1Therefore, 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. 2As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 5But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6For 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. (1 Peter 4.1-6)
So who is the fool? According to Mr T it’s the faker on the pitch crying out for a free-kick (so is the “speedwalka” and the “toe-dippa”.) But who is the fool here? Who is living a fruitless life that will come to nothing? Look again at verse 3 and following: “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatory. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
In the end, it’s worth facing the whateve ridicule and the discomfort our peers will heap on us because of the ultimate things. Death and judgement will come and only Christ can save people. Death will come and only Christ has conquered it. Therefore live it out, says Peter. Suffer for the sake of deep moral commitment to God brought about through the life-saving power of the gospel. In doing so, others without hope will see it. Then they too may be saved from the flood of dissipation that goes nowhere but the bleak despair of eternal hell.
Before we move on to the third post ("Get Some Nuts Because the End of All Things is Near") I think it’s worth saying this: I’m not telling you that enjoying pleasure is wrong and neither is Peter. The God of Christianity is not a pleasure-hating God. How could he be? He created the senses; sex is his idea. This voluptuous world with all its colours and textures are the work of his hands. How could God be a pleasure-hating God if he sent his Son to rescued us from a pleasure-less eternity? God cannot be a pleasure-hating God if he promises us the intense joy of heaven through Christ his Son. Peter is not telling us to deny ourselves that which is good and God-given. A pleasure-hating God would not create a world in which a Taco Taco Beef Burrito with extra Jalepenos could exist; there is too much correspondence between its tangy taste and my personal pleasure for that to be the case.
We are pleasure loving creatures. We delight in beauty and sensation. That is not a mistake. But the abuse of pleasure and the bondage and harm it leads to is wrong. Sin distorts everything that is good; sexual hunger becomes lust, love of pleasure becomes debauchery, love of good food becomes gluttony, the in-born human sense of the divine is warped into idolatory; sin reduces human life to nothing more than a flood of dissipation. It is spiritually fatal and ultimately seals us off from the living God. There cannot be a more heart-rending tragedy or a more fruitless loss than that of a human life spent on triviality and distorted pleasure. Peter wants to spare us from such a tragedy. As Christians we want to call people from such a wasted life of foolishness and ultimate loss.
It’s a shocking thing isn’t it? In an ultimate sense, a life without Christ is a wasted life. A life lived for sin and self-serving pleasure is utter folly. And it only ends in tragedy.
We must continue to live God-honouring lives that magnify Christ and contradict the flow of dissipation and spiritual darkness around us. People need to see that there is an alternative; that there is hope. They need to see that they are not doomed to the death-grip of drug addiction or drink-induced numbness. They need to to see that death, boredom and despair don’t have the last word. So don’t run a mile from what Peter calls the pagan flood of dissipation. Stay close. You’ve been stationed where you are to be a burning light in the smog of spiritual darkness and pain that engulfes so many lives.
If that is not reason enough to push through and press on, verse 5 has got to be: “But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
In the end the live Peter calls us to is the only life worth living. The alternative is unthinkable. It is folly. It is fruitless and tragic. Yes, to obey Jesus as Lord is costly and difficult. It is painful and uncomfortable to fight against sin and unbelief day-by-day. It is difficult to face the derision of other who think our belief is delusion and our way of life straight-jacketed morality. But, in the end, it is the only way that leads to life. And, in the end, it is the only path to blessing and fullness. It is the only way to live. The alternative is folly.
May God in his infinite love grant us the spiritual strength to go Get Some Nuts so that we might be gracious Jesus-people amidst a flood of dissipation. May we offer the spiritually lost the only thing that can satiate the awful thirst and the gnawing hunger: the gospel of Christ. Amen.
Signing Out -
The Scribbling Apprentice
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