Hebrews 2:16,17 - A merciful high priest

2:16

Jesus did not die to help angels. The readers would have accepted this without argument, they had just never thought about it. Often we do not realise the absurdity of mindsets that we sometimes have. Jesus was sent to save Abraham’s descendants, not angels. We need to appreciate the focus of it all, which is on man. Note also the reference to Abraham. It is highly unlikely that Paul wrote Hebrews, but Hebrews and Paul’s writings are consistent for they were all inspired by the same God. Jesus came to fulfil the promise given to Abraham.

2:17

Jesus had to be fully human. It is noteworthy that Hebrews emphasises both the deity and greatness of Christ, and His humanity. Jesus was “human in every way”. This is essential for two reasons, and relate to two key aspects of Jesus’ ministry. First He had to be a perfect sacrifice, to provide propitiation for our sins. Jesus represented the whole of humanity, He is the second Adam.  Secondly, He is our high priest, He understands what we experience and is merciful towards us. Jesus is not an “anonymous donor”, He gets involved in our life.

Hebrews 2:14,15 - Sharing our humanity

2:14

We have here an explicit statement of the importance of the humanity of Jesus. We are flesh and blood, so Jesus, our Saviour, shared in our humanity so that He could win the victory for us. The Greek actually says “blood and flesh” rather than “flesh and blood”, thus putting the emphasis on His sacrifice and death. So Jesus broke the power of death, and the power of him who holds the power of death. Hebrews identifies that person as the devil. Now it might strike us as a little odd that the devil has the power of death. However, in Matt 10:28 Jesus tells us not to fear him who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Satan does have some power to use death, and he has been doing so throughout the world for many years, but that death has “lost its sting” (1 Cor 15:55).

2:15

Jesus has broken the power of death that Satan holds, and in doing so frees those (ie us) who were held in slavery by the fear of death. We need to understand what had happened here, and what has not happened. People still die. You and I will die, unless Jesus returns in our lifetime (which He may or may not do), but death no longer holds any fear. Why not? Two reasons are: (i) death is not the end; (ii) we need no longer fear what comes next.

Jesus died, but He was raised to life, never to die again. Death is not the end, it is not the final word. Just as Jesus was raised, so He will raise us. Nor need we fear what comes next. Without Christ we would rightly fear facing judgement, knowing what the verdict would be. But through the cross we are justified, declared innocent.

There is no longer any reason for the believer to fear death.

Hebrews 2:11-13 - Brothers

2:11

We are of the same family. Jesus makes us holy, and we are the ones who are made holy, and we are of the same family. We need to realise how closely related to Jesus we are. So Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers. The humanity of Jesus, the incarnation, has many consequences. One, of course, is it is essential to His being a valid sacrifice for our sins. But another is the exalted position we have as Christians. We do not realise just how wonderful a human being who lives in perfect trust, love and obedience to God is. In Jesus we see what such a person is like, and we also see what we are becoming, what God is making us into (Rom 8:29).

2:12,13

We now get another few quotes to back things up from Psalm 22:22, and Isaiah 8:17,18. Psalm 22 is a well  recognised Messianic Psalm and tells of the suffering servant who is vindicated. The Messiah proclaims the glory of God to us, we then put our trust in Him, and then He presents us to God. In isaiah 8:18 is speaking about Isaiah and his children, and goes on to say “We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty”. Jesus stands with us before God and we “signs and symbols”  to the world of God’s salvation.

Hebrews 2:9,10 - We see Jesus

2:9
So how do we know everything will one day be subject to us (and this is the consistent teaching of the New Testament)? We see Jesus. Just as we all died in Adam, all shared in the consequences of his sin, we all live in Christ if we believe. This is the concept of federal headship. Jesus was made lower than the angels when He came to earth as a man. Now He has been exalted and is crowned with glory and honour (hence taking 2:8 as “them”). He suffered death and tasted death for all of us. He died the death we should have died. Jesus’s going to the cross was an act of grace on God’s part. Sometimes people paint the cross as though it is Jesus appeasing a reluctant God. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Father and Son were working together from the very beginning.

