and suffering. Think about Philippians. It's a letter to Paul's writing from suffering in prison, but yet he gives a triumphant response about being joyful in all things, and rejoicing in the Lord even in the midst of suffering. So this passage has that dimension.
Speaker 2
02:49 - 03:08
Remember, we started out, this is a letter to a suffering church. And so how are they going to live out the Christian life in an antagonistic world? A world that's drawing them into sin and putting constant pressure on them. And now they will live a separated life because of Christ.
Speaker 2
03:08 - 03:23
So the letter takes on suffering again, true to form. You can't help but go back to chapter two and chapter three with the elements of suffering. And then the chapter starts out again with suffering, Christ's suffering in his body for us.
Speaker 1
03:25 - 03:47
Well, that's a great entree. Why don't we do this? So most translations, especially the NIV where we read from, they break this up into two paragraphs. Why don't you do a flyover of how verses 1 to 6 connect maybe to 7 through 11, and then let's jump deep into those because there's a lot of great stuff there.
Speaker 2
03:49 - 04:08
Well, there's the setup that if you suffered in the body, that you have a repulsion to sin. And the suffering in the body is an identification with Christ. You know, it's back to chapter two, he's wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. That idea picked up from also Isaiah 53.
Speaker 2
04:09 - 04:29
So when we have experienced suffering because of our sin, we now have a repulsion to it. And then it picks up when we go to verses four, right on through there, about then the transformation that comes internally. How are we going to live out the Christian life? And it's a radical transformation.
Speaker 2
04:29 - 04:46
So the big picture is, in those early verses, we're identifying with the sufferings of Christ. It's impacting how we live it out. And then verses 7 through 11, how are we going to not only live it out in the world, but how are we going to live it out in relationship to one another?
Speaker 1
04:49 - 05:36
So I think what I hear you saying, and I think this is super helpful because we're doing this for readers of scripture to kind of grasp the big picture, really 4.1-6 is saying this is the way the world is. It's broken, it's sinful, the values, the practices of the world are totally against what Jesus taught, what Jesus lived, and then starting with the bad news, then they go to the good news. But instead of, we'll just take drunkenness and detestable idolatry and debauchery, instead of doing that, in turn, if you want to live like Jesus, you love one another, you serve one another, you use gifts. Is that really kind of the way that you break it down, big picture, what Peter's trying to teach?
Speaker 2
05:36 - 05:56
would be the picture, because the way that we live out our lives It's opposed to what's in the world. And now what are you going to replace it with? You can't just be on, I'm not going to do this or that. No, I'm laying aside those wicked ways in order to follow a superior way.
Speaker 2
05:57 - 06:00
And those are the verses that follow. So yes, you captured it accurately.
Speaker 1
06:00 - 06:14
OK, well, let's let's kind of jump into one through six. There's the the quote unquote understandable versus are pretty clear, but there's there's some interesting things. Why don't you walk us through it a little bit?
Speaker 2
06:15 - 06:27
OK. Back to this idea of suffering. So Christ suffers for our sins. He pays that price, dies on the cross so that we can end up having a new life with him.
Speaker 2
06:28 - 06:44
Now we identify with him. Paul said it this way in Philippians 3, that I might know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. So we are identifying with those sufferings. And as a result of doing that, we are now saying no to sin.
Speaker 2
06:45 - 07:13
It is the language of Titus chapter 2, where Christ appears so that we can say no to unrighteousness and ungodly living, and we can say yes to Christ. So what do I do with those evil human desires that are part of the earthly nature? I bring them under submission to Christ." Now, the verse could lead you to believe that if you're suffering, therefore, you cease from sin. And I don't think that's the whole picture of what it's getting at.
Speaker 2
07:13 - 07:45
It is getting at identifying with the sufferings of Christ so that we then can live out the Christian life. So in that verse that follows, verse 3, you've spent enough time in the past doing what the pagans chose to do. Well, if we weren't Christians, If we didn't identify with the sufferings of Christ, we would be living out in this wickedness and the drunkenness, the orgies, debauchery, carousing, detestable idolatry, all of those things that cripple our lives. Isn't it interesting how timeless the Bible is?
Speaker 2
07:46 - 08:05
Those practices that were going on back then and the practices that are going on now have not changed. That's why the Word of God is so relevant. It is timeless. It speaks to the human condition in the first century, and it speaks to the human condition in our century, our day and age.
Speaker 2
08:05 - 08:30
So always keep that in mind when you're reading the Bible, that there were pagans back then, and you can't say, well, they're no longer pagans now. the same practices are taking place. And then the world doesn't understand why we're not wanting to do what they want to do. And maybe you've experienced that in your life where you've been speaking to people about a different way of life, and they look at you and say, well, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 2
08:30 - 08:51
Well, Peter picks on that very issue. They think it's strange you don't want to do what they're doing. But he reminds them that judgment is coming. And if you're going to follow the ways of the world, if you're going to go down that drain, and you're going to live with the consequences, and Peter says, that's not what's for the life of the believer.
