I Peter Chapter 4
I Peter 4: 1- 4
Christ has suffered for us in His body. We should have the same mind (attitude) as He did.
If you are willing to suffer in your body because of your love for Christ, then you must have stopped doing sin —–and you must be following Christ’s teachings.
No more are you going after sinful pleasures, but you are living in God’s ways.
Before we may have lived like the unbelieving Gentiles, doing things that were sinful: sexual sins, drinking, wild parties, worship of idols.
They think it is strange that you will not do these sinful things with them now. They say bad things about you now.
I Peter 4: 5
Remember that they will have to stand before God someday. He will judge everyone—those who are living, and those who have already died.
I Peter 4: 6
This is the reason the gospel was preached to those who were dead.
Their bodies died. They came under the death punishment that was given in the Garden of Eden.
But the gospel was preached to them so they could have life in their spirits.
This verse talks about when Jesus went into the lower parts of the earth to preach to those in “prison”—in the waiting place of the dead—where those people waited who died before Jesus came and died on the cross.
As was said before, all this is hard to understand.
I Peter 4: 7, 8
The time of the end is near.
Peter believed that the time he was writing this letter— that it could be the end of the world would happen soon.
It has been 2000 years since this letter was written. So the end of time did not happen. The end of time is still to come. We are closer than ever to the end.
Peter tells the people: be serious, watch for the end, pray.
Show love to each other—be loving, and kind. Love covers many failures, and faults.
The King James Version says: Love covers a multitude of sins.
This does not mean that when we see sin we should ignore it. Or than when people we love do sin that we should just love them and forget about their sin.
If we ignored sin and never talked about it—no one would ask for forgiveness and stop sinning. If people did not feel bad about sin—they would keep on sinning.
Peter is speaking to Jewish Christians. He is telling them to show love to other believers. Believers do wrong sometimes. Do not be so hard on them and punish them greatly so that they give up. Show love and encouragement. Remember that you could sin, too.
If a believer keeps sinning and will not give up his sin—then that person needs discipline from the group.
Other places in the Bible, it talks about what to do when a Christian brother keeps sinning:
Matthew 18: 15 Jesus is talking: If your brother trespass (sin) against thee, go and tell him about his fault—keep it between you and him.
If he listens, then you have made peace with your brother.
But if he does not listen, take one or two people with you to be a witness and tell him again.
But if he does not listen, tell it to the church group. If he will not listen after that, let him be as a heathen and a publican. (A heathen is a person who does not worship the true God in heaven. A publican was a tax collector for the Roman government.)
Romans 16: 17 – 18 Paul is speaking: Now I ask you with much feeling, please—take notice of those who try to divide the group of believers with teachings that are against the teachings you have learned. Stay away from them.
They are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ. They are serving themselves for their own fame or money.
They use words and talk that deceives those who do not know the truth or who do not think about things carefully.
I Corinthians 5: 11-13 Paul is speaking: But now I have written unto you not to be around any man that says his is a Christian brother but he does sexual sins, or he is jealous and has envy, or worships idols, or argues and stirs up anger in a group, or gets drunk, or is not honest in money and business. Do not even share a meal with them.
I do not have to judge those who are outside the group of believers, but I do have a responsibility to judge those who say they are believers.
Those who are outside of the group of believers—God will judge.
So put away those that are part of your group but are doing sin and evil.
II Thessalonians 3:14, 15 Paul is talking: And if any man obey not our word by this letter, take notice of that person, and stay away from them, that he may be ashamed.
Yet do not think of him as an enemy, but warn him and teach him as a brother.
II John 9 John is talking: Whoever transgresses (sins) and does not abide (stay, live) in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.
Titus 3: 10, 11 Titus talking: A man who is still a heretic after being warned two times —reject him—stay away from him—put him out of the group. ( A heretic is someone who will not believe or live by the true teachings of Christ.) Such a person’s thinking is twisted wrong and sins, he condemns himself.
I Corinthians 5: 1 Paul talking: It has been told to me that everyone knows there is a person among you who is doing sexual sins. The sexual sin that he is doing is so bad that even the Gentiles do not do it.
I (Paul) have been told that there is a man among you who is having sex with his father’s wife.
You are proud of yourselves.
You should be ashamed! You should be in sorrow that this is happening among you.
I (Paul) am not with you, but I have judged this man—as though I was there.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by my spirit, when you are together in a group, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ—-give this man over to Satan. Let Satan destroy his body. May be his spirit will be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.
