Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
Truth to Learn
Suffering for righteousness produces a keen sense of Christ’s suffering and enables you to more fully live for Him.
Behind the Words
The word translated “suffered” is the from the Greek word pascho, which means to experience a sensation, usually painful (sometimes translated as “passion”). It is expressed in the Greek aorist tense, meaning that it was an action that took place at a point in time in the past, not continuous action in the past.
The word translated “ceased” is the Greek word pauō, which means “to stop, quit, or come to an end.” It is expressed here in the perfect tense, implying a process that has come to completion in the past with a resulting state of being. The emphasis of this tense is on the resulting state.
Meaning Explained
According to Peter, he who has suffered in the flesh, “has ceased from sin.” Since Christ never did sin, this can‘t be referring to Christ. Some have argued that this implies that when we really and truly die to sin in our flesh we will have attained a state of holiness in which we sin no longer. I don’t believe that this is what Scripture teaches.
The Apostle Paul addresses this same issue in it the book of Romans:
For if we have been joined together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, that from now on we should not serve sin. For he who died has been justified from sin. (Romans 6:5-7)
In this passage it is pretty clear that Paul is talking about us putting our “old man,” a term which refers to our sin nature, to death, figuratively. He goes on to say:
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, He dies no more; death no longer has dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died to sin once; but in that He lives, He lives to God. In the same way count yourselves also to be truly dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:9-11)
It is clear that Paul is teaching that we haven’t really died, nor has our sin nature really died but that we should consider ourselves to be dead to sin and not let it control our lives.
Therefore, what Peter is telling us in today’s verse is that if we are suffering for righteousness, we can identify with the suffering that Christ went through. And, whereas His suffering culminated in his atoning death for us we can consider ourselves to have died with him (at least our sin nature) and we can live a fulfilled life, not controlled by our sin nature.
Application
If you are currently suffering and you have done nothing wrong, of if you are suffering because of your testimony for Christ, you can readily identify with His suffering which gave us everlasting life. As a result, you can now more readily live for Him instead of living to satisfy your own sin nature.
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2017 Will Krause. All rights reserved
