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In 1 Peter 4 Christ is presented as the One whose sufferings we share.
First Peter 4:1 says, “Since Christ therefore has suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same mind (because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin).” The word arm indicates that the Christian life is a life of battle. We need to arm ourselves, equip ourselves, with the mind of Christ. This indicates that the mind of Christ is a weapon, a part of the armor needed in fighting the battle for God’s kingdom.
In verse 1, Peter advises us to arm ourselves with the mind of Christ, who has suffered in the flesh, that we might cease from sin. When we are afraid of suffering, this fear may lead to sin. Hence, we should not be afraid of any kind of suffering; instead, we should arm ourselves with a strong mind, the mind of Christ, who Himself has suffered in the flesh. We need to be strong persons armed with the mind of Christ as a weapon so that we will cease from sin.
One main purpose of 1 Peter is to encourage and exhort the believers to follow the footsteps of Christ in their suffering of persecution (1:6-7; 2:18-25; 3:8-17; 4:12-19). They should have the same mind that Christ had in His suffering (3:18-22). The main function of our mind is to understand and realize. To live a life that follows the footsteps of Christ, we need a renewed mind (Rom. 12:2) to understand and realize the way Christ lived to fulfill God’s purpose.
In our practical daily life, the strongest part of our being is our mind. Whatever we do in our living is directed by our mind. It is not the will but the mind that directs our life. All our activities are under the direction of our mind.
Because the mind directs our living, the preaching of the Word must change a person’s thoughts. One goal of preaching and teaching is to change people’s mind. If we think in a certain way, we will be directed in that way, but if we change our mind and think in another way, our living will then have a different direction. What we think governs what we do, say, and practice. For this reason, Peter charges the believers in 1 Peter 4:1 to arm themselves with the mind of Christ.
To arm ourselves with the mind of Christ is to be armed with the thought and concept of Christ. This implies that we change our way of thinking. Many Christians think that as long as we love God and do His will, we will be under His blessing and will not suffer in any way. It is common for Christians to have the concept that those who love the Lord should not expect suffering. But consider the life of Christ. Christ loved God to the uttermost, and He did God’s will fully and absolutely. But what happened to Him in His living? It seems that throughout His life on earth there was not any blessing but only suffering. He was born into a poor family, a family not considered of a high class. Of course, that family was descended from David and thus was of royal lineage. But when the Lord Jesus was born, that royal family was very poor economically. Furthermore, this family did not live in Jerusalem but in the despised town of Nazareth in Galilee. The Lord Jesus lived in Nazareth for more than thirty years. At the beginning of His life, He was put into a manger, and at the end of His life, He was put on the cross. He endured suffering upon suffering. He did not have a good name, and He did not have a place to lay His head. This is the way the Lord Jesus lived when He was on earth. His life was a life of suffering.
If we have the mind of Christ, we will realize that we are living in a rebellious age and in a crooked, perverted generation. Because the age is rebellious and the generation is perverse, the more we love God and do His will, the more we will suffer. We will suffer because we cannot go along with the trend of this age. We care to do the will of God, but the will of God is absolutely contrary to the trend, or tide, of this age. We would love the Lord Jesus, but this is utterly against the trend of this corrupted world. Therefore, if we love the Lord and do God’s will, we are bound to suffer. This will be our outlook if we have the mind of Christ.
If we arm ourselves with the mind of Christ for suffering, we will be willing to endure suffering. We will praise the Lord that our suffering is part of our destiny, that God has appointed this for us, and that suffering is the portion of God’s children in this age. In 1 Thessalonians 3 Paul tells the believers that God has appointed us to suffering and persecution (v. 3). God has not appointed us to material blessing; He has appointed us to suffering. Therefore, knowing that Christ suffered in the flesh, we also need to arm ourselves with the same mind. We should not have the mind to pray for material blessing. That is to have the wrong kind of mind.
In 1 Peter 4:1 Peter points out that those who have suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin. Pleasure heats up the lusts of our flesh (v. 2); suffering cools them down. The purpose of Christ’s redemption is to deliver us from our inherited vain manner of life (1:18-19). Suffering responds to Christ’s redemption in fulfilling this purpose, preserving us from a sinful manner of life, from the flood of dissoluteness (4:3-4). Such suffering, mainly from persecution, is God’s discipline in His governmental dealing. To undergo such suffering is to be judged, dealt with, and disciplined in the flesh by God (v. 6). Hence, we should arm ourselves with a sober mind to endure such suffering.
In God’s economy, suffering accomplishes a good work for God’s children. Suffering very much restricts our lusts. The more material enjoyment people have, the more they will exercise their lusts and indulge in them. But if we suffer poverty, persecution, or illness, this suffering will restrict the indulgence of lust. The devil uses riches to stir up lusts. God, however, uses suffering in the flesh to cause us to cease from sin.
The sufferings are used to arm the believers with a mind against the flesh, that they might not live in the lusts of men but in the will of God (vv. 1-2), that they might share the sufferings of Christ and rejoice at the unveiling of His glory (vv. 12-19), and that they might be witnesses of the sufferings of Christ (5:1).
