1st Peter Series
Part 11
LETTERS THAT BURN
“Victory in Battle”

Last time we closed with Peter’s words on humility. We saw that the way UP in God’s kingdom is DOWN in humility and servanthood.

In the second half of verse 5, humility is still on the Apostle’s mind:

5:5b “Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”

The phrase “clothed with humility” means “to gird yourself.” Humility is something we put on and wear. We’re to wear it around the house, to the store, to church, and to work.

Nobody wore humility like Jesus. By the time He was twelve He fully knew who He was and who His Father was. Yet he submitted to His human mother and to Joseph, His stepfather. The Bible says “He was subject to them” (Luke 2:51).

Peter warns that God literally “resists” the proud.

Resists means “to square off against, to oppose, to push away from, to keep at arms length.” When we walk in pride, which is revealed by our refusal to submit to God’s Word and authority, God literally squares off against and opposes us, keeping us at arms length!

In this day of intense spiritual warfare and our great need for God’s grace, we must shun pride and walk in humility. For Peter goes on with a wonderful promise—God “gives grace to the humble.”

The word “humble” is simply “being God-reliant rather than self-reliant.”

God graces the God-reliant with favor. The word “grace” here refers to God being NEAR you to share His benefits WITH you!
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Peter finishes his teaching on humility with a word about humility’s rewards:

5:6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”

Again, this verse reminds us that the way UP in God’s kingdom is DOWN. The world says, “Promote yourself, scratch and claw your way to the top.”

But the way of God’s kingdom is, “Humble yourself and serve, and God will promote you!

Humble yourself under His mighty hand!

The world would say that humility is a position of weakness, but God says it is a position of strength.

The humble Christian becomes the strong, victorious Christian! James writes, “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Humbling ourselves before God positions us to resist the devil and win spiritual battles!
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Then finally, from our position of humility, Peter says:

5:7 “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

The word for “care” is “anxiety.” All of our worries are to be cast upon Him. Peter promises, “for He cares for you!”

The word “care” is used twice in this verse. The first time it is plural in the Greek, meaning we are to cast our many and varied anxieties onto the Lord.

The second time it is singular. “For He cares for you.” This kind of care refers to someone having an interest in you.

Bottom line: We may have many cares, but God has only one—US!
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Peter now turns his focus to our enemy—the devil.

5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.”

Notice, he’s not just “an” adversary, he’s “your” adversary. Because we are engaged in a spiritual conflict until the day we go home to heaven, we are to be “sober minded” meaning “not intoxicated, to have presence of mind, to have your wits about you.”

And “vigilant,” means “to stay awake, to be spiritually alert, aware of what’s around you, watching for the devil’s strategies against you.”

Why? Because the devil is on the prowl.

The word Peter uses for adversary literally means accuser, like a prosecuting attorney. Satan acts like an adversary in a lawsuit against you. He condemns, accuses, slanders, and undermines believers.

He calls Satan a “roaring lion,” which means “to howl.” Peter wants us to see the predatory nature of the devil. He howls and roars just like a lion on the hunt.

And he “walks about,” which paints a graphic picture of Satan’s restless energy. He’s not passively sitting in the shadows watching the world pass by, he is pacing back and forth, always searching for an unsuspecting victim.

And his goal is “to devour.” Satan is not playing games. Spiritual warfare is for keeps.
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Peter next tells us how to respond to Satan’s attacks:

5:9 “Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

We are to resist the Evil One, not in our own strength but by yielding to the indwelling Holy Spirit. James expands even further on this:

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (4:7).

The Greek word we translate into “resist” is anth-is’-tay-mee, from which we get our word, antihistamine.

Histamine is a substance in our bodies that plays a major role in allergic reactions, causing the runny nose, sneezing, coughing, etc.

Hence, an antihistamine is a drug that resists and inhibits the effects of histamine so we can breathe, stop coughing, etc.

