yourselves ensamples to the flock._ This, too, is a special peril at
all times for those who are called to preside in spiritual offices.
The interests committed to their trust are so surpassingly momentous
that they must often speak with authority, and the Church's history
furnishes examples of men who would make themselves lords where Christ
alone should be Lord. Against this temptation He has supplied the
safeguard for all who will use it. "My sheep," He says, "hear My
voice." And the faithful tenders of His flock must ever ask themselves
in their service, Is this the voice of Christ? The question will be in
their hearts as they give counsel to those who need and seek it, What
would Christ have said to this man or to that? The same sort of
question will bring to the test their public ministrations, and will
make that most prominent in them which He intended to be so. Thus will
be introduced into all they do a due proportion and subordination, and
many a subject of disquiet in the Churches will thereby sink almost
into insignificance. At the same time the constant reference to their
own Lord will keep them in mind that they are His servants for the
flock of God.
While he warns the elders against the assumption of lordship over
their charges, the Apostle adds a precept which, if it be followed,
will abate all tendency to seek such lordship. For it brings to the
mind of those set over the flock that they too are but sheep, like the
rest, and are appointed not to dominate, but to help their brethren.
_Making yourselves ensamples to the flock._ Christ's rule for the good
shepherd is, "He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him" (John x.
4). The weak take in teaching rather from what they see than from what
they hear. The teacher must be a living witness to the word, a proof
of its truth and power. If he be not this, all his teaching is of
little value. The simplest teacher who lives out his lessons in his
life becomes a mighty power; he gains the true, the lawful lordship,
and--
"Truth from his lips prevails with double sway."
The Apostles knew well the weight and influence of holy examples.
Hence St. Paul appeals continually to the lives of himself and his
fellow-workers. We labour, he says, "to make ourselves an ensample
unto you that ye should imitate us" (2 Thess. iii. 9); Timothy he
exhorts, "Be thou an ensample to them that believe" (1 Tim. iv. 12),
and Titus, "In all things showing thyself an ensample of good works"
(Titus ii. 7). Nothing can withstand the eloquence of him who can dare
to appeal to his brethren, as the Apostle does, "Be ye imitators
together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an
ensample" (Phil. iii. 7), and "Be ye imitators of me, even as I also
am of Christ" (1 Cor. xi. 1). Such pattern shepherds have been the
admiration of every age. Chaucer, among his pilgrims, describes the
good parson thus:--
"The lore of Christ and His Apostles twelve
He taught, and first he followed it himself."
Such are the lives of shepherds who remember that they are even as
their flocks: frail and full of evil tendencies, and needing to come
continually, in humble supplication, to the source of strength and
light, and to be ever watchful over their own lives. These men seek no
lordship; there comes to them a nobler power, and the allegiance they
win is self-tendered.
_And when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the
crown of glory that fadeth not away._ For their consolation the
Apostle sets before the elders their Judge in His self-chosen
character. He is the chief Shepherd. Judge He must also be when He is
manifested; but while He must pass sentence on their work, He will
understand and weigh the many hindrances, both within and without,
against which they have had to fight. Of human weakness, error, sin,
such as besets us, He had no share; but He knows whereof we are made,
and will not ask from any of us a service beyond our powers. Nay, His
Spirit chooses for us, would we but mark it, the work in which we can
serve Him most fitly. And He has borne the contradiction of sinners
against Himself. In judging His servants, then, He will take account
of the wilfulness of ears that would not hear and of eyes that would
not see, of the waywardness that chose darkness rather than light,
ignorance rather than Divine knowledge, death rather than life.
Therefore His feeble but faithful servants may with humble minds
welcome His appearing. He comes as Judge. _Ye shall receive._ It is a
word descriptive of the Divine award at the last. Here it marks the
bestowal of a reward, but elsewhere (2 Peter ii. 13) the Apostle uses
it for the payment to sinners of the hire of wrong-doing. But the
Judge is full of mercy. Of one sinner's feeble efforts He said, "She
hath done what she could. Her sins are forgiven." And another who had
laboured to be faithful He welcomed to His presence: "Enter into the
joy of thy Lord." To share that joy, to partake of His glory, to be
made like Him by beholding His presence--this will be the faithful
servant's prize, a crown of amaranth, unwithering, eternal.
