How am I Living?

572.  "How am I Living?"            July 27, 2012
1 Peter 4-Part 2
For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.  1 Peter 4:6


LET IT GLOW

How am I living? Am I walking in the Spirit or in the flesh? It doesn't hurt to reevaluate one's self every so often. Do I have the peace and happiness with God that pleases Him and me? Are grace and love of God a part of my life daily? What do I spend time thinking about-past, present, future? Am I living by faith or by sight? The last phrase of our key verse tells me to live according to God in the spirit. In order to do that, I need to know what pleases God and what His Word says, don't I? I must surrender my will to His.

The Gospel had such an effect on new converts that they lived by faith in Christ, lived a life of holiness from Him and communion with Him, lived according to the will of God, in righteousness and true holiness; though dead in their bodies, they lived in their spirits or souls an eternal life of comfort, peace, pleassure, and happiness with God, according to His eternal purpose, unchangeable, convenant, promise, grace, and love.  (Gill)

LET IT GROW

Where did Peter's readers once walk? (These were Gentiles that he was talking to, remember?)
Verse 3 says that before their conversion, these Gentiles walked in a life of:
lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine(drunkenness), revelings(orgies), banquetings(carousing), and abominable(detestable) idolatries.

Peter's list of vices clarify what we are to leave behind as a believer in Jesus.

The pagan's idea of a good timeas mentioned here, were divided into sexual connotations and parties involving alcohol. These occured in the pagan temples. The Jews would not have been participants, but the Gentiles would have. The people still into those activities wondered why the believers didn't run with them anymore. They ran with the wrong crowd. Since becoming believers, they had new friends, a new way of life, and  a new way of worship.

Unsaved people do not understand the radical change that their friends experience when they trust Christ and become children of God. Let a drunkard become sober, or an immoral person pure, and the family thinks he has lost his mind! (Acts 26:24 and Mark 3:21)  They thought the same thing about Jesus.
Peter said they had spent enough time in the past. Do I let the past stay in the past? Remember what you were before you met Christ?

If life lived after the flesh is anything, it is a waste. A "good life" lived by the world's rules will be a waste in the measure of eternity. (Guzik)

LET IT GO

Let go of the past and live in the here and now.

Live according to God in the spirit.

Walk by faith.

Don't waste any more time living for my self. Surrender. Sacrifice. Obey. Love.