2:10
God’s purpose is to bring many sons to glory. We are adopted into God’s family and we have the status of sons.  When it speaks of making perfect it is not implying that Jesus was once not perfect, rather it means He is made complete. Jesus entered time, so things had to be executed in time. “It is fitting”. We tend to miss the significance of Jesus’ suffering, of how ridiculous or offensive this can seem to some. In NT times the Jews could not grasp the point that the Messiah should die. Today Muslims have the same problem, so they deny that Jesus did actually die. We have a Messiah who suffered, and this is the only way He could provide salvation, and it is absolutely right that He should do so. 

Hebrews 2:5-8 - What is man?

2:5

The writer continues drawing out the vast distinction between angels and Jesus. The world to come has not been subjected to angels. There are various ideas about precisely what the “world to come” means. It could be the afterlife, but is more likely to be the new order to be inaugurated when Jesus returns. The Greek word used here for “world” is not kosmos but oikumene from which we get our word economy and refers to the operation of the world and its inhabitants. In the world to come it is Jesus who will “call the shots” not angels. We need to have a clear picture of the place of angels.

2:6-8

The writer then quotes Psalm 8:4-6, which we referred to earlier. Here the TNIV translation reads appallingly with its “inclusive” language. The most recent NIV version does a better job, but there is nothing wrong with non-inclusive translations “what is man that you are mindful of him?”. Yes it does refer to men and women, but a slavish attempt to always use inclusive language really doesn’t help matters sometimes.

Anyway, let's focus on the passage! The Psalmist is amazed at the high status that God gives to man. See how atheist thinking denigrates man, leading to the conclusion that we are no different than animals. We are different from animals, we are more than souped up chimpanzees. How do we know this? Two things. Above all else God has told us, right at the beginning of Genesis. We are the only creatures made in His image. Secondly there is the evidence that is all around us (cf Rom 1:20). Right from the beginning we were meant to have dominion, but because of sin we lost that dominion and started becoming subject to other things. In Christ that position is restored. At present we do not see everything subject to them or him. It could refer to man in general or Christ in particular. Either is possible. We certainly do not see everything subject to us yet! Everything is subject to Christ, but we do not see this yet in an obvious way. However, I think “them” fits the flow of this section better than Jesus does.

Hebrews 2:4 - Signs and Wonders

2:4

With the Law God testified to it with signs and wonders. There were the miracles when He brought them out of Egypt: the plagues on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea. There was smoke on Mount Sinai. Jesus came and performed many signs and wonders, and the apostles did the same, as we read in Acts. Moreover He gave gifts of the Holy Spirit to people. Note that the Greek word for gifts here is merismoi rather than charismata. The emphasis is on the Holy Spirit distributing the gifts.

The point that the writer is making is that this message needs to be treated with all seriousness. It has everything that the Law had, but to a much greater degree. The Law was mediated by angels, the gospel was mediated by the Son. The Law had signs and wonders at its inception, so does the gospel. These miracles were more widespread, and God has distributed gifts more widely, not just to a few. So we all need to take the gospel seriously.

Grace for Life - sermon on how the grace of God works in our lives

Grace for Life - sermon on how the grace of God works in our lives

Hebrews 2:1-3 - How shall we escape?

2:1

The “therefore” implies that this follows on from the previous chapter. We also get one of the several warnings, some of them quite severe, that are a feature of Hebrews. Some of the readers evidently were not treating the message as seriously as they should, they were not paying careful attention. The gospel is not a take it or leave it matter, it is not something that we can take if we like but it doesn’t really matter. It is a matter of eternal life or eternal death. The message is also so completely different from our culture. There is a tendency to interpret things in the light of our culture. This can be alright up to a point, but we need to recognise that there comes a point where the gospel starts questioning and challenging our cultural thinking. The gospel demands that we live our whole life in the light of the gospel.

2:2,3

The Law was believed by the Jews to have been mediated by angels (Acts 7:38; Gal 3:19). The readers knew how serious the Law was, every part of it was important, every part of it had to be observed. So the gospel which was given to us by the Son of God Himself is all the more important, and it is all the more vital that we obey the gospel. If we ignore the gospel there will be a great price to pay. There has always been a tendency to think that because the gospel is about forgiveness it doesn’t really matter if we sin, or we don’t really need to think too hard about it. Nothing could be further from the truth. We need to take the gospel very seriously. The gospel was given by the Lord, and confirmed by the apostles, eyewitnesses of the events and ones who had heard the Lord.

