The passage we are gonna dig into today begins with the word “therefore”; so as usual, before we jump into today’s passage, we have to look back to see what the therefore is there for. Right before Peter begins this passage he gives some directives to how people within the church are to interact with one another – from the elders in charge of shepherding the people to the young men within the church. Then in 1 Peter 5:5, he summed up that section by saying, “…ALL of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.”
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
so that He may exalt you at the proper time,
having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.
Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour. So resist him, firm in your faith….”
~~1 Peter 5:6-9~~
What does it look like to truly “humble yourself”? Have you ever thought about that? The word used here for humble is passive voice (I am the receiver of the action) and in the imperative mood (it’s a command, not a suggestion). The Greek word used for humble is <tapeinoō> and it means to lower or depress oneself and submit in a lowly spirit to the power and will of God.
PAUSE TO PONDER. How can a “command” be in the passive voice? Think with me…how easily does it come to us humans to be humble. Our natural inclination as humans is to be “me-centered” people. God knew He had to command us to be humble, but at the same time He also knew that in and of ourselves we wouldn’t be successful. Since this is in the passive voice, God is actually commanding us to be humble through the power of the Spirit within us.
I think that Peter gives some truth to help us in the humility department when he said to be humble “under the mighty hand of God”. Realize that God is God and I am not. God is mighty and powerful and I am not.
Peter is telling me that I am to allow the Spirit of God to help me be humble SO THAT He may exalt you at the proper time. What does it mean that God will “exalt” me? The Greek word used here is <hypsoō> and it means to elevate or to lift up.
PAUSE TO PONDER. God commands me to allow the Spirit to aid me in being humble. He puts me into the proper perspective by telling me about His mighty hand. And then He tells me that He will exalt me. So if I hadn’t been humbled, I wouldn’t have needed to be lifted up, right? So how does God lift me up? By the Spirit shifting my focus from the temporal to the spiritual. He will raise the spirits by shifting the focus to the blessings of salvation.
After Peter lays this groundwork, he shares one of the blessings of salvation – casting all our anxiety on God because He cares about us. Who doesn’t struggle with anxiety? (No one better be raising their hand right now. haha). The Greek word for anxiety <merimna> means distracted and being drawn in different directions. It’s having the mindset that is characterized by extreme uneasiness of mind about something that may or may not happen. God is saying that when we feel that way, we can cast all our anxiety on Him because He cares for us. The word “casting” <epiriptō> in this phrase is in the participle mood (it’s an “-ing” word denoting continuing action) and it means to throw upon – keep on throwING those distracted moments, those uneasy moments, on Him. And Peter has already reminded us that God has a mighty hand. He can handle it!
PAUSE TO PONDER. how all of this is working together? We all have moments of anxiety. If we don’t humble ourselves, we can’t be reminded by the Spirit that one of the blessings of salvation is that we can cast our burdens on God because He cares for us!!!
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil,
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
We have dug into “be of sober spirit” before so let’s just go on to the next directive. Be on the alert <grēgoreō> (imperative) means to keep awake; to give strict attention to, to be cautious, to be active. As I pondered that definition, I thought about “keep awake”. When do you generally get sleepy, wanting to doze off? I don’t know about you, but it’s when I’m sitting and relaxing in my recliner. When I stop moving, I get sleepy. No wonder God included in the definition of alert to “be active”. When I considered giving “strict attention” to something it brought to mind a meme I saw this morning. I found it so funny because this morning I was struggling so hard to focus and give strict attention to my Bible study.
You know, Satan, our adversary, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, but he uses many different tactics with which to attack us. As “funny” as that meme was, I see it as a tactic of the evil one to keep my mind distracted. My phone was blowing up with texts to steal my focus. The critters outside were being especially cute and entertaining, stealing my focus. He was trying hard to keep me from finishing this blog. The enemy of my soul wanted me to miss out on God’s directive to “be of sober spirit” (be calm and collected inside) and to “be on the alert” (spiritual active and focused) because if he could keep me spiritually “off chasing butterflies” and “being entertained by cute critters”, I wouldn’t learn to be alert and perceptive, identifying when the enemy of my soul is at work. That’s a WOW to me right there.
So resist him, firm in your faith.
Peter is telling us the truth – we have an adversary – and he is commanding us how to respond to that truth. Resist <anthistēmi> him. We are to set ourselves against him, opposing him as he tries to get us to follow his program instead of God’s. For instance, seeing that meme today was used by God to reveal to me how distracted I had been while trying to study and write. Once I saw that, I was able to refocus and finish this blog.
Firm in your faith gives us the basis of our power to resist. The word firm <stereos> means stiff, i.e. solid, stable (literally or figuratively):—steadfast, strong, sure. Going with the idea of me turning my head toward the distracting cute critters, to be firm means I choose to not turn my head in that direction but to keep my focus on the task at hand.
PAUSE TO PONDER. In Ephesians 6:11-17 Paul teaches us about the armor of God. He tells us to put on the whole armor of God “so that you will be able to
against the schemes of the devil”. Look at how many times in that brief passage that Paul admonishes us to “stand firm”.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of HIS might.
Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able
to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able
to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with truth,
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace;
in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you
will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
One more thing I want you to notice. Look at the other verbs (commands).
- BE STRONG (in God’s power and might, not my own)
- PUT ON (the full armor of God)
- TAKE UP (the full armor of God)
- HAVING BELTED (your waist with truth)
- HAVING PUT ON (the breastplate of righteousness)
- HAVING STRAPPED ON (the preparation of the gospel of peace)
- TAKING UP (the shield of faith)
- TAKE (the helmet of salvation)
- TAKE (the sword of the Spirit, God’s Word)
Those require ACTION! No way we are gonna get spiritually complacent and sleepy while actively putting, strapping, and taking up!
There’s so much in this passage that is practical. And honestly, it hit pretty close to home today as I was able to see the adversary in action and choose to allow the Spirit of God to help me regain my focus.