Arm Yourself With the Attitude of Christ--1 Peter 4:1-6 (1 Peter Series)

            There’s an old cliché which says, “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight!” When you’re in a conflict – be it a sensitive conversation or battle against temptation – you want to make sure you’re well-equipped to win the victory.

            The Apostle Peter has been calling us to be willing to do good even if we will suffer for it. Today, in the first part of chapter 4, Peter will tell us what a powerful weapon Christ’s attitude is for us as we stare down our own sinful passions and face peer pressure from others to do what is sinful. We’ll look at his teaching today in 4:1-6, and then we’ll wrap up our time talking in slightly more general terms about the important role that thinking has to play in our spiritual growth. Make sure you grab hold of this thought:

When you face suffering for doing good, arm yourself with the attitude of Christ.

1. Christ’s attitude pushes us toward obedience rather than sin (vv. 1-2)

            Peter has just shown us how Jesus was willing to do good even if it led to suffering, and now he’s going to challenge us to embrace that same attitude by showing us what a powerful weapon it is against our sinful passions and temptations [READ 4:1-2].

            When you embrace this attitude of being willing to do good even if it means suffering or discomfort, spiritually speaking it’s like you’ve traveled over a railway switch that moves you off of one path and onto a very different path. It moves you from simply pursuing your own sinful desires – which is what we all do naturally – to pursuing the will of God no matter what.

            Notice how Peter said we should “arm ourselves” with this attitude. It truly is a powerful defensive tool against temptation, because the threat of suffering is one of Satan’s last resorts when we are about to take a step of obedience. In my mind this week, I pictured it as a little glass box inside of Satan’s bag of tricks, and on the box it says, “Break glass in case of emergency!” When Satan sees you about to take a step of obedience, he breaks that glass and he pulls out the threat of suffering. He throws a temptation at you that says, “You know, your friends might make fun of you if you don’t go along with this! They may not talk to you anymore after this!” Or it says, “You know, you’re going to keep feeling pretty tense if you don’t just let all of that anger out. You could really blow off all that steam if you just punch that guy or run your mouth with those things you’d like to say. Or it might say, “You’re going to lose your job if you don’t go along with what the boss wants you to do!”

            If you can stare suffering like that in the face and say, “I don’t care; I’m still going to do what God wants me to do,” then you have turned a major corner on the path toward spiritual maturity. You have clearly shifted from having sinful desires as the driving force of your life to having godliness as the driving force of your life. Clearly then, this attitude is a powerful weapon.

We must also remember that…

2. Any time spent in sinful living is too much time! (v. 3)

            [READ v. 3] Does this sound like any culture you know? It should, because you’re living in it! Peter’s list essentially revolves around two sins that are literally celebrated in our society: sexual sins and drunkenness. Since at least the 1960’s our country has declared that libido is lord. One by one, we have thrown off every restraint that might hinder us from expressing our romantic urges in any way that we might choose. Today, our government promotes policies that are based on the idea that your romantic desires are more fundamental than even biological facts about you. Sexuality is rapidly becoming the primary way in which people identify themselves in our culture.

            And if you want to know what kind of an impact the celebration of drunkenness has in our culture, just look at the defining cultural event in our country – the Super Bowl. Every year, the commercials that air during the Super Bowl set records for how expensive they are to purchase. They cost gobs of money, and yet almost every other commercial you see during the game is from a brewery. And of course, the commercials themselves are very telling. Good times are waiting for you, they say; just add booze, and everything will be great.

Since these sins are so celebrated in our culture, we face a lot of pressure to conform to our society’s way of thinking. We may be insulted if we don’t, as Peter points out next, but we must remember this observation…

3. Sinful living is silly foolishness and it will be judged by God

            [READ v. 4] Let’s make sure we don’t miss the humor in Peter’s metaphor of a “flood of debauchery,” or sinfulness. When actual floodwaters rise, no clear-thinking person runs toward the flood – everyone runs away from it! They see the raging, dangerous waters and they move to safety.

            But with respect to sin, these people see a flood rising and they say, “Let’s dive in!” And then they look at you and say, “Aren’t you coming, too?” When you have the audacity to say, “Wait a minute – do you really think this is a good idea? This is a raging, deadly flood!” they start to make fun of you!