Hebrews 1:13,14 - Ministering spirits

1:13

Now we come to Psalm 110, and the writer is using it in the same manner that Jesus used it (as pointed out in my comments on 1:10-12). So we need have no qualms whatsoever in applying this to Jesus, for Jesus Himself did the very same. The consistent message in the Old Testament is that the Messiah is Lord, He is God,He is Lord of all.

1:14

Having refuted any wrong notions of angels the writer now gives angels their proper place. “They are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” If we think about this it is quite amazing really, even more so if we think a little about the underlying assumptions. Angels are powerful, they are spiritual beings, but their purpose is to serve us. Notice that this puts us on a different level to the angels. Psalm 8 says precisely this. We are currently “lower” than the angels, but we were made to rule over the works of God’s hands. We were created in the image of God. We were created to have dominion and to be fruitful (Gen 1:28). We should appreciate who we are and what we are to become. If ever we are tempted to worship angels then we are fools.

Hebrews 1:10-12 - Septuagint or Masoretic?

Now the writer quotes from Psalm 102:25-27. In the Hebrew version these verses are addressed to God, so it seems that the writer is using the principle that any words applied to God can be applied to Christ. However, in the Septuagint version these words are applied to “some anonymous figure”. This figure is Christ. Now is this a purely random use or interpretation of Scripture? Well Jesus did the same sort of thing when speaking about Psalm 110 in Matt 22:44-46 talking about “the Lord said to my Lord”, and Jesus said it was speaking about Him. So the writer of Hebrews is treating this passage in the same way that Jesus treated Psalm 110. That still leaves the question of the Septuagint, which the New Testament most often uses as its “version of the Bible”, and the writer of Hebrews does almost entirely. So is the New Testament using a reliable “version”. Well I am no expert in this area, so the following are only thoughts I have picked up from here and there and what follows should be treated with some caution.

The original Hebrew was written with no vowels. The earliest Hebrew version that had vowels that we have is called the Masoretic text and comes from the 9th century AD.The Septuagint was a translation of the non-vowel version and is a good translation, and was produced about one thousand years prior to the Masoretic text. So it seems possible that the Septuagint is actually a more reliable text than the Masoretic, or at least that the NT use of the Septuagint is perfectly justifiable.

So the writer of Hebrews is using the version of the Old Testament that his readers were familiar with, and is using it in a consistent manner.

Hebrews 1:6-9 - Flames of fire

1:6

The superiority of Jesus, and His relationship to angels is brought out with a quote from Deut 32:43, part of the Song of Moses. Now the quote is actually from the Septuagint or Dead Seas Scrolls, which have the “and let his angels worship him”.

Firstborn is used in the sense of superiority. The firstborn had first place in terms of inheritance.

1:7

The writer’s argument is not that angels don’t matter or are of no importance.  Ps 104:4 says God makes them his messengers. They are like flames of fires, they are indeed glorious in many ways, but they are His servants. This will now be contrasted with what God says about the Son. Now the Son was a servant, He said He came to serve (Matt 20:28), but He is much more than a servant.

1:8,9

We now have Psalm 45:6,7. This psalm was originally written for the king, but no king of Israel ever fulfilled the words of this psalm, so they are taken as looking ahead to the Messiah. The Messiah has an everlasting kingdom, and He rules it with a sceptre of righteousness. Because of the Messiah’s obedience, His righteousness and hatred of wickedness, the Lord has exalted Him above all others (Phil 2:9). We need to realise what the writer is doing here. He is contrasting what the Bible says about angels, and what it says about the Messiah, and the Messiah is infinitely superior to angels. The Messiah is the Son of God, He is chosen to rule the everlasting kingdom. God never said anything like this about angels. So people need to base their understanding of angels on what the Bible says. Even more so, we need to base our understanding of who Jesus is on what the Bible says about Him.

Hebrews 1:5 - You are my Son

The writer now backs up his claims with various Old Testament quotes, mostly from the Psalms. Psalms plays a big part in Hebrews. There are some who warn against basing theology on experience, and there is obvious merit in these warnings, but at the same time we need to realise that a lot of New Testament theology is based upon Psalms, some of the most “experiential” material in the Old Testament.

