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.

1 Peter 4:9,10 - Using gifts

4:9

Hospitality is another trait that receives mention in the Bible, eg Titus 1:8, 1 Tim 3:2, Heb 13:2. It is an important qualification for leadership in the church, and the writer of Hebrews says some have entertained angels by showing hospitality, a reference to what Abraham did. We are to do this without grumbling. There can be an over protectiveness about our privacy, or our own time. We need a change of heart. At the same time we also need to remember that Jesus sought times of solitude with His Father. We too need to have times alone with the Father, and also to devote time to our immediate family. We need to have a balance.

4:10

Natural man, and the way of the world, is to be self-centred. The Christian way is to be God centred and other people centred. The gifts we have, whether they be skills and abilities or resources, are to be used to serve others, not to just for our benefit. If I have a gift it has not been given to me so that I can make a name for myself, but so I can serve God and others. Notice also the word gift, it implies that it was given to me. We know that all the abilities we have were not created by us, they were given to us by God. Now we have a responsibility to nurture, develop and use them, and we see here how God works. We are completely dependent upon Him for everything, but then He gives us responsibility and freedom in using the things He gives to us. So we are to live as faithful stewards of God’s gifts. This is a vital part of our world view.

1 Peter 4:7,8 - The end of all things

4:7

Peter then points them to the importance of the last day. “The end of all things is near”. Now, of course, this was written two thousand years ago, so in one sense the end of all things was not near. However, for any individual the end is near. This life is temporary, and in the context of eternity a very short time. But this does not mean that this life does not matter, quite the opposite. Instead it means that it matters all the more how we live this life. We are to be alert and sober minded, so that we may pray. The view that this life is all there is is a mistaken view, and leads to a wrong approach to life (Is 22:13). Knowing that there is a judge, that all will have to give an account, that Jesus is coming back as Lord of all, means we have a right view of life. And it will lead us to pray all the more earnestly.

4:8

Jesus stressed the importance of love (John 13:35), Paul stressed the importance of love (1 Cor 13), John did (1 John 4:20), and Peter does do here. Now the love the Bible speaks of is much more than mere affection or sentimental love. We are to love each other deeply, having a real concern for each other's deepest needs, and a concern showing itself in action.

“Love covers a multitude of sins”. This does not mean we can do whatever we like as long as it is done in love, love overcomes sins. None of us is perfect, and if we adopt a legalistic approach we will never get anywhere, there will always be some reason for objecting to someone or for feeling aggrieved about something or other. But a true love for one another will enable us to overcome all these niggles, and the more serious failings as well.

1 Peter 4:4-6 - Wrong behaviour

4:4

When we live differently people will notice. We are to preach the gospel with our lives and with words, the two go together. The reaction at times may not be pleasant. If a new convert turns away from debauched behaviour it will surprise people, and they may feel convicted for it calls into question the way they live. The initial response may be to heap abuse on us. Now if we have been Christians for a long time there may come times when at work, or in some other context, our refusal to go along with a particular course of action may bring criticism or worse. We need to understand why this is, and to respond with quiet determination.

4:5

We also need to understand those who engage in wrong behaviour will have to give an account to God, the one who judges the living and the dead. We need to understand that while we are saved by grace, receiving complete forgiveness for all our sins, past, present and future, this does not mean that it doesn’t matter how we live. How we live, and how the world lives, manifestly does matter.

4:6

This is another verse that is a little difficult to interpret. There are some who take it as meaning that people are given a second chance to accept Christ after they die, but this has to be rejected as it goes against the whole teaching of Scripture. More likely Peter is talking about those who have died. Some may have asked, what was the point in believing if they died anyway? So what Peter is saying is that everyone is subject to physical death, this is part of the judgement upon all humanity as a consequence of our sin. But we are alive in regard of the Spirit. This has an effect now in the way that we live, and has an effect after we die in that we will be raised to new life on the last day.

1 Peter 4:1-3 - Since Christ suffered

4:1,2

If we suffer in this life then we are no different than Jesus. In John 15:20 Jesus said no servant is greater than his master, and if they persecuted Him, which they did, they will also persecute us. So we are to have the same approach as Jesus did.

We then get another difficult phrase, “whoever suffers in the body is done with sin”. The most probable meaning is that if we are willing to suffer with Christ it shows that we are no longer living for ourselves but are living for God. In fact verse 2 would seem to imply that this is the intended meaning. For there Peter explicitly talks about living not in order to satisfy earthly desires, but living to do the will of God. In Romans 8 Paul speaks about living by the Spirit not the flesh. This is part of what it means. We are no longer governed by earthly desires, instead we are governed by doing the will of God. This is fundamental to the new life in Christ.

4:3

In the past the Christians had lived as other pagans did, with a list of various sins then presented. Some had indulged in a pretty debauched life. When the church is working it will attract people from all sorts of backgrounds, and when people come to Christ their lives and lifestyles will start to change. A debauched life is not a good life, it is not a fun life. Rather it is a destructive life. We should no longer have any desire to live our old lives.

1 Peter 3:21,22 - Baptism

3:21

We now move onto somewhat safer ground as Peter draws an analogy between baptism and the ark. Both involve lots of water (unless you believe in baptism by sprinkling :-)), and in both cases the waters represent judgement. In Noah’s day it was God’s judgement upon mankind. With Christ it is again God’s judgement upon mankind, but this time the judgement was taken by Jesus on the cross. The cross sees safely through judgement by providing our justification. It is not the physical washing that matters (this is important because there were various religious rituals around that involved physical washing), but the cleansing of our conscience. On the cross our guilt was faced up to completely, nothing was hidden, and the blood of Jesus provides perfect atonement for our sins. It is the resurrection that proves that Christ’s death was sufficient to pay the full price of our guilt.

