1 PETER 5: 5-7 [Renewing Hope Series]
THE HAND OF GOD
[John 13:1-17]
The eminent apostle who was called to shepherd the sheep through feeding the sheep is here again about his calling. The preceding verses emphasized the ministry of the shepherd, now this elder shepherd who loved Jesus with all his heart, mind, soul and strength is speaking to one and all. My prayer today is that his words will speak to you.
Peter here teaches us concerning the mighty Hand of God. God's hand, if submitted to, will humble us so that God can do His great work in our life (CIT). God works in and on our life to transform us into Christ-likeness. This great work is a work of grace. God grants the grace necessary for spiritual growth to the humble.
God transforms those who submit to Him into His humble servants so that He can prepare them and use them for His glory. For God honoring tasks require a humble servant and the humble make the best servants. [Christ humbled Himself and took upon Himself the form of a servant (Phil. 2:5-8). Who does God transform into His likeness? God changes the humble.]
I. START WITH SUBMISSION, 5a. [THE NECESSITY OF HUMBLING.]
II. LEARN HUMILITY 5b-6. [THE NURTURE OF THE HUMBLE.]
III. LIVE WITH TRUST, 7. [THE NATURE OF THE HUMBLE]
Learning to submit is a necessary start to learning humility. Therefore verse 5 begins by instructing submission to elders or pastors. "You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders;"
Submission is a vital part of authentic Christian lifestyle. We cannot truly follow Christ until we are willing to submit to Him as the Lord of our lives. A verification of our surrender to Christ's Lordship is seen in our being subject to spiritual authority. Church leaders were usually proven older members. The younger members were to place themselves willingly under the authority of those who had been given the responsibility within the flock of God. They should submit themselves to their elders. [To "submit" is hupot¨¢ss¨ which means "to be subject to" or "to submit yourself to."]
To be submissive is to obey. Obedience is vital to Christian lifestyle. One of the great problems of our society is the resistance to submission and obedience and it is evident even within the church. A major expression of sin is that of rebellion against authority. Christian young people need to learn to obey Christ, and they will be greatly blessed if they learn to be submissive to their Christian elders.
But young people should not only be submissive to their elders, all Christians should be submissive to one another. All believers, even those with leadership responsibilities, should be submissive to one another.
In the church of Christ, there should be no one lording over or dominating others. In love and honor, we should serve one another. We should be seeking not to get but to give; not to be served but to serve.
II. LEARN HUMILITY 5b-6.
Inseparably linked to submission is the virtue of humility (Dan 10:12; Mic 6:8; Eph. 4:1-2; Jas. 4:10), therefore the verse 5 exhorts both young and old alike to clothe themselves with humility. "and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another,"
Submission is closely related to humility. Peter's instruction to us is that we should be clothed with humility. The word clothe (enkomb¨sasthe, 1st aor. imper. "clothe or tie on oneself") was originally a servant's garment [enkomb¨ma - apron of a slave] worn over his other clothing and tied with a knot. Once this garment was on, the slave was ready for his task.
In like manner we are not ready to be of service to God until we clothe ourselves with Christian humility. Within that context, someone has said, "Many would be scantily clad if clothed in their humility." Humility is essential in the life of a Christian.
To be humble is to have the Spirit of Christ. He who was God, yet for our sakes emptied Himself and became a bond servant. And He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:5--8). He who wrapped a servant's towel around His waist and washed His disciples feet (Jn. 13:1-17).
Humility is essential for Christian lifestyle. Only when we are clothed with humility can we come to know Christ better and grow to become more like Him. As Thomas a Kempis wrote, "God walks with the humble; He reveals Himself to the lowly; He gives understanding to the little ones; He discloses His meaning to pure minds, but hides His grace from the proud."
You would not even consider leaving your house without your clothing to go to work. Yet how often do all of us go to perform God's service without the outer garment of humility. [We take men seriously because God took. and still takes them seriously.]
Isaiah 66:2 declares "To this one I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My Word. James 3:13 states, "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."
St. Augustine said, "Should you ask me what is the first thing in religion, I should reply, 'The first, second, and third thing therein.... nay all, is humility."
Peter uses Scripture to drive the point home as he quotes Proverbs 3:34. "for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
Pride is dependence on and confidence in myself, it always seeks to take the credit.