XVII
_BE CLOTHED WITH HUMILITY_
"Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you
gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another: for God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt you in due time; casting all your anxiety upon Him, because
He careth for you."--1 PETER v. 5-7.
Having admonished the shepherds, the Apostle now turns to the flock,
and his words recall the exhortations which he has given several times
before. In ii. 13 he taught Christian subjects the duty of submission,
even should it be their lot to live under heathen rulers. A few verses
further on in the same chapter he repeated this teaching to Christian
slaves with heathen masters, and the third chapter opens with advice
of the same character to the wives who were married to heathen
husbands. And now once more, with his favourite verb "be subject," he
opens his counsel to the Churches on their duty to those set over
them. The relation between the elders and their flock will not be as
strained, or not strained after the same manner, as between Christians
and heathens in the other cases, but the same principle is to govern
the behaviour of those who hold the subject position. The duly
appointed teachers are to be accepted as powers ordained of God, and
their rule and guidance followed with submission.
_Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder._ He teaches that as
there is a duty of the elders to the younger, so there is a reciprocal
duty which, in like manner and with the same thoroughness, must be
discharged by the younger to the elders. In those early days the
congregation could fitly be spoken of as "the younger." Naturally the
teachers would be chosen from those who had been the first converts.
The rest of the body would consist not only of those younger in years,
but younger in the acceptance of the faith, younger in the knowledge
of the doctrines of Christ, younger in Christian experience. And if
the Churches were to be a power among their heathen surroundings, it
must be by their unity in spirit and faith; and this could only be
secured by a loyal and ready following of those who were chosen to
instruct them.
But lest there may be any undue straining of the claim to submission,
there follows immediately a precept to make it general: _Yea, all of
you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another_. Thus will be
realised the true idea of the Christian body, where each member should
help all, and be helped of all, the rest, eye and hand, head and feet,
each having their office, and each ministering therein as parts of the
one body. This idea of general humility was altogether unknown to the
world before Christ's coming. The word, therefore, is one coined for
Christian use: lowliness of mind, a frame wherein each deems others
better than himself. And with it the Apostle has coupled another word
for "gird yourselves," which is well fitted to be so placed. It is
found nowhere else, and is full of that graphic character of which he
is so fond. The noun from which it is derived signifies "an outer
garment," mainly used by household servants and slaves, to cover
their other clothing and keep it from being spoiled. It appears to
have been bound round the waist by a girdle. The word is a complete
picture. St. Peter sees in humility a robe which shall encompass the
whole life of the believer, keeping off all that might sully or defile
it; and into the sense of the word comes the lowly estate of those by
whom the garment in question was worn. It was connected entirely with
the humblest duties. Hence its appropriateness when joined with "serve
one another."
And one cannot in studying this striking word of the Apostle but be
carried in thought to that scene described by St. John where Jesus
"took a towel and girded Himself" (John xiii. 4) to wash the feet of
His disciples. St. Peter gained much instruction from that washing,
and he has not forgotten the lesson when he desires to confirm the
brethren in Christian humility. "I have given you an example, that ye
also should do as I have done to you," was the Lord's injunction; and
this the Apostle delivers to the Churches. And verily Christ spake of
Himself more truly than of any other when He described the master's
treatment of his watchful servants: "He shall gird himself, and make
them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them" (Luke xii. 37).
Such has been the Lord's humiliation, who took upon Him our flesh, and
now bids us to His banquet, where, through His Spirit, He is ever
waiting to bless those who draw near.
