Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.
Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5 Likewise, ye younger The word elder is put…
5 Likewise, ye younger The word elder is put here in a sense different from what it had before; for it is necessary, when a contrast is made between them and the younger, that the two clauses should correspond. Then he refers to the elders in age, having before spoken of the office; and thus he comes from the particular to the general. And in short, he bids every one that is inferior in age to obey the counsels of the elders, and to be teachable and humble; for the age of youth is inconstant, and requires a bridle. Besides, pastors could not have performed their duty, except this reverential feeling prevailed and was cultivated, so that the younger suffered themselves to be ruled; for if there be no subjection, government is overturned. When they have no authority who ought by right or order of nature to rule, all will immediately become insolently wanton.
Yea, all He shews the reason why the younger ought to submit to the elder, even that there might be an equable state of things and due order among them. For, when authority is granted to the elders, there is not given them the right or the liberty of throwing off the bridle, but they are also themselves to be under due restraint, so that there may be a mutual subjection. So the husband is the head of the wife, and yet he in his turn is to be in some things subject to her. So the father has authority over his children, and still he is not exempt from all subjection, but something is due to them. The same thing, also, is to be thought of others. In short, all ranks in society have to defend the whole body, which cannot be done, except all the members are joined together by the bond of mutual subjection. Nothing is more adverse to the disposition of man than subjection. For it was formerly very truly said, that every one has within him the soul of a king. Until, then, the high spirits, with which the nature of men swells, are subdued, no man will give way to another; but, on the contrary, each one, despising others, will claim all things for himself.
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Hence the Apostle, in order that humility may dwell among us, wisely reproves this haughtiness and pride. And the metaphor he uses is very appropriate, as though he had said, “Surround yourselves with humility on every side, as with a garment which covers the whole body.” He yet intimates that no ornament is more beautiful or more becoming, than when we submit one to another.
For, or, because. It is a most grievous threatening, when he says, that all who seek to elevate themselves, shall have God as their enemy, who will lay them low. But, on the contrary, he says of the humble, that God will be propitious and favorable to them. We are to imagine that; God has two hands; the one, which like a hammer beats down and breaks in pieces those who raise up themselves; and the other, which raises up the humble who willingly let down themselves, and is like a firm prop to sustain them. Were we really convinced of this, and had it deeply fixed in our minds, who of us would dare by pride to urge war with God? But the hope of impunity now makes us fearlessly to raise up our horn to heaven. Let, then, this declaration of Peter be as a celestial thunderbolt to make men humble.
But he calls those humble, who being emptied of every confidence in their own power, wisdom, and righteousness, seek every good from God alone. Since there is no coming to God except in this way, who, having lost his own glory, ought not willingly to humble himself?
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 8, 9 He commendeth many peculiar Christian virtues, and especially modesty:…
He commendeth many peculiar Christian virtues, and especially modesty: which admonition all of us stand in need of, but especially the younger sort, by reason of the outwardness and pride of that age.
Because pride seemeth to many, to be the way unto the glory of this life, the Apostle witnesseth on the contrary side, that ignominy and shame is the reward of pride, and glory the reward of modesty.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.…
5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
Ver. 5. Yea, all of you be subject] In regard of love and modesty, not of change and confusion of offices.
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Be clothed with humility] The Greek word εγκομβωσασθε imports that humility is the riband or string that ties together all those precious pearls, the rest of the graces; if this string break, they are all scattered. Humility, as charity, is the band of perfection; yea, the word κομβος here used signifies not only alligare, to bind, but innodare, say some; to tie knots as delicate and curious women used to do of ribbons to adorn their heads or bodies, as if humility were the knot of every virtue and the grace of every grace. Contrariwise, how ugly and unseemly is pride on the back of honour and head of learning, face of beauty, &c. Chrysostom calleth humility the root, mother, nurse, foundation, and band of all virtues. Basil, the storehouse, treasury of all good, θησαυροφυλακιον.
God resisteth] {See Trapp on "Jas 4:6"} As pride resisteth God in a special manner, so God in a special manner resisteth it.
And giveth grace] i.e. Honour and respect; as appears by the opposition, and by Pro 3:34-35.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Ye younger; either he means those that were inferior…
Ye younger; either he means those that were inferior to the church officers, and then he here prescribes the people their duty, as he had done the ministers; or rather, those that were younger in years, and then he passeth from the more special to the general.
Submit yourselves: under subjection, he comprehends all those offices which the younger owe to the elder; as, to reverence them, take their advice, be guided by them, &c. Or, if younger be taken in the former sense, this precept falls in with that of the apostle, Heb 13:17.
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To the elder: either elders by office, who were likewise usually elders in years, the younger sort being more rarely chosen to be officers; or rather, elder in age.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another; viz. in those mutual duties which they owe to each other, as husbands to wives, parents to children, &c. Those that are superior to others, yet are not so exempt from subjection as not to owe some duty: see Phi 2:3.
And be clothed with humility; or, wrapt up, or covered, with humility, as with a garment which is put on over other garments; q.d. Adorn yourselves with humility as with a beautiful garment or robe. The metaphor of putting on is frequent, where mention is made of any grace or virtue, Rom 13:12; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10,12.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Having laid down the duties of pastors in the…
Having laid down the duties of pastors in the former verse, he points out the duties of the people in this, whom he calls the younger, either because they were generally younger in years than their spiritual guides, or because they ought to show that reverence and obedience to them which is suitable in young ones towards their elders and teachers: Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder; instruction and jurisdiction belonged to the elders, subjection and obedience to the younger.
Note here, That the duties of pastor and people are mutual and reciprocal; not that their duties are alike, but because there is a like reason for the performance of their respective duties, a like engagement and obligation upon both: the duty of the one is subjection; of the other ministerial direction.
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He adds-- yea, all of you be subject one to another; intimating thereby that there is a duty of mutual subjection, which all Christians owe one to another in love: they ought to condescend to the meanest offices one towards another; to bear with the infirmities of each other.
The original word, rendered clothed, signifies, first, an upper garment, a frock or cloak, put over all the rest of our clothes; and so imports, that we should be wrapped up all over with this grace, that this should be most visible in our conversations, words, and actions, and conspicuous beyond all other virtues.
Secondly, It signifies a belt which girds about our garments, and so imports, that we should tie it fast unto us, and have those considerations always fixed upon our spirits, which may keep us in an humble frame of soul.
Note thence, That humility is a special ornament, a beautiful robe, to be put on daily, which commends us greatly both to God and man. We are never to account ourselves dressed, until we have this livery of our humble master Christ Jesus put upon us: Be clothed with humility.
Observe next, The argument to enforce this duty: For God resisteth the proud, sets himself as in battle-array against them, but giveth fresh supplies of grace to the humble; because more grace is promised to the humble, and the humble soul is more fitted, prepared, and disposed to receive farther measures of grace from God. God sets himself against proud men to bring them down, but the humble he doth countenance and exalt.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv5, 8 Having settled and explained the duty of the pastors…
Having settled and explained the duty of the pastors or spiritual guides of the church, the apostle comes now to instruct the flock,
I. How to behave themselves to their ministers and to one another. He calls them the younger, as being generally younger than their grave pastors, and to put them in mind of their inferiority, the term younger being used by our Saviour to signify an inferior, Luk 22:26. He exhorts those that are younger and inferior to submit themselves to the elder, to give due respect and reverence to their persons, and to yield to their admonitions, reproof, and authority, enjoining and commanding what the word of God requires, Heb 13:17. As to one another, the rule is that they should all be subject one to another, so far as to receive the reproofs and counsels one of another, and be ready to bear one another's burdens, and perform all the offices of friendship and charity one to another; and particular persons should submit to the directions of the whole society, Eph 5:21.; Jam 5:16. These duties of submission to superiors in age or office, and subjection to one another, being contrary to the proud nature and selfish interests of men, he advises them to be clothed with humility. "Let your minds, behaviour, garb, and whole frame, be adorned with humility, as the most beautiful habit you can wear; this will render obedience and duty easy and pleasant; but, if you be disobedient and proud, God will set himself to oppose and crush you; for he resisteth the proud, when he giveth grace to the humble." Observe, 1. Humility is the great preserver of peace and order in all Christian churches and societies, consequently pride is the great disturber of them, and the cause of most dissensions and breaches in the church. 2. There is a mutual opposition between God and the proud, so the word signifies; they war against him, and he scorns them; he resisteth the proud, because they are like the devil, enemies to himself and to his kingdom among men, Pro 3:34. 3. Where God giveth grace to be humble, he will give more grace, more wisdom, faith, holiness, and humility. Hence the apostle adds: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, Pe1 5:6. "Since God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble, therefore humble yourselves, not only one to another, but to the great God, whose judgments are coming upon the world, and must begin at the house of God (Pe1 4:17); his hand is almighty, and can easily pull you down if you be proud, or exalt you if you be humble; and it will certainly do it, either in this life, if he sees it best for you, or at the day of general retribution." Learn, (1.) The consideration of the omnipotent hand of God should make us humble and submissive to him in all that he brings upon us. (2.) Humbling ourselves to God under his hand is the next way to deliverance and exaltation; patience under his chastisements, and submission to his pleasure, repentance, prayer, and hope in his mercy, will engage his help and release in due time, Jam 4:7, Jam 4:10.