So science borrowed from this Greek word to describe the effect of sending something into our bodies to resist an enemy—in this case allergies.

When we resist the devil in the name of Jesus it is like a spiritual antihistamine that blocks the devil’s progress and sends him running!

According to James, when we’re under spiritual attack the first thing to ask yourself is, “Am I submitted to God? Is my life in line with the Bible? Do I have any unconfessed sin?”

Once we know we’re submitted to the Lordship of Jesus and are “steadfast in the faith,” we are ready to resist, push back against, rebuke the devil and refuse to yield ground to him!

Remember, the Christians Peter was writing to were staring Satan in the face in the person of the wicked Emperor Nero. So Peter tells the Christians to refuse to allow his attacks to destroy the church through fear and terror. Resist!

The promise is, “He will flee from you.” Literally, he will flee to escape from you as if you were something to be abhorred!
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Peter next draws our attention to God’s grace:

5:10a “But the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”

Peter is once again pointing out what he spoke of at the beginning of the letter: God sometimes allows suffering in order to develop and discipline us.

Now, before you say to yourself, “That’s mean! That’s not loving!” stop and consider that this is what a good coach does.

See those football players out on the hot field prior to football season? They sweat, they groan, they suffer under the demands of the man hired to make them as good as they can be. He knows this will never happen apart from grueling workouts and tough discipline.

Tom Landry once said, “My job is to get the players to do what they don’t want to do, that they can be what they really want to be.”

Peter says that there is a process with God: “After you have suffered a while.”

While He sometimes allows suffering, He puts limits on it. God drew lines in the sand where Job’s suffering was concerned (Job 1:11; 2:6). At the end of his suffering, we see a stronger, better Job than the one we find at the beginning.

So look at what the “after” suffering produces! First, God intends to make us “perfect.” Now, this word didn’t mean then what it does now in English. It means, “to arrange, to set in order, to adjust.” It is the same Greek word used to describe John “mending his net” (Matt. 4:21).

By God’s grace we are saved 100% the moment we believe on Jesus. Yet there is much “mending” still needed to be done in our torn and tattered lives.

Commentator John Phillips says, “As a tailor uses a needle to make way for the thread, so God uses suffering in our lives to make way for the perfecting of our souls!”
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Then Peter says God also uses suffering to “establish” us. This comes from the Greek word “stay-rid’-zo” which means to make something firmly secure. To buttress or support. It’s the idea of driving a stake into the ground to hold a tent firmly in place.

—Suffering has the effect of making us unmovable in our faith!

So suffering plays a part in mending our souls, and establishing us in our walk.

Next, Peter says that suffering serves to “strengthen” us. We are strengthened to achieve what God calls us to do!

And finally, (this is my favorite) suffering will “settle” you. This word means “to ground us” or “to settle us on a firm foundation.”

Nothing like suffering drives us into the Word of God to lay hold of the promises, or to the prayer closet to cast our cares upon Him.

—Suffering has the effect of making us so strong in Christ that the strongest tempest cannot prevail against us.

David himself testified of the advantages of suffering: “Before I suffered, I did many wrong things. But now I carefully obey everything you say” (Ps. 119:67).
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And Peter’s final point is that—God’s glory in our suffering.

5:11 “To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Thus, out of the crucible of pain and persecution, out of heartache, grief, and woes, comes a doxology, a short hymn of praise to God. Peter has shown that, as John Phillips again so beautifully puts it, “Suffering is the storm cloud that provides the canvas on which God paints the rainbow.”
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In closing, we learn that Peter sent his letter by a trusted colleague:

5: 12 “By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.

In verse 13, Peter tells us which church he writes from:

5:13 “The church that is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son.”

The “Mark” he mentions as his son in the faith is John Mark, who also wrote the gospel of Mark.

He closes his first letter with an encouragement to walk in love and peace:

5:14 “Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

NEXT TIME: Peter’s Final Letter!