owliness and Servanthood (5:5–7) Then in verses 5–7, Peter takes that same mind-set and applies it to all of us. You see that in the word “likewise” at the beginning of verse 5: “Likewise”—that is, just as the elders are called to be humble and serve you as examples rather than lording it over you—“you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.” How can that make sense in a world where humility and lowliness and servanthood do not get you a political nomination and do not get you a job—a world where self-promotion and self-exaltation are woven into the fabric of Roman and American culture? The answer lies in verses 5b–6: It makes sense because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” What grace? Don’t we already have grace? Yes, we do. But there is a future grace—more grace—coming to believers who clothe themselves with humility toward each other: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (v. 6). This is why such a strange, humble, self-effacing attitude, one that is willing to suffer and serve rather than return evil for evil, makes sense. It makes sense because just over the horizon of this world, all the lowly nobodies who suffered in obedience to Christ will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:43). Think of it. There are hundreds of thousands of faithful Christians around the world in very difficult circumstances, and while they joyfully endure the hardships of following Christ, only a handful of people even know they exist. There is going to be a great reversal. It is only a matter of time. Followers of Jesus do not need the reward of this world. We don’t need to be treated well. We don’t need to prosper. Like those elders in verses 2 and 3, we don’t need to be coerced in order to serve gladly. We don’t need riches to be happy in the ministry. We don’t need power in order to feel a sense of significance, because we have set our hope not on the exaltation of this world but on the exaltation and glory of the next. And there is no comparison. The Lion Who Devours (5:8–10) In verses 8–10, Peter tells us how to deal with the roaring lion of the Devil, who wants to devour us: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. The Devil here is not pictured as a sly snake who sneaks up on you and bites your heel. He is a roaring lion. Why roaring? Lions roar when they are hungry and angry. This Devil is not trying to sneak up on you. He is trying to terrify you, make you afraid, fill you with anxieties, and keep you off-balance and nervous. How does this roaring lion devour people? Verse 9b explains: “. . . knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” This lion is roaring and biting and clawing by causing people—Christians in particular—to suffer. His aim is to destroy Christians through suffering. He aims to make us doubt the goodness of God or the presence of God or the power of God or the compassion of God. This is how the horrible roar works. The claws. The teeth. And Peter tells us, “Resist him, firm in your faith” (v. 9a). This does not mean that if you are successful, the claws never cut and the teeth never sink in. It means, when the claws cut and when the teeth sink in, don’t stop believing! Don’t stop being humble. Don’t stop returning good for evil. Don’t stop rejoicing. Don’t stop loving. That is successful resistance to the roaring lion, even if it costs you your life. Really? Keep on returning good for evil? When the adversaries are agents of the Devil? When they go on reviling and threatening us? Really? Keep on blessing? Keep on doing good? What could make sense out of that response to the lion? The answer comes in verse 10: “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Resist the lion with unwavering joy and humility and love. Keep on doing good to those who hate you. How? By believing verse 10 with all your heart. Keep on hoping in this—this eternal glory, this promise of total restoration and confirmation and strength everlasting, unshakable, established glory. This future beyond the suffering of this world—that is the key. Future Hope Endures Present Trouble So, to the elders (vv. 2–3): don’t lord it over your people. Don’t use them for money. Don’t begrudge their needs. Serve them eagerly, willingly, joyfully, humbly. How? In the rock-solid hope that “when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (v. 4). To all of us (vv. 5–7): “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. . . . Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.” How? In the hope that “at the proper time he may exalt you” (v. 6b). And to the sufferers (vv. 8–10): resist this roaring lion in his power to attack with suffering. How? In the rock-solid hope that “after you have suffered . . . the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (v. 10). Everything good you have lost will be restored in that glorious day. Woven through this entire letter of 1 Peter, including chapter 5, is the call for a condition of heart and a way of life that make sense only if we are absolutely sure we will have a great reward in heaven. That condition of heart and the way of life are a joyful, humble willingness to suffer wrong and serve rather than return evil for evil. And that reward in heaven is a crown of glory and exaltation in the presence of the all-satisfying God. All wrongs against us will be set right. All patience under mockery will be vindicated. All shame in this world will be taken away and replaced with honor. All pain will be removed and all losses restored. All brokenness will be mended. All humiliation will be exchanged for garments of glory. All slander will be revealed as false before the whole world. All anonymity in quiet faithfulness will be replaced with global fame among the millions of the