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II. The apostle, knowing that these Christians were already under very hard circumstances, rightly supposes that what he had foretold of greater hardships yet a coming might excite in them abundance of care and fear about the event of these difficulties, what the issue of them would be to themselves, their families, and the church of God; foreseeing this anxious care would be a heavy burden, and a sore temptation, he gives them the best advice, and supports it with a strong argument. His advice is to cast all their care, or all care of themselves, upon God. "Throw your cares, which are so cutting and distracting, which wound your souls and pierce your hearts, upon the wise and gracious providence of God; trust in him with a firm composed mind, for he careth for you. He is willing to release you of your care, and take the care of you upon himself. He will either avert what you fear, or support you under it. He will order all events to you so as shall convince you of his paternal love and tenderness towards you; and all shall be so ordered that no hurt, but good, shall come unto you," Mat 6:25; Psa 84:11; Rom 8:28. Learn, 1. The best of Christians are apt to labour under the burden of anxious and excessive care; the apostle calls it, all your care, intimating that the cares of Christians are various and of more sorts than one: personal cares, family cares, cares for the present, cares for the future, cares for themselves, for others, and for the church. 2. The cares even of good people are very burdensome, and too often very sinful; when they arise from unbelief and diffidence, when they torture and distract the mind, unfit us for the duties of our place and hinder our delightful service of God, they are very criminal. 3. The best remedy against immoderate care is to cast our care upon God, and resign every event to the wise and gracious determination. A firm belief of the rectitude of the divine will and counsels calms the spirit of man. We ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done, Act 21:14.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Likewise ye younger,.... Not in office, as if inferior…
Likewise ye younger,.... Not in office, as if inferior officers to bishops were here intended, who ought to be subject to them; for elders and pastors are the same with them, nor is there any other office but that of deacons; nor younger pastors and overseers, such an one as Timothy was; not but that a deference is to be paid, and proper respect had to such who are of greater age, and longer standing and experience, by younger brethren in the ministry; nor such as are only younger in years, who ought to rise up unto, and honour hoary hairs, which may be done where subjection is not required, as here; nor such as are young in grace and experience, since there are little children, young men, and fathers in the church; but all the members of churches in common are here intended, as distinguished from their officers; for as pastors and overseers were, for the most part, chosen from among those that were senior in age, so the members generally consisted of the younger sort; and besides, as it was usual to call chief men and rulers, whether in church or state, fathers, so those that were subjects, the younger; see Luk 21:26. These the apostle exhorts as follows,
submit yourselves unto the elder; not merely in age, but in office, as before; for as he had exhorted the elders to a discharge of their work and office, he proceeds, in the next place, and which is signified by the word "likewise", to stir up the members of the churches to their duty to their elders, or pastors, who had the oversight of them; and that is to "submit" themselves to them, as in Heb 13:17, which is done by attending constantly on the word preached by them, and receiving it, so far as it agrees with the Scriptures of truth; and by joining with them in all the ordinances of Christ, and their administrations of them; by being subject to the laws of Christ's house, as put in execution by them; by taking their counsel and advice, regarding and hearkening to their admonitions and reproofs, and taking them in good part, looking upon them, and behaving towards them, as their spiritual guides and governors. The Syriac and Ethiopic versions read, "to your elders"; such as were particularly set over them in the Lord, and had taken the care of them, for to no others are they obliged to submit themselves.
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Yea, all of you be subject one to another; that is, all the members of the churches should not only submit themselves to their pastors, but to their fellow members, as in Eph 5:21, they should submit to the superior judgments of one another, esteeming each other better than themselves, and not be tenacious of their own way of thinking and judging of things; yea, condescend to men of low estates and weaker minds, bear the infirmities of the weak, and take all admonitions and reproofs given in a friendly manner kindly; and cheerfully perform all offices of love, and by it serve one another in things temporal and spiritual; doing the meanest services for the good of each other, such as washing the feet of one another, in imitation of their Lord and master.
And be clothed with humility; without which there will be no subjection, either to the elders, or one another. This is a grace which shows itself in a man's thinking and speaking the best of others, and the worst of himself; in not affecting places and titles of eminence; in being content with the lowest place, and patiently bearing the greatest contempt; in not aspiring to things too high for him, always acknowledging his own meanness, baseness, and unworthiness, ascribing all he is, and has, to the grace and goodness of God, whether it be gifts of nature, providence, or grace: and this is a believer's clothing, not the robe of his justifying righteousness before God, but is a considerable part of his inward garment of sanctification, which is in the sight of God of great price; and makes a large show in his outward conversation garments before men, and renders him lovely and amiable: it is an ornament to him, which is precious with God, and recommends him to the esteem of men, and the religion and Gospel he professes, and his profession of it. Some think there is a metaphor in the words, taken from knots of ribbons, and such like things, wore by women on their heads, or breasts, for ornament; and that the apostle's advice to the saints is, that their breast knot, or ornament, should be humility. Others think it is taken from a sort of badge which servants wore over their garments, by which they were distinguished; and so saints are directed to put on this badge, by which they may be known to be the servants of Christ: the former seems more agreeable: but as the word signifies to bind, or fasten anything, by tying of knots, it may denote the retaining of this grace in constant exercise, so as never to be without it; and to be clothed or covered with it, is always to have it on, and in exercise, in every action of life, in all our deportment before God and men, in all public and religious worship, and throughout the whole of our conversation, in the family, in the world, or in the church. The phrase seems to be Jewish, and is to be met with in the writings of the Jews. It is said (a),
"he that has fear, , "and is clothed with humility"; humility is the most excellent, and is comprehended in all, as it is said, Pro 22:4. He who has the fear of God is worthy of humility, and everyone that hath humility is worthy of kindness or holiness.''
And it is a saying of R. Meir (b),
"he that loves God loves men; he that makes God glad makes men glad; and it (the law) , "clothes him with humility and fear".''
For he resisteth the proud; or "scorneth the scorners", as it is in Pro 3:34, from whence these words are taken: the Lord treats them as they treat others; as they despise all other men and things, he despises them; he is above them, in that they have dealt proudly, and has them in derision; he eludes all their artifices, and frustrates their schemes, and disappoints their ambitious views, and scatters them in the imagination of their hearts, and brings their counsels to confusion, and opposes himself to them, and as their adversary; and a dreadful thing it is for persons to have God stand up against them, and resist them. This is a reason dissuading from pride, and exciting to humility, as is also what follows: and giveth grace to the humble; that is, more grace; see Jam 4:6. The first grace cannot be intended, for no man is truly humble before he has received the grace of God, it is that which makes him so; or it may design larger gifts of grace, which God bestows on those who acknowledge him to be the author and giver of what they have, and who make a proper use of them to his glory; when he takes away from the vain and ostentatious that which to themselves and others they seemed to have. Moreover, God grants his gracious presence to such as are of an humble, and of a contrite spirit; and at last he gives them glory, which is a free grace gift, and the perfection of grace; the poor in spirit, or humble souls, have both a right and meetness for, and shall enjoy the kingdom of heaven.
(a) Zohar in Numb. fol. 60. 3. (b) Pirke Abot, c. 6. sect. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Ye younger, be subject to the elder - In…
Ye younger, be subject to the elder - In years. And be all - Elder or younger. Subject to each other - Let every one be ready, upon all occasions, to give up his own will. Be clothed with humility-Bind it on, (so the word signifies,) so that no force may be able to tear it from you. James iv, 6; Prov. iii, 34
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Verse 5. Likewise, ye younger] νεωτεροι probably means here…
Verse 5. Likewise, ye younger] νεωτεροι probably means here inferiors, or those not in sacred offices; and may be understood as referring to the people at large who are called to obey them that have the rule over them in the Lord. In this sense our Lord, it appears, uses the word, Lu 22:26.
Be subject one to another] Strive all to serve each other; let the pastors strive to serve the people, and the people the pastors; and let there be no contention, but who shall do most to oblige and profit all the rest.
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Be clothed with humility] To be clothed with a thing or person is a Greek mode of speech for being that thing or person with which a man is said to be clothed. Be ye truly humble; and let your outward garb and conduct be a proof of the humility of your hearts. εγκομβωμα, from the original word εγκομβωσασθε, signifies often an outward ornamental garment, tied in different places with knots or bows, probably ornamented all over with bows or knots of different coloured ribands, silk twist, c. But it also signifies the outward garment worn by servants, slaves, girls, and shepherds, which was rather intended to be the guard of the other garments than an ornament to those thus dressed: and I am rather inclined to take it in this sense than in the former for as the apostle calls upon them to be subject to each other, he desires them to put on humility, as the encomboma or servant's dress, that they may appear to be such as were ready to serve; and that he cannot refer to this article of clothing as an ornament the next words sufficiently prove: God resisteth the PROUD, and giveth grace to the HUMBLE-the proud, with all their ornaments, God resists; while those who are clothed with the humble garment he adorns.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv5, 8 1Pe 5:5-7. Likewise, ye younger — Namely, in years,…
1Pe 5:5-7. Likewise, ye younger — Namely, in years, whether ministers or people; submit yourselves unto the elder — To those who are more advanced in years; give them all due respect, and be ready to take their counsel; yea, all of you — Elder or younger; be subject one to another — Endeavour, by mutual condescension, to make each other as easy and comfortable as possible. Perhaps, as in the preceding part of this chapter, the apostle, by elders, means persons holding sacred offices, such as pastors or teachers, he may here use the word in the same sense. If so, the word νεωτεροι, rendered younger, which signifies inferiors of any kind, (Luk 22:26,) and which is opposed to it here, may denote the laity, or people of the churches of Pontus, &c., whom the apostle further exhorts to be subject to one another. And be clothed all over with humility — The word εγκομβωσασθε, here used, is derived from the noun εγκομβωμα, which, Whitby says, was a frock put over the rest of the clothes; and that the apostle’s meaning is, that humility should be visible over all the other Christian graces and virtues in our whole behaviour. For God resisteth — Greek, αντιτασσεται, is set in battle array against the proud — See on Jas 4:6; and giveth grace to the humble — As humility is the fruit of God’s grace, so it prepares us for receiving larger measures thereof. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God — Which is in all your troubles; that is, receive his corrections with reverence and patient submission, even though wicked men should be made the instruments of them; that he may exalt you — Raise you above your trials, and from that state of depression in which you are; or exalt you to the glory and felicity of heaven; in due time — The time which he knows will be most proper for your exaltation. Casting all your care — Your anxious care, as the word μεριμναν means, in all your wants and pressures; upon him; for he careth for you — With the care which a father exercises toward his children. That is, whatsoever difficulties you meet with, be not solicitous about them, but refer yourselves to God’s providence, either for the removal of them, or support under them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Likewise, ye younger - All younger persons of either…
Likewise, ye younger - All younger persons of either sex.
