1 Peter 4:12-19 - Christian Suffering - Trusting God's Authority
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[Intro]
A few weeks ago we had gone over 4:7-11 where the main topic was living for God. The next section goes over the suffering that can come with being a follower of Christ. Now I know this is something we’ve gone over in the recent past. In this letter Peter has mentioned suffering multiple times, but remember this is what his readers were currently going through so that’s why it’s so heavy on this topic. Now it makes sense how Peter first mentioned living for Christ and bringing him glory in the previous section. Because if you’re not doing that, you probably won’t undergo much suffering. It’s easy to claim belief in Christ but not actually live the life he desires us to. Which if that’s the case you’ll likely end up with different trials, usually self-inflicted and provides no fruit. Keeping a close relationship with God and striving to live for Him, will definitely help with avoiding pitfalls of sin, but you may go through suffering because of the way you live for God, but that type of suffering brings glory and honor to God. And as Peter repeatedly writes, rejoice in the suffering.
The choice to live for God in a way that people actually notice and may persecute you for shows that you are unashamed of the Gospel and you trust God’s sovereignty. There are always two options, live for God or not. And it’ll be tempting to take the easy way out of situations, I’ve been there many times. Are we ashamed of the Gospel? Do we trust God? Those are the two big questions we must ask ourselves. When we fail in those moments, when we are ashamed to stand up for the Gospel, we’ll actually feel ashamed of ourselves after the fact. And I’m not saying this to make anyone feel guilty if they remember a time in the past where they failed in this way, every Christian has likely failed to a certain degree in this way. We don’t dwell on our past failures of sin, that’s what Christ died for. We repent and move forward with God, striving to overcome the temptation the next time it happens. And when it does happen, when you stand up for the Gospel, you move on to the next challenge that may arise, persecution. In persecution you have to trust God’s sovereignty. There’s the temptation to rebel and not trust Him, after all you were obeying God and now it could feel like you are being punished. If God is sovereign why not just bless me with an easy life. The fact is when you go through persecution you are being given an opportunity. You either stumble and be angry with God because of the struggle or will you rejoice and participate in suffering with Christ and trust in his sovereignty.
[Prayer]
[Body]
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
14 If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. 15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. 16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! 17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also,
“If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?”
19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
Persecution is allowed by God. Don’t think Satan pulled a fast one on Him. Satan has no authority over God. We worship a sovereign God and there is a purpose for the persecution. It’s important to understand that there is a purpose. Suffering may feel like something I just have to endure for awhile because God allowed it, I get nothing out of it though, there’s just no point, God is not paying attention. Those are lies. There is a reason for suffering. But to believe that there’s a purpose in suffering, you have to:
1) Believe that God is sovereign
2) Trust in His authority
If you don’t believe in the first point, you don’t believe in the God of the bible. If you believe he’s sovereign but don’t trust his authority then you’re just a fool. And there have been times where I lived the life of the fool. It never goes well. The funny thing about not trusting God’s authority in suffering is, suffering exists because mankind did not trust God’s authority. Sin and death entered the world when Adam and Eve decided not to trust God’s authority. Yes they were deceived by Satan, but if they trusted God’s authority they would have called Satan what he is, a lier, and turned away instead of believing the lie. Without sin and death, there would be no suffering.
Okay so suffering exists because of the sin of mankind, God is sovereign, he has authority over all, but why does God allow his followers to go through suffering for the very thing that saves us, living for Christ.
There’s a reason Peter uses the verbiage “fiery trials” in verse 12. Like silver and gold you are being purified. Now some may say, hold up I am seen as righteous because of my faith in God, my sins are totally forgiven. And you’re right! Being purified doesn’t mean a cleansing process of sins you committed in the past. Your faith is being tested. It’s about you going through the sanctification process and maturing in your faith in God. It is a refining process.
A few months ago we talked on this topic, but we were reading from 1 Peter chapter 1. Let’s re-read from that section again, 1 Peter 1:6-7.
6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
Let’s read another section of scripture when it comes to the testing of our faith.
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
So through these fiery trials, we persevere not only knowing the joy ahead but also knowing how God is strengthening us while we are here on earth. And he is strengthening us to do His will. To take on more characteristics of Christ. And if you think about what we talked about a few weeks ago living for God and how our entire purpose in life is to bring glory to God, we are really in a circle of development here. We live to bring glory for God, and because of that we inevitably at some point undergo persecution in some manner, and through that persecution we are tested and purified, and we come out of the persecution a stronger believer, ready to live more for God striving to bring him more glory.
Also another important thing about the suffering, scripture always says you are suffering with Christ. It is something you’re sharing with Him. The Greek word used here means to share or fellowship with. We are doing it with God. Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice, he suffered the most, but we are joining him in the suffering. And being partners with Christ is something to rejoice about.
Now as Peter also mentioned earlier in his letter, there’s no credit for going through self inflicted suffering because of sin. As Peter writes, “it cannot be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs.” That’s not helping anyone, that’s not growing. That is suffering brought on by yourself. Living for God or not, going down either path you will encounter suffering. It’s just one type of suffering produces life and the other produces destruction.
Verse 17-18 Peter talks about the judgement and how it has already begun. What is saying is we as believers are already undergoing refining judgement, and although we rejoice because of the purpose of it, it’s challenging, it’s difficult to go through. Peter is saying if we are followers of God and have to go through great challenges from this refining judgement, imagine the judgement for those who do not even believe in Christ. Verse 18 is similar, let’s look at that one.
The verse Peter is quoting is from Proverbs 11:31
This will get a little confusing for a second. Let’s read the quoted verse from 1 Peter 4:18 again, then we’ll hop over to proverbs.
And also,
“If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?”
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31 If the righteous are rewarded here on earth,
what will happen to wicked sinners?
Now if you’re like me, you might be thinking these two sound similar, but it’s a little confusing, especially the first part in proverbs, “If the righteous are rewarded here on earth”. rewarded with what on earth? The Hebrew text of this proverb at the end of that first part reads “on earth”, the Greek text reads “with difficulty.” So you could read it as “If the righteous are rewarded with difficulty, what will happen to wicked sinners.” It’s not a change in meaning, it just makes more sense in this translation. This Greek text is what scholars believe Peter was quoting, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?” Barely saved does not mean Christ died for us, but his redeeming power was just enough to save us from Satan’s hand of destruction. No, think about the context of the proverb and everything else Peter has been talking about, “Barely saved” means as a believer you go through challenges and difficulties because of your faith, which is the suffering we’ve been talking about.
Verse 19, the last verse in this section, is a great simple summary over just about everything we’ve found in 1 Peter. Let’s read it again.
So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
This is a very clear verse. If you’re suffering from others that stems from doing God’s will, continue doing what you’ve been doing. Trusting that God is in control and trusting his authority is the only way to persevere and keep doing what is pleasing to God. We are dependent on God and thankfully as Peter writes, “he will never fail you”