1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 – The suffering of commitment

This is the reading chosen from the first epistle of Saint Peter, read on the Seventh Sunday of Easter. It is scheduled to next be read on Sunday, May 24, 2020. If you notice, this reading is a cut and paste, where three verses from Peter’s fourth chapter (12-14) are cut out of the middle of that chapter and pasted to six verses cut out of the middle of Peter’s fifth (and final) chapter (6-11). The verses selected speak of the pains of being truly Christian. Peter wrote of the “fiery ordeal,” the “sufferings,” the “anxiety,” and the “discipline” that become the set expectations for one who gives up his or hers self-ego, so God can take up residence in a new Holy Tabernacle of flesh and His Son can be reborn as the king over that individual’s actions. Since we have been placed in the ‘cut and paste’ mode with this reading, I thought it would be good to add some ‘cut and paste’ context to this setting of suffering. To better establish each of the sets of verses from the middle of chapters, I thought it would be good to show the verses that begin each chapter, from which the middle verses fall in support. The first three verses in chapter four state this: “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.  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.” (1 Peter 4:1-3, NIV) This clarifies that the sufferings of Apostles and Saints is a natural extension of being reborn as Jesus Christ. In the above translation, where the second segment of verse one says “arm yourselves also with the same attitude,” the Greek word translated as “attitude” is “ennoian.” That word better translates as “mind,” but Strong’s states its definition as being “thinking, thoughtfulness, moral understanding.” This means an Apostles or Saint has “the same understanding” as did Christ, which is taking on the Christ Mind. When Peter then went on to say suffering as Jesus Christ reborn means being “done with sin” and able to reject “evil human desires” (generalized as: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry). This says being reborn with the “same mind” as Jesus had means leading one’s own flesh is enabled to reach the only way one can be and live righteously, denying the lures of the world. ALL human beings are addicted to sin, because they have all lived in a world of sin, without knowing God personally as their Father, not knowing Jesus Christ personally as their king. The result of changing from sinner to saint is the ‘heebie jeebies’ or withdrawal sufferings.