Submit yourselves unto the elder - That is, with the respect due to their age, and to the offices which they sustain. There is here, probably, a particular reference to those who sustained the office of elders or teachers, as the same word is used here which occurs in 1Pe 5:1. As there was an allusion in that verse, by the use of the word, to age, so there is in this verse to the fact that they sustained an office in the church. The general duty, however, is here implied, as it is everywhere in the Bible, that all suitable respect is to be shown to the aged. Compare Lev 19:32; 1Ti 5:1; Act 23:4; 2Pe 2:9.
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Yea, all of you be subject one to another - In your proper ranks and relations. You are not to attempt to lord it over one another, but are to treat each other with deference and respect. See the Eph 5:21 note; Phi 2:3 note.
And be clothed with humility - The word here rendered “be clothed” (ἐγκομβώμαι egkombōmai) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is derived from κόμβος kombos - a strip, string, or loop to fasten a garment; and then the word refers to a garment that was fastened with strings. The word ἐγκόμβωμα engkombōma refers particularly to a long white apron, or outer garment, that was commonly worn by slaves. See Robinson, Lexicon; Passow, Lexicon. There is, therefore, special force in the use of this word here, as denoting an humble mind. They were to be willing to take any place, and to perform any office, however humble, in order to serve and benefit others. They were not to assume a style and dignity of state and authority, as if they would lord it over others, or as if they were better than others; but they were to be willing to occupy any station, however humble, by which they might honor God. It is known that not a few of the early Christians actually sold themselves as slaves, in order that they might preach the gospel to those who were in bondage. The sense here is, they were to put on humility as a garment bound fast to them, as a servant bound fast to him the apron that was significant of his station. Compare Col 3:13. It is not unusual in the Scriptures, as well as in other writings, to compare the virtues with articles of apparel; as that with which we are clothed, or in which we are seen by others. Compare Isa 11:5; Isa 59:17.
For God resisteth the proud ... - This passage is quoted from the Greek translation in Pro 3:34. See it explained in the notes at Jam 4:6, where it is also quoted.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v5 Ye young men, not only younger in age, but…
Ye young men, not only younger in age, but employed in offices inferior to those of the bishops and priests, be subject to the ancients. But even all of you by your carriage insinuate, practise, and give examples of humility one to another: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. St. James (Chap. iv. 6.) repeats the same doctrine and the same words. See also James ii. 12. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v5 Analysis:—Exhortation, addressed especially to the younger, to subjection, and…
1Pe_5:5-11
Analysis:—Exhortation, addressed especially to the younger, to subjection, and to all, to continued humility, to submissiveness to the hand of God, to faithfulness and vigilance, and thus to resist the devil. God Himself will then perfect and strengthen them.
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5Likewise, ye younger,17submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject18 one to another, and be clothed19 with humility:20for God resisteth21 the proud and 22giveth grace to the humble. 6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand 7of God, that he may exalt you in due time23: Casting24 all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 8Be sober, be vigilant; because25 your adversary the devil, as a roaring 9lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.26 Whom resist steadfast27 in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions28 are accomplished29 in your brethren30 that are in the world.31 10But the God of all grace, who hath called us32 unto his eternal glory by33 Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while,34 make you perfect, 11stablish,35 strengthen, settle36 you. To him be glory37 and dominion for ever and ever.38 Amen.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Pe_5:5. Likewise ye younger - - the elder.—ὁμοίως, as in 1Pe_3:7, leads to the corresponding duty of the younger members of the Church in general. These are not laymen, but the younger members of the Church in general. The antithesis would seem to warrant taking πρεσβύτεροι as describing the aged members of the Church, but this would involve understanding πρεσβύτεροι in a sense different from 1Pe_5:1; moreover ὁμοίως would conflict with such an interpretation. They are accordingly elders in office, who were, as we have already shown, generally also elders in years. At the same time, it may be assumed that all the elder persons were to take a voluntary part in some, though not in all the functions of presbyters. πρεσβύτεροι and νεώτεροι denote, therefore, the contrast between those who were either bound to lead, or might voluntarily do it, and those who were led and obeying. The view of Weiss, who understands by νεώτεροι or νεανίσκοι, Act_5:6; Act_5:10, of young persons who were to assist the elders in outward ministrations, is hardly tenable, at least on the ground on which he puts it. πάντες δὲ in what follows, embraces πρεσβύτεροι and νεώτεροι, and is not antithetical to the latter. Could a small portion of the Church only be exhorted to be subject to the presbyters? This would, at all events, necessitate the idea of official subordination in a narrowed sense. Such an observance in other Churches is also doubtful. [Alford, who takes a similar view, expresses it with more clearness and logical force. He says: “As the name πρεσβύτεροι had an official sense, viz.: superintendents, of the Church, so νεώτεροι likewise describes those who were the ruled, the disciples of the πρεσβύτεροι. Thus taken, it will mean here, the rest of the Church as opposed to πρεσβύτεροι.—M.]—ὑποτάγητε, cf. 1Pe_2:13; 1Pe_2:18; 1Pe_3:1. Calvin:—“Nothing is more repugnant to the mind of man (in his fallen state) than to be subject.”
Yea all.—πάντες δὲ, inferiors are to subject themselves to superiors, wives to their husbands, children to their parents, slaves to their masters, yea, in a certain sense, all to all, cf. Php_2:3; Eph_5:21; Rom_12:10. This subordination, which is insisted upon as a principal point in the order of the Christian commonwealth, must be founded on humble submission to God, cf. Mat_20:27; Mat_23:12; Luk_14:11; Luk_18:14.
And clothe yourselves with humility.—τὴν ταπεινοφροσύνην, lowliness of mind, which to the heathen was vile, brokenness of a proud heart, the opposite of ὑψηλἁ φρονεῖν, Rom_12:16; cf. Php_2:3; Eph_4:2; Col_3:12.—ἐγκομβοῦσθαι from κόμβος, a string or band to tie something with, to fasten it, a knot, or from ἐγκόμβωμα, explained by Pollux, according to Riemer, of a white apron or frock worn over the clothes to keep them clean, like the dusters used by coachmen and travellers. It was a garment usually worn by slaves. Calvin and others consider it to denote a show-dress, but this cannot be proved. Calov combines the two ideas: “We are to put on humility as a garment (cf. Col_3:12) and have it fastened tight to us.” [His language, literally translated, is somewhat ludicrous: “We should be buttoned up tight in it.”—M.]—We should be thoroughly surrounded by it, have it fit close all round, and suffer nobody to tear it away from us (cf. Joh_13:5, etc.,), even if it should be regarded as a servile garment. [Alford renders ἐγκομβώσασθε, gird on, from ἐγκόμβωμα, used for a kind of girdle by Longus, Pastoralia, 2, 33, and Pollux, 4, 119. See in Wetstein.—M.]
Because God opposeth Himself to the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.—The Apostle gives the reason for his exhortation in a citation from Pro_3:34, in the LXX., the only variation being the substitution of ό Θεός for κύριος, cf. Jam_5:6; Pro_29:23; Job_22:29.—ὑπερηφάνοις, Heb. לֵצִים, scorners, haughty, insolent men, unmindful of God, and proudly looking down upon others, Luk_1:51; Rom_1:30; 2Ti_3:2. “They assault, as it were, the honour of God in seizing that which belongs to God. Other sins fly from God, pride only opposes itself to God; other sins crush men, pride only raises them against God. Hence God also, in His turn, opposes Himself to the proud.” Gerhard. [Alford quotes the saying of Artabamus to Xerxes, Herod., 7:10, ὁρᾷς τὰ ὑπερέχοντα ζῶα ὡς κεραυνοῖ ὁ Θεός, οὐδὲ ἐᾷ φαντάζεσθαι, τὰ δὲ σμικρὰ οὐδὲν μν κνίξει; … φιλέει γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς τὰ ὑπερέ χοντα πάντα κολούειν.—M.].—ἀντινάσσεται, He opposes Himself to them as with an army. This sentiment was known to some extent to the better among the heathen, because the history of the world proves it. See Steiger, cf. Dan_4:34.—ταπεινοῖς= עָנִי, the lowly, those who acknowledge their vileness, and consider themselves mean and low.—δίδωσι χάριν = חֶן, His good pleasure rests upon them, and He gives them proofs of it, cf. Gen_6:8; Gen_18:3; Luk_1:30; Luk_2:52; Act_2:47.—“The proud who persist in offering Him armed resistance, are struck down by His mighty hand.” Gerhard. “There are, as it were, two hands of God under which we must humble ourselves, the one abases the proud, the other exalts the humble.” Augustine. [“Humilitas est vas gratiarum.” ibid.—M.]
1Pe_5:6. Humble yourselves therefore.—A new inference drawn from the citation from the Old Testament and the concluding exhortation. The Apostle once more reverts to suffering and causes, says Besser, the light of the citation to shine on the darkness of suffering of the Church.—ταπεινώθητε = bow yourselves in humility, recognize your impotence and the might of God; submit yourselves to Him quietly and willingly.
Under the mighty hand of God.—An allusion to 1Pe_4:17, to the impending judgments. He can put down and exalt, kill and make alive, wound and heal, Act_4:28; Act_4:30; Deu_32:39; 1Sa_2:6; 2Ki_5:7; Deu_3:24; Exo_14:31; Exo_3:19; Exo_32:11; Luk_1:51. He reveals His chastising hand also to believers in the sufferings which He sends for their refining and trial.
That He may exalt you in His time.—ἵνα ὑμᾶς, in order that in you may be fulfilled that law of the kingdom of God, “he that shall humble himself, shall be exalted,” Mat_23:12.—ὑψοῦν = to raise from the dust, to comfort and help, to advance to honour from disgrace, to joy from grief, 1Pe_1:6-7; cf. Jam_4:7; Jam_4:10.—ἐν καιρῷ (Lachmann adds ἐπισκοπῆς [A and many versions.—M.], probably a later addition from 1Pe_2:12) in the time appointed, the right time, here on earth or hereafter without any reference to our time.