How this exhortation to humility in dealing with one another is
connected with the verse (Prov. iii. 34) by which the Apostle supports
it does not perhaps immediately appear. _For God resisteth the proud,
but giveth grace to the humble._ But a little reflection on the
characteristics of pride towards men soon makes us conscious that it
is very closely united with pride towards God. The Pharisee who
despises the publican, and thanks God in words that he is not such a
one, feels in his heart no thankfulness nor care for God at all. His
own acts have made him the pattern of goodness which he conceives
himself to be. And we discover the like in every other exhibition of
this spirit. The term (ὑπερήφανοι) by which these haughty
ones are described indicates a desire to be conspicuous, to stand
apart from and above their fellows. They are self-centred, and look
down upon the rest of the world, and forget their dependence upon God.
St. Peter in his quotation has followed the Septuagint. In the Hebrew
the first half of the verse is, "He scorneth the scorners." And this
is the manner of God's dealing. He pays men with their own coin.
Jacob's deceit was punished in kind by the frequent deceptions of his
children, so that at last he could hardly credit their report that
Joseph is still alive. David was scourged for his offences exactly
according to his own sin. But the word which the Apostle has drawn
from the Septuagint is also of solemn import. It declares a state of
war between God and man. God _resisteth_ the proud; literally, He
setteth Himself in array against them. And their overthrow is sure.
They that strive with the Lord shall be broken to pieces. The Psalmist
rejoices over the contrary lot: "The Lord is on my side; I will not
fear. What can man do unto me?" (Psalm cxviii. 6). He had realised the
feebleness of human strength, even for man to rely on, much more if it
stand in opposition to God. "It is better to trust in the Lord than to
put any confidence in man," be it in ourselves or in others. So out of
his distress he called upon the Lord. It is the sense of need which
makes men humble; and to humbled souls God's blessing comes: "He
answered me, and set me in a large place."
And as though He would mark humility as the chief grace to prepare men
for His kingdom, the Lord's first words in His sermon on the mount are
a blessing on the lowly-minded: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven"--not shall be, but _is_ theirs even
now. God's favour to the humble is a present gift. How the sense of
this swells the thanksgivings of Hannah and the Virgin Mary! And to
teach the lesson to His disciples, when they were far from humility
and were anxious only to know which of them should be above the rest
in what they still dreamt of as an earthly kingdom, He took a little
child and set him before them, as the pattern to which His true
followers must conform. This childlike virtue gives admission to the
kingdom of heaven; its possessors have the kingdom of God within them.
And St. Peter feeds the flock as he himself was fed. _Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt
you in due time._ The Apostle may be referring in these words to the
trials which were upon the converts when he wrote to them. These he
would have them look upon as God's discipline, as a cause for joy
rather than sorrow. Christian humility will not rebel against
fatherly, merciful correction. How the good man bows before the hand
of God we see in Moses when God refused to let him go over into
Canaan: "I besought the Lord, saying, O Lord God, Thou hast begun to
show Thy servant Thy greatness and Thy strong hand.... Let me go over,
I pray Thee, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan. But the Lord
was wroth with me for your sakes, and hearkened not unto me" (Deut.
iii. 23). And so the meek prophet, who knew that his withdrawal was
for the people's sake, having sung, "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is
like unto thee, a people saved by the Lord?" (Deut. xxxiii. 29), went
up unto Mount Nebo and died there, when his eye was not dim, nor his
natural force abated. Hence his praise: "There hath not arisen a
prophet since in Israel like unto Moses." Humility was his dying
lesson.
But as the Apostle has just been speaking of the duty owed to the
elders as teachers, it is perhaps better to apply the words of the
exhortation in that sense. Those who were set over the Churches were
so set in the Lord. For the time they represented His hand, the hand
of care and guidance to those who were submissive. In honouring them,
the younger were honouring God. Thus the lesson would be, Bend your
hearts to the instruction which He imparts through their words; yield
your will to His will, and order your life to be in harmony with His
providence; live thus that He may exalt you. For the hand which may
seem heavy now will be mighty to raise you in due time. And that time
He knows. It is His time, not yours. If it tarry, wait for it. It will
surely come; it will not tarry, when the Divine discipline has done
its work.
_Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He careth for you._ When
men do this the due time has come. Till this stage is reached there
can be no true humility. But how slow men are in reaching it! We are
willing to bring to God a little here and there of our sorrow and our
feebleness, but would fain still carry a part of the load ourselves.
Human pride it is which cannot stoop to owe everything to God; want of
faith, too, both in the Divine power and the Divine love, though our
tongues may not confess it. What a powerful homily on this verse is
the conduct of the youthful David when he went forth against the
Philistine! "The Lord," he says to Saul, "that delivered me out of the
paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out
of the hand of this Philistine." And when the king offered his own
coat of mail, though tempted thereby, he put the armour away, saying,
"I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them." He knew that God
had given him skill with the humbler weapons, and it was God's battle
in which he was to engage. So with his stones and his sling he went
forth, telling the defiant challenger, "I come to thee in the name of
the Lord of hosts." The action is a comment on the Psalmist's words,
"Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring
it to pass" (Psalm xxxviii. 5).
But neither the young hero by his example, nor the Apostle in his
exhortation, teaches a spirit of careless indifference and neglect of
means. David chose him five smooth stones out of the brook. These he
could use. With these God had delivered him aforetime. And in every
condition men are bound to use the best means they know to ensure
success, and the Christian will pour out his prayers for guidance and
foresight in temporal concerns. That done, the counsel of Christ, on
which St. Peter's exhortation is grounded, is, "Be not overanxious;
your heavenly Father knoweth your needs." And he who has grown humble
under the mighty hand of God in trials has learnt that the same hand
is mighty to save: "He careth for you." When this perfect trust is
placed in God, the load is lifted. It is, as the Psalmist says
literally, _rolled_ upon the Lord (Psalm xxxviii. 5).
How salutary this teaching for both the elders and the congregations
among these Christians of the dispersion, and how full the promise of
help and blessing. The teachers had been placed in the midst of
difficulties and charged with a mighty responsibility; but robed in
the garment of humility, casting aside all self-trust, coming only in
the name of the Lord, the burden would be raised by the almighty arms
and made convenient to their powers. And to the younger the same lowly
spirit, loving thoughts toward those who cared for their souls, would
be fruitful in blessing. For the same God who resisteth the proud
showers His grace upon the humble. It falls on them as the dew of
Hermon, which cometh down upon the mountains of Zion. Unto them Christ
has proclaimed His foremost blessing; has promised, and is giving, the
kingdom of heaven to humble souls, and will give them life for
evermore.
XVIII
_THROUGH PERILS TO VICTORY_
"Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom withstand
steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are
accomplished in your brethren who are in the world. And the God
of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ,
after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself
perfect, stablish, strengthen you. To Him _be_ the dominion for
ever and ever. Amen.
"By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account _him_, I have
written unto you briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is
the true grace of God: stand ye fast therein. She that is in
Babylon, elect together with _you_, saluteth you; and _so doth_
Mark my son. Salute one another with a kiss of love.
"Peace be unto you all that are in Christ."--1 PETER v. 8-14.
Not only had these Asian Christians to suffer from the opposition and
calumnies of the heathen and from the estrangement of former friends:
there were perils within the Churches themselves. There were weak
brethren, who fell away when trials came, and infected others with
their despondency; there were false brethren, with whom faith was a
mere consent of the understanding, and not the spring of a holy,
spiritual life. These spake of the liberty of Christ as though it were
an emancipation from all moral restraints. Such dangers asked for
firmness both in the elders and their hearers. To withstand them there
must be a constant growth in Christian experience, whereby the
faithful might wax steadfast, and attain to the strength and stature
of the fulness of Christ. These dangers became more manifest before
St. Peter wrote his second letter, where we find them described in
dark colours.
