1 Peter 4:1

οὖν sums up the various lessons drawn from the sufferings of Christ in the preceding 1 Peter 4 :1 Peter 3:18-22, that suffering in the flesh is (a) a termination of the regime of sin, (b) an opportunity for new and wider service in the spirit, (c) the prelude to future glory.

παθόντος σαρκὶ, refers to ἀπέθανεν, θανατωθεὶς σαρκὶ in 1 Peter 3:18.

τὴν αὐτὴν ἔννοιαν ὁπλίσασθε, arm yourselves with the same attitude of mind towards suffering with which Christ armed Himself to face suffering and death, cf. Hebrews 12:2 ff.; Philippians 2:5 ff.

ἔννοια only occurs again in Hebrews 4:12 where it refers to the action of the reason as opposed to ἐνθύμησις the action of the affections.

ὁπλίζειν occurs nowhere else in the N.T. but καθωπλισμένος is used of “the strong man armed” Luke 11:21, and the Christian’s armour is referred to in Ephesians 6:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Romans 13:12.

ὅτι might be translated that = arm yourselves with the thought that, but more probably it means because.

ὁ παθὼν σαρκὶ πέπαυται ἁμαρτίαις. Bigg explains this to mean “he that in meekness and fear hath endured persecutions, rather than join in the wicked ways of the heathen, can be trusted to do right; temptation has manifestly no power over him.” He denies any connexion between this passage and St Paul’s words, Romans 6:7 ὁ γὰρ�. In Romans St Paul is borrowing a Rabbinic formula, “When a man is dead he is free from the law and the commandments.” Delitzsch describes this as a well-known locus communis or stock phrase, and in this case St Peter’s language might be independent of St Paul’s. But this is hardly possible in view of the numerous coincidences with Romans in other parts of the Epistle, and a careful comparison shews that St Peter is following the same line of thought as St Paul. St Paul’s argument is that in Baptism the Christian professes to have shared in Christ’s death and resurrection. Now Christ died to sin once and for all (ἐφάπαξ). He is no longer under the dominion of death. He lives unto God. So the baptized Christian is ideally dead to the regime of sin. Death has cancelled the old bonds of slavery. If sin tries to reclaim him as his slave, sin will lose his suit on the ground that the slave is dead. He is acquitted against the claims of sin and is therefore bound to live unto God and not revert to the old life of sin.

Similarly St Peter has just described Christ as having died (or suffered) for sins once (ἅπαξ) to present us to God (cf. 1 Peter 2:24, “who himself bare our sins in his body upon the tree that we having died (ἀπογενόμενοι) unto sins might live unto righteousness”). His death in the flesh was the quickening of His spirit for new service to God with whom He now reigns in glory. Then, having shewn how the Flood symbolized the termination of the old guilty world and the salvation of Noah’s family for a new and purified world, St Peter describes the same putting off of defilement and resurrection to live with a good conscience toward God as being symbolized by Baptism. That is the ideal to which Christians are pledged in Baptism, but it is an ideal which needs to be realized by painful efforts and watchful prayer, so long as they still live in the flesh. Bodily sufferings, instead of being resented as a hardship and a hindrance, should be welcomed as a factor in emancipating man from the thraldom of sin and enabling him to live unto God in the spirit. Though they still have to live in the flesh their life must no longer be regulated by the wayward desires of men but by the will of God.