Lesson 040608

ARM YOURSELF WITH THE SAME ATTITUDE!
      In her GUIDE FOR THE TURN-OF-THE-MILLENNIUM, Miss Manners writes:
"Suppose that you want to toss a party for the person whom you love the most, and who you have always felt deserves to be showered with a great deal more attention than has been forthcoming. Should the wording on the invitation be "In honor of me"?1
      Though Miss Manners goes on to explain when it is appropriate to throw a party for yourself, and how to do it, her introductory paragraph reminds us, as if we needed to be reminded, that we tend to think that this world is all about "us".
      Since this seems to be true of everyone, that is since everyone tends to be "me" oriented, how do we know that it wasn't true of Jesus? What did he do that would convince any cynic that his earthly ministry was solely for the sake of others?
      I suggest to you that the one thing he did that would, or should, convince any unbeliever that his ministry was solely for the sake of others, solely for the likes of you and me, was the fact that he willingly suffered unmercifully at the hands of others.
      With this in mind let's read I Peter 4:1 - 11. We read:
      Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. 2 As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4 They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.
      The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it 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 for ever and ever. Amen.
      In light of the fact that Christ suffered for you and me, in light of all that was accomplished as a result of his suffering, we are to arm ourselves with the same attitude. What attitude? What attitude did Christ arm himself with that resulted in suffering, severe suffering, even death, at the hands of others? And if we arm ourselves with this same attitude, what will be the result in our own lives? And why do we need to arm ourselves in the first place?
      The last question is the easiest one. If we don't arm ourselves ahead of time we won't be prepared for what the world throws at us. Unarmed, we will be victims of Satan, the world, and the flesh. We will go along with the crowd and in the end discover, the hard way, that evil has a bad habit of not fulfilling its promises.
      If we do arm ourselves with the same attitude that Christ had the world will classify us as weird and, as the world knows how to do so well, it will heap abuse on us. So it almost seems that we can't win either way. If we don't arm ourselves with the same attitude, the world bids us to go along with it, so as to get along, only to discover that this old world doesn't really have anything to offer us that is truly satisfying.
      If we arm ourselves, the world takes offense and reacts accordingly. Though admittedly, in our culture the abuse is subtle. But in other parts of the world the abuse heaped on those who have committed themselves to Christ ranges from harsh to brutal.
      So let's go back to the original question. What attitude? What attitude did Christ arm himself with that resulted in suffering at the hands of others? Very simply, he armed himself the attitude to always do God's will in any and every situation. This attitude is spelled out, or at least suggested, in v. 17 of the previous chapter. Where Peter said:
"It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good, than for doing evil."
      Better? How is it better? I mean, either way you suffer. True, but in the former case, when we suffer for doing good, the testing of our faith, according to James, helps us grow up in Christ. It matures us, it develops a Christlike character within us.
      Desmond Tutu, in his book No Future Without Forgiveness, reflects on the twenty-seven years Nelson Mandela spent in a South African prison. He writes,
      "Humanly speaking, we would be inclined to say that those twenty-seven years were utter shameful waste; just think of all he could have contributed to the good of South Africa and the world. I don't think so. Those twenty-seven years and all the suffering they entailed were the fires of the furnace that tempered his steel, that removed the dross. Perhaps without suffering he would have been less able to be as compassionate and as magnanimous as he turned out to be. And that suffering on behalf of others gave him an authority and credibility that can be provided by nothing else in quite the same way. The true leader must at some point or other convince her or his followers that she or he is in this whole business not for self-aggrandizement but for the sake of others. Nothing is able to prove this quite so convincingly as suffering."2 3
      So in the short run, when we suffer for doing good, when we persevere despite the difficulties in our life, God uses it to refine us, and better define us, as a child of God. This is the view we find in the book of Job, in James 1:2 - 3, as well as in Romans 5:3 - 4.
      But Peter doesn't have the short-term view in mind, he has the end in view. We see this in I Peter 4:5 when he reminds us of the fact that unbelievers will have to give an account of themselves to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. We also see that this view is in mind in vv. 7 - 11 when Peter once again encourages us to love one another deeply.
      You see, Peter in the first half of chapter 4 is telling us something that is in plain sight. He's telling us that the future is on its way. He's telling us how the movie we are in right now ends. It ends with the Lord ready to judge the living and the dead. That's why the gospel was preached to those (believers) who are now dead, so that even though they died physically like everyone else, they will live forever in the presence of God.
