Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
Done with Sin
1 Peter 4:1-3
1 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, · WEB
The reader is told to arm himself with a settled intention, and the old life is dismissed with a phrase that concedes it had already gone on long enough.
The image in verse 1 is military. Arm yourselves with the same mind — the word is for taking up weapons, and what is taken up is a determination rather than a virtue. Since Christ suffered in the flesh, the reader is to adopt the same resolve, which the sentence assumes will be needed.
The clause that follows is compressed and has been read in more than one way: the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Read in its own context it is not a claim that pain purifies. It is a claim about commitment. A person who has already accepted that following Christ will cost them has settled the question that the desires in verse 2 keep reopening; someone still hoping to avoid the cost has not.
Verse 2 states the outcome as a division of what remains — the rest of one's time in the flesh spent on God's will rather than on human cravings. The measure is time, which suits a letter written to people who expect the end to come 1 Peter 4:7.
Verse 3 then lists what is being left, and the framing is almost dry: the time that is past is enough to have done it. The list is unsparing, but the letter does not dwell on it or use it to shame anyone. It has already called that life inherited and futile 1 Peter 1:18, and it moves on.
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