Peter reminds us in his first letter of a rather important fact that I fear oftentimes, gets lost on us. He writes: “Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind...for he who has suffered in the flesh has...(are you ready for it?)...HAS CEASED FROM SIN...” (1 Pet. 4:1)

He continues on: “...so that he no longer should live the rest of his time (on this side of heaven) in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” (vs 2). And if you have forgotten why doing the will of God is important, you might take a look at Matt. 7:21 real quick. 1 John 2:17 and Galatians 5:21 are worthy of being underlined as well.

But this bears worth repeating: “...he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin...”

If you continue to practice sin, then you have not really ‘suffered in the flesh’ if what Peter writes counts for anything. Suffering in the flesh occurs when we are actually following the leading of God’s Spirit (which is what the children of God do- Rom. 8:13-14; John 10:27) and we are putting to death all the deeds of the fleshly, carnal nature. (Col. 3:5)

We were not commanded, when it came to dealing with this ‘old man’, to ‘put him on a leash, or in a cage/closet, or just dial him down a bit’. We were told he must die. This was not poetic language or a metaphor filled with symbolism. Nor is it an ‘option’. This is the gospel that we’ve been called to obey... where we lay down our lives so that we might live in Christ. (Gal. 2:20). This is the ‘suffering’ we’ve been called to endure and we ‘suffer’ when we ‘resist the enemy’ and ‘abstain’ from earthly flesh and desires. (1 Pet. 2:11; 5:8-9; James 4:7). We were not told to ‘ignore’ this enemy who seeks to come and stir up and tempt this flesh; we were instructed to ‘resist’ him, and to ‘stand against him’. (Eph. 6:11,13)

Peter would remind us that this is the same ‘suffering’ that our brothers/sisters around the word suffer when ‘resisting’ this tempter...and that ‘after we have suffered a while...then the God of all grace will come and perfect us and establish us and strengthen us’. (1 Pet. 5:10)

I can almost detect a slight hint of sarcasm from Hebrews 12:4 where we read: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin”. That kind of reminds me of my thought process these days when I am working out at the gym and on that third set of exercises and I just don’t think I can complete the reps. “It hurts”, my body whines. And on the days I don’t work with my trainer, I tend to ‘ease up’ some. But not on the days when he's there right beside me exhorting me...”You got this Tony...come on!...You can do this.”

Any athlete or coach will tell you that if you are not experiencing much ‘suffering’ when you work out, not much is happening in your body that will be of any use...when it counts.

Welcome to ‘boot camp’, or ‘2-a-days’ or any other workout regimen. We were called to suffer in the flesh...not because God is some masochist...but because it’s the only way we can be done with sin once and for all. That’s what He came to do...set us free. (John 8:32-36; Rom. 6 :22,2). What part of this is so hard for us to understand?