Here to the converts, exposed to the assaults of these temptations, he
enjoins the same well-ordered frame of mind which before (i. 13) he
commended to them as they looked forward to the hope in store for
them, and also (iv. 7) in their prayers, that their petitions might be
such as suited with the approaching end of all things. _Be sober_, he
says again, and combines therewith an exhortation which without
sobriety is impossible: _Be watchful_. If the mind be unbalanced,
there can be no keeping of a true guard against such dangers as were
around these struggling believers. And it is impossible not to connect
such an exhortation from his lips with those words of Christ, which
one Evangelist says were expressly addressed to St. Peter, "Watch and
pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Mark xiv. 37, 38). He who
had received this admonition was conscious that, as in his own case,
so with these his converts, the spirit might be willing, but the flesh
was weak, and the enemy mighty.
_Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking
whom he may devour._ In the days of Job, when God asked of Satan,
"Whence comest thou?" his answer was, "From going to and fro in the
earth and from walking up and down in it" (Job i. 7). Of this Old
Testament language the Apostle here makes partial use in his
description of the enemy of mankind. He walketh about in the earth,
which is his province, for he is called the prince of this world (John
xii. 31) and the god of this world (2 Cor. iv. 4). And the Greek word
ἀντίδικος, "adversary," which St. Peter uses as a
translation of the Hebrew "Satan," is well chosen, for it describes
not an ordinary enemy, but one who acts as an opponent would in a
court of law. Such was Satan from the first, an accuser. In Job's case
he accused the Patriarch to his God: "Doth Job serve God for nought?"
"Put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, or touch his
bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face." In earlier
days he appears as the accuser of God Himself: "Ye shall not surely
die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes
shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil" (Gen.
iii. 4, 5). And with such-like suggestions he assails the faithful
continually, speaking either to their unguarded hearts, or by the
words of his servants, of whom he has no lack. St. Paul dreaded his
power for the Thessalonian converts: "I sent that I might know your
faith, lest by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labour
should be in vain" (1 Thess. iii. 5). And St. Peter's words are
dictated by the same fear; he has the same wish to keep the flock
steadfast in their faith. To them Satan's whisperings would be after
this sort: "You are forgotten of God"; "Love could never leave you so
long in trial." Or his agents would say in scorn, "How can you talk of
freedom, when your life is one long torment? What is the profit of
faith, when it gives you no liberty?" And such questions are perilous
to feeble minds. The Apostle marks the great danger by a comparison
which Ezekiel (xxii. 25) had used before him, speaking of the tempter
as a roaring lion, ever hungry for his prey. There is but one weapon
which can vanquish him. "This is the victory that hath overcome the
world, even our faith" (1 John v. 4). St. Peter's lesson is the same
as St. John's.
_Whom withstand steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same
sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world._
The steadfast faith must be the firm foundation of God; and the same
thoughts, which St. Paul commends as a correction of those who have
erred concerning the truth, are those most fit to be urged upon St.
Peter's converts to render them steadfast. "The Lord knoweth them that
are His" (2 Tim. ii. 19), and with the Lord to know is to care for and
to save. And "let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart
from unrighteousness." This is the perfect law, the law of true
liberty, and he who continueth therein, being not a hearer that
forgetteth, but a doer that worketh, shall be blessed in his doing.
Thus resting on God and thus ruling himself, he shall be kept from the
snares of the enemy, and having withstood in the evil day, shall still
be made able to stand.
And to such steadfastness the brethren are to be moved by the
knowledge that others are in the same affliction. How shall such
knowledge minister support? The mere knowledge that others bear a like
burden does not strengthen our own shoulders; to hear of others' pains
will not relieve our own. Not so. But just as it is a power in warfare
when men see their leader before them, facing the same perils, hear
his voice cheering them by his courage, inspiring them with his hope;
just as it is a support to brave men to find brave brethren at their
side in the conflict, animated by the same spirit, marching forward to
the same victory, so is it in the Christian struggle. All Christians
are to be steadfast, the elders like the leaders of an army, the
younger like the soldiers who follow, that, moving with one spirit
against the foe, feeling that each is like-minded with all the rest,
while all are equally conscious of the importance of victory, they may
grasp hands as they go forward, and be heartened thereby, being sure
that in the danger they will have helpers at their side.