1Pe_5:7. Casting all your care upon Him.—Holy freedom from all anxious care is essential to submission to God. “The mighty hand of God is in the service of a Father’s heart for He careth for you.” Besser:—ἐπιῤῥίψαντες from Psa_55:23. ἐπιῤῥπτω = גָּלַל and שָׁלַךְ to roll a burden, cf. Psa_22:11; Psa_37:5; Mat_6:25-34; Php_4:6, to cast upon, to, over, Luk_19:25; Luk_12:22.—”We cast our cares upon God in believing prayer and tell Him the need which excites our care, as children are wont to confide their grief to their father. We implore His help, remembering His mercy and His mighty hand. And He is not implored in vain.” Roos:—“Hence we must not struggle long with the burden of our cares but ease ourselves at once by earnest heart-yearning and fervent sighing.” Calov: “μέριμνα from μέρος, μερίζω, care, as it were, divides the heart into different parts, drawing it hither and thither.—πᾶσαν τὴν, anxiety in its entireness, the whole of it, undivided and without any reserve whatsoever; great cares and small ones, cares seen or hidden, pour them out before Him.
Because He careth for you.—μέλει, because He has you at heart, He has taken it upon Himself to care for you; not a hair of your head shall perish without His will, Luk_21:18; Mat_10:30.—[περὶ ὑμῶν. περί after verbs of caring denotes about. As to the distinction between περί and ὑπέρ, Weber, Demosth. p. 230, says: “περί solam mentis circumspectionem vel respectum rei, ὑπέρ simul animi propensionem etc. significat.” See Winer p. 390.—M.]. “Believers daily ascend Mount Moriah with Abraham, appropriating as their motto, the words, ‘God will provide,’ Gen_22:8. The Lord will provide on that mountain, that is on the mountain of Divine Providence, whence cometh our help, Psalms 121” Gerhard.
1Pe_5:8. Be sober, be vigilant.—That freedom from care must not degenerate into apathy, for we are still in the Church militant, not yet in the Church triumphant. To the care which troubles from within must be added the temptations which come from the kingdom of darkness. Hence the Apostle exhorts them anew to sobriety and vigilance, 1Pe_4:8; 1Pe_1:13. “Let this be your care.” Bengel.—νήψατε, γρηγορήσατε, go inseparably together, hence no copulative. γρηγοσήσατε cf. Luk_21:34; Luk_21:36. This watching consists, says Calov, in the prudence by which we avoid the lying in wait of Satan, in the shunning of false security and of sins and in the throwing out of sentinels, Eph_6:11; Mat_24:42; Mat_25:13; 1Co_16:13. The exhortation based upon the words of our Lord, springs simultaneously from the Apostle’s own experience, Mat_26:40-41; Luk_22:45; cf. 1Th_5:6. [Augustine: “Corde vigila, fide vigila, spe vigila, caritate vigila, operibus vigila.”—M.]
Your adversary.—The exposition which sees in “adversary” human slanderers, (Hensler and others) needs no refutation. Satan is called absolutely the adversary of believers, who stands up as the champion of law when he opposes them, their enemy, Mat_13:39; Joh_8:44; Rev_12:10; the prince of this world, Eph_2:2; 2Co_4:4; Joh_16:11; Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30; Act_26:18; 2Th_2:9; 1Jn_3:8. He is the declared opponent, both of Christ and of His members. He is the accuser of the brethren, Rev_12:10; cf. Job_1:6, etc.
Walketh about.—As in Job_1:7, he is said to go to and fro in the earth, so here he is said to walk about, which applies not to visible appearings, but to his operations by his instruments. Scripture indeed teaches that the evil spirits are confined in hell, 2Pe_2:4; Judges 6; Luk_8:31; but they are bound only in respect of their visible appearing, while they rule invisibly in the regions of the air, Eph_2:2; Eph_6:12; in darkness, they roam over desert places, Mat_12:43-44; Luk_11:24; and influence man mediately and immediately, Luk_22:23; Joh_13:27.
As a roaring lion.—The lion, according to Pliny, roars most violently, when he is hungry. Elsewhere Satan is compared with a serpent, on account of his cunning, 2Co_11:3; Rev_12:9; Rev_20:2; here, with a lion on account of his cruelty and boldness, his power and strength, and his lust of injury. “When furious Jews and mad heathens began a persecution of the Christians, or attacked individual Christians, or simply threatened them, it was the devil’s work, who then showed himself as a roaring lion. But since such things happened here and there, he is described as a roaring lion who walketh about. His object is to terrify and to tear, but especially to tear. His terrifying consisted of old in menacings, threatening edicts and anathemas, his tearing in executions.”—Roos. [Gerhard: “Comparatur diabolus leoni famelico et præ impatientia famis rugienti, quia perniciem nostram inexplebiliter appetit, nec ulla præda ei sufficit.”—M.]
Seeking whom he may devour.—Cf. Mat_23:34; 1Co_15:32; Heb_11:36. The comparison relates to both.—καταπίνειν, to drink greedily, to gulp or swallow down. He cannot devour every body, move them to fall away from Christ into sin, but only those who are not sober and vigilant. “The enemy and opponent of the Church despises those who are already in his power, whom he has estranged from the Church and led away captive and conquered. He passes them over, and continues to tempt those of whom he knows that Christ dwells in them.”—Cyprian.
1Pe_5:9. Whom resist firm in the faith.—How shall we offer resistance to this powerful enemy? 1. In firm faith. 2. In the thought that such suffering is not peculiar, but the universal lot of Christians.—ἀντίστητε. Jam_4:7, cites the same passage; Pro_3:34, has the same exhortation, “Submit yourselves therefore to God;” cf. 1Pe_5:10, and the charge: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This circumstance renders the reference of the one Epistle to the other very probable.—”Resist him, in order to drive him back when he attacks us. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is more mighty by far than the lion of hell. His victory and His might become our own through faith.” Calov. Eph_3:16; Joh_15:4; 1Co_6:17.—“Unbelievers fear the devil as a lion, the strong in faith despise him as a worm.” Isidor. “Victory over Satan lies in faith, because faith unites us to Christ, the victor. By faith the devil is driven to flight as is the lion by fire.” Gerhard.—στερεοί, firm, immovable in faith, in faithful cleaving to Christ and His word; cf. Act_16:5; Rom_4:20; Col_2:5; Col_2:7; Eph_6:16; Eph_4:14.
Knowing that the self-same sufferings—in the world.—εἰδότες, cf. 1Pe_1:18; 1Pe_3:9.—τὰ αὐτὰ, the same kind of sufferings of trial. The thought that these sufferings are common to all the brethren, is designed to warn against the conceit that they are rejected by God and man, that they are either extraordinary sinners or uncommon saints; cf. 1Co_10:13.—ἀδελφότητι, 1Pe_2:13.—ἐν κόσμῳ, to indicate the reason of their sufferings. You live in an imperfect world, among transitory things, and with the children of unbelief, Joh_9:5.—ἐπιτελεῖσθαι, used of the payment and discharge of taxes and debts; of the discharge and completion of some business or combat. The ideas of payment of debt and completion may be combined; they are endured by your brethren with a view to their completion (perfecting, so German) by the appointment of God.—τῇ ἀδελφότητι. for ὑπὸ τῆς ἀδελφότητος. De Wette and others take it as the Dative of the more remote object [i. e., the Dative of reference.—M.] as in γίνεσθαι ὑμῖν, 1Pe_4:12; so Wiesinger. “They not only are partakers of our sufferings, but our confederates in prayer and in combating the enemy.”—Calov.
1Pe_5:10. But the God of all grace.—A final promise full of rich consolation. χάρις denotes here, as in 1Pe_4:10, a Divine gift of grace, πάσης involving a plurality of gifts, cf. 1Pe_3:7; Jam_1:17; 1Co_12:6; Heb_4:16; 2Co_5:18; 2Co_1:3; Rom_15:5. “He is the source of all grace and of all goods.” Gerhard. “With the idea of Him [i. e., God.—M.] there is indissolubly united whatsoever is called grace.” Steiger.
Who hath called you, ὁ καλέσας ἡμᾶς (Lachmann and Tischendorf read ὑμας, which is the more authentic reading). His call discloses to us His gracious disposition. He will complete that which He has begun, cf. 1Pe_1:15.
Unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus.—The Divine act of calling us to that glory contains the earnest, that every thing will so come to pass as to take us forward to the end [τέλος,—M.] of the calling. καλέσας belongs to ἐν χριστῷ Ιησοῦ not to ὀλίγον παθόντας.—αἰώνιον δόξαν, 1Pe_5:1; 1Pe_4:13; 1Pe_1:11; 1Pe_1:5.—ἐν χριστῷ. In His power, for His sake and by His word, Eph_1:3; Eph_3:11; 2Ti_1:9, as the calling also takes place with reference to Him, cf. Gal_1:6; 1Th_2:12; 2Th_2:14.
When ye have suffered a little while.—ὀλίγον παθόντας are rightly connected by Steiger with what has gone before in the sense: which glory will come to pass in the natural order, after we have suffered a little, or on condition that we have suffered a little, 1Pe_3:14; Rom_8:18. So Wiesinger, cf. Php_1:6.—ὀλίγον, time as contrasted with infinite eternity, 1Pe_1:6. Gerhard: “The Apostle shows that from the same fountain of grace proceed both the first calling to heavenly glory and the ultimate consummation of this benefit.”
Himself will perfect you.—(The Fut. Indic. of this and the following verbs is preferable to the Optat.). καταρτίσει from ἄρτιος, complete, perfect of its kind, ready. He will perfect your deficiencies, make you ready in every sense, “so that no defect remain in you.” Bengel. Cf. Heb_13:21; 1Th_3:10; 2Co_13:11.
Confirm, στηρίζειν =to prop, make fast, to give firm stay and support to what is tottering, Luk_22:32 : Rom_1:11; 1Th_3:2; 2Pe_1:12; Jam_5:8. “Nothing shall cause you to shake.” Bengel.
Strengthen, σθενώσει from σθένος, might, bodily strength, hence to impart spiritual might, to strengthen spiritually. Gerhard thinks of the figure of a castle which is fortified, cf. 1Pe_5:9.
Ground, θεμελιώσει (Lachmann omits ὑμᾶς and θεμελιώσει. Tischendorf also omits the former), θεμελιόω, to found, fasten in the ground (fix as on a foundation), render strong, Mat_7:25; Luk_6:48; Heb_1:10; figuratively, Eph_3:17; Col_1:23; 1Co_15:58; 1Pe_2:4; 2Ti_2:19. Take note of the intrinsic development and rise of these verbs.