            Peter wants to make sure we see the foolishness of all this so that the pain for many insults we receive will lose its edge. When we remember how foolish people are to rush carelessly into some of these sins, their opinion of us becomes a little less significant. If they don’t have better discernment than that, their evaluation of us becomes very insignificant.

            This is a lesson that I really want all of you teenagers to remember, because you are right at the beginning or even in the middle of a phase of life in which you may have lots of people make fun of you if you avoid sexual sins and drunkenness. Remember this – people who live for such things and pursue them are not thinking clearly, so if they make fun of you remember that their viewpoint is not correct. If they say you’re a loser, they’re wrong! Don’t let their insults pressure you into doing what you know is wrong.

            And don’t feel like you have to get even with them or treat them the same way, because they will have to answer to God for the way that they treat you. Look at verse five [READ v. 5]. Now lest we think this is cause for celebration, let’s remember that this is really cause for compassion. These people who make fun of us need the gospel, and as Peter told us in chapter 3, we need to be ready to share it with them. It is the only hope that any of us have for eternal life after we die. Peter reminds us of this in verse six. [READ v. 6]

            Don’t get the wrong idea from this statement. Peter is not saying that people will hear the gospel after death in some kind of a moment that would offer a second chance to receive it. Notice that he says the gospel was preached (past tense) even to those who are dead (present tense). He means that the gospel offers us the promise of eternal life even though we still have to go through physical death.

The Importance of Thinking for Spiritual Growth

            In the rest of our time, I’d like to take a bit of a step back and show you how this passage picks up on a very important New Testament theme. In these verses, Peter states that in order for us to stop pursuing sin and grow spiritually, our thinking must rule over our feelings and our passions. We must be led through life by careful thinking, not by the whims of our feelings or our passions.

            Several New Testament passages emphasize the importance of careful thinking for our spiritual growth, but probably none says it better than Romans 12:2—“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

            According to that verse, the process of transformation that takes us away from worldliness occurs as our minds are renewed – that is as we learn to think about everything from a biblical perspective. Notice that finding the will of God is also described here as a mental process, one that involves testing and discernment.

            In light of this verse and Peter’s declaration that we must arm ourselves with a certain way of thinking, it is vital that we realize that spiritually mature people must be thoughtful people – people who think clearly, frequently, and deeply about the issues of life, and learn to think about them from a biblical perspective.

            I’m concerned today, my friends, that many Christians seem to have flabby minds – minds that are rarely exercised on anything of great significance. I’m concerned that we may not be pushing back hard enough against two significant trends in our culture.

1. The trend to emphasize feelings over thinking

            Our culture tells us today to follow our hearts and listen to our hearts. We have enthroned our feelings as an infallible guide for our choices. I know this song is a little dated these days, but Sheryl Crow once sang, “If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad.” We have minimized and rationalized all kinds of sins because the people doing them seem to feel good about what they’re doing.

            We can also spot this trend in the way that we talk. When people share their opinions today, frequently you will hear them say, “I feel that…” rather than, “I think that…” This isn’t just an innocent or meaningless change in the way we speak. It reflects and then feeds into this trend to marginalize thinking in favor of feeling.

            I fear that we have baptized these ideas and brought them into the church. Many Christians will judge a worship service based on how they feel afterward, or how they felt during the music. If they get to their “happy place” emotionally, then they decide that they truly worshipped, but if they didn’t find that “happy place,” then the service wasn’t very good, or they didn’t worship.

            Also, when faced with a very important life decision, many Christians will spend very little time studying the Bible for guidance and large blocks of time trying to sort out what they think the Holy Spirit might be telling them through their feelings.

2. The trend toward excess in entertainment

            I have a serious concern, my friends, that we as a culture are amusing ourselves into stupidity. Let’s just talk about one form of entertainment – consuming media, like television or the radio. About two months ago, the Nielsen Company released a study on the viewing and listening habits of adults in the United States. They found that the average adult in the United States today spends five hours a day watching TV, nearly 2 hours listening to the radio, and about an hour and a half surfing the web or using other apps on our smart phones. When you add in a couple of other things like watching DVDs or playing video games, the average adult today spends 10 ½ hours consuming media every day. Now I can only hope that those devices were on in the background during some of that time and that we’re not actually giving our full attention to media for 10 ½ hours every day.

