Heavy machinery has always impressed me. If you’ve driven past a Caterpillar dealership and seen those brand-new bulldozers and backhoes, or past a lawn and garden store that sells snow-plows, you’ll recall how immaculate that equipment looks on the sales lot—how those backhoe buckets and bulldozer blades gleam with that glossy yellow paint and how those snow-plows look all shiny and bright. But if you’ve driven through a construction zone or passed a snow plow on a winter road, you’ll recall a distinct absence of paint from those pieces of heavy machinery. Why is that? It’s because paint doesn’t hold up very well against rocks and dirt, and snow and ice. The grind of everyday use has a way of removing the outer layer and revealing the metal that lies beneath. New heavy equipment is impressive sitting on the lot, but it’s way cooler to see it in action, functioning as it was designed to function!
If our idea of Christian community is a showroom/sales lot mentality of just hanging out and enjoying a holy huddle or hunkering down and hiding from the big bad world, we’re missing our calling! The Church is God’s earth-moving, path clearing fleet of heavy equipment—that’s who we are! We’re not meant to stay pretty and painted up; we’re meant to be put through the grind so that the core of who we are in Christ shines through for God’s glory. We’re not meant to sit and shimmer; we’re called to prove our usefulness to God, to each other, and to the world through Spirit-empowered suffering and service. The big point for us today is that no Christian or church can lay claim to the kingdom of Christ to come if Christ-like suffering and service are or absent from our present.
In vv. 1-2 Peter says, “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” The six words: for the rest of the time, encompass Peter’s target time-frame, namely new birth to physical death. He says in 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” He wants the church in every way to live like Jesus in this world. Just as Jesus lived spiritually prior to His death, we too now live spiritually through faith. As Jesus suffered prior to His death, we’ll also suffer before we die—and that’s okay; it’s purposeful; it’s glorious! As the Holy Spirit applies Christ’s sin-destroying death to us, our lives now truly resemble Jesus’ life: spiritually alive in the body before death, capable of overcoming sin, and capable of enduring suffering and mistreatment from the world as a result of turning away from sin.
Rather than despairing, Peter wants this exiled, suffering Christian community to know that their suffering matters. “Preparing your minds for action…,” he says in 1:13. “Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking…,” he says here in 4:1. To Peter the mind is the starting point for faithful and fruitful Christian living; it’s where we make sense of suffering. You won’t be a Christian long before the shiny paint of your new birth starts to chip. Life in a world hostile to Christ brings suffering, and suffering brings scuffs and scratches! Yet, as Peter knew quite well, it’s actually an honor to suffer for Jesus. In Acts 5, after the Jewish authorities arrest, interrogate, beat and release the disciples for preaching about Jesus, Luke says, “they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” That kind of suffering has a revealing and steeling effect on a disciple. It peels off the paint of showroom religion and exposes the true strength of a Christian’s character.
He says in v. 3, “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.” Everyone who’s born-again has a “B.C.”—a time “before Christ.” You came to Christ because the Holy Spirit showed you what a dead-end existence Gentile living was. It might’ve felt good for a time, but it never fulfilled you. And aren’t you glad your destiny is no longer the destiny of those whom Peter says in v. 5, “will [one day] give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead”? Even though, as he says in v. 4, those same people are now “surprised when you don’t join them in the same flood of debauchery, and malign you,” isn’t that suffering better than What awaits them?
We don’t need to find ways to suffer—suffering will find us no problem! But neither should we break our backs trying to dodge it when it comes. Think about how much dirt is moved for every flake of yellow paint peeled off of a backhoe bucket. Suffering can’t hurt Christians any more than rocks or dirt damage a bulldozer blade! Instead, it exposes our inner spiritual life! Perhaps Paul says it best in 2 Cor. 4:16-17, “We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…” This is why Peter says in v. 6, “the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.” Since others suffered a worldly judgment of malignment and mistreatment in their times and yet lived in spiritual faithfulness to God, Peter assures his audience that they’re not in uncharted waters of suffering.
From our earthly vantage point our sufferings at the hands (and mouths) of worldly people may not seem to be achieving much. We may not seem to be changing the attitudes of non-believers by enduring their insults. But from God’s stand-point, our suffering is moving mountains! Jesus said so famously in Matthew 17:20, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Now be honest, how many of you have tried that? Did it work? Did you try it with something smaller, maybe a leaf, or a paper clip? Did it work? Did you come away discouraged and doubting your faith?
Jesus doesn’t care about visible mountains; He cares about “mountains” in the world beyond sight. Paul says in Ephesians 6, “we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” If as Christians we battle in the spiritual realm, why would we expect the effects of our faithful suffering to be seen here in the visible realm? A Christian might live a faithful life of suffering to no apparent avail in this world, but in the spiritual realm that life is trampling on serpents! In Luke 10:17-20 when Jesus’ seventy-two followers return from preaching and healing, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Jesus isn’t talking about rattlesnakes and copperheads!