Speaker 1
08:53 - 09:29
So one of the things I picked up on, and what we're trying to do is trying to remind people of the threads. You know, you talked about suffering, and in this passage, it talks about suffering in terms of sufferings with Christ, and somebody could confuse that and think, well, I'm suffering, therefore I must be doing something right. But Peter also brings up before, and he says, hey, if you're going to suffer, suffer for doing what's right, not for doing what's wrong. So I think that that's an important clarification, is that if you read this passage in isolation, you miss what Peter's saying.
Speaker 1
09:30 - 09:40
Peter does have a definition of suffering that's, hey, if you're doing the right things and you're loving people and you're suffering, that's very different than if you're breaking the law.
Speaker 2
09:40 - 10:06
Yes. And our next session, we'll get into that more. because he returns to that theme of suffering that he talked about in all of the previous chapters, but in the verses that will follow, in verse 12 and beyond, what do you do with suffering for a Christian? But here he has that unique caveat of the intensity of our identification as believers with the suffering of Christ.
Speaker 2
10:06 - 10:32
And again, it's back to the Philippians 3 passage that we identify with Christ in not only the resurrection, but also in his sufferings. So it is identification. But you're on track with what you're saying. It's just here, it's got that unique twist to it that means these first few verses of chapter 4 are found in difficult sayings of the New Testament,
Speaker 1
10:32 - 10:32
how to
Speaker 2
10:32 - 10:33
accurately interpret them.
Speaker 1
10:35 - 11:11
So just... Verses five and six, that's probably where most people have a lot of their questions. And, you know, you always pick on me because I don't take the hard stuff, so I'll take a little bit of the hard stuff. And we don't have time to really go into everything of what this means, but I think there's a safe level of Revelation talks about the judgment of God, Philippians talks about the judgment of God, and Different commentators have different ideas, the judgment seat of the lamb, the lake
Speaker 1
11:11 - 11:44
of fire. And again, I don't bring those up just tacitly or just kind of on a whim. But I think the key to remember with verses five and six, what Peter is saying with suffering is to these people that feel ostracized now, they are going to find a home in heaven, a home with Jesus. and there is consequences and judgments for people that live in sin, I think that, to me, is a very safe understanding without trying to pick up the intricacies that could be problematic.
Speaker 1
11:44 - 11:46
Would you add anything, or do you agree?
Speaker 2
11:47 - 12:15
Well, I think that's it. I mean, the challenge is, no matter what the year is, there's always been the reality of judgment. So in chapter 3, he dealt with the times of Noah and how those people were accountable to the gospel because they had a conscience or responsibility, even though they didn't hear the gospel like we do. And the people in every age have a sense of coming judgment and accountability.
Speaker 2
12:17 - 12:38
You know, Peter's picking that up. Everybody is going to be judged for, Jesus said, the deeds done in your body. Peter's got that same concept here. But rather than our living for the deeds of our body and letting that debauchery take over, instead, we are going to give an account to God in regard to our spirit.
Speaker 2
12:39 - 12:42
Do we live out the Christian life in a way that was honorable to God?
Speaker 1
12:44 - 13:15
Well, speaking of which, that's a great segue. You wouldn't think that the most encouraging part would start with verse seven, the end of all things is near. But again, Peter comes back to this idea of being sober minded, as opposed to drunkenness, that you may pray. And then really the rest of this passage is instead of using people, which is what lust and orgy and idols does, we're called to love people.
Speaker 1
13:15 - 13:18
And so why don't you unpack the rest of that section?
Speaker 2
13:18 - 13:52
Well, because of the transformation in our lives, it's impacting how we're treating one another. So he is harnessing the reality of the gospel within the life of a believer. And he's saying, therefore, because the end of all things is near, in other words, there's coming judgment, what do you do in the meantime? you guard up your mind, also referenced in Ephesians about, you know, we're putting on the armor of God, you know, the helmet of salvation, we're guarding our minds, and we're living self-controlled lives.
Speaker 2
13:53 - 14:06
How do we do that? I reference Titus 2. We say no to ungodliness and worldly passions as we're awaiting the return of Christ. So the reality of Christ in our lives is not something we put on the back burner.
Speaker 2
14:07 - 14:26
It's on the forefront. And then it's all flowing over, and verse 8 is really good at bringing this out. It results in us loving one another, because love is something that covers a multitude of sins. There's a higher order that kicks in for the Christian that impacts how we treat one another.