The first quote is from Psalm 2:7. Verse 2 of that Psalm talks of the Lord’s anointed. In the original context this would refer to the king, but a common pattern in Old Testament prophecy is that it has an immediate application (ie to the temporal situation in Israel) and a greater application (ie pointing forward to the Messiah). There was partial fulfilment of things in King David, Solomon’s building of the temple, the return from Babylon etc, but the Jews were very well aware that these could not be the final fulfilment (David died, Solomon’s temple was destroyed, the return from Babylon did not usher in a new kingdom), there must be something greater in view.

“Today I have become your father” does not mean that there was a time when God was not the Father of the Son. The emphasis of the writer is on the relationship between God and the Messiah, God and the Messiah are Father and Son, and he backs this up with further quotes from 2 Sam 7:14 and 1 hron 17:13. 2 Sam 7 goes on to say “when he does wrong ..” Now Jesus never did wrong, and later in Hebrews this is stated explicitly, so we need to realise how the writer is using the OT. He is focusing on the one point, the relationship. This is in contrast to that between God and angels, where sonship is never spoken of.  Interestingly, we are also spoken of as sons, and we are “greater” than angels in that respect.

Hebrews 1:3,4 - The radiance of God's glory

1:3

After Moses had been with the Lord he had to veil his face (2 Cor 3:7; Ex 34:29-35). Jesus actually is the radiance of God’s glory, not just a reflection of it. Moses spoke God’s word, passed on His commands, Jesus is the exact representation of His being. When we see Jesus we see exactly who God is. Now this is quite amazing. It has implications for our perception of God, and also for our perception of ourselves. If anybody wants to know who God is or what He is like then they need to know Jesus. But think also the implications for what humanity is, if God revealed Himself completely through a man. Compare it also with the secular view of humanity as no different than any other animal. And this is consistent with the whole of the God’s revelation in the Bible, for right at the beginning He declared that we were made in His image (Gen 1:27). Moreover, Jesus is not just the representation of His being, He actually is God. He sustains the universe by His powerful word. He provided purification for our sins and then sat down at the right hand of the “Majesty in Heaven”. No Levitical priest could say this.

1:4

Why the sudden reference to angels? The Jews tended to revere angels, considering them to be the mediators of the Law (Heb 2:2). Colossians also warns against having too high an opinion of angels (Col 3:18). Even today in charismatic circles charlatans can gain a hearing by claiming to have had visitations from angels. Now angels are real and they play an important role in God’s economy, but compared to Jesus they are nothing. Jesus is vastly superior to the angels, and He has been given a name, (Son) vastly superior to theirs. The writer will expand on this in the following verses.

Hebrews 1:1,2 - In these last days

1:1

Verses 1-4 form a single sentence in Greek. “our ancestors” implies that the letter was sent to Jewish Christians and what the writer is doing is seeking to show how Christ is the fulfilment of all that had gone before. There is an acknowledgement that God has spoken to the nation Israel in the past, there is no denial of the Old Testament. There have always been some who see the New Testament as being in contradiction to the Old, any view based on this premise is inevitably mistaken. God spoke through the prophets at many times and in various ways. When the Bible speaks of prophets it does not limit itself to people like Elijah or Isaiah, but includes the likes of Moses and David. God had spoken in various ways. He spoke audibly on some occasions, He spoke through His intervention in history, He spoke through the utterances of the prophets.

1:2

But now something radically different had happened. In “these last days”. This is in contrast to the long time period and many ways in which God had spoken in the past. Before He had spoken through the prophets, ie through people who were His instruments. Now He has spoken through His Son. This is a direct personal revelation. “He has spoken to us”, the word is personal and directed to us. Jesus is the heir of all things, and the creator of all things. He is radically different from all the prophets. So right at the start we have a high Christology, and this and the next verse are reminiscent of Colossians 1:15-23. Notice how great Christ is, and how it is all related back to God. God appointed the Son heir of all, and God created through the Son. As Jesus said in John 5:19 He only does what He sees the Father doing.