Even if our suffering produces little if any visible results down here, we’re part of God’s cosmic plan to destroy His enemies and ours—a plan first mentioned in Genesis 3, when God said to the snake, “I will put enmity between your seed and the woman’s seed; you will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head.” Those who mistreat us in the world are being used by the Serpent to inflict stinging bites upon us as the body of Christ, but we’re being used by the Savior to inflict a crushing blow upon the Serpent. And we inflict that blow most forcefully when we endure those bites most faithfully, looking always to the final victory.
“The end of all things is at hand,” Peter says in v. 7, “therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” If the end of all things was “near” in Peter’s day, how much nearer must it be today—and how much more urgent is our need for holy living and disciplined prayer!
Sharing in Christ’s sufferings, holy living, and disciplined prayer in a hostile world are not solo activities. In the middle of Peter’s long section on suffering—a section that starts in 3:8 and ends in 4:19—in 4:7-11 he inserts a paragraph on one-anothering within the church community, practical ways to live like Jesus by building up other believers while suffering like Jesus from worldly hostility. “Pray for one another” isn’t explicitly commanded here, but it’s implied in v. 7’s admonition to live holy and pray. Unholy living short-circuits prayer (as Peter warns husbands in 3:7), and prayer is the most mountain-moving, serpent-crushing activity we can undertake on behalf of our fellow Christians. It’s fine to pray for another Christian’s suffering to end; but it’s just as important to pray that other Christians’ suffering might be endured to the glory of God.
Then in v. 8 Peter says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” As Peter’s constant example, Jesus’ life is the pattern; His love is the mold to which our love must conform to be genuine. Love in Christian community is to be Christ-like. And if it’s Christ-like it’ll be cross-shaped. And if our love is cross-shaped it’s going to be a sin-covering kind of love—a sin-forgiving love. Earnest love is both a sin-confronting love and a sin-overlooking love. Solomon says in Prov. 19:11, “It’s glory to overlook an offense.” Open sins need to be confronted. Mannerisms, personality traits, minor offenses—those things other Christians do unconsciously as a result of sin’s residual influence—are often most lovingly handled non-confrontationally. Confronting a major sin is a loving thing that brings God glory. But so is not confronting every single minor sin that’s committed unintentionally. Both point to the cross: to the payment Jesus made for all of our sins, and to the patience God extends to us in our weak areas. That kind of love for one another among Christians shows those outside the Christian community to what they’re losing out on apart from Christ.
Closely related to love, another part of Christian community that helps soften the effects of suffering is hospitality. Peter says in v. 9, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” This is another area where Christians can short-circuit God’s blessings and make a mess of our witness. Everything we have is to be at God’s disposal. He gives us brains and the ability to decide how to use our homes, but the Bible is clear that God’s people are not to keep our belongings to ourselves. We’re called to share. But sometimes our sharing is more guilt-driven than grace-driven. We show hospitality because we know we should. Or we show it gladly to those we’re comfortable with but grudgingly to those we’re less comfortable with, while wearing a hypocritical smile. Guilt-motivated hospitality is always done with a grumbling spirit. As much attitude as it is action, few things promote the church’s internal welfare and external witness as genuine, grumble-free, grace-driven hospitality. Are others really welcome in our homes and lives? Our hospitableness to one another and to non-Christians speaks volumes about God’s hospitableness. Our God has opened His heart and His heaven to sinners through Christ. Does our hospitality reflect that?
Lastly, Peter says in v. 10, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace…” Let’s pause here. A lot of emphasis is put on spiritual gifts these days. I don’t have a problem with spiritual gifts inventories. It’s just that while we’re busy analyzing who’s gifted how, needs can go unmet right under our noses. When a piece of paper tells you you’re gifted a certain way, it can limit your field of view to see only a certain category of needs. The best spiritual gift test is to have open eyes and an open heart. See the need, meet the need. If God moves your heart for a gap in the body, fill it! Peter says we’re ‘stewards of God’s varied grace.’ We’re not all wired alike, but we all have an obligation to serve. There’s glory in experimenting, trying, and discovering gifts. There’s a need in this church community right now that will go unmet if you don’t meet it. Will you be open?
In v. 11 Peter mentions speaking and serving specifically: “whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies…” Those with more visible and vocal gifts are reminded that the church gathering is not a soap box—that personal opinions are to be submitted in every way to God’s Word. You don’t come here to get my opinions on things, so I don’t want to speak to you from my opinions.
Those with less visible serving gifts are also reminded that no matter the size of the task, it’s to be done in God’s strength, and not one’s own. The word for serving is our word for deacon. Perhaps Peter is recalling the events of Acts 6 where needs were going unmet in the church and those with speaking gifts (he and the other apostles) had the church present men of humble character to “deacon” (to serve) the community’s physical needs so the speakers could serve the teaching and spiritual needs.
If you’ll pause and look, pray and listen, I guarantee God will show you a need that you can meet in this body. The question is this: how will you respond to that revelation?
Spiritual gifts aren’t about the gratification of self, or even the gratification of others; they’re all about the glorification of God! “In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Peter’s goal, and mine, is to equip a church to serve like Jesus while in the midst of suffering like Jesus, because, by God’s grace, we ARE like Jesus, and one day we’ll be with Jesus.