            Consider those statistics and ask yourself, “How different am I than the average American?” How much time do you spend trying to improve your mind? How much time do you spend trying to learn how to think about all of life from a biblical perspective? How much time do you spend reading the Bible?

            Or consider this: when is the last time that you read anything longer than a blog post that was meant to challenge your thinking and help you have a biblical perspective on life? I’m not trying to put down blog posts, but honestly, how much do we really think about them after we read them? Not very much I imagine. Now contrast that with reading a book that might take you seven or eight hours to read altogether spread out over the course of three weeks. That process gives your mind much more time to reflect on what you are reading and actually take it in and allow it to shape the way that you think.

            Or consider this question: when is the last time that you intentionally did something in silence, just to be alone with your thoughts? No TV on in the background, no radio playing – just total silence from all media? It’s great to listen to Christian radio or to listen to sermons or to read good blogs or good books, but time spent without any media input at all is necessary time to allow our minds to digest everything that we are feeding them. In the same way that your stomach needs time to digest what you put in it, your mind also needs time to digest what you put in it.

            Think once more about the message of Romans 12:2. If we are going to be transformed out of a worldly way of living, that process begins with our minds being renewed into a biblical way of thinking. That means we must be people who have our minds turned on. We must be thinking carefully, frequently, and deeply about the issues of life. Otherwise, we will find ourselves with worldly attitudes and opinions, and the worst part is that we won’t even realize it.

            And as Peter challenged us today, victory over our sinful passions and desires begins with embracing a certain way of thinking – in this case, it’s the mindset that doing what is good is always worth it, even if I have to suffer for it. Let us be people who buck the trend of our society toward flabby thinking. Let us allow God to change us through a renewal of our minds.

Responding to Homosexuality with Grace and Truth--Political Issues Series

            Balance is one of the most difficult things to achieve in life. It takes our bodies quite a while to learn how to get all of our muscles working together to keep us balanced as we walk or ride a bike. Who doesn’t struggle to maintain a balanced diet? How many of us feel like we’ve achieved a healthy balance between our jobs and our responsibilities at home?

            Maintaining balance is a constant challenge for us, and the situation is no different as we try to respond to homosexuality. Many churches today are embracing one of two extremes on this subject—they are either embracing it with open arms and removing the label of “sinfulness” from it, or they are returning the anger and suspicion that they are receiving from some pro-gay activists.

            Both of these responses are wrong, but how can we forge a balanced response in which we neither approve of homosexuality nor treat homosexuals with hatred and arrogance? Well, as we did with our series on abortion, we must consider the example of Jesus, who perfectly embodied both grace and truth. So today, we are going to consider how to respond to homosexuality with these two qualities. As we did with abortion, we are going to begin with the idea of truth and then balance our defense of the truth with grace.

1. How can we respond to homosexuality with truth?

            A. We must embrace the proper attitude toward homosexuality

            This step requires a delicate balancing act itself! On the one hand, we must not view homosexuality as “more sinful” than other sins. Now to be clear, all sins are NOT created equal in terms of their effects in the world. Murder clearly has different effects than selfishness, and for that reason it has different consequences as well. But in terms of making us guilty in light of God’s commands, all sins are exactly the same. James put it this way in James 2:10-11 (this is from the New Living Translation, which I think says it well): “For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws. ¹¹ For the same God who said, "You must not commit adultery," also said, "You must not murder." So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law.”

            So we must not place homosexuality in a special category, as though it makes a person “more guilty” in the eyes of God. If we do, that mindset can easily foster pride and arrogance in our hearts. However, I think we are often tempted to place homosexuality in a different category than other sins for two reasons. First, very few of us have ever dealt with that temptation; thus, it is very foreign to us. We’re not likely to think that a sin is worse than other sins if we have been tempted to commit it. If anything, we want to lessen the severity of a sin in that situation! But since so many of us have never walked in the homosexual’s shoes, so to speak, its easier for us to treat that sin differently.

            Second, we may place homosexuality in a special category because we’re often repulsed by the way that it is celebrated today. I have yet to see anyone organize a liar’s-pride parade, but all around us today we see gay pride parades that openly flaunt and celebrate this sin. Its not hard to feel offended by such things, but that still doesn’t mean that we should consider homosexuality to be “more sinful” than other sins.

