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1 Peter 4:3<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n For we<\/span> have spent<\/span><\/em> enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles\u2014when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ve wasted enough time; now let\u2019s focus on serving God.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cLewdness<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word aselgeia<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cnot having control.\u201d It is used primarily with regard to sexual appetite and is sometimes translated as \u201cwantonness.\u201d<\/p>\n We saw the word \u201clusts<\/span>\u201d in the previous verse. It is the Greek word epithumia<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cexcessive or uncontrolled desires.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDrunkenness<\/span>\u201d comes from the Greek word oinophlugia<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201coverflowing wine,\u201d but by application it means \u201cexcessive drinking of alcoholic beverages.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRevelries<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word k\u014dmos<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201ccarousing\u201d or \u201creveling,\u201d implying a \u201cletting loose of control.\u201d<\/p>\n The word translated \u201cdrinking parties<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word potos<\/span><\/em>, which means a getting together for the purpose of getting drunk.<\/p>\n And finally, \u201cabominable idolatries<\/span>\u201d comes from the Greek, athemitois eid\u014dlolatreiais<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cillegal image worship.\u201d It refers to \u201cthe worship of anything other than God.\u201d<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Peter has just told us that we should no longer live for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. He now tells us that it\u2019s time for change. We\u2019ve spent enough time living like the ungodly to know that\u2019s not the will of God. We did these things in the past enough to know that they don\u2019t give us true happiness and certainly don\u2019t give us peace. All they really do is produce amnesia, headache, and heartache.<\/p>\n We could probably sum up Peter\u2019s description of these activities as illicit sexual activity, drunkenness, partying, and the worship of things instead of God. That\u2019s how many of us lived before we were saved. Peter is saying that our past indulgences are to be put behind us so we can live unto God. None of these things is what God wants of us.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s easy for many of us to say, \u201cI never committed any illicit sexual activity. I never got drunk, and I never went to wild parties, so this doesn\u2019t apply to me.\u201d What we often fail to see in this verse is that Peter groups \u201cthe worship of things other than God\u201d in the same category as those other things.<\/p>\n Have you ever possessed anything that was so important to you that you would do anything to hang on to it, or that you spent so much time on that it made you forget about your commitments to God? These are all idols. I once had a car that was like that to me, and God had to tarnish my idol for me.<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n As a Christian your life should not be characterized by the \u201cparty scene.\u201d But remember, anything that distracts us from our focus on God is an idol, and our Heavenly Father considers that just as horrific as wild, sexual, drunken partying. Ouch!<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 Peter 4:3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles\u2014when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Truth to Learn We\u2019ve wasted enough time; now let\u2019s focus on serving God. Behind the Words \u201cLewdness\u201d is translated from the Greek word aselgeia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[107,108,109,110,111,112],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-drunkenness","tag-idoltatry","tag-lewdness","tag-lusts","tag-partying","tag-pleasure"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-bk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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