Therefore, since Christ suffered as a human, you should also arm yourselves with his way of thinking. This is because whoever suffers is finished with sin. As a result, they don’t live the rest of their human lives in ways determined by human desires but in ways determined by God’s will. You have wasted enough time doing what unbelievers desire—living in their unrestrained immorality and lust, their drunkenness and excessive feasting and wild parties, and their forbidden worship of idols. They think it’s strange that you don’t join in these activities with the same flood of unrestrained wickedness. So they slander you. They will have to reckon with the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Indeed, this is the reason the good news was also preached to the dead. This happened so that, although they were judged as humans according to human standards, they could live by the Spirit according to divine standards. (1 Peter 4:1-6, CEB)
This is because whoever suffers is finished with sin.
Why do I want to suffer? Christ was killed by the religious power with the empire to shut him up so the religious leaders and the empire could stay in power. With this in mind, the suffering we need to undergo is standing up against oppression and power structures that keep the rich rich and the people who have always been in power in power. We need to stand against injustice and speak for the downtrodden.
Then we will be finished with sin, which is anything that keeps us from our relationship with God. We will be focused on the other and therefore focused on God. Sin is not a list of rules to keep or a list of things not to do, it is whatever slides into the middle of you and God.
Stand up for the other and then you will not sin. Love people and stand against oppression and they will slander you because you are going against what is the normative way to do things and what got Jesus killed.
Stand for justice.
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 