1 So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same attitude, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin,
2 in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires.
vs. 1 "since Christ suffered" - Christ suffered and died - willingly. We must prepare ourselves for the same thing. He is our example.
"arm yourselves" - Adopt the same purpose as our Lord and Savior. God the Father asked Him to go into the world as a human to live and offer Himself up as a sacrifice to pay for sin. Adam's nature of disobedience has been inherited by all humans. In fact, the whole world has been deemed dead. None of it can be transferred into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Christ's suffering and death sealed that fate. His resurrection seals our new life. God will create a new earth in which His believers will live and work. Our fleshly human bodies will not be in heaven or the new earth. We have become new creatures, remember? (2 Cor. 5:17) The old has died, the new has come! So, prepare yourself to be persecuted. Prepare yourself by clinging to Jesus. Neither you nor I have the will-power, or the strength to endure persecution. In Christ we can.
I will admit I am not eager to test this statement. Jesus warned us to be ready to be persecuted as He was persecuted. If our Savior suffered, why should we think we are better than He? The world that hated Him, will hate you - assuming you are living for Him. John writes "the world does not know you, because it did not know Him." (1 John 3:2) It did not know, it did not understand, and the world hates Jesus with a hate that comes from Satan himself. Do you suppose the vehemence shown by the atheist and anarchist protesters is merely a 'fad'?
Did you happen to see the protests at a high school in the United States recently? (Background information: some Christian mothers were making lunches for the students. While the students were eating the mothers shared a Christian message. It was all free to the students. It was all voluntary; the students were not required to go to the park where the lunch was served was next to the school.) Atheists protesters tried to interrupt and intimidate the students. (It didn't work. The students remained calm and ignored the protesters.) One of the signs said, "Put Jesus back inside the church". This is the goal of the liberal/progressives of today. They want Christians to stay in the church, and not live their Christian lives in the public arena. This is mild persecution compared to that the Coptic Christians in the Middle East, or any Christian in Muslim countries, suffer.
"the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin" - A most interesting turn of phrase... Does this mean that if we suffer we will quit sinning? All you have to do is get cancer, or some other chronic illness and you no longer have any desire to sin? That does not make sense. I would suggest this: those who are persecuted (suffered in the flesh) have changed from being pagans to being Christians. That is, you are being persecuted because you are no longer acting like a pagan non-believer but as a follower of the Lord. We 'must' suffer persecution, it is inevitable when we desire to live for God's will and cease from sin.
vs. 2 "in that..." - This ties into the last phrase of verse 1. Since we are finished with sin - it no longer has control over us - we can live the rest of our life on earth serving Jesus, not ourselves. In Christ we have died to the flesh, and cease from sin. See: Rom. 6:7; 1 John 3:6-8, 5:18. We have died to sin, and are to live for the Lord and not for ourselves (2 Cor. 5:15). In Christ we can do just that. Without the power of the Holy Spirit we cannot. Living for Christ, free from sin is expected! On the other hand, there is no reason to be overwhelmed with guilt when we fail. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.
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