To Him is the glory and the might.—αὐτῷ ἡ δοξά. Expression of gratitude for these exhibitions of grace; men dare not take any share of the credit to themselves.—κράτος, the might, the rule, the authority which He employs in our preparation, Eph_3:20; 1Ti_6:16; Heb_13:21. The glory of God is the ultimate purpose of all.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Classical antiquity holds along with the recognition of the truth that God opposes Himself to the proud, the error which the prince of darkness threw into the heart of our parents, that the Deity is an envious Being, who, from jealousy, is impatient of any exaltation (Germ. Höhe) alongside His own. So in Herodotus, Lucanus. Many productions of modern literature, and many opinions of degraded men, exhibit just such suspicious thoughts.
2. Mute resignation, as found among fatalists, is infinitely different from that believing submission to the appointments of God, which Holy Scripture requires.
3. The teaching of Peter concerning the influence of Satan, decidedly annihilates the distortion of the truth, which here and there is advanced in our time, that the power of Satan ceased with the advent of Christ. Satan asks, says Calvin, nothing better than to be able to attack and capture us unawares. How could he better gain his end than by deceiving us into the belief of his non-existence, so as to deprive us of all fear of him.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Humility is like Jacob’s ladder, which leads from earth to heaven. 1. Its ground; 2. Its manifestation.—The Christian’s art of casting his care upon God. “Oh, he that can thoroughly learn this casting will experience the truth of Peter’s assertions. But he that does not learn this casting remains a cast-away, a broken and subjugated man, an outcast and cast off.” Luther.—Grace is a river which flows downwards.—Humility, the most precious attire.—The mighty hand of the wrath and grace of God.—The Christian’s way leads from the crowd to open space, from the depth to the height.—As the devil tempts men especially to unbelief, so he can only be resisted with firm faith.—The most powerful consolation is in the cross.
Starke:—Humility, the most lowly virtue, is the highest in value, for it brings grace; rain moistens the deep valleys; lowly violets are fragrant. Pride, the portrait of Satan, and an abomination to God; a poison which mars and corrupts whatever is good. Flee, soul, from this serpent, which has bitten many saints, and, as it were, cast them out of heaven.—Art thou high, God is higher; strong, God is stronger; mighty, God is more mighty; eminent, God is majestic. Thou art under (less than) God, humble thyself under Him. Sir_3:20.—We must suffer before we can come to honour, and God tests our humility by suffering, to see whether it be worthy of honour, Pro_15:33.—Humility is not a meritorious cause of exaltation, but a way to it, Col_3:3-4.—We must cast our care upon God not only in things temporal but also in things spiritual, especially in what belongs to the state of grace. Then we may feel assured that in God’s might, through faith, we shall be preserved unto salvation, 1Pe_1:5.—Man is like a pilgrim passing through a forest inhabited by bears and lions, and lodging at a place which is the home of robbers and murderers. Satan, holding unbelievers already in his power and in his claws, directs his most earnest endeavours against the godly.—Burdening oneself with eating and drinking, cares of living, and fleshly security, opens the gate and the door to the devil, that he may catch and ruin men.—Satan is strongly armed, but vincible. Faith is the best weapon, arm thyself with it for offensive and defensive warfare, Eph_6:16.—Nobody suffers anything new, singular or strange. Others before you also have made experience of it; the devil does not remit it to any.—Believers must always be combating, if not with men, yet with the devil and his angels. Earthly weapons are of no avail, but faith conduces to victory, Job_7:1; Heb_11:30, etc.—High calling of men! not to a royal wedding, not to the receiving of a transitory heritage but to the eternal glory of God. O what riches! what honour and grace! 1Th_2:12.—Thou thinkest that thou hast to suffer a long time: vain conceit! Is not thy whole life short, how then can thy suffering be long? 2Co_4:17.—Everything with God, from God, to God! Isa_40:29.—He who always talks of his human weakness as presenting a barrier to earnestness in the Christian life is virtually denying the God of all grace. Rev_21:8.
Roos:—Confirming is opposed to being overpowered by outward sufferings and inward temptations; strengthening to weakness, timidity and want of courage exhibited in the confession of the name of Christ, and in doing His will. Grounding is an exhibition of grace, whereby Christ and the Gospel preached by the Apostles, are made so clear to the soul, that it always knows why it does or suffers anything.
Herberger:—1. What should be our deportment in adversity, and in evil days? 2. What should be our deportment in prosperity and in good days? 3. What we ought to say, if fortune smiles or frowns on us?
Stier:—The way in which we must persevere, after having come to Christ, and the great perils of this way. These are: 1. The pride of our own heart; 2. the temptation and seduction in the world around us.
Kapff:—The great blessing of humility. 1. It finds favour with God and with men; 2. it is a power against Satan; 3. it imparts strength in suffering.
Staudt:—How one resists the adversary: 1. By humility; 2. by freedom from care; 3. by sobriety; 4. with a firm faith; 5. with the remembrance of these sufferings of the brethren, of the calling to glory and of the faithful and mighty God.
[Leighton:
1Pe_5:5. The hoary head is indeed a crown; but when? when found in the way of righteousness, Pro_16:31. There it shines and has a kind of royalty over youth: otherwise a graceless old age is a most despicable and lamentable sight. What gains an unholy old man or woman, by their scores of years, but the more scores of guiltiness and misery? And their white hairs speak nothing but whiteness for wrath.
Humility.—That the Christian put on that (the thing itself), not the appearance of it, to act in as a stage-garment, but the truth of it, as their constant habit, be clothed with humility. It must appear in your outward carriage. … It is seen as a modest man’s or woman’s apparel, which they wear not for that end, that it may be seen, and do not gaudily flaunt and delight in dressing; though there is a decency as well as necessity, which they do and may have respect to, yet that in so neat and unaffected a way, that they are a good example, even in that point. Thus humility in carriage and words is as the decorum of this clothing, but the main end is the real usefulness of it.—Rebecca’s beauty and jewels were covered with a veil; but when they did appear, the veil set them off and commended them, though at a distance it hid them.—O humility! the virtue of Christ, (that which He so peculiarly espoused) how dost thou confound the vanity of our pride!—One says well, “that he who carries other graces without humility, carries a precious powder in wind without a cover.”
But He giveth grace.—Pours it out plentifully upon humble hearts. His sweet dews and showers of grace slide off the mountains of pride and fall on the low valleys of humble hearts and make them pleasant and fertile.
1Pe_5:6. His gracious design is to make much room for grace by much humbling. …. It is necessary time and pains that is given to the unballasting of a ship, casting out the earth and sand, when it is to be laden with spices. We must be emptied more, if we would have of that fulness and riches which we are longing for.
1Pe_5:7. The whole golden mines of all spiritual comfort and good are His, the spirit itself. Then will He not furnish what is fit for thee, if thou humbly attend on Him and lay the care of providing for thee upon His wisdom and love? This were the sure way to honour Him with what we have, and to obtain much of what we have not; for certainly He deals best with those that do most absolutely refer all to Him.
1Pe_5:8-9. That we may watch, it concerns us to be sober. The instruction is military, and a drunken soldier is not fit to be on the watch.
1Pe_5:10. As the first, perfect, implies more clearly than the rest, their advancement in victory over their remaining corruptions and infirmities and their progress towards perfection. Stablish has more express reference to both the inward lightness and inconstancy than is natural to us, the counter-blasts of persecutions and temptatations and to outward oppositions, and imports the curing of the one and support against the other. Strengthen, the growth of other graces, especially gaining of further measures of those graces wherein they are weakest and lowest. And settle, though it seems the same, and in substance is the same with the other word stablish, yet it adds somewhat to it very considerably; for it signifies to found or fix upon a sure foundation, and so indeed may have an aspect to Him who is the foundation and strength of believers, on whom they build by faith, even Jesus Christ, in whom we have all both victory over sin and increase of grace, establishment of spirit, and power to persevere against all difficulties and assaults, Isa_28:16; Mat_7:24-29.—M.]
[1Pe_5:5. Beware of the pride of humility. 1Pe_5:7. Most of our cares are either imaginary or about unnecessaries. Faith and trust in God, the infallible remedy for them.
1Pe_5:8. Our enemy is expert in the variation of his tactics; defeated, he is even more dangerous than victorious. οὐ δίδωσιν ἀνάπαυσιν, οὐδέ νικών, οὐδέ νικώ μενος. Plato in Vita Marcel.
1Pe_5:9. The motives to resistance are thus strongly put by Tertullian, Lib. ad Martyr, 1 Peter 3 : “Stat conflictus conspector et victoriæ, Agonothetes, Deus vivus: Xystarches, Spiritus Sanctus: Epistates, Christus Jesus: Corona, æternitatis brabium, angelicæ in cœlis substantiæ politia, gloria in secula seculorum.”
1Pe_5:10. The God of all grace.—Mohammed heads every surat or chapter (with the exception of one) of the Korân with the words Bismillahi, arrahmani arraheemi, signifying, “In the name of the most merciful God,” or, as some prefer, “In the name of the God of all grace.” Savary says: “This formula is expressly recommended in the Korân. The Mohammedans pronounce it whenever they slaughter an animal, at the commencement of their reading and of all important actions. It is with them that which the sign of the cross is with Christians. Gidab, one of their celebrated authors, says, that when these words were sent down from heaven, the clouds fled on the side of the east, the winds were lulled, the sea was moved, the animals erected their ears to listen, the devils were precipitated from the celestial spheres,” etc.—M.]
[1Pe_5:5. Parkhurst: The original word, here rendered “be clothed,” is very beautiful and expressive. It signifies to clothe properly with an outer ornamental garment tied loosely upon the wearer with knots. And it implies, that the humility of Christians, which is one of the most ornamental graces of their profession, should constantly appear in all their conversation, so as to strike the eye of every beholder, and that this amiable grace should be so closely connected with their persons, that no occurrence, temptation or calamity should be able to strip them of it.—M.]
