Living under Christ’s lordship (part 1)

Read 1 Peter 4:1

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Therefore connects back to 3:17-18 and the theme of Christ’s undeserved suffering. He did that to bring us to God (18) but it also provides the pattern and example for Christian living (2:20-21). There will be times when doing right will be costly but rather than sin by wrongdoing (or by not doing what is right) we need to “arm ourselves” by thinking as Christ did about obedience and suffering.

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Suffering for the sake of righteousness shows that we are “done with sin”. This doesn’t mean that we’ll be sinless – both experience and Scripture make clear that won’t happen in this life. Repentance doesn’t mean that we will never sin again but it does mean that we have made a clean break with sin, resolving to live under Christ’s lordship rather than serving our sinful self. That allegiance is demonstrated through costly obedience to him.

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In Christ we have died to sin and are no longer slaves to it (2 Cor.5:14; Rom.6:6-7). The temptation to sin remains and the awareness of that inner conflict is even greater (Rom.7:18,24). But under Christ’ lordship and armed with his example, we “should no longer live for ourselves but for him who died for us and was raised again” (2 Cor.5:15).