Paul is saying, put the man out of your Christian group. Let him serve Satan and do his sin. Sin has a way of bringing punishment and destroying a person. When things get really bad, may be the man will confess his sin and ask for forgiveness and be saved.
In the next verses, Paul talks about yeast going through all of the dough in the bowl. Sin is like the yeast. Sin in one person—if it is allowed—will encourage other people to sin—-soon everyone will be sinning and thinking it is okay.
I Timothy 1:20 Paul is writing to Timothy: He speaks of two men who are talking against Jesus. He says that he has given them over to Satan so that they may learn not to speak against Christ.
People who follow Satan get away with things for awhile, but in the end things go bad. Sometimes things get bad enough that people learn their lesson and confess their sin and come back to God.
If a Christian brother is sinning—-go to him quietly in private and tell him in a loving way that he is doing wrong and he needs to make his life right with God.
If he does not listen, take one or two with you and tell him again.
If he does not listen, tell the group.
The group is to warn him. If he still does not stop the sin, he should not be allowed to be a member of the group. And the other members of the group should not spend time visiting him and doing things with him.
Paul says to give him over to his sin. Sin will bring its own punishment. When the person finally “hit’s the bottom” with his sin, maybe then he will be willing to give up the sin and truly follow Christ.
I Peter 4: 9
Show kindness and hospitality to one another. Hospitality means to invite other believers into your home. Feed them, give them a place to sleep.
In the time Peter is writing this letter, towns did not have motels, and hotels for traveling people. There were some inns. Not every town had an inn.
These may not have been a good place for a believer to stay. We know from the history of England, that inns were often dirty, with bugs. Sometimes two or three men had to share one bed. Most of the time they were places of drinking.
Peter told the believers that they should be willing to open their home to other believers and be kind to help them.
For us today, it means to be kind and helpful—to share to meet the needs of others—especially other believers in Christ.
Peter says that we should do this cheerfully and not be grumpy about it.
I Peter 4: 10
Each person has a gift or talent that God has given him. He should use this talent for helping others—this is the way to show God you are a good keeper of the gift/talent He has given to you.
I Peter 4: 11
If you are good at speaking—then speak as God gives you the ideas and thoughts to say. If you have been given the ability to minister—then do it as God gives you the ability and strength. So that God can get the glory and praise forever and ever. Amen.
There are many ways to minister. It does not just mean to be a preacher. To minister means to do things that help people. There are many ways to help people.
If you have the ability to be a leader of the believers, then lead. There are many different jobs to do in leading: you can teach, organize things, plan things, etc.
There are other things that minister. Be friendly and cheerful. Encourage people with good words. Write notes, send cards to cheer up people. Make food to help someone who is sick, or poor.
Give clothes, household items, etc. to those who have need.
I Peter 4: 12
Beloved….Peter calls these believers —loved ones.
He tells them to not feel that it is a strange thing that they should have troubles and problems and people against them. These things are normal.
They can expect these things to happen.
I Peter 4: 13
Be happy, when you have to suffer because of your believing in Christ—because Jesus suffered for you—and now you are suffering for Him. When Christ comes and His glory is shown to this world, you will be very glad and have great joy that you believed in Jesus.
I Peter 4: 14
If bad things are said about your faith and bad things are said because you are a Christian—-be happy.
God’s spirit and glory will be with you.
They say evil bad things about Christ, but you bring glory to Christ.
I Peter 4: 15
Do not be guilty of sin: such as murder, or stealing, or doing other evil things. Do not be a busybody in other people’s business. Behave yourself, have good manners, and mind your own business.
I Peter 4: 16
If you suffer because you are a believer in Christ, do not be ashamed of that. Give glory to God in your suffering.
I Peter 4: 17
This is the time when judgment should begin with those in the house of God.
In other words, those of us who are believers need to judge ourselves and those in our group. We need to keep ourselves living in the right way. If others in our group get into sin, we need to warn them and help them stay on the right path.
If we do not keep ourselves and our Christians brothers living in a right way—–how can we help those who are not believers?
If we who are believers are not living right—-what hope do the non-believers have?
I Peter 4: 18
If the righteous believers are barely saved—-what will happen to the sinners?
I Peter 4: 19
Let those people who have to suffer for believing in Christ, give yourself and your problems to the Lord. He will keep you in your time of suffering. Do good as unto a faithful Creator.