Speaker 2
14:27 - 14:40
And then it goes on to offer hospitality with one another. It's one of these, one another, there are over 50 one another passages in the New Testament. And this is one of them about being hospitable. How do we treat one another?
Speaker 2
14:41 - 14:52
And notice it says in verse nine, and do it without grumbling. God doesn't want us to be complainers. And then it impacts the gifts that we can get to in a minute, but you can reflect back.
Speaker 1
14:53 - 15:24
Yeah, I appreciate that. The only thing I'm going to reflect back is I think some people, including myself, we used to read verse eight as in love covers a multitude of sins as if you let things, you become a doormat. But I think really what Peter is saying, where love is present, sin doesn't spread. So I think when you're in conflict and there's love, You tend to reconcile quicker, you tend to take quicker, or you tend to take shorter accounts.
Speaker 1
15:25 - 15:45
Whereas the opposite of that, and we live in this world right now, that love doesn't cover a multitude of sins. It actually, the opposite of love, the hate, the apathy, inflames it. And I think that that's where it pushes us. And again, I love how Peter kind of moves from relationship to relationship to action to action.
Speaker 1
15:45 - 15:50
It's hey, because you love people, this is what it plays out, which brings us into our next section.
Speaker 2
15:50 - 16:14
Yeah, but just before we go on, it's that idea of the judgment because the end of all things is near. Our fear is not of the judgment of people. our fear and reverence is for the judgment of God. So in light of Christ's coming, and the end of all things is near, that impacts then how we would treat one another.
Speaker 2
16:14 - 16:32
So if I'm just saying, disregard Christ, I can treat Peter any way that I want to, that misses the point. No, the reason I have to watch how I am going to treat Peter in my Christian responsibility is because there is an ultimate judge in Christ who's going to come. So we want to know we're right with him.
Speaker 1
16:35 - 16:48
Well, there you go. That's a great segue. Why don't we jump into verses 9 to 11? I wouldn't say that they're self-explanatory, but it's like what you talk about with preaching.
Speaker 1
16:49 - 17:06
Peter's preaching out of the overflow. He's saying, hey, love each other deeply, offer hospitality, use the gifts, He's saying all of these things and it's not to do that to people please or earn love and acceptance, but it's out of that love and acceptance that flows out of our lives.
Speaker 2
17:07 - 17:21
Yeah. And those gifts then are our gifts of communicating and serving. So we have in the picture, use whatever gifts you've received. So every single one of us has gifts.
Speaker 2
17:21 - 17:34
There might be some that are listening, thinking they don't have anything to offer, but you do. And there are multiple gift lists found in the New Testament. And there's Ephesians chapter 4 that gives a list. There's First Corinthians 12.
Speaker 2
17:35 - 17:49
There's also Romans chapter 12. So some people, it's the gift of mercy. And some are communicating the gospel with preaching. Whatever range your gifts are in, all of those are given for the purpose.
Speaker 2
17:50 - 18:04
serving each other. So it's a gift that God gives. And Peter just picks up on a few of those, faithfully serving God's grace in its various forms. So, verse 11, if it's speaking, then do it well before God.
Speaker 2
18:06 - 18:17
If it's serving, you do it with all your strength because God provides for it. So in all these things, what? That God might be praised. Same idea Paul uses in Ephesians 4.
Speaker 2
18:18 - 18:42
It's for the edification of the believer, and in 1 Corinthians 12, it's to build up the believer. So this makes us so different than the world. Remember, we've reinforced this idea of living the Christian life in an antagonistic world, how do we respond to an antagonistic world? We're not living with the rot of the world, and instead we're living with the life of Christ in us.
Speaker 1
18:45 - 19:02
I love that. So here's a fun question. In all of those gift passages except for this one, they're very, very specific and the lists are comprehensive. What do you think Peter's trying to do being a little bit more broad?
Speaker 1
19:03 - 19:05
Or do you think that that's just the way he is?
Speaker 2
19:05 - 19:19
No, I think he's after community. Because he's been reinforcing it. It's like that theme of submission we were talking about earlier on in previous sessions. And he drives that home in chapter three.
Speaker 2
19:19 - 19:34
Finally, all of you, how do you live together? How do you treat one another? So I think he's trying to let there be a cohesive community. And he dealt with that, because remember, these people are scattered from chapter one in the beginning verses.
Speaker 2
19:34 - 19:46
So what do you do with these scattered people? You pull them together through community. How are we going to relate with one another? And then you have these communication and serving gifts.
Speaker 1
19:48 - 19:57
I love that. Well, I want to make some application. And again, I, uh, I don't want to get in trouble with my professor. So I guess, I guess I got to start first and we'll go from here.
