We’re almost at the close of 1 Peter, so now we watch how Peter brings all the great things he has shared to summation. What then are the issues he highlights for us in this final, culminating section? There are four at least: about the Holy Spirit; the Father; the Church; and the devil.
Don’t be surprised when tough things happen to us as believers, he says first as he recommences, but rejoice (vv12-13). As we’ve noted previously, suffering and glory go together throughout this epistle like the two sides of a coin; it’s as we share in Christ’s sufferings (what a striking notion!) that we will share in his glory (vv13-14, cf 5:1). And these are the moments (this should intrigue his more charismatic readers!) when `the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you’ (v14). (Father, please help me have faith for that…)
He moves on. The Spirit of glory, we know, is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies (1:2); growth in holiness is growth into glory. So Peter goes on to underline that our sufferings are also a refining of God’s family (4:17). (Compare the sense of this refining in 1:7: `All kinds of trials… have come so that your faith… may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour’ (1:7).) The purpose of the wilderness journey is to ready us for glory; we can find meaning in it if we hold on to a faith that, because Christ loves us, the tough times the journey includes must always have some Godward dimension (v19), faith that somewhere in them God is `working for good’ for and in us (cf Rom 8:28). So what in particular is the `arming insight’ here at the end of the chapter? Surely, that our Father is a `faithful Creator’ (v19).
It’s yet another thought-provoking, unusual phrase – one we can use as fuel for worship. Indeed Jesus had talked the same way in Matthew (6:25-33 and 10:29-31), and we can feed here on the lesson Peter had heard him draw: we can be at peace in this world if we grasp that we are worth so very much to the Father (Matt 10:31). The Father made us; he loves us; he is sovereign in all that happens; and – surely? – he can be trusted in what he is doing. (Lord, I worship you; please help me indeed to put my faith in you and `continue to do good’ (v19)…) In wilderness situations, our calling is just (by his power) to trust him, day by day, and step by step. Overall, yes, it’s important to think strategically; Christ calls us (Acts 1:8) to a mindset always looking for the `next step’ in evangelism God has for us individually and collectively, Judaea then Samaria and towards the ends of the earth. But at those points when we’re really experiencing the wilderness, there are just two `times’ that matter: the present moment, trusting and obeying the Father, `step by step and bit by bit’ (quoting Whitney Houston now!); and the `end’ (4:5,7), when we will stand in glory before him. These are what we must seek to focus on, rather than the cares of the unforeseeable future. As the Russian writer Solovyov observes strikingly, in the sermon on the mount we are instructed to pray for our bread for `today’; `tomorrow’ we should entrust to God (Matt 6:11,34).
But such `faith’ isn’t easy. And to maintain it we will need the help of others; we need love and good food to make it through the wilderness (cf 2:2). So, thirdly, Peter now turns to the `shepherds`, the elders, those whose task it is to keep the food-chain going (5:1-4; cf 2 Peter 1:12-15, 3:1-2). (Behind these verses we surely sense his final, repeated commission from Jesus: `Feed my sheep!’ (John 21:15-17).)
Peter himself is an example of a good `shepherd’ in his humility here; we notice he describes himself not as an apostle but as a `fellow-elder’. Does this reflect his own `wilderness experiences’? He calls himself a `witness’ (not `participant’ as in 4:13) `of Christ’s sufferings, and yet one who will share in the glory to be revealed’; remembering, perhaps, that he indeed `witnessed’ Christ’s sufferings, but evaded `sharing’ them, despite his earlier boasts (Luke 22:33). Such a realism, a humble, self-revealing honesty, sitting loose to status and (because it’s secure in Christ’s love) able to admit what God knows about us, is a mark of the true `shepherd’. It is fuelled, too, by the certainty that even we who have failed can `share in the glory to be revealed’…
In 5:2-3, therefore, Peter focuses on three key issues that can ruin the leaders who must shepherd God’s flock through the wilderness: resentment, money, and control. Peter responds to these by highlighting three things leaders need to keep in mind: for resentment, choosing to welcome the will of the loving God who (v7) `cares for you’; for greed, the calling to eager servant-leadership (for more on that see Matt 20:20-28, 1 Cor 9:19-24, and John 13:1-15); and for our `control-mentality’, the calling to be examples of Christlikeness (cf 1 Cor 11:1). Three more items for prayer…
Then he turns also to the younger believers, whose Christlikeness will be equally vital if the `wilderness community’ is to move forward together through pressure and change (something doubly true, we might add, when the world is changing as rapidly as in postmodernity): `Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older.’ He doesn’t make the point explicitly, but we might recall (cf 3:4) that this kind of submissive process is how humility, the fruit of the Spirit, is fostered, and God needs to take us all that way from time to time, because humility is crucial: `”God opposes”‘ (an alarming notion!) `”the proud, but gives grace to the humble”‘ (5:5). That is, the place of humility is where grace most automatically comes: `Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.’ Then he adds, `Cast all your anxiety on him, because’ – here again is the essential thing to hold on to in the wilderness – `he cares for you.’ We’re called to focus on our trust in God, `living by faith’, and not on the outward circumstances (cf again Matt 10:28-31).
One November Sunday afternoon I was watching the golden leaves drop from the trees behind our house, as more and more of the branches became blackened and denuded. Winter was coming, and it was one of those moments when you feel old. And then I thought: But the presence of God within us is the guarantee, eventually, of new life; of resurrection, pentecost, glory. So it is here. `Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.’ In God’s purposes there are Novembers, but springs will come also; there are `dark nights of the soul’, because only so can full rejuvenation be brought to pass. So `standing firm in the faith’ (5:9) is the anchor. `Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.’ Some lessons do have to be learnt in winter, in the wilderness, because there is no other way.
Fourthly, then, Peter presents one final motive for being `self-controlled and alert’, one particularly relevant to the `winter months’: spiritual warfare (5:8). The devil is more active than many of us imagine, and, as Jesus had warned Peter in Gethsemane, we need to genuinely `watch and pray’ to recognise the attack when it comes. The subtle choice of a wrong priority, the nursing of a grudge, the welcoming of negativity rather than deliberate thanksgiving; any of these can mark the subtle incursion of satanic influence. (Lord, please help me bother to `watch and pray’: help me be alert – and holy and obedient….) Still, Peter’s overall tone here is confident and not paranoid: God is in control! As Nigel Lee has put it, there is `nothing Satan can do that has not already been filtered through the loving hands of your Father God.’ `Cast all your anxiety on him; he cares for you!’ (Thankyou, Lord!)
Thus in his triumphant conclusion (vv10-11), Peter points again to the salvation-process that we must discern in the wilderness, and that has featured so much in his letter (`God… after you have suffered a little while, will himself make you strong, firm and steadfast’); to the inseparable pairing of wilderness sufferings with `eternal glory’; and to the power of God that undergirds it all. We are not in the wilderness because God is powerless; rather, we stay alive there only because we are `shielded by God’s power’ (1:5). `To him be the power for ever and ever!’; for he knows what he is doing! Lord, Amen!
Plenty to pray about there! One more 1 Peter post to come, because of the striking but surprising verse 5:12…
