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Living for God

So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.[a] You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.

Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead. That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead[b]—so although they were destined to die like all people,[c] they now live forever with God in the Spirit.[d]

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Footnotes

  1. 4:1 Or For the one [or One] who has suffered physically has finished with sin.
  2. 4:6a Greek preached even to the dead.
  3. 4:6b Or so although people had judged them worthy of death.
  4. 4:6c Or in spirit.

Good Managers of God’s Grace

Therefore, since the Messiah[a] suffered in a mortal body,[b] you, too, must arm yourselves with the same determination, because the person who has suffered in a mortal body has stopped sinning, so that he can live the rest of his mortal life[c] guided, not by human desires, but by the will of God. For you spent enough time in the past doing what the gentiles like to do, living in sensuality, sinful desires, drunkenness, wild celebrations, drinking parties, and detestable idolatry. They insult you now because they are surprised that you are no longer joining them in the same excesses of wild living. They will give an account to the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Indeed, this is why the gospel was proclaimed even to those who have died, so that they could be judged in their mortal flesh like all humans and live in the spiritual realm like God.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Peter 4:1 Or Christ
  2. 1 Peter 4:1 Other mss. read suffered for us; still other mss. read suffered for you
  3. 1 Peter 4:2 Lit. time