Often one seemingly small ingredient in a recipe can make such a difference in whether food tastes great or terrible. Cindy was telling me how one additional tablespoon of cocoa and changing one tablespoon of coconut oil for grape seed oil made the difference for a fantastic chocolate sauce in the Oreo Cookie Desert she makes. This passage has an ingredient that just might be the missing ingredient in your life. Adding this one ingredient could make a huge difference for your life.

1 Peter 4:1 says, “Since Christ suffered in his body; you too must arm yourselves with this same determination.” To “Arm” means to equip yourself with a weapon as if preparing for war. You must arm yourself like a soldier putting on his armor to protect his life in the battle.

The basic thought here is simply: It was not an easy path for Christ. If you are prepared for the same kind of life, that way of thinking will protect you! You must be inwardly prepared to suffer. You will live and thrive, you will have more joy, you will find it easier to make a clean break with sin, you will live more victoriously, in every way, if you are prepared in your heart to suffer in the flesh.

The first thing Peter focuses our attention on, is the reality that Christ suffered - “Since Christ suffered in the body”. Not every moment of Christ’s life was suffering. He had times of great joy with his Father, with dear friends like Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Hebrews says God anointed him with the oil of gladness above all his companions. But Jesus Christ did suffer much. He was ostracized, mocked, hated by the spiritual leaders of his day; he was lied about. He was Lord and God, yet he was treated as a vile criminal. He was sinless, yet he suffered for our sins, “the righteous for the unrighteous”.

He did not merely put up with suffering, he faced his life with that purpose. He said, “The Son of man did not come to be served but to give his life as a ransom for many”. His suffering did not come as a shock to him, he was prepared for it. He understood it was out in front of him and he was ready to absorb it. Knowing he would be killed at Jerusalem he set his face to go there. As he carried the cross, he told the women along the way, do not weep for me but for yourselves. There was a kind of toughness and grit, a complete absence of self pity, that came from willingness to drink the cup the father had given him to drink.

So Peter says since Christ suffered in the flesh (or in his human body) we should be totally ready to suffer too while we live in a human body. The ESV says, “Arm yourselves with this same way of thinking...”, with this same approach to life.

Now there is a certain kind of teaching, that holds that any kind of pleasure works against spiritual growth. But the Bible doesn’t teach that at all. Psalm 84:11 says, “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly”. But we are to be ready for anything, even really hard stuff.

Are you prepared in your heart for things to not be easy? Are you prepared to follow Jesus even if you experience pain along the way? Or if you experience mistreatment from others? Are you prepared to endure some great injustice, if that should happen? Are you prepared in your heart that you would still walk with God, even if you lost something or someone you cherish? Are you prepared for some real persecution – like loss of home, or imprisonment? Are you prepared that the road ahead could be hard? Are you prepared to keep your hand to the plow, no matter what?

Peter says unless we are prepared in that way we are vulnerable to defeat. Protect yourself with this attitude: I am prepared to suffer today just like my Savior suffered.

How will this protect you?

First: This will keep you from the danger of disillusionment. I remember a vacation I planned for us to take when our kids were little to somewhere in southern Missouri. Somehow I got literature from a place down there with pictures that showed these idyllic, cozy, cabins right on the lakefront. We envisioned fishing with the kids, and enjoying gorgeous view of the lake. Well when we got there, the cabins were run down, dirty, and there was no lake in sight! From our cabin, we could see nothing but weeds, rocks and dirt. Wherever the lake was we couldn’t see it. It was disillusioning to say the least. Because it has never even entered my mind that things would not be just perfect. I learned from that and a few other travel experiences that vacations are not necessarily vacations from trouble or disappointment. And it actually helped me enjoy them more.

One of the first things Paul told the new believers was “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God”. He set the expectation right at the beginning.

