What does it mean to arm yourself for suffering? That’s a catchy title for a sermon, but preparing to endure the disdain, slander, and persecution of the world doesn’t sound like a very fun activity. Yet, that is what Peter has been teaching us all through this letter. 1 Peter 4:1-6 shows us how we, as exiles and foreigners, are to prepare ourselves for the slander and opposition of a worldly culture. Just as a soldier prepares and trains before going into battle, Peter tells his readers to arm yourselves with the same perspective on suffering that Jesus had. And Peter doesn’t just give us the command and leave us to figure out the details. In these verses, he shows us what we are to arm our minds with so that we might stand faithful, choosing to live for Christ rather than sin against him by compromising with the world. As suffering for following the word of God becomes more and more prevalent in our own culture, there also comes an increasingly strong temptation to fit in, to compromise, or sacrifice biblical truth for the sake of expediency. It’s easy to say we would never do such things, but too often as we sit comfortably in the ease the Lord has given, our mentality becomes one of entitlement and self-protection. Instead of training and preparing ourselves, we become complacent and easily stumble over the smallest temptations. In this text, Peter shows us how to arm ourselves - how to train our minds in preparation for the persecution that Paul says inevitably comes to every person who desires to live a godly life (see 2 Timothy 3:12).
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