In 2:11 Peter also speaks of war, the war between the fleshly lusts and the soul: “Beloved, I entreat you as strangers and sojourners to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” Both 2:11 and 4:1 refer to the same kind of fighting, to the warfare between the lusts and our soul. According to Peter’s word in 4:1, we need to arm ourselves with the mind of Christ in order to fight against the flesh with its lusts.
If we would arm ourselves with the mind of Christ, we must have Christ as our life. If we try to arm ourselves with the same mind without having Christ as our life, we will merely be imitating Christ in an outward way. If we have a strong mind to suffer, although we may suffer for the Lord’s interests, nothing of poverty or suffering will stumble us. We must arm ourselves with such a mind, but this should not be out of our natural boldness. This is to follow the Lord Jesus Christ who took this narrow way of a manger and a cross.
First Peter 4:5 tells us that Christ “is ready to judge the living and the dead.” When the Lord comes back, He will judge the living among the nations at His throne of glory and establish His millennial kingdom (Matt. 25:31-46), and He will judge all the dead at the great white throne after the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15). It is significant that after Peter tells us to have the same mind that Christ had in His suffering, he mentions that Christ will judge the living and the dead. When the Lord Jesus suffered in the flesh and was persecuted by men, He armed Himself with the mind to suffer because He knew that the time was coming when He would judge all human beings, including His persecutors. Likewise, while suffering persecution from others, we need to realize that we also will one day judge the world because we will be the co-kings of Christ (vv. 4-6; 22:5; 1 Cor. 6:2).
First Peter 4:11 says, “In all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” Eventually, in both all that Christ is and has done and all that He will be and do, He will glorify God. This indicates that all our ministry of grace, whether in speaking or in serving, should be full of Christ, so that God may be glorified through Christ in all things.
First Peter 4:13 says, “Inasmuch as you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice exultingly.” Today we rejoice when we share in the sufferings of Christ because at the unveiling of His glory we will participate in His glory (Rom. 8:17-19; 2 Thes. 1:10). At that time we will rejoice exultingly; we will be beside ourselves with joy.
In 1 Peter 4:12, Peter says, “Beloved, do not think that the fiery ordeal among you, coming to you for a trial, is strange, as if it were a strange thing happening to you.” In verse 13 Peter goes on to speak of our sharing in the sufferings of Christ. Although persecution is a trial that purifies us through burning, eventually Peter says that by experiencing such a fiery ordeal we share, participate in, the sufferings of Christ. It is possible for the sufferings that a Christian undergoes to be the sufferings of Christ. How can the persecutions suffered by us be the sufferings of Christ? If we were not Christians, we certainly would not suffer the kind of persecution described in verses 12 and 13. Such persecutions are due to the fact that we are Christians, men of Christ. Because we believe in Christ, love Christ, live Christ, and bear testimony to Christ, witnessing of Him in this age, the world rises up against us. This age is under the hand of the evil one (1 John 5:19), and for this reason unbelieving ones persecute those who believe in Christ and witness of Him. In the sight of God this kind of suffering is regarded as the sufferings of Christ.
Christ lived a life of suffering. Now we are His partners who live the same kind of life. According to the book of Hebrews, we are not only partakers of Christ but are also His partners (3:14). We cooperate with Him in living a life of suffering. We follow Him along the way of suffering. This means that what Christ suffered, we also suffer. Therefore, when we suffer for Christ in this way, our sufferings are counted by God as the sufferings of Christ.
We should not be discouraged, because we must suffer as Christians. These sufferings are positive and very precious. What a privilege it is to experience the sufferings of Christ! Paul could even say that he made up what was lacking of the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His Body, the church (Col. 1:24). He speaks also in Philippians 3:10 concerning the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Today we should be Christians, followers of Christ, who undergo the sufferings of Christ. We need to participate not only in the riches of Christ but also in the sufferings of Christ. If we take this point of view, we will be encouraged whenever we suffer for Christ. We may even welcome this kind of suffering. We may face fiery ordeals, but these are the sufferings of Christ in which we have the privilege to participate.
In 1 Peter 4:13 Peter speaks of rejoicing exultingly. This means that we will be joyful not only inwardly but also sound out our joy. At the time of the unveiling of the Lord’s glory, we will exult. I believe that we will shout, rejoice, and perhaps even leap for joy; we will be excited to the uttermost, beside ourselves with joy. Today we may rejoice, but when the Lord is unveiled we will rejoice exultingly.
First Peter 4:14 goes on to say, “If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” The name denotes the person. To be in the name of Christ is actually to be in the person of Christ, in Christ Himself. The believers, having believed into Christ (John 3:15) and having been baptized into His name (Acts 19:5), that is, into Himself (Gal. 3:27), are in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30) and are one with Him (6:17). When they are reproached in His name, they are reproached with Him, sharing in His sufferings (1 Pet. 4:13), in the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).