[1Pe_5:8. Stanhope: Be sober; the advice comprises not only a temperate use of the creatures appointed for our sustenance and refreshment, but the government of our passions and desires in general, with respect to any objects or events whatsoever, which in this present life are wont to provoke them to violence and excess.—M.]
Footnotes:
[17]1Pe_5:5. [ὑποτάγητε=be subject.—M.]
[18]1Pe_5:5. [Rec. after ἀλλήλοις inserts ὑποτασσόμενοι, with K. L.; A. B., Sinait. and many versions omit it.—M.] So also Lachmann and Tischendorf; in that case, translate, “yea, all gird on humility to one another.”
[19]1Pe_5:5. [ἐγκομβώσσθε, to bind a thing on oneself, wear it constantly; the sense is, wear humility as a garment, and retaining the translation of E. V., render: “clothe yourselves with humility.” For the etymology of the word, see note below.—M.]
[20]1Pe_5:5. [ὄτι=because.—M.]
[21]1Pe_5:5. [ἀντιτάσσεται=setteth himself in opposition to, i. e., opposeth himself to.—M.]
[22]1Pe_5:5. [δὲ=but, not ‘and.’—M.]
[23]1Pe_5:6. [ἐν καιρῷ=in His time (Germ.), in the time appointed, καιρός, an anarthrous concrete, Winer, p. 136.—M.]
[24]1Pe_5:7. [πᾶσαν τήν μέριμναν=all your care, that is, in its entironess, once for all, so as to render the recurrence of it impossible.—M.]
[25]1Pe_5:8. [Rec., with L., inserts ὅτι before ἀντίδικος.—M.]
[26]1Pe_5:8. [K. L. and others have τίνα καταπιεῖν; Sin. καταπῖν.—M.]
[27]1Pe_5:9. [στερεοί=firm, better than stedfast.—M.]
[28]1Pe_5:9. [τὰ αὐτὰ τῶν παθημάτων=the self-same sufferings; this construction occurs no where else in the New Testament.—M.]
[29]1Pe_5:9. [ἐπιτελεῖσθαι=are being accomplished, in course of accomplishment.—M.]
[30]1Pe_5:9. [ἀδελφότητι=brotherhood.—M.]
[31]1Pe_5:9. [Translate the whole verse: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom (to whom offer resistance) resist, firm in the faith, knowing that the self-same sufferings are being accomplished by your brotherhood in the world.”—M.]
[32]1Pe_5:10. [Rec., with K. and several versions, reads ἡ μᾶς, but A. B. L. and others have ὑμᾶς; so also Sinait.—M.]
[33]1Pe_5:10. [ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ=in (not by) Christ Jesus.—M.]
[34]1Pe_5:10. [ὀλίγον παθόντας=when ye have suffered a little while.—M.]
[35]1Pe_5:10. [Rec., with K. L., inserts ὑμᾶς after καταρτίσει; A. B. and others omit it. στηρίξει=to confirm, establish.—M.]
[36]1Pe_5:10. [θεμελιώσει=ground you, fix you on a foundation.—M.]
[37]1Pe_5:11. [Translate: “To Him is glory,” preferable to the Subjunctive. Rec., with K. L., etc., reads ἡ δόξα καὶ before τὸ κράτος.—M.]
[38]1Pe_5:11. [εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων=unto the ages of the ages. B. omits the last words.—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv5–9 ye younger--The deacons were originally the younger men, the…
ye younger--The deacons were originally the younger men, the presbyters older; but subsequently as presbyter expressed the office of Church ruler or teacher, so Greek "neoteros" means not (as literally) young men in age, but subordinate ministers and servants of the Church. So Christ uses the term "younger." For He explains it by "he that doth serve," literally, "he that ministereth as a deacon"; just as He explains "the greatness" by "he that is chief," literally, "he that ruleth," the very word applied to the bishops or presbyters. So "the young men" are undoubtedly the deacons of the Church of Jerusalem, of whom, as being all Hebrews, the Hellenistic Christians subsequently complained as neglecting their Grecian widows, whence arose the appointment of the seven others, Hellenistic deacons. So here, Peter, having exhorted the presbyters, or elders, not to lord it over those committed to them, adds, Likewise ye neoters or younger, that is, subordinate ministers and deacons, submit cheerfully to the command of the elders [MOSHEIM]. There is no Scripture sanction for "younger" meaning laymen in general (as ALFORD explains): its use in this sense is probably of later date. The "all of you" that follows, refers to the congregation generally; and it is likely that, like Paul, Peter should notice, previous to the general congregation, the subordinate ministers as well as the presbyters, writing as he did to the same region (Ephesus), and to confirm the teaching of the apostle of the Gentiles.
Yea--to sum up all my exhortations in one.
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be subject--omitted in the oldest manuscripts and versions, but TISCHENDORF quotes the Vatican manuscript for it. Then translate, "Gird (Pe1 1:13; Pe1 4:1) fast on humility (lowliness of mind) to one another." The verb is literally, "tie on with a fast knot" [WAHL]. Or, "gird on humility as the slave dress (encomboma)": as the Lord girded Himself with a towel to perform a servile office of humility and love, washing His disciples' feet, a scene in which Peter had played an important part, so that he would naturally have it before his mind. Compare similarly Pe1 5:2 with Joh 21:15-17. Clothing was the original badge of man's sin and shame. Pride caused the need of man's clothing, and pride still reigns in dress; the Christian therefore clothes himself in humility (Pe1 3:3-4). God provides him with the robe of Christ's righteousness, in order to receive which man must be stripped of pride.
God resisteth the proud--Quoted, as Jam 4:6, from Pro 3:34. Peter had James before his mind, and gives his Epistle inspired sanction. Compare Pe1 5:9 with Jam 4:7, literally, "arrayeth Himself against." Other sins flee from God: pride alone opposeth itself to God; therefore, God also in turn opposes Himself to the proud [GERHARD in ALFORD]. Humility is the vessel of all graces [AUGUSTINE].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5. Ye younger—Not simply younger in years, as opposed…
5. Ye younger—Not simply younger in years, as opposed to elder, which must here mean, as in 1Pe_5:1, elders in office. Many understand the laity, the rest of the congregation, to be meant, upon whom obedience to their ministers is enjoined, as in Heb_13:17; others, the deacons, or at least a class of ministers inferior and subordinate to the presbyters. The clear distinction made, and a comparison with Luk_22:26-27, where the “greater” and “younger” are similarly opposed, would seem to confirm this view.
All… clothed with humility—Both pastors and people are to use their relative positions for the service and benefit of one another, as belonging to a common brotherhood. The Greek for clothed is very significant. It refers to a long, coarse apron, or garment, that was worn by servants as a badge of service. As a servant girded himself with it for his work, so are Christians to put on humility, both in spirit and demeanour, that they may serve one another. Alford suggests that the allusion is to our Lord’s girding himself with a towel and washing his disciples’ feet. Joh_13:4-5.
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God resisteth—Sets himself in battle array against the proud, as they, in their arrogance, are set against him or his people. See Pro_3:34.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder]…
5. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder] The question meets us, whether the words refer to age only, or to office as connected with age. In either case we have, of course, a perfectly adequate meaning. In favour of the latter view we have the facts (1) that in Luk_22:26, “he that is younger” in the first clause corresponds to “he that serveth” or “ministereth” in the second; (2) that in Act_5:6 the term is obviously used of those who were discharging duties like those of the later deacons, sub-deacons or acolytes; (3) that it is hardly likely that the same writer would have used the word “elder” in two different senses in such close juxtaposition. On the whole, therefore, there seems sufficient reason for adopting this view. St Paul’s use of the term, however, in the precepts of 1Ti_5:1, Tit_2:6 is, perhaps, in favour of the other.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another] The words which answer to “be subject” are wanting in some of the best MSS. and have the character of an insertion made to complete the sense. If we omit the participle, the words “all of you, one to another” may be taken either with the clause that precedes or with that which follows.
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be clothed with humility] The Greek verb (ἐγκομβώσασθε) for “clothe yourselves” has a somewhat interesting history. The noun from which it is derived (κόμβος) signifies a “knot.” Hence the verb means “to tie on with a knot,” and from the verb another noun is formed (ἐγκομβῶμα), denoting a garment so tied on. This, according to its quality, might be the outer “over-all” cloak of slaves, or the costly mantle of princes. The word may have well been chosen for the sake of some of the associations which this its history suggests. Men were to clothe themselves with lowliness of mind, to fasten it tight round them like a garment, so that it might never fall away (comp. the same thought as applied to hatred in Psa_109:17-18), and this was to be worn, as it were, over all other virtues, half-concealing, half-sheltering them. It might present, from one point of view, the aspect of servitude. It was, in reality, a raiment more glorious than that of kings (Act_12:21), or those who live in kings’ houses (Mat_11:8). In the case of slaves, probably in all cases, the garment so named was white. (Poll. Onomast. 4:119.) This also probably was not without a suggestive significance. In Col_3:12 we have, though not the word, a thought very closely parallel.
for God resisteth the proud] We have here another passage quoted from the Old Testament (Pro_3:34, from the LXX. version with “God” substituted for “the Lord”) without the formula of quotation. It is interesting (1) as taking its place in the list of passages from the Book of Proverbs, which St Peter quotes both in the First and Second Epistles; and (2) as being quoted also by St James (Jas_4:6). The parallelism which we have already traced between the two writers (see notes on chap. 1Pe_1:6-7; 1Pe_1:24) makes it probable that St Peter may have derived his quotation from his brother Apostle of the circumcision. In Jas_4:6 the promise is cited with more special reference to the grace which gives men strength for the combat against evil, here in its wider and more general aspect.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–9 (5) Likewise, ye younger.—Self-submission has been, at least tacitly,…
(5) Likewise, ye younger.—Self-submission has been, at least tacitly, inculcated upon the pastors in 1Pe_5:3; so the writer can say “likewise” in turning to the rest. In comparison with the presbyters or elders, the lay people are styled “younger,” or “juniors;” although in point of natural age, or of baptismal seniority, they might be the older. So our Lord addresses His disciples (according to the rabbinical fashion) as “children,” though there is good reason to suppose that several were older than Himself; and St. Paul, in the same way, called all the Corinthian Christians his “sons.” This seems to be the most natural interpretation of the word; for it was undoubtedly in respect of the supposed juniority of the whole of the lay people that their rulers received the name of “presbyters.” Otherwise there is nothing against the interpretation which makes “ye younger to be an address to those who held inferior offices in the Church, such as deacons, catechists, readers, and the like (Act_5:6; Act_5:10). The danger of any insubordination of the laity or inferior clergy against the priesthood at such a crisis was very obvious.
