I Peter 4:1-1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.
Obedience to God required intense suffering for Jesus. It cost Him a lot to say, “Yes” to the Cross. To have said, “No” would have been a sin because sin is disobedience to God. I think sometimes we think of sin as only the bad things that we do. Those things that God has called bad or wrong or immoral are sin, for sure, but when we say, “No,” to the things God is asking us to do, we also sin against God. If Jesus had said, “I’m not going to do your will, God, because it involves suffering,” then He would have sinned against God, and we would still be stuck in our sin.
Why did Jesus say, “Yes” to suffering on the Cross and “No” to sinning against God when it came to whether He would go to the Cross? There were two reasons.
- God loves the world. Jesus was God in the flesh. Love for us was rooted deeply in His heart.
- God hates sin. It had to be dealt with.
So, Jesus did the right thing, instead of what He was tempted to do. He was tempted to forgo the Cross. He was tempted to get out of the suffering, but He chose the suffering when He chose to obey God. We’re told in I Peter 4:1 that we are to choose the right thing, the righteous thing, even when it costs us something. Even when our friends don’t understand why we won’t participate in something that is wrong, even when the culture says we deserve to have “fun.” When that fun is sinful, when it compromises God’s call on our life, to obey God, we have to turn away from that which is sinful, even if we lose a friend, even if it means missing out on something that could have seemed to be enjoyable.
Living for Jesus means we no longer live for sin. We don’t look for ways to sin. We don’t make plans to sin. We don’t try to get away with sin. We don’t justify or make excuses for sinning. We are done sinning, at least that is the attitude that we are supposed to possess.
Verse 2:2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
As we follow Jesus, more and more, doing the will of God will be more enticing, more attractive, more exciting, and more desirable than the desire to sin. We need to become hyper focused on seeing sin the way God does. If we have the mind of Christ about sin, we will want to sin less and less and will want to please God more and more. If your desire for sin is growing, you have the mind of self. If your desire for the will of God is growing, you are developing the mind of Christ.
I want to suggest some steps you need to take to help you grow your desire for the will of God and to help you crucify a desire to sin.
Our main text from I Peter 4:1-2 one more time: 1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
Step number one: Arm yourself with the same attitude about sin that God has.
You need to view sin as your enemy, and not just any enemy, but an enemy that threatens your well-being and your connection with Christ. Anything that seeks to get between you and Jesus isn’t good for you and has the power to harm you. Sin is a deadly enemy. Sin will complicate and destroy your life.
Satan is the one behind the temptation to sin, and he will never have your best interest in mind. The Bible says he seeks to steal, kill and destroy, and he does that by getting people to fall in love with sinning. So, number one, get armed with the same attitude about sin that God has. It is dangerous. It is a real threat. It will cause you harm. God is the One who has your best interest in mind, and He knows sin takes you in the opposite direction. We need to see sin for the serious problem that it truly is.
Psalm 5:4-For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.
Do you want God to delight in you? Say, “No,” to sin. Think about it the way God does. The world’s idea about sin is, “It isn’t a big deal.” Friends, it’s the biggest deal. It creates idols in our lives. We start to pay attention to and desire things that are against God. Pretty soon those sinful idols can take the place God is meant to occupy in our hearts. I John 2:15-15-15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
If you love God, you cannot nurture a love for sin. If you love sin, you don’t love God correctly, and maybe not at all.
James 4:4-Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Do you want to be God’s enemy? That’s what choosing sin does. It makes us at odds with God. That is how serious it is. If you arm yourself with God’s thoughts about sin, it will be easier to avoid an ambush. It will be easier to defend yourself against an attack.
I Peter 2:11-11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
So, arm yourself to think about sin the way God does, as something to completely avoid, and point number two is: Anticipate temptation. You are going to have many opportunities to choose to abstain from sin. Temptation is everywhere, and it can be a daily reality for us. Jesus was tempted to sin against God, so why would we think we wouldn’t be? In the wilderness temptations in Luke 4, Satan came after Jesus three times to try to get Him to compromise and abort the mission for which God had sent Jesus to earth. Jesus resisted the devil every time. Jesus was armed with the Word of God. He knew where God stood on sin. He used the Word of God as a weapon to defeat Satan, and eventually, Satan left Jesus alone, at least for the time being.
You see, Satan is a patient enemy. He is cunning. He is deceptive. He is stubborn. He doesn’t give up easily. He looks for weak moments. He wants to catch us off guard. The Bible calls those moments “opportune times.” When the devil saw he wasn’t getting anywhere with Jesus, he left, but he wasn’t finished trying. Look at Luke 4:13-13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Satan is always looking for a weak moment to try to trip you up. He tried many times to come at Jesus. He used other people to try to deter Jesus from His mission. He prompted people to take Jesus’ life. He used Judas to betray Jesus which began Jesus’ road to the cross. Sometimes the devil uses other people to try to get us to cave. Sometimes he uses other people to wound us so that we get discouraged or depressed and disheartened so that we look to the wrong things for comfort which leads us to sin.
Satan is good at making sin look fun, to look appealing. He twists and manipulates circumstances and disguises sin as a good time, as something we deserve, or as something that will make us feel better. But sin is only fun for a season, Hebrews 11:25. After the sin is committed, there is a price to pay. There is a consequence to bear. There is a wake of destruction to clean up. There is recovery needed. Sin always costs us far more than it promises. It always takes far more from us than we could ever receive from it. There is no benefit from sin, believer.
When you are tempted, the Bible says that you need to submit to God and resist the devil, and the devil must run from you, James 4:7. You aren’t powerless against the devil’s schemes. When you go first to God, when you admit you are struggling, when you tell Him you are being tempted, when you agree with Him that sinning against Him is a bad idea, and when you ask for help, He will give you power to stand against Satan. Satan has to flee from a believer who is set on pleasing God and who appropriates His power in times of temptation.
But remember, it’s a war. You can’t just give up, give in and surrender at the first sign of temptation. You can’t just wave the white flag and let Satan take you captive. You have to fight. You have to resist. You have to stand your ground. But too often when the devil dangles something shiny or exciting in front of us, instead of resisting, instead of standing our ground, instead of fighting, we explore. We investigate. We contemplate. We ruminate on what it might be like if we took just one bite, if we gave the devil just five minutes of our time, if we walked down that dark hallway just once. Listen, God is looking for some people who will adopt His mindset about sin and who will anticipate being attacked and who will anchor themselves to God’s will over anything the flesh might desire. We need to be wise to the devil’s schemes, II Corinthians 2:11, that we might not be outwitted.
If you are tired of the empty promises of sin, and you long for a closer relationship with God, anchor yourself to God’s will and God’s power to accomplish that will. God’s will, will never include sin. The Bible says God has given us everything we need for life and godliness, II Peter 1:3. That includes a way of escape when we are being tempted, I Corinthians 10:13.
Today, can you make the life-giving decision to arm yourself with Jesus’ attitude about sin and decide to be done with sin?