Hebrews - Introduction (2)

Hebrews is important in understanding how the Old and New Testaments fit together. It focuses on the absolute supremacy of Christ, in fact the book is all about Jesus from beginning to end. It helps us to understand the nature of Christ’s priesthood, and the importance and effect of His sacrifice. At the same time as extolling the greatness of Christ, the book stresses the humanity of Christ and is crucial to understanding the incarnation and the trinity. Then of course there is the importance of faith.  It also contains several severe warnings.

The writer has a clear interest in the Old Testament, and in particular with the first five books, the Pentateuch. This is a difference with Paul, and indeed with Peter, who seem more interested in the relation of Christ to the prophets. Moreover, the writer of Hebrews is concerned with the Levitical details of the sacrifices, tabernacle etc, rather than contemporary temple practice. Jewish practice had inevitably deviated from the intentions of the Old Testament. Likewise it is always good for us to check our beliefs and practices from time to time so we can correct areas where we have allowed traditions and contemporary practices to deviate us from God’s original intentions.

However, the writer is influenced not just by the Pentateuch, Psalms and Jeremiah 31 play a big role. In fact it is interesting how important the Psalms are in establishing theology. This is true of Jesus (Matt 22:44), Paul (Romans 3:10-18; 4:7,8) and Hebrews (1:5-7; 2:5-9; 3:7-4:13; 4:14-7:28 etc). Now the Psalms are expressions of the heart of the psalmist, yet deep theological truths are revealed in them as well.

The focus is on Jesus throughout. His high-priestly role, His role in creation, His supreme once-for-all sacrifice, but also His humanity. The writer seems to be very aware of the life that Jesus lived. He is also deeply concerned with our sanctification and our maturing as believers. Hebrews is an intensely practical book. It is rooted in history, rooted in the Old Testament, rooted in the context of its time, and rooted above all in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews - Introduction (1)

Hebrews is an enigmatic book. We don’t know who wrote it, we don’t know who it was sent to. It’s subject matter is rather different than the other letters in the New Testament, though entirely consistent with them. For most people there are individual verses of Hebrews that they are familiar with, such as Heb 4:12; 4:15,16; 6:19, along with the famous chapter 11 on the heroes of faith, and chapter 12 on God disciplining His children. Then there is the section in this enigmatic book on that enigmatic character Melchizedek, and the main focus of the book is on how the old covenant foreshadowed the new, and how the gospel completely supersedes the old covenant. Hebrews helps us understand the Old Testament.

As always, any insight or assistance I might give is built upon the work of many others. My main source will be:

Hebrews - Tyndale New Testament Commentary, D Guthrie (1983)

The reason we don’t know who wrote it nor who it was sent to is that the letter doesn’t tell us. So why is it included in the New Testament? Well it was referred to from very early times, the earliest record being that of Clement of Rome. It was also included in early collections of the New Testament books, and was grouped with Paul’s letters. This is why some think that Paul wrote it, though that view is not held by many these days. The reasons for doubting Pauline authorship are that in his other letters the personal nature of the letter and his authorship are very clear, in Hebrews there is no mention at all. The subject matter and style are very different from (though consistent with) Paul’s letters.

Tertullian contains quotes from “an epistle to the Hebrews under the name of Barnabas”. Martin Luther suggested that Apollos wrote it. The reasoning is that Apollos was an intellectual Jewish Christian, and so would have been capable of writing the letter. There have been various other suggestions as to the authorship. As Origen said “God alone knows the truth of the matter”.

There have been two main suggestions as to the destination, Palestine and Rome. Palestine was proposed because of the emphasis on the Jewish religion in the letter, but the Greek is of a high standard, and there is no mention of the temple. Rome was the first place where the letter is referred to, by Clement. Also it took a long time for the Western church to ascribe the letter to Paul and that may be because in earlier years people knew Paul had not written it. However, Rome is still just a guess. Whatever the case, the readers were probably Jewish Christians, or at least Christians who were questioning how the gospel fitted in with the Old Testament.

The question of the date is somewhat easier to deal with. It is almost certain to have been prior to AD 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem, otherwise there would surely have been mention of this. For the place of the sacrifice is a key theme in Hebrews, and the sacrifices stopped after the destruction of Jerusalem.