Yea, all of you.—Here the true text strikes out the words “be subject and,” so that the clause will run, Yea, all of you be clothed with humility one to another. Not only mutual complaisance between rulers on the one hand and ruled on the other, but clergy to clergy and laity to laity are to behave with the same self-suppression.
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Be clothed with humility.—The Greek verb is a rare and curious one. It means properly, “tie yourselves up in humility.” Humility is to be gathered tight round about us like a cloak, and tied up so that the wind may not blow it back, nor the rain beat inside it. But there is a still further and more delicate shade of meaning in the word. There was a peculiar kind of cape, well known by a name taken from this verb (we might call it a “tie-up”), and this kind of cape was worn by slaves, and by no others. It was a badge of servitude. Thus St. Peter bids them all gird themselves for one another in a slave’s “tie-up” of humility. None are to be masters in the Church of Christ. And the humility is to be the very first thing noticed about them, their outward mark and sign.
For God resisteth the proud.—The exhortation to mutual self-submission is reinforced by a quotation of a well-known proverb. The proverb is based on the LXX. translation of Pro_3:34; but as it differs somewhat from both the Hebrew and the Greek of that passage, and is found word for word in Jas_4:6, we may probably give the same account of it as of the other proverb quoted in 1Pe_4:8, where see Note. A sad calamity for Christians under persecution, suddenly to find God Himself in array on the enemy’s side! (such is the meaning of “resisteth”); and this is what they would find, if they went against discipline. On the other hand, if they were submissive, He would bestow “grace” upon them; here again, perhaps, not in the strict theological sense, but in that of “favour.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Is…
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Is St. Peter still using the last word in its official sense? or is he passing to its ordinary meaning? It seems impossible to answer the question with certainty. Some think that the word newteroi, younger, had also acquired an official meaning, and that it is used here, and in Act_5:6 of assistant-ministers who were employed to help the presbyters and apostles. Others think that it had a meaning nearly equivalent to our "laity" as distinguished from the presbyters. But, on the whole, it seems more natural to suppose that the word "elder," when once used, led St. Peter on from one meaning to another, and that here he is simply speaking of the respect due to age. (comp. 1Ti_5:1) Yea, all of you be subject one to another. The word uJpotassomenoi, rendered "be subject," is omitted in the most ancient manuscripts. If their reading is adopted, the dative, ajllhloiv, one to another," may be taken either with the previous clause," Submit yourselves unto the elder; yea, all of you, to one another;" or with that which follows, Be clothed with humility one towards another." And be clothed with humility. The word rendered "be clothed" ejgkobwsasqe occurs here only, and is a remarkable word. It is derived from kombov, a knot or band; the corresponding noun. ejgkombwma, was the name of an apron worn by slaves, which was tied round them when at work, to keep their dress clean. The word seems to teach that humility is a garment which must be firmly fastened on and bound closely round us. The association of the slave"s apron seems also to suggest that Christians should be ready to submit to the humblest works of charity for others, and to point back to the lowliness of the Lord Jesus, when he girded himself, and washed the feet of his apostles. (Joh_13:4) It may be noticed that the Greek word for "humility" tapeinofrosunh is used only by St. Paul, except in this place. For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. St. Peter is quoting from the Septuagint Version of Pro_3:34, without marks of quotation, as in other places. St. James quotes the same passage, (Jam_4:6) and with the samevariation, substituting "God" for "Lord," as St. Peter does. The Greek word for "resisteth ajntitassetai is a strong one: God rangeth himself as with an army against the haughty.
Vers. 5-9.
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General exhortations.
I TO HUMILITY.
1. In the case of the young. They must submit themselves to the elder. Young men are often tempted to despise their seniors, to regard them as antiquated, as obstructive; to be impatient to remodel everything according to their own devices; to put more trust in the impetuosity characteristic of youth than in the mellow wisdom of age. Therefore the Scriptures exhort young men to be sober-minded. (Tit_2:6) They must learn to keep in check the extravagance of their aspirations, and to remember that the experience of years gives greater weight to the opinions and advice of their elders. They must submit themselves to the elder; for "the hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness." "A graceless old age," Leighton says, "is a most despicable and lamentable sight. What gains an unholy man or woman by their scores of years, but the more scores of guiltiness and misery? Their white hairs speak of nothing but ripeness for wrath. But, found in the way of righteousness, the hoary head shines, and has a kind of royalty." To such young men should submit themselves. Respect for age is graceful and becoming in the young, and has the sanction of Holy Scripture.
2. Generally. All should be subject one to another. "Honor all men," the apostle has already taught us. (1Pe_2:17) Respect is due to all men, whatever their outward condition; the true Christian will respect the feelings of his humblest dependents. For all men are the creatures of the one Father; all are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ; all are dear to the Savior; and he who loves the Lord who bought us must care for all those whom he bought with his blood. Therefore the Christian will in a true sense be subject to all men. He will make himself, like St. Paul, the servant of all; he will understand that he has duties even to the wicked and the most degraded; he will readily give up his own wishes, and submit sometimes to work and surroundings which are coarse and offensive and utterly distasteful to his feelings; he will be content to be "made all things to all men, that he might by all means save some" (1Co_9:22) Thus he will be clothed with humility. He will wear it like a close-fitting dress, firmly fastened on; for unless it is woven into the very character, it is quickly driven away and dissipated by the constant incitements to proud and self-seeking thoughts, which the varying circumstances of daily life continually suggest. It may be despised, it may be regarded as a garment fit for slaves; but he knows how precious it is; he will wrap it tightly round him, and will be careful not to let it go; for while he is covered with it, his inner soul is kept white and clean from many stains and spots which, but for the robe of humility, he would inevitably contract in the stir and bustle of everyday life. The Lord himself chose and wore that lowly garb. He girded himself; he washed his disciples" feet, setting us an example that we should do as he hath done unto us; that as he, our Lord and Master, washed the feet of his creatures, so we should be willing to submit ourselves to humble works of Christian love for the lowliest of our brethren.
3. Its blessedness. "God resisteth the proud." It is not out of envy, as the heathen falsely imagined, and as the serpent whispered to Eve; the greatness of men does not irritate God, as the Persian thought (Herod., 7. 10); man"s little greatness is nothing in comparison with the eternal majesty of the Most High. It is out of loving care for us; it is because pride means rebellion, and rebellion is the very essence of sin; and sin means misery, ruin, death. Therefore "God resisteth the proud;" he setteth himself in array against them; they must be brought low; they must sooner or later be humbled to the very dust: for how can they stand against the Lord God Almighty? "He that exalteth himself shall be abased." But "he giveth grace to the humble." The heart that is filled with pride hath no room for the blessed grace of God; thronging thoughts of self-drive out the holy thought of God. And the presence of God is the secret of holiness; without that presence there is no spiritual life. "Abide in me," saith the Lord. It is only lowly-hearted men who can abide in Christ; they obey the calling of the Lord; they come out of themselves, so to speak, away from the bustling, restless pursuit of self-interest and self-exaltation into the quiet, solemn, hallowing sphere of the blessed Savior"s presence; they abide in that presence, because proud thoughts of self do not draw them away, because, through the absence of pride and self-assertion, they are enabled to concentrate their minds upon the gracious presence of Christ. And while they abide in the humble and reverent sense of his presence, he abideth in them; he makes his influence more deeply felt, more fully enjoyed. The spiritual life, which comes from him who is the Life, spreads itself throughout their whole being, bringing forth the fruit of holiness. Thus God giveth grace to the humble. Therefore we ought to humble ourselves under his mighty hand. His hand is mighty, almighty; it is vain to strive against the Lord; he brings down the proud and humbles them to the dust. But not all whom the Lord humbles with his chastisements learn to humble themselves; they are crushed, broken down, but they do not learn that sweet humility which recognizes its own unworthiness and submits in patient resignation. He doth not exalt all who are humbled, but all who humble themselves. Let us seek this precious grace of him who is meek and lowly in heart. "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He is exalted now above all heavens. He will exalt those who learn of him the grace of humility, who take up the cross, denying themselves. He will exalt them in due time; in his own good time: not yet, perhaps; but surely, sooner or later, when he sees it best for us; certainly at the great day, when those who have taken his yoke upon them shall sit with him upon his throne.
II TO TRUSTFULNESS.
1. Description of Christian trustfulness. It consists in casting all our care upon God. This life is full of anxieties. They vary indefinitely with our position in life, our circumstances, our characters; but none are free from them. They throng in upon our thoughts and disturb our rest with their distracting presence. The Lord says, "Take no thought;" St. Paul echoes his words, "Be careful for nothing;" St. Peter, quoting the ancient Scriptures, bids us cast all our care upon the Lord. It is not thoughtfulness which our Lord and his apostles forbid; it is not carelessness and improvidence which Holy Scripture commends. The original word in each passage means "anxiety, distracting care." We must do our duty, we must provide, as far as lieth in us, for ourselves and for those dependent on us, and then trust in God, casting all our anxiety upon him. If we have learned to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we shall know that all our troubles and trials come from him; we shall know, too, that his fatherly
2. hand is ever over his people, that they are in his hands always. Humility increases trustfulness; the sense of our own weakness deepens our confidence in God.
