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.