I'm struggling with how to understand this passage for a couple of reasons...
The first is that I fear when one reads "he who has suffered in his body is done with sin," one might picture the albino monk from the Davinci Code, or performing some kind of painful penance. But this whole passage is about suffering for doing good. And that's what Jesus did. It was by doing the ultimate good that caused his suffering in the body. So that's the attitude we must arm ourselves with. By the way, have you ever thought of arming yourself with an attitude? Preparing for war with an attitude as your weapon? And with this weapon of attitude (the attitude of Christ), you won't live for evil human desires, but you'll live for the will of God. This sounds a lot like Romans chapter 6.
The second struggle I have is that verse 6 flies way over my head. It's referencing verses 19 & 20 in chapter 3, which talks about Jesus preaching to spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago, before the flood. In 4:6, we read that he did that because they will have to give an account when they are judged -- but it's that last part, the division he makes in regard to the body being judged, but the spirit living according to God. Hmm. Not sure if I'm grasping this... any help?
Monday, January 28, 2008
Living for God
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I believe that the first verse is saying that if you are willing to follow Christ, you should also be willing to be persecuted for it and if you are willing to do that, then you have armed yourself with the same idea that Christ did when he died for our sins. He knew what it would accomplish. I believe that the last verse is talking about everlasting life with Christ. Your body may die but your spirit will be alive when you enter the kingdom of heaven.
This is one of those know-in-my-head verses, but hard to know in my heart because I would do almost anything to avoid pain and suffering. Here is a line from my Bible's commentary: "Sin loses its power to defeat us in our suffering if we focus on Christ and what he wants us to do." I remember Dr. Laura saying something about the fact that you will most likely know you are doing the right thing if it is the hard thing to do. I want comfort 247, but I need to keep telling myself that at the end of the day, the uncomfortable for good was the thing I was most proud of.
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