      Peter is telling us that there is a difference between the simple law of cause and effect and the much deeper law of sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping is all about what we will ultimately end up with as a result of arming ourselves with a particular attitude in regards to living our life. It is the long-term view. More particularly, it is the end view.
      Hence, those who are wise play the movie and ask themselves whether or not they want a particular scene in the movie of their life or not, knowing full well how the movie ends - with God ready to judge the good, the bad, and the ugly.
      Okay, so the first half of chapter 4 is a pretty easy section of Scripture to understand. It may not be easy to apply day-in and day-out but it is easy to understand. With the end in view we need to arm ourselves with the attitude that we are going to make decisions by the Book, i.e. we're going to do God's will.
      Now if you have been following along in our study of I Peter here is what ought to be bugging you right about now. He, meaning me, skipped over one of the toughest passage in the entire Bible - namely I Peter 3:17 - 22. It reads:
      It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand-with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
      You're right! I skipped over it. I skipped over it because I think it is easier to make sense of in light of what Peter says in the first half of chapter four. In context, both prior to these verses and following them we know that Peter is taking the long-view of life. He's encouraging us to play the movie and judge for ourselves what scenes we want in it knowing full well how it is going to end.
      So here in vv. 17 - 22 we have a particular scene of Jesus' life that would be good for us to digest. We're told that Jesus determined to do God's will regardless of the consequences. As a result he died for sins once and for all, the righteous died for the unrighteous so as to bring you and me into a right relationship with God.
      Then after the resurrection he went and "preached" to the spirits in prison who disobeyed when God gave them plenty of time to repent while Noah spent 120 years building the ark. The word "preached" in verse 19 is not the same as the one translated as "preached" in verse six of chapter four. In 3:19 the verb kerysso means "to proclaim" or "to announce" while in 4:6 the verb choice euangelizo means "to proclaim good news."
      In the latter verse the good news was proclaimed so that even though men would die physically they would live forever in the presence of God. In the former, I believe Christ announced his victory over evil to the spirits who were being held for the day of judgment. In other words, they were being detained but they didn't know who the judge would be at their arraignment. But as of the resurrection, they now know that the one they should have listened to in the days of Enoch and Noah is now seated at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.4
      In other words, they should have played the movie out to the end. The movie that had Noah building the ark in anticipation of more water than anyone wanted to imagine. They should have pictured themselves dog-paddling forever and contrasting that with being on the world's first cruise ship. Granted the ark didn't have bingo nor a midnight buffet but it was better than dog-paddling your way to exhaustion followed by a watery grave.
      Instead they created their own version of what they thought was happening with Noah. Perhaps they concluded that the warning and blueprints Noah received were simply a divine April Fool's joke on poor old Noah. Whatever the case, they undoubtedly spent their days mocking Noah and his sons as they built the ark.
      But Noah played another movie over and over again. He pictured the day when it would start raining and keep on raining until the ark was lifted high above the earth. So he determined to do God's will regardless of the pressure to quit.   And in Noah's day this meant doing it in plain sight for everyone to see day-in and day-out.5
      In a very real sense this is what baptism signifies. It is a public act in which we declare that we have committed ourselves to doing God's will. It's a pledge to others that we desire to maintain a good conscience in the sight of God and in the sight of all those who observe our life. It's a commitment to play the movie out with the end in mind.
      For the movie ends the same regardless of whether you lived in Noah's day or in our day. So I encourage you to arm yourself with the determination to include only those scenes you want in your version of the movie.



      1     Judith Martin, Miss Manners' GUIDE FOR THE TURN-OF-THE-MILLENNIUM, A Fireside Book, New York, NY, 1990, p. 466.
2     Self-ag-gran-dize-ment: The act or practice of enhancing or exaggerating one's own importance, power, or reputation.
3       Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, DOUBLEDAY, a division of Random House, Inc.,1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, 1999, p. 39.
4     If you read six commentaries on this passage of Scripture you will walk away with six different interpretations of what scholars believe Peter is communicating in this passage. My take on it is strictly my take on it. It comes after reading all the commentaries and laying them aside. It comes after meditating on the passage in light of what comes after it and before it.
5     It's interesting to note that the Lord was the one who shut the ark's door (See Genesis 7:16b). I don't know whether Noah could have done it or not for men don't see evil as being utterly evil. But the Lord does and in seeing it rightly chooses life. So for him to go back and announce his victory over evil simply sealed the fate of those who had already chosen death over life.PETER: THE MAN AND HIS LETTERS                                  4/06/08    1