redeemed. In this letter, God calls us to a kind of heart and a kind of life that makes no sense in this world—joyful, humble willingness to suffer wrong and serve rather than return evil for evil. It makes sense only if we are sustained by the hope of glory. Your Motive and the Devil’s Authority All this leaves us with at least two questions: (1) How can it be loving to be motivated by your own desire for vindication and glorification? Why isn’t that selfishness? (2) Is the Devil really in charge of suffering? When we suffer, is it simply the Devil roaring and clawing and biting? What about God? What’s he doing when the Devil roars? First, how can it be loving to be motivated by your own desire for vindication and glorification? Why isn’t that selfishness? Listen again to 1 Peter 3:9: “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” And 1 Peter 5:6: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.” Peter motivates us to humble ourselves and to bless our enemies by saying, “so that he may exalt you”—that you may obtain a blessing. Why is this not selfishness? How can this be love? I’ll give five reasons, and as we move from one to five, they become increasingly decisive. 1. In the age to come, we will not exalt ourselves. We leave it totally in the hands of God whether he will be pleased to give us that reward. 2. When the reward comes, it will be all of “grace,” not merit. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). God is not paying us a debt. God owes us nothing. It will all be free grace. 3. The exaltation and the glory we want is not over anyone else (unlike James and John when they asked for the highest places over the other apostles). It is an exaltation and a glory out of our misery—out of being maligned and slandered and persecuted. It is vindication that our message has been true. The aim is not to say, “I told you so,” with a sneer. The aim is the establishment of the truth. What we have spoken is true and glorious. These last two are decisive: 4. There is nothing morally inferior or defective about wanting reward for our behavior, provided that the reward is ultimately more of Christ as the supreme joy of our souls. The reason that is not morally inferior but is, in fact, a great virtue is that Christ is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Christ. It is no virtue—and no honor to Christ—to say, I am going to suffer for Christ, and it makes no difference to me whether it leads to knowing and enjoying Christ better. That is not a virtue. That is self-sufficiency cloaked as sacrifice. 5. Finally, it is loving to sacrifice for others with a view to reward, if our aim is that in the sacrifice, we would win others to come with us into the reward. First Peter 2:12 is critical: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” Our motive in returning good for evil is never that we get the reward and they don’t. Our aim is always: I am joyfully willing to suffer in doing good to you as you do me harm so that you might see how satisfying my God is and be drawn with me into the reward of my sacrifice. The aim of Christian suffering with joy is to show the all-surpassing value of Christ and to win as many people as possible with whom to enter into his all-satisfying glory. Grace is not a zero-sum game, as if there is a limited amount, so that if I get some, you get less. It’s the opposite. Your sharing in it through my service enlarges mine. A shared joy is a doubled joy! So when Peter over and over again motivates sacrifice by the promise of eternal glory, he is not ruining love; he is making it possible. He’s empowering it. Now our last question: Is the Devil really in charge of suffering? When we suffer, is it simply the Devil roaring and clawing and biting? What about God? What’s he doing when the Devil roars? Peter writes, “Resist [the devil], firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Pet. 5:9). It’s plain that Peter means that Satan is causing this suffering. Suffering is Satan’s roar. This is exactly what Jesus said in Revelation 2:10 to the church in Smyrna: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” So Satan can throw you in prison and keep you there until you die. And Peter would add that after you have suffered in prison and died, “the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Pet. 5:10). So don’t give up your faith. Trust him unto death. You will be raised from the dead. You will be glorious. But that’s not the whole story, is it? We know it’s not. Satan is not the ultimate authority behind our suffering. Satan caused Job’s suffering, but he had to get God’s permission to do it (Job 1:12; 2:6–7). And Job saw the plan of God behind Satan: “‘Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). Peter has the same theology of God’s sovereignty in our suffering: “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Pet. 4:19) “It is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” (1 Pet. 3:17) “In this [hope] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials [necessary for what?], so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 1:6–7) Yes, Satan roars in our suffering. And his roar is all the louder because he knows he cannot act on his own. He can do no more harm to God’s people than God designs for the refining of the gold of their faith. He roars with anger and frustration that his evil aim to punish God’s elect ends up purifying their faith—the very thing he wants to destroy! He Will Not Fail You So I don’t conclude with a simple formula for when to accept being slandered and when to confront it; when to turn the other cheek; when to endure mistreatment as a believer, and when to rebuke and admonish; when to spank a child, and when to be lenient; when to confront your