3:22

Jesus is now in heaven at the right hand of God. And all angels and authorities and powers are subjected to Him. This matters because it means we have nothing to fear at all. Jesus, the One on whom we are depending on for our justification, is at the right hand of the Father. We can be sure that the Father listens to Him. Moreover, we need fear no other power, for every other power has been subjected to Jesus. Jesus has the last word!

1 Peter 3:19,20 - I wish these verses weren’t there!

3:19,20

There are one or two occasions when you wish a verse or two wasn’t in the Bible. Not because it convicts you of sin, in that case it is good that they are there, and sooner we repent the better, but because it seems to add nothing to understanding except confusion. At the same time they allow people to make idle speculations about nothing at all. Verses 19 and 20 fall into that category. However, these verses must be there for a good reason, so let’s see if we can go someway to discovering what that reason is.

Let’s look first the spirits in prison. The Greek term can refer to human spirits or angels. One interpretation is that the “spirits” are the human spirits of those who  were not saved in Noah’s day, and Jesus preached to them through Noah. Now in its favour this has the advantage that it draws an analogy between today and the time of Noah. The gospel is preached, but some reject it, or pay no attention. God is waiting patiently, but judgement will eventually come. So for Peter’s hearers there is explanation of why God is allowing them to go through difficult times. Now this interpretation is consistent with the rest of Scripture, indeed with other things that Peter himself says, but it doesn’t really explain the “imprisoned spirits” bit, unless we take people who reject the gospel as having imprisoned spirits.

Another alternative is that the spirits are spirits of fallen angels, and Christ’s preaching to them is a proclamation of His victory to them. This is all very good, but seems to have limited practical relevance, apart from the victory over the demons.

A third interpretation is that Christ is offering a second chance to those who have died without coming to faith. This has very little to commend it, and goes against general Biblical teaching.

So the first is the best interpretation, in my view, but one still feels that one is missing something.

1 Peter 3:18 - Made alive

3:18

Suffering when we don’t deserve it seems a ridiculous thing to do. So what is Peter’s answer to this? It is to look at Jesus and what He achieved. This is how God’s plans work. There is an enormous difference between any suffering we go through and what Christ endured, but there are also enormous similarities. We need to understand the differences and the similarities. The fundamental difference is that Christ died for our sins, He took our sins upon Himself and paid the price, suffered the punishments, that we should have paid. He did this for our justification, to open the way for us to come to God. This was done once, it only needed to be done once, it never needs to be done again. Yet the kingdom still advances when God’s people are prepared to pay a price. Jesus and the New Testament talks about us sharing in His sufferings.

Although Christ died in the body, He was raised from the dead. Made alive in the Spirit. Peter most definitely does not mean that the resurrection was a spiritual resurrection in the sense that it wasn’t physical. What he does mean is that while Christ suffered death the Spirit gave Him life. In the same way, if we suffer for Christ we will find that the Spirit gives new life to us, a far deeper and richer life than we ever knew before.

1 Peter 3:15-17 - Ready with an answer

3:15

We do not repay evil with evil, nor do we retreat into a cave. First, we set Christ apart as Lord in our hearts. We need to know who is Lord. Lord is not a religious term. In the Roman empire the mantra was “Caesar is Lord”, so saying Jesus is Lord is going right against the common understanding of how the world operates, and is saying that He has more power than the Roman empire or any other human authority. In today’s world where society is abandoning Christian values as fast as it can and maligning those who still hold to them, we need to set Christ apart as Lord in our hearts.

This inward change leads to outward action. In the midst of difficulties, even persecution, we will still have hope and this will show. The world should be surprised at the way we act, and we should be ready to give them an answer, We are to do this with respect and gentleness, not in a proud manner.

3:16,17

“Keeping a clear conscience”. Our conscience is very important. If we do something wrong and try to cover it up our conscience torments us, but if someone wrongly accuses us yet we have a clear conscience we find it much easier to live under the accusation. So we may be falsely accused, as Jesus was, but we must make sure that the accusations are false so that in the end it is they who will be ashamed of their slander.

God’s judgement is what matters, we are answerable to Him. This needs to be the guiding principle in our life. It is far better to suffer for doing good than to suffer for doing evil.

1 Peter 3:13,14 - Do not fear

3:13,14

Verse 13 seems hopelessly naive, but then verse 14 shows that Peter is not as naive as might seem, for he recognises that some will suffer even if they do do what is right. So what are we to make of this? There are two extreme views of the world that are wrong. One is that everything is basically good, or at least on an improving trend. The opposite view is that the world is utterly evil. The truth is that we live in a world that was created by God, inhabited by people created in the image of God. This is world is also a fallen world, all mankind is sinful, and creation is under a curse (God’s judgement on man’s sin) because of this. Both these facts are at play. Throughout Scripture we find claims that God is at work in the world, looking after it. We find people who do do good. We also find times of floods, earthquakes, famines and disease, and we find lots of people who do evil. So the norm is that doing good is the best thing to do. If it was not then society simply could not function.  But when the times do come, as they will, when people suffer for doing good, or despite doing good, what are we to do? We are not to fight evil with evil, but with good. We know that we are blessed, Jesus said we are blessed if we are persecuted for righteousness (Matt 5:10). Peter then quotes from Isaiah 8:12, God’s command is that we do not fear what the world fears.