The place of Hebrews in the canon of scripture was never in doubt in the eastern church, but it did take longer for it to be fully recognised in the West.

1 Peter 5:12-14 - True grace

5:12

The Greek actually says Silvanus rather than Silas, Silvanus is a variant of Silas. This sentence implies that Silas delivered the letter. Peter declares that the content of the letter is the “true grace of God” and exhorts them to stand firm in it. It is very easy to misunderstand the grace of God. Examples include:

• God will definitely make me rich (financially)
• I can do what I like and get away with it
• God will give me an easy life

No doubt you can think of others. The truth is rather different. The gospel is certainly not about carrying on sinning but being forgiven, and there is no promise of an easy life, rather following Christ is likely to involve times of cost and suffering. But in the midst of these things we will find the grace of God enabling us to be more than conquerors.

5:13,14

Babylon here is probably a reference to Rome, as it was in Revelation. In the Old Testament Babylon was for a time the all dominant power, and for a time the Israelites were exiles in Babylon. In Peter’s day Rome was the dominant power. Mark is probably John Mark who was a companion of Paul and Barnabas, and may be the person who wrote Mark’s gospel. “my son” indicates a closeness between Peter and Mark, and Mark’s gospel is generally thought to have been written with considerable input from Peter.

1 Peter 5:9-11 - Resisting the devil

5:9

We are to resist the devil. There is no point praying that the devil will never attack us, God is not going to answer that prayer, rather His way is that we overcome the devil. We do so by standing firm in the faith. When we are attacked one of the tactics of the enemy is to make us think we are the only one going through whatever struggle we are enduring. This is not true, believers all over the world are going through similar struggles. So we stand firm and we stand together.

5:10,11

Why can we be confident of victory? First because the God of all grace is for us. One of the things that happens in trials is that they expose our weaknesses and sinfulness. That can leave us feeling unworthy and wondering how a holy God could ever want to help us, weak and sinful as we are. The reason is that He is the God of all grace, of undeserved favour.

Then we need to remember the destiny to which He has called us, and that is to His eternal glory in Christ. This will happen after we have suffered for a little while. Trials and suffering are a normal part of the Christian life. But then He Himself will restore us and make us strong, firm and steadfast. Notice the personal involvement of God. The creator of the universe is personally concerned about you and me, and His purpose is to make us strong.

All glory and power belongs to the Lord, not to whatever, or whoever, is opposing us.

1 Peter 5:7,8 - Sober minded

5:7

As humans we have a tendency to exalt ourselves, we also have a tendency to anxiety. Both of these characteristics are part of our fallen condition. Just as we deal with pride/self-exaltation by trusting in the Lord and submitting to Him, so we do exactly the same with anxiety. We cast our anxiety on to Him, and we do this because He cares for us. The world tries to tell us that we are on our own, that we have to look after number one. This is why we get anxious, it is also why we try to exalt ourselves. The truth is that God actively cares for us. We need to learn to live in the light of this truth.

5:8

We are to be alert and sober minded. Why? Because the devil seeks to devour us. We need to be aware of the reality of the devil, we also need to be aware that we can overcome him, and part of the way of doing that is being alert and sober minded. Christian common sense is an exceedingly powerful spiritual weapon!

There are some who have preached that the devil prowls like a lion, but it is only like a lion and he doesn’t really have any teeth. This is nonsense and is nothing more than a cheap preaching point. Ask the Christian victims of Isis whether or not the devil has any teeth! The devil is a defeated enemy, and one we can overcome, but we need a sober minded approach in order to do so.

1 Peter 5:5,6 - Submission and humility

5:5

“In the same way ...” How is this the “same way” as Peter is comparing young people to elders? The common element is humility. All of us are prone to be full of ourselves, to exalt ourselves. Those in leadership can become proud and boastful of their position. Young people can think they know it all and look down on their elders. All of us need to humble ourselves before God, and part of that, or the proof that we actually have humbled ourselves, is that we submit to one another. So young people are to show respect for elders and to submit to them. So all of us are to clothe ourselves with humility towards one another. Peter then quotes from Proverbs 3:34. God’s attitude is to favour the humble and to oppose the proud. Again the determining factor in our lives is who has the last word, and it is God who does so. We are to live our lives in that light.

