In my previous blog, “A Salvation Worth Living For,” we asked the question from 1 Peter 2:12, “What is it that Peter expects his "elect” readers to do, that when evidenced by godless people, those godless people would “glorify God?” We asked that same question another way, “What specifically does Peter think an effective life of faith looks like? OR, What is the hallmark of a day to day, down to earth life of holiness?”
We asked that question and then proposed that Peter’s answer may surprise us…and more than surprise, it might even anger us, as we may not like his answer at all!
Most of us squirm at Peter’s answer. I know I did, and I do, on a daily basis because Peter’s answer to the question, “What specifically does an effective life of faith looks like? OR, What is the hallmark of a day to day, down to earth life of holiness?” Peter’s answer is…
“Live in daily submission to others, just as Jesus did.”
No, I don’t like it!! No one likes being told what to do, nor do we like to submit to the authority of others.
That’s because my heart, innately is filled with resistance toward being told what to do.
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that “by nature our hearts are rebellious and desperately wicked.” Our innate tendency is to resist, to rebel. Resistance is an inborn trait of the human condition. Jeremiah tells us that of our human nature is inclined toward rebellion and resistance. That resistance, Jeremiah says is described as “desperate wickedness.” WOW!
There is, as far as I am aware, no greater condemnation of the human condition than Jeremiah’s words here. No other biblical text describes the greatest need for salvation any greater than Jeremiah’s words.
And that resistance of our hearts places us in constant contention with a God who originally designed us to be in holy submission to Him, not in unholy/wicked resistance to Him. Scripture is clear. When it comes to a relationship with God, when we resist God in our pride, He resists us. However, on the other hand, when we humble ourselves in our relationship with God, God responds to us with grace. Resistance meets resistance. Humble submission meets grace. James tells us that clearly.
“God opposes-(resists) the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
Notice the distinction James makes between resistance and humbleness/humility. Notice also God’s response to each contrastive characteristic: God is gracious to the humble, but resists the resistant.
In this blog, we will continue to follow Peter’s line of thought as he continues to promote the premise that the hallmark of one’s salvation is their submission to others as living a life of holiness. A holy submission if you will.
We notice Peter’s transition from the end of chapter 3 to the beginning of chapter 4. At the end of the third chapter of 1 Peter, Peter writes,
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” (3:18-22)
Key words to notice in that paragraph above are “suffered,” “death,” “alive,” “saved”-(3x) “resurrection,” “heaven,” and “submission.”
Within that closing paragraph, Peter mentions the idea of salvation 3 times in the context of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and his ascent into “heaven at the right hand of God,” so that all “angels, authorities and powers are in submission to him.” (Jesus)
Notice that salvation and submission are very closely connected here to Jesus. Notice further that Peters’ theme is clear; submission, as the hallmark of one’s salvation, brings glory to God.
Peter especially states how this theme is true for Jesus. But he also makes application clear for his readers. Like James (James 4:3), Peter repeats the “resist-the-proud/give-grace-to-the-humble” proverb verbatim in 1Peter 5:5-6, and then makes personal application for his readers that submission as a hallmark of salvation brings glory to God.
“God opposes-(resists) the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
A life of “submission” that Jesus lived for us seems to be the model for the life of holiness for us to live on earth. And Peter encourages his readers; that they too should pattern their lives after Jesus.
Peter encourages his readers to be the example of Jesus’ Submission Mindset.
With that being said, let’s see how Jesus’ Submission Mindset may be Peter’s understanding of a life of holiness as he begins his fourth chapter. Peter begins by saying,
“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.” (4:1)
Completely unrecognizable in the English language, but clearly visible in the original Greek here in 4:1 is the fact that Jesus made a mental decision to submit to “suffering in his body.” The word we read in English for “suffered” (παθοντος) is in the Active Voice, meaning that Jesus is the actor of the verb; the one who performs the action, i.e. “A Submission Mindset.” A dynamic translation of that phrase would read, “…since Jesus submitted to suffering…” or “…since Jesus decided to submit to suffering…,” or “…since Jesus had the mindset of undergoing suffering…”. Each of those dynamic translations would capture the Greek grammar of the Active Voice, that the English language is incapable of capturing with a literal translation.
The Greek grammatical contrast to the Active Voice would be the Passive Voice which means the actor would be someone else who performs the action on Jesus; or one who applies suffering to Jesus’ body. So, it is clear that by Peter using the Active Voice, he is clearly indicating that Jesus made a choice, a mental effort, a rational decision to “submit his body to suffering.” This is Jesus' Submission Mindset.
Another way of stating Peters point in 4:1 is to say that Peter understands Jesus’ “submission” to undergo suffering as an attitude. And that attitude of submitting the body to suffering leads to the “body being done with sin.” Is the phrase, the “body being done with sin” just another way for Peter to refer to “holiness?”
Just as Jesus was holy, living with the attitude of A Submission Mindset, Peter encourages his readers to “arm themselves also with that same attitude”: the same Submission Mindset.
Could Peter be encouraging the attitude of A Submission Mindset because it would a demonstration of their “holiness,” .i.e., “being done with sin?” Is this just another way for Peter to emphasize his previous point of encouraging his readers to “be holy just as God/Jesus is holy?” Could A Submission Mindset be viewed AS Holiness? It’s a thought worth considering.
Peter’s admonition here is Similar to Paul’s admonition to the Philippians,
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Notice in Paul’s words above, how he encourages a lifestyle of submission to one another by “loving one another, and by displaying affection and sympathy to one another.” (Philippians 2:1) Life experiences tell us that the ability to “love one another, and display affection and sympathy to one another” definitely takes an attitude of submission to those whom you love and those to whom you display affection and sympathy.
These acts of submission are what makes us human and drives human interaction. Not many people would argue with that fact. Because of that fact, Perhaps Peter encourages his readers to “be of the same mind,” and “being of one mind” in regards to making a purposeful decision of submission to one another in order to perform the deeds of “loving one another, and displaying affection and sympathy to one another.” Are these are the deeds that the ungodly people would see and ”glorify God on the day he visits us?” (2:12) It's another thought worth considering.
Notice further that Paul goes on to encourage his readers to focus on the life example of Jesus as their role model for humble submission. And this role model of submission begins as a mindset, as an attitude, as a way of thinking.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
This mindset is a humbling-of-oneself in submission to others. The submission to which Paul is referring is Jesus’ thorough submission to the authorities to the point of “obedience to the death.”
Also, not going unnoticed in the very next verse is Paul’s theme, like Peter’s, that submission as a hallmark of salvation brings glory to God.
Paul’s very next words…
“Therefore (as a result of his submission) God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Here, with Peter’s first words of the fourth chapter, Peter describes a lifestyle of submission as holiness based on Jesus’ example of submission. It is A Submission Mindset that ought to be the hallmark of the salvation experience of all believers.
And that is precisely how Peter ends his fourth chapter…
“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. (4:19)
The defining characteristic of one who submits himself/herself to God as their faithful Creator is a lifestyle of doing good (“good deeds,” “holiness”) powered by A Submission Mindset. If only this biblical principle were as easy to daily live out as it is to type on paper!
So, to conclude, we have seen through the first four chapters of 1 Peter, that Peter has been encouraging his readers to be the example of humble people powered by A Submission Mindset as the hallmark of one’s salvation experience so that when godless people observe their deeds they would glorify God.
In my next and final blog in this series, we will learn that Peter “encourages and testifies” to his readers that the message of Jesus’s Submission Mindset leading him to “suffering in the body” IS “The True Grace of God.”
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