The reason the persecutions we suffer are the sufferings of Christ is that we suffer in the name of Christ. According to Peter’s word in 1 Peter 4:14, we are blessed if we are reproached in the name of Christ. We should not think that it is a curse to be reproached in the name of Christ. This is to be blessed. However, it may be a curse if people appreciate us too highly. Regarding this matter, we need to have a change of concept.
Peter tells us in verse 14 that if we are reproached in the name of Christ, the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon us. Literally, the Greek says, “The Spirit of glory and that of God.” The Spirit of glory is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of glory is the One through whom Christ was glorified in His resurrection (Rom. 1:4). This Spirit of glory, being the Spirit of God Himself, rests upon the suffering believers in their persecution, for the glorifying of the resurrected and exalted Christ, who is now in glory (1 Pet. 4:13). When we are willing to suffer for Christ, deep within we sense the Spirit of glory and of God — the Spirit expressed as glory — resting upon us. Today we all can experience and enjoy this aspect of Christ.
The Spirit of glory rests upon the persecuted believers to glorify God. The more we suffer and are persecuted, the more glory there will be upon us. This is truly a blessing. The more we are persecuted and evil spoken of, the more we are empowered. Persecution and reproach would not hold us down. On the contrary, they should lift us up. Therefore, we should rejoice when we are reproached in the name of Christ, because the Spirit of glory is resting upon us.
If we Christians suffer for Christ, then the Spirit within us will be the Spirit of glory. On the positive side, all sufferings work out one thing; that is, they break the outer man. Then when our outer man is broken, the glory in the Holy of Holies, that is, in our spirit, will be manifested. The more we suffer in the name of Christ, the more the Spirit of glory will be manifest.
Verse 14 tells us that the Spirit is of glory, that He is full of glory. Furthermore, the phrase the Spirit of glory and of God means that the Spirit of glory is the Spirit of God. When we are persecuted for the Lord, the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of glory, rests upon us.
Glory is God manifested, God expressed. With the martyrs, usually at the moment they suffer martyrdom, there is a condition showing that God is expressed. This is the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon them. When Stephen was being tried, those in the Sanhedrin saw his face as though it were the face of an angel (Acts 6:15); that was the glory of God being manifested. This was because the Spirit of glory was resting upon him.
When Christians suffer for the Lord, the Spirit of Christ rests upon them to express and release God from within them. When people suffer for a worldly matter, they are troubled so much that they always have a sad or distressed expression and are unable to get through. However, Christians are not like this, because the indwelling Spirit, who is also the Spirit of glory, rests upon them to manifest the glory of God.
If we are willing to be persecuted for the Lord and suffer under God’s governmental dealing, the Spirit of glory and of God will rest upon us. When we suffer for the name of the Lord, the Spirit becomes the Spirit of glory resting upon us. To be a martyr is not to be put to death with bitterness. Rather, to be a martyr is a matter of gladness and glory. What is a suffering to the people of the world is a glory to us, the believers. When we suffer under God’s governmental dealing, there is always a glory. The Spirit of glory rests upon us to help us in our suffering, and while we are suffering, this Spirit of glory gives us the hope of glory (Col. 1:27) so that our suffering will be in the way of glory.
When we are reproached in the name of Christ, the Son of God, we are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God the Father rests upon us. In the persecution of the believers, the three of the Divine Trinity are fully involved. They are wrapped up with the persecuted believers. When the believers of the Son are reproached, the Triune God is enjoying His rest by staying with them in their persecution. The Spirit of glory and of God the Father is resting upon the believers. The word rests in 1 Peter 4:14 means “to stay, abide, comfort, sustain, cover, and protect.” While the Spirit of glory is staying with us, the suffering ones, He becomes our sustaining power, our protection, our covering, and our victory, yet with Him it is a resting. This explains the real situation of Christian persecution. When we are being persecuted, our Triune God is covering us, protecting us, sustaining us, and comforting us. He is resting upon us.
In 1 Peter 4:16 we are told that “if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name.” As Christians in reproach, we should not be ashamed of the name Christian, a despised term in Peter’s time, but rather glorify God in this name, that is, to express God in glory.
The Greek word Christianos is a word formed from Latin. The ending ianos, denoting an adherent of someone, was applied to slaves belonging to the great families in the Roman Empire. One who worshipped the emperor, the Caesar, or Kaisar, was called Kaisarianos, which means an “adherent of Kaisar, a person who belongs to Kaisar.” When people believed in Christ and became His followers, some in the Empire came to consider Christ a rival of their Kaisar. Then, at Antioch (Acts 11:26) they began to call the followers of Christ Christianoi (Christians), adherents of Christ, as a nickname, a term of reproach. Hence, this verse says, “As a Christian, let him not be ashamed”; that is, if any believer suffers at the hands of the persecutors who contemptuously call him a Christian, he should not feel ashamed but should glorify God in this name.
Today the term Christian should bear a positive meaning, that is, a man of Christ, one who is one with Christ, not only belonging to Him but also having His life and nature in an organic union with Him, and who is living by Him, even living Him, in his daily life. If we suffer for being such a person, we should not feel ashamed but should be bold to magnify Christ in our confession by our holy and excellent manner of life to glorify (express) God in this name.
