November 17 – 1 Peter 4:1-19

Main Focus: Entrusting ourselves to God even when we suffer for following Jesus.

Right away you’ll see the connection in this passage to the one last week; here Peter continues to discuss how followers of Jesus can think about and endure suffering for righteousness’s sake. Verse 19 is an excellent summary of the whole chapter, so we’ll focus on entrusting ourselves to God even in the midst of suffering, something all of us struggle with, and see how being able to do so includes a high view of Christ and of future glory with him (4:13).

Verses 1 and 6 have some tricky phrases, so let’s go ahead and talk about them. 4:1 says “the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin,” which sounds like suffering somehow makes you sinless. However, 4:1 picks back up from 3:18, where Jesus suffered once for all to deal with sin. This connects the finality of sin’s role in the Christian’s life, particularly as it relates to suffering for righteousness, but it doesn’t say the Christian has stopped sinning, if only because this would conflict 1. with the broader New Testament teaching (cf. 1 John 1:8), 2. with Peter’s letter, since he wouldn’t need to write things like “abstain from sinful desires”(2:11), and 3. with the experience of every Christian ever. Instead, this verse describes the more general way in which living for Christ means being through with sin and the particular way in which suffering for righteousness (i.e. doing what Christ says even when you pay a price for it) solidifies your resolve to repent of sin and follow Jesus.^[1]Karen Jobes, 1 Peter, 263.,

4:6 says “the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead.” This verse has been read a couple different ways, but most likely it refers to people who heard the gospel prior to their earthly death in the hopes that they would be made alive to God. This combats two broad assumptions in Peter’s day. First, in the ancient world there was not a broad belief that one would be judged after death, meaning death got you off the hook for sin. Second, there was a broad assumption that suffering in this life was evidence you had offended God / the gods. Peter is making sure his audiences don’t believe either of those things; those who have died (“those who are now dead”) needed to hear the gospel in their earthly life, and suffering and death (being “judged in the flesh”) don’t necessarily indicate you’ve offended God.^[2]Jobes, 267-269.

With those out of the way, you’ll see how the discussion below tries to connect back to last week, then observes the various pressures on followers of Jesus to either conform to this world (4:3-4) or to despair when suffering arises (4:12). That should give your group some material for the next question about those times when it’s most challenging to entrust yourself to your Creator (4:19). It’s not explicit in the question, but feel free to stress how Peter’s wordchoice assumes that God is in fact trustworthy, and most of our reticence to give ourselves fully to him is a result of our distrust.

We’ll then look back at verse 13 and ask what it might take for our lives to be characterized by rejoicing when we share in Jesus’s sufferings and by anticipating with great joy the glory that is to be revealed in Jesus’s coming kingdom. Both of these show the pain points we experience in this life, when suffering for being a follower of Jesus feels un-rejoiceable and when the glory of eternity with Christ doesn’t seem quite as good as earthly comforts. This should give your group room to reflect and confess those things that hamstring their hope in Christ.

We’ll close by discussing how this passage leads us out towards others, both those who follow Jesus and those who don’t. That’ll help us return to 4:7-11 on how we love and serve one another within the church, and it’ll give us a moment to consider how we behave towards those who may be surprised at the way we live and even mischaracterize us for it (4:4). Finishing on this topic will help us see how our behavior towards others and the faith-solidifying effect of suffering are intertwined. I’d encourage you to close in prayer asking God to help you fulfill his call on your lives in this passage, to equip you to live well towards all and to be unashamed of bearing the name that is above all names (Phil 2:9).

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