Arm ourselves likewise with the same mind

1 Pet.
{3:18} For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit
{3:19} By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison
1 Pet. {3:20} Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
{3:21} The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a
good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ


{3:22} Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right
hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made
subject unto him.


Angels
Authorities
Powers


All these being made subject unto Jesus Christ.


{4:1} 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


Christ suffered for us.
Christ took on humanity and submitted to all the temptations just like we are and He sinned not.
He willingly suffered.
Willingly!


We have to willingly suffer for Christ not that it will save us because only Christ's mercy can save us, but because we are called to live as He lived. Christ suffered in the flesh. What causes suffering?


DICT.
suffer (sùf´er) verb
suffered, suffering, suffers verb, intransitive
1. To feel pain or distress; sustain loss, injury, harm, or punishment.
2. To tolerate or endure evil, injury, pain, or death.

Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary


So what causes pain, distress, loss, injury, harm, punishment, enduring evil, suffering to death?


You have to feel and feel acutely in order to suffer deeply. If you care much, you suffer much. Christ cared for us more than anyone possibly could. Care enough to take on humanity, to submit Himself to becoming flesh, bound by its limitations. And yes, you may scoff and say He had no limitations, but when he took on humanity He gave Himself limitations that would enable Him to be able to say the He was ...

Heb. {2:18} For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted,
he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Heb. {4:15} For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without
sin.

You cannot truly be tempted by anything unless you have the ability to fall to that temptation. It is no temptation at all to be offered chocolate when you have no interest in chocolate, and yet if you crave it beyond that which is normal and healthy for you and you are tempted with chocolate it becomes a source of temptation, of desire, something you have to resist and suffer if not physically then emotionally, mentally, to keep from giving into that temptation. Yes, you might argue that it's harder once you've tasted the creamy sweet richness of chocolate to resist it, but once you know that something isn't good and you feel the pull of temptation- even untested once it can be very strong. Sex for example. You may feel an intense desire for that physical pleasure even if you've never had sex. Temptations aren't unique to those who taste that which is tempting them. Desires can be very real, very hard to resist. Temptations can cause us to suffer greatly in ways that other might not understand suffering. Just because I'm tempted in one way doesn't mean you're tempted the same. My temptations are just as real and hard to resist as anothers, they are in that sense unique to us without being the same.


Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, but without sinning.


You might think that impossible. You might say he never had heroin or the foods we have today and yet in principle He suffered temptation just as we suffer it, unique to Him as our temptations are to each of us only He suffered sinless. It is because He was able to resist temptations that He was able to save us who are born into sin through Adam.


1 Peter. {4:1} 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


Suffering.


Arm ourselves likewise with the same mind.


We can't don armor and fight this battle of sin, this battle between good and evil, the battle in which we are each being fought for. We have to arm ourselves with the same mind as Christ. The same willingness to trust in God for everything in our lives. The same willingness that if we are called to suffer in the flesh, we embrace the suffering and we don't let Satan twist it into God's punishing us. We cling to Christ our Righteousness and we meld our mind to His and whatever our lots in life we holdfast...we suffer if we must knowing that our suffering cannot compare to the suffering of the most innocent of all, our Savior.


By the Lord's grace and mercy may we arm ourselves with the same mind as Christ- willingly suffering anything we need to suffer, and in anyway we need to suffer it so that we may cling to Him fully by His grace in love.


Amen