            On the other hand, we must not view homosexuality as “no big deal,” either. This is the trend of our culture, and we must not get swept along with it. It seems that a majority of people in our country today are still opposed to gay marriage, but I think most people don’t consider homosexuality itself to be that big of a deal. As long as we’re talking about two consenting adults, I think most people would say, “It’s a little weird, but its no big deal.” We must avoid adopting that attitude.

            Here is where I will start to sound like a fundamentalist—I strongly believe that we need to avoid watching, for entertainment purposes, movies and TV shows that portray homosexuality as acceptable behavior. When a TV show features a gay couple raising a child and calls it “The New Normal,” isn’t it obvious that there’s an agenda behind it? Especially when just under 4% of Americans identify themselves as gay or bisexual.¹ Gay behavior is not even statistically normal, yet the TV producers would have us believe it is “The New Normal,” and that this is what a “Modern Family” looks like.

            Now, its easy for us to tell ourselves that watching a show for entertainment doesn’t change our perspective about the behavior that the show portrays. After all, we don’t watch a show that portrays homosexuality in a good light and then think, “Hey, I’d like to try that!” Since we don’t have that response, we think that our attitude toward homosexuality has not been changed. But I would argue that if we are amused by portrayal of sin, it will de-sensitize us to that sin’s presence in our society. We will be less broken-hearted over it, and less likely to consider it a serious issue. At that point, we will be less likely to take serious steps to help people who are caught up in that lifestyle.

            Media like the television and movies appeal to our imagination, and we consistently underestimate how powerfully our imagination shapes our attitudes. One author has written, “When you stop to think about it, you soon realize that our imagination is what our whole social life is really based on…In practically everything we do, it’s the combination of emotion and intellect that we call imagination that goes to work.”³ Do we really believe that we can hand our imagination over to Hollywood for an hour—or two hours or three hours—every night, and somehow it will not infiltrate our attitudes and opinions? That idea is terribly naïve.

            So this is the delicate balance that we must maintain—we must walk a thin line between viewing homosexuality as either too sinful or not sinful enough. Trying to maintain this balance might make us reluctant to speak out on this issue, but we must not embrace that approach either.

            B. We must stand for and spread the truth of God’s Word concerning homosexuality

            As we discussed in our series on abortion, we can take advantage of opportunities that God may give us to speak out about homosexuality in public forums. These opportunities may be abundant right now as debates about gay marriage bring this subject into the limelight. The Bible gives very clear guidance to us to stand against efforts to legalize gay marriage. According to Romans 13, human governments are supposed to discourage behavior that is wrong and promote behavior that is right, and we need to remind our government about this duty.

            We can make a very clear moral case against something like gay marriage from Scripture, and because the Bible tells us the truth, it is not surprising to discover that secular research backs up our claims. Just recently, a sociologist at the University of Texas published a study which demonstrates that children who are raised by two gay parents are worse-off in dozens of different categories than children raised by heterosexual parents. The study examined more than 40 categories of social, emotional, and relational well-being and found that children of gay parents are worse-off in almost all of them. These children are more likely to have problems with impulse control, depression, and thoughts of suicide, and are more likely to need mental health therapy.²

            These findings come as no surprise to those of us who believe the Bible, and we must be willing to proclaim these things. But as with our response to abortion, we must be quick to share the Gospel as well. Forgiveness is available to anyone who will repent of their sins and trust Christ, and we must make sure that message comes through loud and clear.

2. How can we respond to homosexuality with grace?

            A. We must cultivate a loving atmosphere in our church which allows people to fight against sin without fear of unjust judgment and rejection

            This statement is an observation about church life in general. We must strive for this kind of atmosphere whether we’re talking about homosexuality or any other sin. Each person in our church needs to feel that they can discuss their struggles with someone here and receive help rather than hatred. Someone once said that the church is the only army in the world that shoots its wounded, and unfortunately that can be true at times. Each one of us needs to fight against the sins of gossip and pride so that our sins do not become the point of entry for Satan to devour one of our brothers or sisters.

