Godly Living And Suffering - We Are To Stop Sinning

Brothers and sisters, in a generation where the preachers have the crowds smiling and laughing and pronounce a false doctrine that grace covers their continuing in sin, the Holy Spirit of God directs Peter to tell us we are to stop sinning. 

After writing about how Jesus the Messiah suffered for his children's redemption, Peter encourages believers who are suffering. The scriptures do not give excuses for sinning. We are told "if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous". 

• 1 John 2:1 ISV " My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous."

1 Peter 4 ISV

1Therefore, since the Messiaha suffered in a mortal body,b 

• you, too, must arm yourselves with the same determination, 
• because the person who has suffered in a mortal body has stopped sinning,2so that he can live the rest of his mortal lifec guided, not by human desires, but by the will of God. 
• 3For you spent enough time in the past doing what the gentiles like to do, living in sensuality, sinful desires, drunkenness, wild celebrations, drinking parties, and detestable idolatry. 

4They insult you now because they are surprised that you are no longer joining them in the same excesses of wild living. 5They will give an account to the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 

6Indeed, this is why the gospel was proclaimed even to those who have died, so that they could be judged in their mortal flesh like all humans and live in the spiritual realm like God.

Peter goes on to talk about the vapor we all live in which cannot be measured. It is an eternal zero (lifespan divided by eternity). So many do not understand that while we have life, we are writing our eternal life story. The righteous will have rewards in heaven, but all others will be condemned and go into the lake of fire. We must be born again. Jesus said "Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me continuously." Matthew 16:24 ISV Dear friends, be careful who you listen to. Ear tickling and false teachers cover the land.

7Because everything will soon come to an end, be sensible and clear-headed, so you can pray. 

• 8Above all, continue to love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. 
• 9Show hospitality to one another without complaining. 
• 10As good servant managers of God’s grace in its various forms, serve one another with the gift each of you has received. 
• 11Whoever speaks must speak God’s words.d 
• Whoever serves must serve with the strengthe that God supplies, so that in every way God may be glorified through Jesus, the Messiah.f 

Glory and power belong to him forever and ever! Amen.

                      The Old Rugged Cross