1Pet 4:3 For the time which has passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having gone on in licentiousness, lusts, debaucheries, carousings, drinking bouts, and unlawful idolatries. 4 In this they think it strange that you are not running together with them into the same flood of dissoluteness, slandering you;
To live in the flesh in the lusts of men (v. 2) is common to unbelieving Gentiles, who are running together into the flood of dissipation. But to live a holy life in the will of God, not running together in the indulgence of lusts, is strange to them. It is a foreign thing, alien to them. They are surprised and astonished at it. Literally, "running together" means rushing on in a crowd like a band of revelers. This is to live in the flesh in the lusts of men to work out the desire of the nations (v. 3) in the vain manner of life. Worldly people think it strange that we do not run together with them into the same flood of dissipation. Here all the indulgences listed in verse 3 are compared to a flood. This flood is a current, a trend. Whenever the weekend comes, worldly people follow this current to indulge themselves in their lusts. They think it strange that we, as believers, would not run together with them into that flood of indulgence. It seems as if we are aliens to them. They may look upon us as foreigners, citizens of another country. The word "dissipation" in verse 4 also indicates indulgence to excess. We all need to eat, but we should not eat in excess. We all need to drink, but we should not drink too much. If we go too far in eating and drinking, that is indulgence, excess, dissipation. As believers, we should not have any kind of dissipation. In our eating, drinking, shopping, and spending of money, we should have a limitation, a restriction. In none of these things should there be any dissipation. The worldly people follow the flood of dissipation to indulge in their lusts, but we do not go that way. (c) 2007 Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of First Peter, pp. 235-237. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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