5:6

So we are to humble ourselves under “God’s mighty hand”. God is all powerful and He exercises power. This is a fundamental truth, but one that we so easily forget or neglect. And we humble ourselves so that He may lift us up in due time. God’s plan is actually to exalt us. Now we can react against this thinking it is proud thinking, but this is because we forget that what we see around us in rebellious man. In Jesus we see someone who humbled Himself before God, even to the point of death, and He was exalted by the Father. When we are exalted by God in His time and in His way we will not be proud and boastful, rather we will be Christlike servants and sons.

1 Peter 5:3,4 - Receiving a crown of glory

5:3

There is to be authority in the church, but leaders are not to “lord it over” the flock. Ie leaders are not to strut about glorying in their authority. Instead they are to treat the people with respect and honour, and we lead mostly by example. This echoes the words of Jesus in Matthew 20:25-28. Now this does not mean leaders never exert authority, there are numerous examples in Acts and in the letters of Paul and others giving very clear instructions and correction. Infact part of the reason much of the church is in a poor shape is the lack of authority, but it needs to be done in the right way and with the right attitude.

5:4

The human approach is to seek glory now, to seek the approval and praise of men. The godly approach is to seek God’s approval and His praise. All our life needs to be governed by the fact that Jesus is Lord of All, and that one day He will return and all, including us, will have to give an account to Him. We are to live our lives looking forward to receiving a favourable report on that day. This is not earning our salvation, rather it is a fruit of our salvation. The approval of men is at best fleeting, and will certainly be of no account when we die. But the glory that Jesus gives lasts forever.

1 Peter 5:1,2 - Be shepherds

5:1

Now Peter turns to more general matters of everyday life and church life. At the start of the letter Peter had identified himself as an apostle, now he identifies himself as an elder. Peter did not consider his being an apostle to make him superior to other Christians. Peter is addressing the elders as one of them. He was also a witness of Christ’s sufferings. Any theology that downplays Christ’s sufferings is seriously in error, and in our experiential knowledge of Christ, sharing in His sufferings is a vital component. We also need to remember that we will share in His glory. We need to hold the suffering and the glory in balance. Focusing on one at the expense of the other will lead to serious error.

5:2

Remember that Jesus told Peter to look after the sheep (John 21:15-19). Peter passes this command on to the elders. The job of an elder is to feed the sheep, to be a shepherd. Elders are to watch over them. This includes looking out for danger, and if the sheep are starting to stray the shepherd needs to bring them back to Christ’s way. The shepherd also guides the sheep to good pasture (Ps 23). The Elder is to serve as a willing servant, not under compulsion, and definitely not pursuing dishonest gain. Now it is perfectly right and proper that some who serve in the church should be paid, and paid a reasonable amount, but if greed starts to take a hold then that person is in a very bad place.

1 Peter 4:18,19 - Our faithful Creator

4:18

Peter then quotes from Prov 11:31.  When we are forgiven we are not “let off”. The gospel is about ending the rebellion, we need to be forgiven, justified because of all our sins, but we also need to be transformed. God’s purpose is that we become Christlike (Rom 8:29), so He will work in our lives to bring this about and this work will often be painful. If this is true of us, what are the prospects for the unsaved? The notion of a God who will let everyone into heaven, send no one to hell, is completely without foundation in Scripture. Salvation is a much more serious business than that.

4:19

This verse sums up Peter’s instructions on dealing with difficult times. First suffering can be according to God’s will. If we find ourselves in this situation we should commit ourselves to our faithful Creator. God knows exactly what He is doing and we can trust Him. Note also the implication that God is actively involved in creation right now. And the primary way in which we trust Him is by continuing to do good. When going through hard times or persecutions our emotions can be all over the place, so much so that we don’t know if we are trusting God or not. The proof that we actually are trusting Him is if we continue to seek to live in His ways.

1 Peter 4:16,17 -Do not be ashamed

4:16

The world will seek to heap shame on Christians. We saw it doing this in the whole same-sex marriage debate. However, if we are being faithful to Christ and His word then we should not be ashamed. Instead we should praise the Lord that we bear His name. There is no greater honour than to bear the name of Jesus. And we also need to remember that Jesus said He will acknowledge those who acknowledge Him, but deny those who deny Him.