husband about a shortcoming, or when to forbear; when to endure discrimination against yourself for your faith at work, and when to plead for justice; when to move to a dangerous place for Christ’s sake, and when to leave a place because of danger. Instead of a formula, I conclude with the resounding message of 1 Peter: that you think and feel and act in a way that makes sense only if you are absolutely sure that we will have a great reward in heaven—a way of life that can be explained only by an unshakable, all-satisfying hope beyond this life. It is a way of life, as 1 Peter 3:15 says, that will cause people to ask about the hope that is in you: a joyful, humble willingness to suffer wrong and serve rather than return evil for evil. You know—through the death and resurrection of Christ, God has made you know—that a crown of glory awaits you. You will be exalted at the right time. “God . . . has called you to his eternal glory in Christ,” and, after you have suffered, he “will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Pet. 5:10). You know he will because 1 Peter 5:7 says, “[Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” And in verse 11, he says, “To him be the dominion forever and ever.” Total care and absolute dominion—he will not fail you. He cannot fail you. The glory of your future is absolutely certain. This is the grace of God! Stand firm in it (1 Pet. 5:12). Reflect and Pray Reflect on each question, and then take a moment to speak or write the prayers that grow from those reflections. 1. Reread Dr. Piper’s opening paragraph, about Peter’s call to believers to set their hope on reward beyond this life. Why are we often so slow to follow this call? How has the epistle of 1 Peter helped you to grasp the hope of your inheritance in Christ? 2. Peter calls leaders and all of us to humility. Why is this humility right and good, according to 1 Peter 5? In what ways is this humility utterly countercultural? How can a Christian cultivate such humility? 3. We end the book of 1 Peter with a lion on the prowl but the grace of God abounding to the end. In what ways does 1 Peter 5:10 encourage you to stand firm in the true grace of God? Write a final prayer, incorporating this verse into your words of praise and petition. Think Like an Expositor: Comments from John Piper 1. On the process of preparing to teach 1 Peter 5: In this particular case, I memorized the chapter. I had done that years before, so it was not as time-consuming as it might have been otherwise. I did this partly so that I would have a good grasp of the whole, and partly so that I could model for the women at the conference how important I think Scripture memory is—and that even old people can do it! I also think Scripture has an unusual power when spoken to others eye to eye and mouth to ear, reciting it, rather than eye to page, simply reading. The most crucial thing in my preparation was to see how chapter 5 was part of Peter’s primary emphasis on a way of life that can be enabled and explained only by the certainty of great reward in heaven—namely, a joyful, humble willingness to suffer wrong and serve rather than return evil for evil. I thought it was crucial that this theme be drawn out of chapter 5 and that the several motives of reward be made explicit—the crown (v. 4), more grace (v. 5), exaltation (v. 6), restoration, confirmation, strengthening, and establishment (v. 10). One more thing: good teaching asks questions that may not seem readily obvious at first glance but prove to be important in real life. So I posed the question: How can it be loving to others if we are motivated to love them by a reward for ourselves? I think this kind of question, which does not lie on the surface of the text but begs to be answered just below the surface, tends to make people wake up and listen. 2. On training ourselves to discern and delight in the God-centeredness of such a passage: One of the crucial parts of training our minds to see God-centered reality is to settle the question, What is the ultimate joy and the ultimate evil of life? What is the joy that makes all joys good joys rather than God-competing joys? What is the evil that makes all evils ultimately evil—evil in the eyes of God? My answer to the first question is that God himself is our ultimate joy, and all other joys are joys because they give us something of God. If they don’t, they are evil joys and draw the heart away from God. My answer to the second question is that the ultimate evil is preferring anything more than God. This is what made Adam’s and Eve’s first sin evil. It is what Jeremiah calls evil in Jeremiah 2:13, and it is what Paul described in Romans 1:20–23 as the universal sin of man. If you think your way to the bottom of joy and evil in this way, then every text that touches on joy or evil touches on God. Every text that touches on what is good or evil, joy or sorrow, deals ultimately with God. In this way, virtually every text that touches on what matters to us leads us to God. 3. On one aspect of this text that especially moved and challenged you: Few texts in all the Bible are as precious as the promise from the Creator of the universe that he cares for me. To believe this with all my heart is the great challenge of my life. Of course, I do not deserve this, and so Jesus’s blood is the key to my hope that it could be so. But it is so! He says it! “He cares for you” (v. 7). But Peter says that the great challenge is not whether I feel worthy of that care but whether I am humble enough to receive it. “Humble yourselves . . . casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:6–7). That is the great challenge: Am I humble enough to receive the all-supplying care of God?
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