Secondly (If we are inwardly prepared to suffer) It protects us from excessive concern about our own lives and circumstances. Paul said, “Whether we live or die we are the Lord’s”! There was a sort of carefree attitude toward even the worst that could happen - whether everything comes crashing down or not, we are the Lord’s. What are you suffering right now? Whatever it is you are still the Lord’s. You still have all that really matters. What do you live in fear of happening to you? If that happened would you still be the Lord’s? Yes!

In the story of Ester, we are told that if anyone entered the King’s presence uninvited they would be killed. Ester was able to go in and stand before before king Xerxes, because she had armed herself with this purpose of suffering. She said, “If I perish, I perish”, and walked right on in. I find that attitude incredibly freeing. One time when I was tempted to be quite worried about something, I felt like God said something like this to me: Trust completely in me and say, like Ester, “If I perish, I perish. If you have that kind of abandonment to me, all will be well.

When a person says, “If I would loose this person or thing, I would totally fall apart”, something is not right about that. Or they say, “if that happened it would destroy me”, that is not right. When you think like that, you are already defeated. It not only sets you up for defeat, you are living in bondage to something or someone and you just may not know it yet.. When you are armed to suffer you take the power out of your suffering to wipe you out! IF you arm yourself with the mental preparation to suffer mistreatment, loss, and injustice you will not fall apart when it happens.

Third: This will keep you from the sins of self pity. Self pity is really the mentality that I deserve everything to go my way - and because this thing in my life did not go my way, my life is terrible. It is a feeling of entitlement and the resentment that comes when you don’t get all the things you feel entitled to. Whereas IF you arm yourself with the determination to lay down your life as Christ laid down his, then you won’t regard not getting your way as such a terrible thing.

You won’t resent when you wife asks you to help with one of the kids, or to vacuum the house. You won’t feel sorry for yourself that your husband had something come up at work, and can’t be with you for the evening. You develop a self-sufficiency in Christ that doesn’t need so much from other people. You are living in the freedom that comes from a willingness to suffer.

Fourth: Having a mind to suffer leads to a clean break with all sin. And this is Peter’s main point! Right after Peter says to arm yourselves with this way of thinking he says, “whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God”. There is a connection between suffering, or at least being prepared to suffer, and NOT sinning. We sin because of an unwillingness to suffer. We sin because we want to do what we want to do and are unwilling to suffer the pain of saying no to sinful human passions. Therefore a having a mind to suffer, is key in ceasing from sin. This does not mean that if someone has suffered they have ceased from sin in an absolute sense. But rather means that suffering has a way of freeing people from sinning.

The ESV study note on this verse says, “Peter’s point is that when believers are willing to suffer the nerve center of sin is severed in their lives”.

I am not a big fan of the Message Bible, because of how loose it is with many passages, but I do think it communicates the point of this passage in a way people might understand.

Think of your suffering as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you will be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.

The International Bible Commentary on 1 Peter emphasizes that the willingness to suffer the world’s hatred is likely what Peter had in mind. “The dominion of sin (is) broken in practical experience, because the saint who has boldly stood his ground and taken punishment for it is launched onto a plane of living where sin is easier to overcome and more difficult to fall into”. If you identify with Christ in your workplace or among your relatives, and you are excluded, or taunted for it, it will actually strengthen you in your battle against sin. John Stites told me about a time he had his unbelieving brother for dinner and he prayed before the meal. After he finished his prayer, his brother said, “Oh, I didn’t know you had become a deacon, now”. That was probably really good for John.

Wayne Grudem said, “Whoever….has still gone on obeying God in spite of the suffering involved has made a clear break with sin”. Alexnder MacClaren said he who is armed by suffering “has shaken off the dominion of sin”.

This does not mean that suffering automatically produces holiness in anyone. For the “unarmed Christian” it can produce bitterness and anger and distance from God. But for the one who has chosen to suffer like Christ, this frame of mind gives great freedom from all kinds of sin.

Verse 2 gives more insight on how willingness to suffer brings an end to our relationship with sinning. “He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so that he might live, the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. NIV says, “As a result they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires but rather for the will of God”.