Humility is dependence on and confidence in God, it seeks to give God the credit or glory.
Those who are self-centered find themselves at odds with God, while the humble enjoy His blessing. Psalm 10:4 states, "In his pride the wicked does not seek God; in all his thoughts there is no room for God" [NIV].
In Matthew 16:24 Jesus said, "If anyone desires to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me."
2 Cor 5:15 "He (Jesus) died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."
We live in an age when men are proud and self-sufficient. God notes the actions of each individual and in His time will deal with each according to their work. He sets Himself against the proud but grants favor to the lowly. [That is why D.L. Moody said, "The beginning of greatness is to be little, the increase of greatness is to be less, and the perfection of greatness is to be nothing."]
Christians therefore are exhorted in verse 6 to humble themselves so that God may raise them up. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,"
The command humble yourselves [tapein¨th¨¥te, 1 aor pass. imper. 2 p. pl.] could be translated "allow yourselves to be humbled." Humbling is necessity so that we may have a proper perspective of ourselves.
To have a realistic look at ourselves there are two prerequisites we must grasp. The DOWNWARD VIEW AND THE UPWARD VIEW.
[The downward view.] Each one of us has many upper story accomplishments which we enjoy and need to reflect upon. But if each of us would descend into the dark cellars and hidden cubby holes of our life, taking along with us the bright light of Christ, we will see enough filth and decadence slithering around to humble any of us.
We may seem good by comparison in our own eyes. But in the light of Christ's life and His gospel, we are all sinners, falling short of God's perfection. And although that sin has been paid for, we are not now what we should [or will] be.
Once we have the downward view in focus we need to look upward at God Himself. One of the effects of obtaining greater and greater true knowledge is that it tells the wise man how little he knows in respect to the totality of knowledge.
One of the effects of greater knowledge of God is that it shows us how much greater distance away is His all knowing than we once thought. After climbing many stories to get to the top a tall observatory a child was told that THE SUN was 95 million miles away. The child responded, "Is that from the top or the bottom story of the observatory."
The distance from the pinnacle to the base of the observatory is nothing if the distance to the sun is the weight of the scale. And there is about as much difference between the great and little, the sung and unsung among mankind as the ratio of the sun to any high low object on earth if God is the standard of measure.
As we see God for who He is, we begin to see ourselves for who we are. The reflection is staggering and should cause us to humble ourselves before the Almighty God.
In other words, as we see God as He really is, we should see ourselves as we really are. God's hands are mighty. His weakness is mightier than our strength. His foolishness is greater than our wisdom. He is the Creator, and we are the created. All things were made by Him and by Him all things exist. God determines the days of our lives. Whether we wish to be or not, we are in His hands--at His disposal. He alone is sovereign!
God though has given us a choice. We can resist Him and ignore Him and even curse Him. We can go our own way and do our own thing. But that way leads to certain death--eternal death.
Or we can recognize Him for who He is. We can respond to His love and grace and forgiveness.
There is God's part and our part in the text's demands. Our part is to permit ourselves to be humbled. We are to submit to God, to continually surrender and make ourselves available to God, desiring His hand to grasp us and reshape us so that we might become His handiwork. The grasp His mighty hand breaks us of selfish assertion and molds into Christ-likeness.
[If we attempt to humble ourselves, or let another source humble us, the result could be self abasement, disparagement or servility. Observe the Hare Krishnas and can see that shaved heads, simplistic clothing and ascetic life styles do not make Christlike servants.]
Our part is to be submissive to God, His will and His Word. It is God's part to place His mighty upon us. The phrase "the hand of God" alludes to an Old Testament use God's hand in deliverance of His people out the bond of Egypt into the wilderness of Sinai (Ex. 13:9, 20:33; Duet. 9:26) [This is the only place outside the Old Testament that reference God's hand and the only time where mighty is used in describing it.]
If you want to see God's mighty hand at work, look at a believer under its transforming discipline and care [such as Moses]. God's part is to supply the discipline. Our part is to be submissive under it.
If we stand firm in our resolve to humble ourselves under His mighty hand this completes the necessary condition for the promise. God's promise is that He will exalt us in due time. There are two types of lifting or exalting [hyps¨s¨¥, "exalt" (James 4:10)]. There is a partial lifting and a total lifting.
