1 Peter 4:1-8

Good News Translation

Changed Lives

4 Since Christ suffered physically, you too must strengthen yourselves with the same way of thinking that he had; because whoever suffers physically is no longer involved with sin. ² From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires. ³ You have spent enough time in the past doing what the heathen like to do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and the disgusting worship of idols. ⁴ And now the heathen are surprised when you do not join them in the same wild and reckless living, and so they insult you. ⁵ But they will have to give an account of themselves to God, who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ That is why the Good News was preached also to the dead, to those who had been judged in their physical existence as everyone is judged; it was preached to them so that in their spiritual existence they may live as God lives.

Good Managers of God's Gifts

⁷ The end of all things is near. You must be self-controlled and alert, to be able to pray. ^8 (A)Above everything, love one another earnestly, because love covers over many sins.