When the Going Gets Tough
1 peter 4:12-19
Main Idea: God’s sons and daughters refuse to let suffering stop them from “blessing” and “doing good.”
I. By Resisting the Lies Suffering Stirs Up in Us (4:12, 16)
1 Peter 4:12,16: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you… Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
Two lies are embedded in the two prohibitions Peter makes in this passage:
Suffering tends to “surprise” us, stirring us to think “This should not be happening to me!”
Suffering tends to provoke us to be “ashamed” thinking “I must be a failure that this is happening to me.”
II. By Resting in the Truth Suffering Opens Up to Us (4:13-15)
1 Peter 4:13-16: But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name
a. Rejoice, because you belong to Jesus
On the surface, suffering and rejoicing seem opposed to one another. But that is only if you put the accent on the suffering and fail to rest in what is behind it. Peter is talking about the kind of suffering that befalls us because we belong to Jesus. And that is the truth in which we “greatly rejoice” that we belong to Jesus! (cf. 1 Peter 1:3-6)
b. Glorify God in that name
We have been called to bless earth, like salt does, by retaining our “saltiness,” which is the holy, noble lives Peter has described all through this letter.
We have been tasked with lighting up the world, like cities on hills and lamps on lamp stands. We do this through ”good works” that direct everyone’s attention to “our Father who is in heaven.”
II. By Remembering the Outcome Suffering Points Us To (4:17-18)
1 Peter 4:17-18: “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
a. Saints are being “refined” for the glory that awaits them
The fiery trials that come upon us to ”test” us are not permitted with the intent of destroying us, but “so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1:7)
The “judgment” that God allows to fall upon the “elect exiles” distinguishes the false from the true, the fake from the real, the wheat from the weeds.
b. Sides are being drawn before the end of the world
Peter contends that those who “malign” the saints “will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” (4:5) As Peter puts it rhetorically here, “If the righteous is scarcely saved - as evidenced by the ordeals inflicted upon them and currently allowed by Heaven’s just Judge - “what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” In other words, if the glory that awaits the saint is so surpassingly magnificent as to defy words, the wrath that awaits those who “disobey the gospel” shall be distressingly severe.
Conclusion: What are we to do with this exhortation?
If you are a saint, a Christian, an elect exile subject to the fiery trials and insults that are a part of this current season: “Let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Peter 4:19)
If you are among “those who do not (yet) obey the gospel of God,” one of the “ungodly and sinners” maligning Christians and Christianity, facing a guilty verdict at the Judgment, repent!
