V. 1. Forasmuch, then, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.
St. Peter continues still in the same strain. Just as he hitherto has admonished us generally that we should suffer, if it be the will of God, and has set Christ before us as an example,—so he now confirms it more broadly, and repeats it again, saying, While Christ, who is our captain and head, has suffered in the flesh and presented us an example, (besides that He has ransomed us from our sins,) we also should imitate Him, and prepare ourselves, and put on the same armor. For in the Scriptures the life of the Lord Christ, and especially his suffering, is presented before us in a twofold manner.
Sometimes as a gift, as St. Peter has already exhibited it in the third chapter; and to those first, who are built up and instructed in the faith that we are ransomed, and our sins taken away by the blood of Christ; and so he is a gift and bestowment upon us, which none can receive except by faith. Whereof he speaks where he says, "Christ has once suffered for our sins." That is certainly the grand doctrine, and the most precious one of the Gospel.
Again, Christ is set before us and offered to us as an example and pattern for us to follow. For if we only receive Christ, through faith, as a free gift, we shall go farther and do ourselves as He has done for us, and imitate Him in His whole life and sufferings. In this manner St. Peter presents it here. But he does not speak here particularly of those marks of the love which leads us to befriend our neighbor, and do good, which are called, specifically, good works (for he had said enough of this above), but of such evidences as concern our personal experience, and are of service in strengthening our faith, that sin may be put to death in the flesh, and we thereby become of so much better service to our neighbor. For if I control my body so that it be not lustful, then can I leave my neighbor, his wife or child, at peace; while if I subdue hate and envy, I shall become so much better prepared to be kind and friendly toward my neighbor.
We have repeated often enough already that we are justified through faith, and thus have the Lord Christ as ours; still we must also do good works and show kindness to our neighbor. For we are never entirely purified while we live on earth, and every one still finds in his body evil lusts. The believer indeed prays for the death of sin and the gift of heaven, but is not yet become entirely and completely strong; but as Christ described the Samaritan, who was not yet healed, but was laid under restrictions and directions that he might become sound, so it is also with us. If we believe, then is our sin restrained,—that is, the disease which we have derived from Adam, and we begin to recover. But it is the case, in one more, in another less, that in proportion as one mortifies and subdues the flesh, so much does his faith increase. So that if we have these two things, faith and love, our future experience will be, that we shall continue to drive sin before us till we die.
Therefore St. Peter says, arm yourselves with the same mind; that is, take up a firm purpose, and strengthen yourselves with the mind which you receive from Christ; for, if we are Christians, then must we also say, My Master has suffered and spilt His blood for me, and has died for my sake. Should I then be so base as not to love Him? While the Master runs upon the spears' points in the conflict, how much more should the servant advance with joy? Thus do we awaken a courage such that we press onward, and arm ourselves in our own minds so as joyfully to persevere.
The word flesh refers in Scripture not only outwardly to the body, but includes all that is derived from Adam. As when God says, in Gen. vi.: "My Spirit shall not always strive with men, for they also are flesh;" and Isaiah, chap. xl., "All flesh shall see the Salvation of God,"—that is, it shall be revealed for all men. So we also make confession in our own form of faith, "I believe in the resurrection of the flesh," that is, that men shall rise again. So man uniformly throughout is called flesh, as he lives here in this state of being.
The marks of the flesh are carefully recounted, one after another, in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians v., not only the gross carnal works, as lasciviousness, but also the highest and most reckless blasphemies, as idolatry and heresy, which belong not only to the flesh, but to the reason. We must understand, therefore, that man, with his intellectual nature,—and with respect both to that which is inward and that which is outward—that is, the body and spirit,—has the appellation of flesh; and this, because with all his faculties, internal and external, he seeks only that which is carnal, and can serve to gratify the flesh. St. Peter says here, too, that Christ suffered in the flesh, while it is certain that His suffering extended further than to the body merely, for His soul suffered the greatest anguish, as is said by the prophet Isaiah.
In the same way, also, you are to understand that which follows, in the passage before us: "Whoever hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." For this implies not only such things as the death and the torture of the body, but whatever can work misery to man—whatever he endures through calamity and necessity. For there are many people who are sound in body, and yet inwardly experience much heart-sorrow and anguish. If it comes upon us for Christ's sake, it is serviceable and profitable. For whoever suffers in the flesh (says he) ceases from sin, and therefore the Holy Cross is profitable, that sin may thereby be subdued; since it requires you to mortify lust, envy and hate, and other wickedness. Therefore God has imposed the Holy Cross upon us that He might urge and constrain us to believe, and extend the hand of kindness one to the other. Hereupon it follows:
V. 2. That he henceforth, in the time that still remains for him in the flesh, should live not according to the lusts of men, but the will of God.