Speaker 1
19:57 - 20:27
But what I've been thinking about a lot over the past two days is, uh, two different things, but it's kind of the same theme. Uh, Dr. Adam Grant, uh, just, uh, wrote, um, a section that a post about it's not screens that are, um, destroying the next generation. It's addiction. And I loved how he talked about that because we tend to focus on the surface issue as opposed to what's really underneath that.
Speaker 1
20:27 - 20:50
And Jay Kim wrote a book, Analog Christian in Analog Church, and if I was to be super super reflective and super applicable. I'd even ask us, what's our relationship with our phones? And what's our relationship to being addicted to that? I think if Peter was writing with that, he'd probably talk about that because what J.
Speaker 1
20:50 - 21:28
Kim argues is in here is he says, hey, is the way that you're living in the digital world, the relationship with your phone, causing you to have the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience. You can definitely tell when it's not, you know, when you're on social media, when you're short with people. I think even sometimes consuming too much on our phone, we actually dismiss the people around us. And so I look at this passage and I would just ask, How am I engaging the people around me versus maybe ghosting, as they say, or disappearing digitally?
Speaker 1
21:28 - 21:33
I think that that's a good frame to begin to apply the passage in a very specific way.
Speaker 2
21:34 - 21:52
Well, the addiction to phones, several things. I had my grandson with me last week, and dealing with the amount of time he spends on the phone, he's 13. And my son and daughter-in-law limit how much he can do. and they also put restrictions on his phone.
Speaker 2
21:53 - 22:24
And so my granddaughter, who's 11, she has choices to make because she has to look at her big brother and what access does he have and the impact that it has. I'm glad you're bringing this up because my wife and I just watched a documentary on this, happened to come across it on Disney Plus. And it was dealing with the effects of social media, of people that have been crippled. And a young girl was telling the journey of her addiction and the impact that it had upon her and how she had to remove herself.
Speaker 2
22:24 - 22:48
And so others reflected, of course, the scientific research. I've been reading other articles dealing with what it's doing to rewire the brain so that people are reflexive. You go to a restaurant and people are on their phones, even as families, rather than spending time. Passages like this remind us we say no to the world and ungodliness, and we end up saying yes to Christ.
Speaker 2
22:49 - 23:11
What does that look like? dealing with an interaction with a group yesterday online. And then the choices that we make, and back to this Titus passage, we say no to ungodliness and worldly passions as we focus on Christ. And they were picking up at the same idea, the many distractions that we have.
Speaker 2
23:12 - 23:15
Passages like this, I think, help divert our attention to the right things.
Speaker 1
23:16 - 23:38
Well, and I think where I'd close, and I'll give you the final word on this, is don't forget Peter's repeated phrase, be alert and sober. The life that's being lived in 1 Peter 4, one through six, is the life of death. It's the life of autopilot. It's the life of just kind of moving at the sway of the world.
Speaker 1
23:39 - 24:12
But the life that Peter is painting, the vision of the love of God, is sober-minded and alert to live the life that God has called you to, to live a life that's worth living. Even if you're not a Christian and you're listening to it, I think it's something compelling that when we're on our deathbeds, it's not verses 1 to 6 that we'll be looking at, we'll regret verses 1 to 6, but it's the things that mean the most are verses 7 to 11 and living out the gospel in powerful ways.
Speaker 2
24:14 - 24:27
And a great parallel is in 1 John, you know, if we walk in the light as he is in the light. So it's, what does it look like to, we talk about surrendering to Christ. What does it look like? We are yielding ourselves.
Speaker 2
24:28 - 24:43
We are seeking to walk in the light, to expose ourselves to the things of Christ. That's why you need to have a daily devotional life. That's why you need to interact with other believers. And that's why you need to put a check on how you're going to treat other people, because of passages like this.
Speaker 2
24:43 - 24:47
So we'll end up on the side of Christ and not on the side of the world.
Speaker 1
24:48 - 25:02
Ron, thank you so much. That was beautiful and wonderful. I think it's really, again, we're not only taking you back to the Bible to do it devotionally, we're asking you to apply it and live it out. So why don't you just close us in a word of prayer?
Speaker 2
25:03 - 25:22
Lord, as we've talked about suffering, it's not a subject that we want to experience. We want all the good things of life. But in order to have your best, we identify with your suffering so that we can live out the reality of the Christian life. Totally opposite of the thinking of people in the world.
Speaker 2
25:23 - 25:52
Help us to not give way to the garbage can of the world, embracing their practices, but help us to allow the practices of the reality of the Christian life to be lived out with how we conduct ourselves internally, externally, in our relationships with one another. As we await that day when you'll return, we want you to be able to say, well done, good and faithful servant. Come inherit the kingdom that's been prepared for you. Amen.
Speaker 1
25:55 - 26:02
Thank you so much for joining us for the Reading First Peter podcast. We're almost done with the journey, so we'll see you next time.