“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.”
when we walked
“Walked” signifies to go on one’s way, to depart from one place to another, to go from one place to another. This is the Jet Set mentality. Some people run from Paris to Morocco to Hawaii, seeking pleasure. On the local level, some people run from one bar to another, from one party to another. They hang out in many places.
Life on the run is a characteristic of the fast crowd. They keep changing places to find something better. Unfortunately, the search for greater pleasure eventually ends in emptiness. That is why they change locations for the old area of sin gets boring very quickly. Often they change locations because of illegal operations such as drug use.
Note other uses for this same Greek word for “walk:”
Jude 16-18, “These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain an advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.”
2 Pet. 3:3, “Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts.”
Asia Minor Christians walked in six ugly sins before they became Christians. These characteristics mark the will of the Gentiles. Those without Christ have strange standards. These standards change every day for the worse. Standards of morality and decency are disappearing in North American society.
Peter does not insinuate that all six standards of the Gentiles mark all non-Christian people. Many respectable non-Christians live without this lifestyle. Their sin is more reputable. Nevertheless, they may be the most decent people in the Lake of Fire. How would you like to be the most respected person in Hell?
Non-Christians love to plan their own lives (1:14). They fashion themselves by their plans, and that was according to their lusts. Christians live by God’s standards.
“Walked” in Greek also means that we closed our former course of life at a point in the past. Our previous life to salvation is a closed matter. Old things have passed away. We now say goodbye to it forever. We are finished with that chapter of life.
PRINCIPLE:
A life without a sense of satisfaction must keep on the move.
APPLICATION:
Those without Christ pretend to be happy, but they keep on the move searching for something better. They must amuse themselves with activity. They cannot live with themselves. They cannot sit still. Their soul is agitated.
Those without Christ never heard of anything else but life on the move. They cannot live any other way. All they possess are their five senses. Those five senses only take them from the cradle to the grave, no farther. Physical senses will not take them to heaven.
That is why 1 Peter 1:18 calls their life a “vain” life. Their life is empty. That is why we became fed-up with that life. We could not find enough things to keep us busy. Life was a drag. We could not afford some things to keep us from being bored. That is why poor people are more bored than rich people. Rich people can be bored in style.
Is your life empty? Why not turn to Christ? Go to this site to see what is involved in becoming a Christian:
http://versebyversecommentary.com/articles/becoming-a-christian/
