During the Lenten season, we have been looking at the attitudes of Christ. I thought we’d start out with a bit of fun. I have a couple of jokes on the topic of attitude to get us started.
My mattress has a real attitude problem.
It’s a temper-pedic
What do you call a bigfoot with attitude?
A SASSquatch!
I’ll show myself out.
We’re told in Philippians 2, that we should have the same attitude that Jesus had. There are three attitudes in that chapter that we have unpacked. The first was the attitude of humility, not considering ourselves better than anyone else. The second was the attitude of a servant, being willing to lower ourselves to lift others up, and the third was the attitude of obedience to God in all things.
Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus became obedient to death, even death on a cross, and when He did, His sinless life became the ransom payment for the sins of humanity. I’m certainly glad Jesus obeyed the Father in all things. If He hadn’t, we would still have a huge sin problem, one we could never overcome. It took Divine intervention for our forgiveness to be secured, but it also took Divine and earthly obedience from Jesus, the One who was fully God and fully man. He was the only One who could intervene and save us.
To recap what we have covered, would you read this with me? As we adopt Jesus’ attitude we must, be humble, be a servant, and be obedient to God.
As we continue our study of the attitudes of Jesus, I want us to look at I Peter 4:1-2. I’m going to use the NIV rendering today. The book of I Peter was written to believers who were suffering for their faith in Jesus. In fact, the word, “suffering,” appears more in I Peter than in any other book of the Bible. Chapter 3 of I Peter talks about suffering for doing good. Sometimes, when we refuse to do what everyone else is doing to honor God, when we stop going places that He wouldn’t want us to go and when we stop doing things that Jesus wouldn’t want us to do, sometimes, we are persecuted for being different, for not going along with the crowd. You could argue that becomes a form of suffering for the sake of the Gospel.
Sometimes, saying “no” to sin, it will cost us. People won’t understand why we no longer want to cuss or why integrity is so important or why we don’t want to lie or gossip. They won’t understand why our standards for our lives change as we follow Jesus. They won’t get why we can’t follow Jesus and also live the way we want to, but we can’t. Not and be faithful disciples of Jesus. We have to begin to understand what God wants for our lives, and we have to choose those things. That will lead us away from sin and lead us toward righteousness, and it will start by developing the same attitude about sin that Jesus had.
Look at our text in I Peter 4: 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.
There was a huge reason Jesus needed to go through with the crucifixion. It was so that all of us could be saved. For us to be saved, Jesus was going to have to suffer for a little while. It isn’t likely that any of us will ever have to suffer the intense suffering Jesus did. None of us could bear the weight of the sins of the world for sure, which was way worse than the physical suffering He endured. However, there may be times that we feel like we are suffering when we say “No” to sin and “Yes” to God’s will.
Why did Jesus say, “Yes” to suffering 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.
Let’s put verse 1 back on the screen: 1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.
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.
If you knew someone was coming to your house to do you harm, you wouldn’t make brownies to serve them when they got there, would you? You wouldn’t take your time getting ready that morning, would you? You certainly wouldn’t open the door and invite them in when they got there. That would be ludicrous, ridiculous, and would put you in a vulnerable and compromising position. If you thought someone was coming to attack you, you wouldn’t make yourself an easy target, would you?
If you couldn’t flee the situation for some reason, you would at least arm yourself with protection. Right? You would find a weapon, a way to defend yourself. You would be vigilant. You would be watching for that person. You would be on high alert. Maybe you would call friends to come and watch with you. Maybe you would call the police and ask that an officer start patrolling in front of your house. Your mind would be set on defending yourself against your enemy.
Friends, we have to have the same vigilant mindset about sin. 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.
Our Heavenly Father is grieved over our sin because He sees how it destroys us. A father doesn’t grieve over a wayward child unless there is love there. God is grieved over sin because of His love for us. He is grieved because it offends Him, it is an offense to His holiness, yes, but He is equally grieved because He hates what it does to us. Sin blinds us to the path God has for us. Sin drains our peace and takes joy from us. Sin robs us of the intimate fellowship we were meant to enjoy with God. Sin hinders our prayers, Psalm 66:18. 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.
As children of God, we are to walk in the light with Jesus. Sin is darkness. I John 1:7- “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
It’s easy to stumble and fall in the darkness. We need to be radically committed to walking in the light where Jesus is. Jesus isn’t dwelling in the darkness. I John 1:5-“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” If you gravitate towards the darkness, you are gravitating away from Jesus.
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. Love involves sacrifice. Love involves commitment. Love involves respect. Love for God includes obedience to His commands. John 14:15 says that those who love God will keep His commandments. God has told us how to respect Him, how to love Him. When we choose the opposite, we are choosing a different love; we are choosing a love for sin.
James 4:4-Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Anyone here 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. No one here can say that didn’t know that sinning would cause a problem between them and God. You have been armed. Tell your neighbor, “You have been armed.”
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.
We are in a war against Satan. He is always seeking to take someone down. He doesn’t have to work too hard on unbelievers because they are already his. But because He hates God, he works to undermine God’s work in His children. Peter tells us to abstain from sin. In other words, don’t do it. Avoid it at all costs. Turn away from it. Easier said than done sometimes, I know. It can be difficult to abstain from sin because we are in a war with Satan, and as long as we live in the body, as long as we are in the flesh, we will have to war against Satan and the temptations of sin.
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. Listen, if someone came into my home and tried to take me out of my home with the intention to harm me, I wouldn’t jump into their arms and hope that I weighed too much for them to carry me. (Although, it might be a plausible strategy.) I wouldn’t stretch out my arms toward them and just willingly let them bind me. No way! I would kick. I would claw. I would scream. I would bite. I would struggle. I would resist allowing them to take me away.
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?
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