Will you please give a comment on 1: Peter 4:1 What is the flesh there? — KILKEIEL
PETER wrote to converted Jews who had formerly looked for a Messiah who would appear amongst them in the flesh, and as such be glorified. He had indeed appeared in the flesh, but only to suffer in the flesh. Nevertheless, they had believed in Him, and as His followers they also had to expect suffering. Consequently they were to arm themselves with the same mind—the mind to suffer.
The whole pathway of Christ, when in the flesh among men, was one of suffering. Such was His perfect devotion to the will of God that He was in constant collision with the will of men. His sufferings of course culminated at the cross, where another element entered into them, even suffering for sin at the hands of God in judgment, and for our sakes. We have nothing to do with those sufferings that came upon Him at the cross, but we are committed to a course in the world, that will bring us too into collision with man’s will, and except we are armed with the mind of Christ we shall not get very far on that course.
We too suffer in the flesh. Only there is an element in our flesh which was totally absent in the flesh of Christ. Sin lies latent in our flesh as long as we are in the flesh, and it does not require much for the sin which is latent to become terribly patent. When temptation appeals to us from without it promises gratification to the flesh within. If we gratify the flesh we sin. If we do not gratify the flesh but accept suffering in the flesh we cease from sin.
We believe then that the words, “in the flesh,” have in a general way the force here of “bodily condition.” Only we have very particularly to bear in mind that our bodily condition is characterized by sin and Christ’s was not. His flesh was holy flesh, whereas ours is sinful flesh. This perhaps is where the difficulty of understanding the verse comes in.