Trade Offs: Suffer Now or Suffer Then

Introduction

The Christian life can be likened to the person training for the Olympic Games. The runner must work long hours and put their bodies through agonizing torture if they are to make the team. While their friends are going out enjoying themselves the runner must stay on a strict regime, eating only what will benefit their chances of becoming the best of the best. Pain and suffering are just part and parcel of getting to the finish line. In the same way, once we come to faith in Christ we begin a most difficult training regime that will leave our sinful desires and character in the past and train in the way of godliness and holiness, as we get ready for the life to come. Our Coach, the Holy Spirit, uses all means, to drive us toward greater obedience to God. Sometimes we find our old selves fighting back, and sometimes we find the world fighting back against change. We often fall back into our sinful ways because no one likes to be rejected, while at the same time we see people becoming less accepting of our service to God. This is especially true in this age, where many in this world move violently away from Biblical morals. Even more telling is how they react to Believers when we stand up for God’s standards written in the Bible. Whole laws are beginning to pop up in the western countries. Laws that make it illegal to council people who are thinking of changing their gender, or abort their baby. It is extremely sad to hear of this happening, but we should not be surprised by any of it.

Peter is speaking to these type of issues within his letter to Asia Minor (parts of modern Turkey) about staying true to God in the midst of the war being waged against the people of God. It’s certainly hard to take but in verses 17-19, as people saved by the grace of God, we find great comfort.

The Season is Now

1 Peter 4:17, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? These verses are speaking of two separate judgments. The main gist is that everyone has to go through God’s judgment. Believers go through judgment in this life, while there is a future judgment of all who have not put their faith in the grace of God. That grace is of course Jesus Christ.

Lets look at these verses a little more closely. Please have your bible open to 1 Peter 4:17-19.

For Believers

1 Peter 4:17a, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. Here we have God’s disciplining judgment upon His people. At first glance we may think that God is punishing Believers in this life for the sins they commit. If we take this verse in saying that God is casting His wrath upon us in this life, then, what does that say about God? Doesn’t it tells us that God has not really forgiven all our sins through Christ’s sacrifice? Doesn’t it tell us that God’s anger can flare up at any moment, and so we must always be scared of Him? How can we expect God’s mercy and love if we are always looking over our shoulder, waiting for His anger to flare up, to come down upon us like a ton of bricks? Can we can truly say God is love, as John says, if His wrath toward His people is not taken away through His Son. The suffering we go through could be due to something we did wrong, but we cannot say every bad thing that happens is because of a particular sin. Job is the case in point, but Jesus own suffering is more than proof against this.

If Peter is not talking about a penalty for doing the wrong thing, then what is he talking about? I think this verse is showing us that the fiery trials, from verse 12, are the act of God disciplining us, cleansing and purifying His people in preparation for eternity. The first clue is the word ‘for’ at the beginning of verse 17, For the time has come… God is using this fallen and dysfunctional world we live in as discipline for His own house. As a means to teach them where their help comes from. As a means to help them to learn to rely on God in every part of life. In the previous verses we find that we are not to find it unusual, or strange, that bad things happen to us. We also discover that we are blessed and able rejoice when we suffer for our faith in Christ, because we partake in His suffering. And as we rejoice and in this partaking, verse 16 tells us not to be ashamed, but glorify God.

We see from those verses that the suffering Christians undertake in this life, and especially when we suffer for righteousness sake, is what Peter calls the judgment [that] begins at the house of God. If this isn’t the eternal punishment of Hell, then what is it. I believe that this refers to the act of our loving Father. Sanctification. Discipline by its very nature is not destructive. If you want to learn something new, a craft, or language, or sport, you have to train your mind and body to operate outside its normal range. You must remove the habits and actions that aren’t helpful, and learn to use your mind in different ways, teach your arms and hands to use different equipment. This is often a painful task, and may cause temporary suffering as our minds and bodies scream at us for putting them through this torture. But as we revise the new content, and go over the new craft, over time it begins to become second nature. Our mind and bodies begin to adopt the new. In the same way, as we strive to know and possess God’s Word in our lives the Holy Spirit is disciplining us in the way of proper living. Discipline corrects bad living, and when I say bad living what I mean is that discipline is used as a method by God to cleanse and purify us.

He cleanses us of our wrong thinking and our wicked actions. A loving father would never think about allowing his disobedient child to continue in bad habits, but will discipline his child so they grow rightly. He teaches them how to be better contributors within the family, better citizens of the state, and if the parents are Christians, they will help them grow in their understanding of the God of the Bible and how to live for God within that society.

