Live for the Will of God

Read aloud

Peter asks believers to arm themselves with the same resolve Christ showed in suffering. The image is not an invitation to become harsh. It is a decision to stop treating sin as the unavoidable ruler of our lives. Willingness to suffer rather than return to sin marks a costly break with its rule. Peter is not saying that pain itself makes a person sinless.

Peter describes the old life as a pursuit of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. He does not soften the list, but he also does not tell believers to despise the people still living in those patterns. Their former companions are surprised that Christians no longer join them and may speak against them. God, not the crowd, will judge the living and the dead.

Peter speaks of the gospel preached to those who are now dead. The natural sense is that they heard it during their lives and have since died. Although they faced bodily death as other people do, they live before God in the spirit. Death has not made the gospel’s promise to them worthless.

The Christian life is not merely a list of activities we have stopped. It has a new center: the will of God. That change may make a family seem strange to neighbors or relatives whose standards are different. We should expect some misunderstanding without becoming self-righteous. A life turned toward God can be firm without being contemptuous.