1 Peter 4:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Peter 4:3

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At that time we lived as the Gentiles live, as the world lives, and now we look back amazed at our rash behaviour in inviting the judgment of God. His use of the word Gentiles is not intended to re-establish the distinctions of the Old Testament between Jew and Gentile, but to remind his readers what is the only state of human beings outside of the fold of God. The Gentiles were a vivid example of how debauched human nature is when left to its own devices. We are horrified that we can have sinned so carelessly and understood so little about the consequences of what we were doing, for we now look upon the world as under condemnation and waiting only for the moment when God ends his extended patience towards it. They have no fear of God, and put out of their minds any thought about what awaits them in the future. Furthermore, we know that it was not by a sudden realisation of the awfulness of what we were doing that we escaped, for so hardened were we in sin and so stupefied by it, that we would have continued along that path indefinitely if God had not shaken us out of our sleep. We therefore take no credit as if, by our own good sense, we decided to leave the world’s side. On the contrary we were slaves to sin.It will be seen by us as being mis-spent time and we don’t want to be in our pre-conversion position anymore. The apostle Peter is painting the world in its true colours. ‘Lewdness’ – lasciviousness, wantonness, the opposite of being continent; this is indulgence of the foulest unclean pleasures of the sinful nature without any consideration of the cost. ‘Lusts’ – desires, craving, longings for what God has forbidden; men feed off their lusts when they are unable or afraid to go ahead and satisfy them. When they can indulge them they cast themselves into the pleasures of the moment in their madness, deliberately ignoring the judgment that must follow. The thought of consequences is shut out for it spoils the momentary pleasure of sin. ‘Drunkenness’ – the word means bubbling over wine, and refers to drunken debauchery and orgies. ‘Revelries’ – excessive feasting, carousing, originally a festive procession in honour of the wine god. ‘Banquetings’ – drinking bouts, where the intention is to show proficiency in consuming large quantities of alcohol. ‘Abominable idolatries’ – the worship of false created gods, which is detestable to God and provokes him to anger. You look at your neighbours and everything seems orderly and reasonable, and then suddenly you see the disgusting filth on the television, the wilful turning upside down of moral values, the outrages against decency and order and nature and conscience. You see where people really are, when they are free to embrace what they want. You look on the wider scene and you see morality being turned upside down and things which are deeply offensive to God being made legal and anyone who would be against that being categorised as a criminal. You see the extreme position that the world really takes and its coarseness. The word ‘abominable’ appears in this text too. Lawlessness, violating basic laws of nature. ‘The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in’ all these different things. ‘Wrought,’ means carried into effect. Before conversion, we carried into effect the lusts of the fallen heart and of society.

Application

If it is true that he who is forgiven much loves much, then it is a good thing for us to be reminded how we used to live. This is not said to fill us with guilt all over again as if God still remembered our sins against us, but to help us to appreciate the great gift we have received from him in having our debt cancelled. We should not keep re-confessing the same sins, but we give thanks to God for the fact that he has pardoned those sins. We cannot deny our past and nor should we try to forget it, for it is part of the history of grace in our life-story. Sin has been allowed by God to come into existence in order that his grace should be exalted to the highest degree. It is a spur to our progress in holiness that we have wasted so much of our past life in foolish disobedience. The believer may take revenge on his past life by living such a markedly different life, for he remembers with regret what he was, and turns that regret to advantage.

The Christian makes no attempt to mitigate his past evil life, for he has received a free pardon, and this was given on condition that he admit the full extent of his sin. If God had not been aware of all that he did in the past then forgiveness would not have been possible. Having been forgiven, why should he try to hide it, for what is to his own dishonour is to the glory of God to whom he owes everything, and Peter includes himself with his readers as one who lived in excess in the past.

You walk in lasciviousness every time you go to a Hollywood movie, which is full of sex. You are letting your guard down; you are letting your mind be polluted. There are Christian people and they have the right profession. Then they get married and people tell me, ‘Oh, the reception. There was a band there, and the world's music, and there was dancing, and you couldn't have easily told the difference between this and a worldly wedding. And yet we thought that young couple had done with the world, finished with the world, and now we find them up to the neck in the world, because they are not prepared to be scorned by all their worldly friends.

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1 Peter 4:3 Commentary and Bible Study