As God’s chosen people, we are described as being obedient to the Word. Chapter 1, verse 2, tells us, we are saved so we can be obedient to God. Go down a few verses to 14, and we are encouraged to be obedient children. In chapter 3 verses 11 we are to obey God by steering clear of evil, and do good. In chapter 4 verse 2 we are to be obedient to the will of God and not the sinful nature. Allow me to use Peter’s own words in describing what obedience looks like, or maybe I should say the result of being obedient to God’s Word. It goes back to chapter 1 verse 15-16, where he says, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” Obedience to God is holy living. The result of obedience is holy living, and we obey God by living according to His Word because He is a Holy God.

The whole purpose in saving us is to make us into the original image of mankind. The image God created Adam and Eve. The perfect image of the perfect God, and this is done in the only way it could be done. Jesus who is part of the Godhead, became man, died as the payment to God for the High Treason we committed against Him. The sufferings and pain we go through in this life are all there to rid us of the wickedness, the sinful nature, in our lives and draw us into a deeper relationship with our Redeemer. This is necessary because when we become Christians, we are regenerated into a new creature. One born not of flesh and blood, but born of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, into His eternal Kingdom. And just as we learn and are disciplined in this life as we grow from a baby to adulthood, so too we must learn and be discipled as we grow from our initial rebirth to when we cast off this mortal coil and enter eternity with our Redeeming King.

For Unbelievers

1 Peter 4:17b, and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? God begins His judgment of mankind by first putting His people through the refining fires to burn off the sinful desires inherent in all mankind. After He is finished with His people the final judgment, which Peter has already expressed in 1 Peter 4:5. The Bible doesn’t give us much in the way of exact dates and such, but He promised to come and so we can trust that He will come back. At the end of time when Jesus does return, in all the glory of the King of kings, He will then pour the purifying fire over the rest of mankind. The major problem for those who do not obey the Gospel is that they have no precious metal to be purified, and so they will not make it through the refining process. but what is this precious metal? The precious metal that is only found in Believers does not originate within us. It, rather, refers to the blood of Christ that covers us, and to the Holy Spirit that dwells within. They may receive rewards and have far more success than God’s children, but the trade off for blessings now, is eternal punishment then.

Salvation through the Difficult Path

Peter restates verse 17, but in the form of a proverb, quoted from the Greek Old Testament in Proverbs 11:31. 1 Peter 4:18, Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” There is one word in this verse which is not translated very helpfully. That word is scarcely. Believers are not scarcely saved in the sense that God pulls us from the flames of hell at the last moment. The Greek word means difficulty, and refers to the fiery trials and suffering Christians endure as the Holy Spirit refines us, removes the dross from our lives, in His work of sanctification.

Peter is saying, that if God’s people are redeemed through the purifying fires of suffering then it must be absolutely horrifying for those who are not God’s people. Peter isn’t writing this to scare the Asian Believers, but rather to motivate them, and us, to endure the pain and suffering in this life.

As Believers we are participating in the sufferings of Christ as we adopt the moral standards of God. That means we won’t be lying and cheating when dealing with others. It means we don’t accept sex outside marriage. That we don’t accept the purposeful killing of the fetus, or the terminally ill, or the aged. That means we don’t just accept and agree with friends and family who think of themselves as LGBTQI, or gender fluid. We don’t accept the woke culture, or social justice movement.

When we stand upon God’s Word before the world it will not like it. The world cannot understand who God really is and why we do not run with them.

God’s Sovereign Will

1 Peter 4:19, Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. This is the conclusion of the argument Peter began in verse 12. All suffering comes to us according to the will of God. All the insults we receive for obeying God rather than man, is part of God’s plan for our lives. As in all of life we are called to commit our souls to God, for He is doing it for good. He is the loving Father who desires His children to grow to maturity. Peter is showing us that God is, also, the Master of the universe, the Apex of the cosmos, and there is nothing above Him that can thwart His plans. God is the Sovereign Lord who created everything, and nothing comes close to His power.

Do you see the trade off? You can have a great life here, flourish in every part of life - money, job, cars, friends, security, etc - yet lose everything in the next. Or you can lose everything in this life, yet gain the everything in the next. The trade off appears too great a price for many, and at times even to Believers.

Peter is encouraging every Believer to stand upon God and His Word, and not to dishonor His Name before a hostile world. This is a great witness for God’s love and mercy. We must not think that God has cut us loose when suffering comes upon us. It is all part of His will for our lives. Being miserable while we suffer is seen as the right of everyone. But God calls us to rejoice, for we are blessed. God has began His judgement with His house, with the end being glory. Believing we are blessed during trials becomes easy in the light of what God has done, and is doing, for us.

Those who know God, know that He is faithful and trustworthy and so are able to stand with Job, saying, For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God.

Amen