4:17

“It is time for judgement to begin with the house of God”. Most events and actions have several meanings and purposes to them. One may be primary, but there will be other secondary ones as well. One mistake we can make is to focus only on the primary purpose, a more serious mistake is to consider a secondary purpose to be the primary purpose. The best example of this is the cross. The primary purpose of the cross is Christ paying the price for our sins, the atoning nature of His sacrifice. But this is not the only purpose. The cross is an example to us, the cross involves healing, etc, but if we make any of these other purposes the primary one we will start to be in error. So the persecution of the church is first a reflection or fruit of the world’s hatred of Christ, but that is not the whole story. God uses persecution to purify the church, just as He uses difficult times in our lives to teach us things, to correct and transform our lives. Moreover, if judgement begins with those who actually have repented and believed, how much more will judgement one day come on those who do not obey the gospel?

Note the phrase “obey the gospel”. We too often talk of people making a choice regarding the gospel. Yes it is a choice, but it is a choice of whether or not to obey God, and making the wrong choice has terrible consequences.

1 Peter 4:14,15 - The right kind of suffering

4:14

In Matthew 5:11,12 Jesus said we are blessed when we are persecuted for His sake. Peter is reiterating these words. He then goes on to say why we are blessed, it is because the “Spirit of glory and of God rests on us”. We were created to live in unity with the Lord. The world has rebelled against the Lord (and we were part of that rebellion), but when we repent and turn to Christ we end our rebellion. We are in Christ. So the world in its continued rebellion persecutes us because it recognises the spirit of God in us. It is far better to be on “God’s side” and persecuted, than to be on the world’s side and liked.

4:15

Now this does not mean that all suffering is good or blessed. And it does not mean that every time we suffer it is because of Christ. We suffer often enough because of our own stupidity, and sometimes even because we have done wrong. These can be serious wrongs (thief or criminal) or noncriminal wrongs (a meddler). We should not and must not use being a Christian as an excuse for suffering in this way. If we suffer because of wrong that we do, or because of our foolishness, we need to repent and mend our ways.

1 Peter 4:12,13 - No surprise there, then

4:12

Peter now returns to the question of suffering for Christ. In the previous few verses he has been talking about more “normal” things. Even in the midst of persecution we will need to know how to live “normal” life. But there will be times when “fiery trials” come upon us. Persecution is normal. For a long time Christianity has been respected in society, but this is no longer the case in the West. It has moved from being ignored, to being derided and in many ways legislated against. We now live in more normal times! So we need to take encouragement from the Bible and its teaching. Nothing unusual is happening in our society, nothing that God has not equipped us for.

4:13

Instead of being surprised or dismayed, we are to rejoice because we are sharing in Christ’s sufferings, we are living in fellowship with Him. There are three key reasons to rejoice. The first is the one just mentioned, our fellowship with Jesus. In the midst of suffering He will draw closer to us, we will know Him better than we do now. Secondly, while our society descends into chaos and madness we have the word of life, and God will work through us to rescue some, maybe large numbers, may be relatively small numbers, but He will work through is to speak to the world. Finally, Christ will return in glory and on that day we will be overjoyed beyond measure if we have held true to the faith.

1 Peter 4:11 - Speaking the words of God

So if we speak we should speak as one speaking the very words of God. Now some might think this boastful, but done properly it is not. Whether we are preaching, teaching, evangelising or prophesying we should have two attitudes. On the one hand we should know the great responsibility we have and do all we can to ensure that what we say is in line with the word of God. On the other hand we should have a confidence and a humility that if we are walking in faith then God will work through us. If a preacher is not speaking the words of God why should anyone bother listening to him?

If we serve we serve in the strength that God gives, so that He may be praised. Do you see what is going on here? Whether speaking or serving we do so in God’s strength. It is not just about you or me, it is about you, me and God. We work together with the Lord, and all for His glory.

The glory and the power belong to the Lord. You can sense the outburst of joy in Peter as he writes this bit. There is a joy beyond all joys when we know we are working together with the Lord, in fellowship and harmony with Him, and His power and love flowing through us.