Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

When Peter exhorts us not to live in the flesh perhaps he knows what he is talking about. He encourages his hearers not to live by human desires but to live by the will of God.  Ask yourself the question.  Is this guy for real? Isn’t this the same guy who lied when his teacher and friend was arrested (Luke 22:54-62), not once, not twice but three times!  Isn’t this the same Peter who could not control his temper and cut off the temple guard’s ear? (Luke 22:50).  Yet this same Peter walked on water! (Matt 14:29), saw over 5000 people being fed with a few loaves and a couple fishes, and saw many more miracles.

good try Peter!

So I guess the Peter could have a few things he can pass onto us. So how do we live by the will of God, Peter? Well, he would answer, firstly we need to find out what the will of God is. My friend Paul tells us that the will of God is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and not to be drunk with wine (Eph 5:17ff). Secondly we need to refrain from doing the things we did when we did not know Christ. Here are a few things I listed earlier: licentiousness (this is unrestraint in the way we act and operate in many areas of our lives), passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing and lawless idolatry. And finally we have to say NO when our friends invite us to partake in these activities we used to do before we made Christ lord of our lives! (4:4).  

When Peter invites us to suffer for the sake of the gospel if needs be, he is Not telling us to develop a theology of suffering, but that suffering is part and parcel of the package. He was killed for preaching the gospel and by all accountsn was crucified upside down!

As a Christian, people will despise you, they will ‘rip you off’, they will abuse and shun you, but as Peter tells us, EVERYONE will have to stand before God and give an account of how they lived in the ‘flesh’.

So today exist in the flesh but live in the Spirit and read 1Peter 4 and obey the gospel (the good news about Jesus).