I Spent Enough Time Serving the Devil

"For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries." - 1 Peter 4:3 (NKJV)

I will never forget that my dad gave his life to Christ in his thirties, and he was completely transformed. I was born when he was 40, so I never knew the version of him before his conversion. I never knew that man. All I knew was the man who taught me how to pray, how to win people to Jesus, how to serve the Lord, and how to be passionate for God. That was the only man I knew, but I also saw how his Christian activities consumed his life as an adult. I once asked my dad, "Dad, why? Why do we do this? I mean, we never go on vacations; we only go on mission trips. We only spend our time serving the Lord." Of course, this made a deep impact on me.

Dad responded, "Josh, I want you to know I spent enough of my life serving the devil." See, he gave his life to Christ in his early thirties and said, "When I gave my life to Jesus, I wanted to live for Him as intensely as I had served the devil."

Do you remember the pain from your life without Christ? Peter said, "For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles..." Peter says that was a waste of your time.

Do you remember God told the Israelites as they entered the Promised Land: "Don't forget that you were slaves in Egypt, and God delivered you from that" (see Deuteronomy 24:18). Christians should get to the point where they don't want to waste their lives like they did before they became Christians.

As I get older, there's only a certain number of calories that I need to consume in a day. When I was younger, I could eat anything without it affecting my weight at all. Now, you drink soda and seem to gain five pounds! Lydia and I have this phrase when we look at certain types of snacks or desserts: "I'm not wasting my calories on that." This means it doesn't taste good enough. It's not worth my time.

Do you see the comparison? In the same way, we ought to look at those temptations to sin and remember that they put Jesus on the cross. We should grieve over those sins instead of giving ourselves over to them. We should look at sins and say, "That is a waste of my life. That is a waste of my time."

Peter argues that we have wasted enough time living like the lost people around us, those who are trapped in sin. We have spent too long engaging in lewdness, which he describes as shameful behavior and a lack of decency. He mentions lust, highlighting it as a strong desire and passion. He also talks about drunkenness, which involves using alcohol or drugs to alter our senses, which lowers our moral standards. Peter emphasizes that we have already spent enough time intoxicating ourselves. We need to live our lives for Jesus!

Reflection Question: What areas of your past life can you say, "I've spent enough time doing that," and how can remembering that pain motivate you toward righteousness?

Father, thank You for delivering me from my past life of sin. Help me to remember the pain and emptiness of that wasted time, not to condemn myself, but to motivate me toward holiness. I want to serve You with my whole heart. Help me to see sin as not worth my time or energy. In Jesus' name, amen.

Adapted from "Ready for Battle" (1 Peter 4:1-6): https://www.joshfranklin.org/media/9n23qdh/19-ready-for-battle-1-peter-4-1-6