A person with a mind to suffer has already decided to suffer the “putting to death” of their human passions, so that they can live now for the will of God. If you are armed to suffer, you can say no to human passions and instead to do the will of God. If someone has treated you like a jerk, your human passions say get back at that person. Blow up. Fight. And the devil tells you you will feel better if you let off some steam. Those who are armed to suffer deny their sinful impulses and instead live for the will of God.

The International Bible Commentary put it this way, “(Peter’s) challenge (to us) is to equip ourselves with Christ’s determination to do the will of God, whatever the cost”.

You will experience human passions that are against the will of God. You need to come to the place where you say, “I am willing to suffer the loss of my own wishes, my own impulses, my own passions, to obey and please you in all things. The key to spiritual victory is a total abandonment to God and his ways, at any cost to yourself. This has to happen at each moment and each situation of your life - when you get up, when you lie down, when the kids are good, when they are sick or crying, when work is easy, when it is unbelievably hard, when you feel good when you don’t feel good, you live for the will of God.

Verse 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” (we could add more: living in complaining, grumbling, jealousy and envy of others, judging and condemning others). Peter had just said, “they do not spend the REST of their earthly lives for these things”.

Peter is emphasizing the break between our old life and our new life. Whatever time you spent in lust and carousing, and getting drunk, (or self pity, or complaining), or whatever sinful human passion you have indulged in, it was enough! For you, the clock has ran out, the timer has gone off, the buzzer has sounded - it’s over! Whether you spent decades in that kind of living or were relatively protected from that by a godly upbringing, one thing for sure, you don’t need any more of it! You don’t need to be doing what the pagans do one second longer!

Sometimes in our teaching we emphasize so much that we are not yet perfect, and that we will always sin, that if we are not careful we will miss the clear emphasis of the Bible (and passages like this) that there is to be a substantial break from sin for the believer in Jesus. We aren’t doing some of those things we used to do, or that the world around us routinely does.

Two phrases here in this passage communicate this break with sin. He who has armed himself with the purpose of suffering in the flesh has ceased from sin. Instead of embracing the substantial reality of that, some would almost immediately think, “Oh that can’t mean that!”. And this phrase here in verse 2 “so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God”. The rest of your life!

Most of us need to hear, you can live for the will of God the rest of the time – the rest of your life! By the provision of the Spirit, you can talk to your spouse and your kids according to the will of God. You can give thanks in all things and rejoice always, and pray without ceasing which is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. “The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death”. You can put away that sinful habit and live for God the rest of your life!! Hallelujah!

But you are really going to shock some people when you do that! Verse 4 “They are surprised that you do not join with them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you”. But they will have to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead”. Part of your suffering that brings an end to living in sin, is the suffering of being socially ostracized for not joining in the sin.

For some people, perhaps here, in some situations, one of keys to breaking free from sinful past, is to be able to suffer the abuse of your old crowd of friends. People hang out at bars and night clubs, and other places of sin, largely because of the camaraderie. And unless you are willing to pay the price of breaking out of those friendships, and willing to pay the price of them turning their backs on you, you will never break free from the bondage of their debauchery.

This abuse might become very severe, but we are not to become discouraged, or think that God is not aware of the things people do to us. Verse 5 says, “But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead”. Don’t spend your life worrying about the injustice perpetrated against you. Everyone will give account to him.

“For this is why the gospel was preached, even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit according to the will of God.” (NASB) It this talking about the gospel being preached to the faithful dead of the Old Testament? Or is he saying this is why the gospel was preached beginning in Jerusalem and to all Judea, even to those who have since died? I won’t go into all that. But the point is not WHO he was talking about but to say WHY the gospel is preached - so that we may live in the Spirit, according to the will of God, NOT IN SIN! But in the spirit according to the will of God.

Protect yourself with this attitude: I am prepared to suffer today just like my Savior suffered. This will keep you from the sins of self pity and being easily discouraged and defeated, and many worse sins and problems. Having a mind to suffer is not some morbid, pessimistic outlook on life. It is a protection from the devil and sin and leads to victorious living in Jesus.