Studies in First Peter Part 23
“4In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they malign you; 5but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God” (I Peter 4:4-6).
Continuing the theme of leaving our sinful lifestyle in the past, Peter turns to the response of your former partners in sin to the change in your life. They are scratching their collective heads. What happened? Why have you left this path of sensuality behind? And they malign you for your lack of participation.
As a geophysicist, I love the term Peter uses to describe the lifestyle that we have left behind; a “flood of dissipation.” In your freshman physics book, you will see the word “dissipation” defined as “the process of converting energy into heat or other forms of energy that are NOT USEFUL for performing work.” Dissipation is wasted energy. It performs no work. It has no usefulness. It is a total waste.
Think about that lifestyle you left behind. “Dissipation” is a good one-word description. The energy that went into it brought no return, only losses in so many ways. And it washed over us like a flood, a flood that we see rising all around us.
Look around you today. What do you see in the world at large? I see a “flood of dissipation” with the flood waters at a record level. I can’t think of a time in my adult life when the lack of a moral compass in our public life has been this pronounced. From the greed, fraud, and outright lies at the highest levels of business and politics right down to the porch pirate stealing your package in the middle of the day, morality at a public level is in short supply.
What has changed in me over the years is that there is no anger in the previous paragraph, only compassion for a world without Jesus. I grieve over the sin of the world, not in some judgmental sense that people are breaking God’s rules. I grieve over the harm and pain that sin brings to those who indulge in it and to those closest to them.
Jesus is the answer to the world’s sin problem. People need Jesus and His power within to turn from sin. Jesus is the answer is not just a catchy phrase. It is the truth.
This “flood of dissipation” will not go on forever without consequence. Judgment is coming. There was no judgment associated with Christ’s first coming (John 3:17). He did not come to judge us FOR our sin, but to FREE us from our sin. But a future judgment is coming for those who have never believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
“The gospel preached to those who are dead” may refer to those who died before the cross. Maybe they understood the prophetic promise of a coming Messiah or the gospel was preached to them in the grave. We really don’t have much here to make a sure-fire interpretation. At any rate, God’s judgment will be righteous, we can be assured of that.
Just to tack on one more thought. There is no fear of judgment now or at a judgment seat in the future for those who believe the gospel, those who are now part of the family of God. All of our sins have been forgiven by Christ’s death in our place on the cross and by believing, we have received His gift of eternal life without judgment or fear.