In this life we allow Him to lift us into any place, any position or any circumstance as He sees fit. But within the context of verse four there is another exaltation. "And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory."
Yes, the final exaltation: Our body will be fashioned after the body of Jesus the Christ governed by the glory received by His resurrection from the dead.
We can humble ourselves under His mighty hand. And, if we do, we will be encouraged by the same mighty hand that disciplined us. The Scriptures declare, "Before honor is humility" (Prov. 15:33). The cross comes before the crown, suffering before glory.
Because of the humility, submission, and obedience of Jesus Christ, "God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow..." (Phil. 2:9--10). The Lord in His time and way will also exalt His children who walk humbly with Him.
III. LIVE WITH TRUST, 7.
As we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we should trust increasingly in Him. Verse 7, "casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you."
This reference is to Christ's blessed words of encouragement in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 6:25-32), and Psalm 55:22: "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you." A core issue in life is worry. We worry that if we don't look out for ourselves nobody will. But if we believe that God cares for us, we needn't worry about not serving our own interests We can focus on God and the needs of others, confident that God will always met our true needs.
Perhaps you've participated in an experiment where you were given a phrase like "RED CAR" and then were asked to put it out of your mind. But the harder you tried, the more the "red car" dominated your thoughts. This kind of exercise shows that we can never forget something by concentrating on it.
Anxious thoughts, our natural response to the cares of life, are like that. Many of us spend sleepless nights trying to solve complex problems, and all we accomplish is fixing them more firmly in our minds.
The Bible says that instead of being weighed down by our concerns, we should give them to God. The apostle Peter put it this way: "[Cast] all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."
Jesus told His disciples not to worry about the necessities of life, because "your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things" (Matthew 6:32). The way to forget our worries is to concentrate on the goodness and loving care of God, not on the problems that plague us. Then we can say with the psalmist 'In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul" (Psalm 94:19). The more you think about God's goodness, the less you'll think about your worries.
All a believer's anxieties can be cast . . . on Him. "To cast" is epirhipt¨, which means "to throw upon." That is exactly what we should do. Christ desires deeply to carry our cares. "He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Is. 53:4). He has invited us, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Mt. 11:28--30).
The use of the word "all" is most wonderful. We are encouraged to cast all of our cares upon Him. This means all our small concerns as well as our big ones. Bring them all to Jesus. God desires for us to be trust Him with all of our cares, sorrows, problems, needs, and questions. Nothing is too big for God nor is anything too small. Our Lord cares for a single sparrow and knows the very number of the hairs of our heads (Luke 12:6--7). And He cares about our small problems as well as the large. He desires for us to be dependent upon Him, to trust in Him with all of our hearts, and to lean not unto our own understanding (Prov. 3:5).
We should cast all of our care upon Him because "He cares for you" (v. 7). Think of it. God cares for you. He loves you. He delights in caring for you! [The word for "care" is m¨¦rimna, meaning "to be anxious about" or "to be concerned."] God is interested in you; He is concerned about your needs. He cares for you. A Christian's confidence rests in the fact that Christ is genuinely concerned for his welfare.
We can never know true liberty, we can never be truly free until we cast our cares upon the Lord. A mark of maturity in the life of the Christian is to trust increasingly upon Christ. The more we trust and depend upon Him, the more mature and free we become in Christ. [Cedar, Paul. The Preacher's Commentary Series, Vol. 34 : James / 1 & 2 Peter / Jude. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. 1984, S. 191.]
IN CLOSING,
[The imperative of submissive service is that we humble ourselves.] The teaching of our text is that our service receives its might out of God's humbling. Humbling is the preparation for service. Service is the testing ground of humility.
Does this humbling cause you concern? Then cast all your cares upon the Lord and let Him care for you. What a remarkable difference will take place in our lives as we cast our cares upon the Lord and begin to live with the confidence that He cares for us.
If you yourself have not allow God to humble you, you won't be willing to associate with or help those are humble or lowly. These the "poor in spirit" are called blessed by our Lord. They are the ones who will benefit most from our help.
You must be humbled before God, if His might hand would lift you up in service to Him. Even though the ministry is blessed work, it is rough work. Rough work needs tough dress. Are you being clothed in the garment of humility?
