Peter’s readers had first heard the gospel and come to faith in, say, mid-life. In their earlier years they were unbelieving Gentiles and lived that way (1 Peter 1:14). With the gift of faith they were born again (1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:23) and so expected to do the remainder of their earthly sojourn (= “in the flesh”) with a heavenly focus (1 Peter 1:4). Since they still live “in the flesh” (i.e., on this earth) they remain vulnerable to the temptation to avoid doing good because they fear the suffering that may follow.
2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.