1 Peter 4:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Peter speaks like Paul: "If we died with Him, we shall also live with Him" (2 Tim. 2:11), and, "Consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God" (Rom. 6:11).

The will of God means not according to human passions. That is, one follows not human glory, but the will of God, the testimonies of the Gospel.

"That he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh," and so forth, is the same as the saying of the holy Apostle Paul in the cited passage: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body," and so forth (Rom 6:12-14).

"The rest" means from the time of one's conversion to Christ until death. It may even mean from the time when one has felt this lofty truth: that for Christ's sake and for the salvation of one's soul, one must die to sin and live a renewed life with Christ and in Christ.

"Not according to human desires" means not according to the sinful disposition in which the natural man abides. Such a man, not regenerated by the grace of Christ, is by his very nature a sinner.

Having spoken earlier, in verse 17 of chapter 3, about the benefit of suffering without guilt, and having pointed to the great example in this regard, Jesus Christ Himself, the apostle now draws a conclusion from all this.

Reminding them that Jesus Christ suffered bodily, he speaks of the benefit of bodily sufferings in particular. In one who suffers bodily, the passions inevitably fall silent, and the sufferer's soul more often has occasion to turn to God for help.

Christians who crucify their flesh in sufferings in some way die to fleshly, sinful life. Therefore, as those free from sin, they must live wholly according to the will of God.

Wondrous is this reasoning of the Apostle. It gives occasion for a question: can a man really not "cease from sin without suffering in the flesh," when he has freedom to choose what is better, and besides this, help for good from the grace of God?

I shall not be so bold as to answer decisively a question which the Apostle only hinted at. But I will observe that the matter of which the Apostle speaks is surely better known to him than to us.

He knew it both as an Apostle enlightened by God and as an experienced ascetic. He had already gone far on the path of sufferings when he pointed out this path to Christians.

In connection with the preceding verse, these words not only confirm but also strengthen what we have said about the sense in which one must understand the phrase "has ceased from sin." The Apostle Peter teaches that the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin not for a time, but once for all. The one who has ceased from sin does not return to it. Rather, he spends the rest of his life pleasing not human passions, but fulfilling the will of God, which requires purity and holiness.