            As I understand it, most homosexuals deal with a significant amount of shame over the temptations that they are facing, especially when they first come to grips with their desires. The last thing we should desire as a church is for such a person to feel like he or she has to wrestle with their temptations alone. Secrecy allows sin to thrive because it creates isolation from others. The Bible compares our relationship as Christians to a human body, so when isolation occurs in the church its like when a part of our body loses blood flow. For that part of the body to regain health, it must have proper blood flow restored; in our spiritual lives, those walls of isolation must be broken down.

            This is why it is spiritually devastating to people when they face unjust judgment and rejection—its like they are amputated from the body! Now I emphasize unjust judgment and rejection because the Bible does call for separation from a sinful person at a certain point, but that point is not while a person is battling temptation. Each person in this church needs to believe that they will receive help from others as long as they desire to do battle against sin. Its been said that sunlight is a great disinfectant, so we need to work toward a culture in our church that allows for transparency, so that we can bring our sins out into the open and leave them to die of exposure at the foot of the cross!

As a church, we are obviously a collection of individuals. So what might you as an individual need to do to respond with grace to someone who is battling homosexuality?

            B. We, as individuals, must humbly walk beside our brother or sister as he or she battles temptation

            Galatians 6:1-5 is an excellent passage to reflect on at this point. The Apostle Paul opens that passage by writing, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” Here, the age-old question from Cain receives an affirmative answer—am I my brother’s keeper? Yes; yes you are! Now the picture here is not one of creating a “nanny state” in the church where we are prying into each other’s lives. The picture is of fellow travelers helping each other up after one of them has fallen, and we are commanded to provide such spiritual assistance.

            Paul then issues a warning to those who would help: “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” The temptation here seems to be that of pride, as we will see in v. 3.

            Verse two says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” which is probably a reference to Christ’s command to love others as ourselves. Then comes the warning again: “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Here is the temptation that we face when we see a brother caught in sin—we may think we are too good to get our hands dirty with the mess they have made. Or, we may play the comparison game and pat ourselves on the back because we appear to be better than our brother. But Paul warns us not to go there in v. 4-5: “But let each one test his own work (i.e. don’t compare yourself to your brother), and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.” I think that last statement refers to our judgment before Christ to determine our rewards from Him. That judgment will not be on a curve! He will not assess how well we did compared to others; He will judge us by the standard of His commands.

            So we have here in this passage a command to help restore a brother who is caught in sin. As we think particularly about homosexuality, helping someone in that sin will most likely take the form of providing accountability and friendship. Is that brother hanging out with people who are pulling him into that lifestyle? If so, we can provide friendship and encouragement to sever those ties. Is our brother visiting places where homosexuals go to connect? If so, we can hold him accountable for staying away from those places. We may need to make ourselves available to take a phone call or make a visit at any time of day to provide effective accountability.

            It is also likely that you will need to help this brother deal with one or both of the common roots of homosexual behavior—pornography and sexual abuse. We all have our initial exposure to sexuality from something, and for some people, that first exposure is unfortunately forced upon them by an abusive person. A homosexual may have been started down that path by someone who seduced them or abused them. In those cases, you will need to help the person understand that spiritual cleansing and healing that is available to them through Jesus Christ. You may need to direct that person to a professional ministry like Exodus International, who can help them heal on every level.

            Other people have chosen the path of homosexuality after exposure to pornography. You’ve heard the old saying, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?” Well, where there’s sexual sin, there’s pornography. You can pretty much count on it, so you may need to provide accountability for someone in that area as well. Help them destroy whatever material they may have; be willing—with their permission—to review bank statements or credit card statements to ask about questionable purchases; set up systems to hold them accountable with their Internet browsing.

            You can see how much personal involvement may be necessary to help a person break free from the chains of homosexuality, but let us never doubt that change is possible, even from this lifestyle. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul writes out a long list of sinful lifestyles which includes homosexuality, but at the end of the list he says, “such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11).” With the Lord there is always power for transformation; may we seek to be agents whom God can use to do His transforming work in others.

  

Notes:

1. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/americans-have-no-idea-how-few-gay-people-there-are/257753/  Accessed 10/6/12.

2. http://www.worldmag.com/2012/08/good_deeds_punished  Accessed 9/26/12. See the full article at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X12000610.

3. Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination, as quoted by Warren W. Wiersbe in Preacing and Teaching With Imagination (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994), 61.