3. The grounds of it. "He careth for us." His care is not like ours; it is not anxiety merimna. It is calm, loving providence. He ordereth all things both in heaven and earth, and he cares for us aujtw melei peri hJmwn, for he loves us. All things are known to him the fall of every sparrow. He knows all our needs, difficulties, dangers, temptations, with the same fullness of knowledge and depth of sympathy as if there were no other beings in the world besides ourselves and our God. In all those troubles he cares for us, and guides them all for our eternal good. If we have faith in his love, we shall be able to cast all our care upon him. Hezekiah took the threatening letter of Sennacherib into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. So should we do with all our anxieties, great and small. "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." If we do this, if we lay not only the great anxieties which come occasionally, but also the little daily trials of common life, before the Lord, then the peace of God shall keep our hearts and thoughts. "He careth for us." The thought is full of deep sweetness and strong consolation. Only let us take it into our hearts, and we shall be able to roll away from ourselves the burden of anxieties and to cast it upon God.
III TO WATCHFULNESS.
1. The need for it. We may cast all our care upon him; yet we must watch and pray. "This is the Scripture logic," says Leighton. "It is he that worketh in you to will and to do. Then, would you possibly think, I need not work at all, or, if I do, it may be very easily and securely? No; therefore, says the apostle, "work out your own salvation;" yea, and do it with fear and trembling. Work you in humble obedience to his command, and in dependence on him who worketh all in you." We are bidden to cast our anxieties upon God for the very reason that we may have time and freedom of thought to care for our souls. There is need of watchfulness and of that temperance without which we cannot be watchful, for we have an adversary, an enemy, who seeks our ruin. That adversary is restless in his insatiable malice. He teeth to and fro in the earth; he walketh about. There is no corner of the earth, no human being safe from his assaults; not even the remote wilderness, not even the incarnate Son of God. He walketh about, impatient, eager, full of rage and bitter hatred, like a lion roaring from the pangs of unsatisfied hunger. The holy Lord Jesus Christ thirsted for the salvation of souls; this horrible lion hungers for their death and endless misery. He is always seeking whom he may devour. Therefore the Christian must be ever on the watch; temptations come when we least expect them. He must be strictly temperate; excess in meat and drink, self-indulgence in any form, prevent him from watching, and expose him to the wiles of the enemy.
2. Encouragements for it.
(1) The strength of faith. We are bidden to resist this roaring lion, to withstand him in all his fury. He is strong; but this is the victory that overcometh, even our faith. Faith is strong, because it lays hold upon God, and finds in him almighty strength. "Faith," says Leighton, "sets the stronger Lion of the tribe of Judah against this roaring lion of the bottomless pit; that delivering Lion against this devouring lion." Faith gives steadfastness, solid firmness, for it sets our feet upon the Rock, and that Rock is Christ. "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth forever.
(2) The thought of community in suffering. "There hath no temptation taken us, but such as is common to man." We must not suppose, as we are apt to do, that we are of all men the most sorely tried. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered being tempted. He endured for us that great agony of temptation in the wilderness. All our brethren in the faith are tempted too, and tried by various forms of suffering. Let us, seeing that we are encompassed about with a great cloud of witnesses, follow the faith of the saints and martyrs of the Lord; but, above all, let us look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, learning of him to endure the cross and to be faithful unto death.
LESSONS.
1. Self-confidence and presumption are among the great dangers of youth. Let the young learn to reverence the aged.
2. Humility is one of the most precious of Christian graces. Let us learn it of Christ the Lord, and practice it in our intercourse with men.
3. Humility must be woven into the white robe of righteousness. Let us wrap it closely round us.
4. God resisteth the proud. Herod Agrippa was eaten of worms because he gave not God the glory. Let us hate pride and crush it out.
5. The humble will be trustful. Let us remember always that God careth for us, and always strive to cast our care upon him.
6. Yet be watchful, for the devil is ever at work. "Resist him, steadfast in faith.
The rightful authority of experience.
Complaints are commonly made in our day that the authority of age, experience, and social and ecclesiastical position is little reverenced or even regarded. There have been times when such authority has been boldly asserted on the one hand, and readily acknowledged on the other. Owing to the growth of education and of democratic sentiment, a very different habit now prevails. There is no fear of harshness, of foul and arbitrary conduct, on the part of the older, or even on the part of the great, in human society. The danger is all in the other direction. Hence the urgent necessity, at the present time, of attention to the directions of St. Peter in this passage.
I THE SCORE OF THE PRECEPT.
1. Children are required by Divine authority to be subject to parents.
2. The young and inexperienced in human society are enjoined to show respect and deference to those who have seen much of life, and who have acquired lessons of experience and wisdom.
3. In the Church of Christ, novices and recruits should place themselves under the guidance of veterans, and members of any congregation should submit to the judgment and authority of those who are placed in office. Probably this is the especial reference of the apostle in this passage, it would, indeed, be absurd to imagine that men can be trusted with absolute and arbitrary power, or that a blind, unreasoning obedience is required of intelligent beings. There are limits alike to authority and to submission. But the lessons of history teach us that, within such limits, deference, service, and submission may wisely and safely be rendered.
II THE REASONABLENESS AND ADVANTAGES OF OBEDIENCE TO THIS PRECEPT.
1. Submission is for the good of those who are subject. A lawless spirit is a hopeless spirit. Where there is no modesty, no humility, there is little prospect of moral growth, of a mature, noble, and serviceable character.
2. Especially, obedience and subjection are the best preparation for the exercise of authority and command. As society is constituted, it is natural and necessary that, whilst generation succeeds generation, the younger should step into the places of those who have gone before them, and should wield the power which they formerly acknowledged and cheerfully obeyed.
3. Thus the order and happiness of society and of the Christian Church are secured and promoted. Insubordination is a curse alike to Church and state. True liberty and true order are not opposed, but harmonious. It is well with that community where the elder and the rulers exercise their power in the sight of God and for the public good; and where the younger and the subject submit themselves "to every ordinance of man for the Lord"s sake. J.R.T.
Vers. 5, 6.
Christian humility.
It is natural for men to think highly of themselves and depreciatingly of others. Pride was always reckoned by the old Catholic moralists among the seven deadly sins. It is a sin into which too many habitually fall, however it may seem to them anything hut a sign of degradation. Christianity attacks this habit, and seeks to substitute for it in human character the fair but often despised grace of humility.
I THE SPHERE OF HUMILITY.
1. The Christian is humble before God. A just and scriptural conception of the Divine attributes is necessary to true humility. A man must compare himself with infinite greatness and excellence, with infinite power and wisdom, in order that he may form a proper estimate of himself. Such humility displays itself in reverential prayer, in scrupulous obedience, in patient submission, especially under disciplinary affliction.
2. The Christian is humble in his demeanor towards his fellow-men. This is a far more difficult exercise. And it must not he supposed that humility is expected, of the same kind and the same degree, in the attitude of man to man, as in the attitude of man to God. A wise man is not required to regard a fool as his superior in wisdom, or a virtuous man to regard a criminal as his superior in character. But the Christian is to guard against an overbearing and haughty spirit; he is to treat the lowly and the poor with due respect and consideration. Humility is best shown in the bearing of a man towards those who are his inferiors, and even towards those who are ungrateful for favors and services.
II THE DISCIPLINE AND HABIT OF HUMILITY. The expression in the original translated "gird yourselves with humility," is not without difficulty; yet it seems to imply both that an effort and resolution are required, and that humility is to become a vestment, a clothing, to be habitually worn for use.
III THE MOTIVES TO HUMILITY. The need of powerful motives in order to overcome powerful temptations is obvious; and such motives are provided for the Christian"s benefit and aid.
1. The consciousness of our own feebleness and ill desert. None who truly knows himself can cherish pride. His frequent errors in the past, his liability still to err, must be too present to his mind. to allow of self-confidence and boasting.
2. The pressing necessity of the service of man. All around us are those who need help. It may not promote our personal advantage to minister to their needs; and such ministry may involve the sacrifice of self, the crucifixion of pride.
3. The prospect of the future exaltation of the lowly. This is a proper motive, for it is one presented by the inspired writers. The way of self-denial is the way to victory.
4. The precepts and example of the Lord Jesus himself must have great force with his affectionate followers; and he has shown us that it is right and admirable even "to wash one another"s feet"! J.R.T.
Vers. 5-7.
The conduct becoming Church members towards the elders of the Church.
The apostle is not thinking of those who are young in years when he writes, Likewise, ye younger." In the early Church the ministers were to he tried men, consequently they were more advanced in experience than most of the rest, and thus were called elders as their official designation; and those who are here addressed are the private members of the Church. He speaks of them as "younger," a term corresponding to "elder." "Ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder." All that Peter actually says of the conduct becoming the Church to its ministers is in that word "submit." He then applies the principle on a much broader scale. From the fifth verse to the ninth the one idea is self-submission, and, having struck that key, he says, "Let there be the humility of subjection to one another; the humility of submission to God; and the humility of suspicion with regard to Satan." Our subject is The conduct becoming Church members towards the elders of the Church, and the principle applied generally. Self-suppression was not always Peter"s characteristic; the Peter of the Gospels almost always asserted himself and took the lead; the Peter of the Epistles, Peter the aged, has grown in gentleness by growing downwards.
I THE DIVINE DEMAND FOR HUMILITY. "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." It is probably correct to say that pride is wherever self is put first, and refuses to submit either to God or man. There is the pride of self-righteousness; the pride of self-glorification; the pride of self-reliance; the pride of self-will, etc.
1. Think of Gods resistance of pride. The word really means, "God sets himself in battle array" against the proud. But can God be against man? May I use an illustration? God is like a river; his laws ever sweep to the great ocean of blessing his love desires for men, and those who submit to be carried by them where they will, ever find that God is wholly on man"s side; but let them set themselves against those laws, and try to make headway and reach success in opposition to them, when, then, they are beaten about and disappointed, and at last utterly ruined, are they at liberty to say that God is against them? No, and Yes. No, because they were against him, and it was not God resisting them, but-they resisting God. Yes, because in doing that they brought all the Divine force to bear against them. Think of having the whole of God, his purposes, his laws, his providences, yea, and his love, turned to fight against us.
2. God giveth grace to tire humble." Grace! what grace? All kinds of grace all the varied treasures which he designs for his children, and which Christ"s sacrifice has purchased for them. Grace according to the riches of Divine glory. Who can have it? The consciously empty heart, submitting itself to God, to be filled by him.
II THE APPLICATION OF THIS DEMAND FOR HUMILITY TO THE MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP OF CHRISTIANS. "All of you," ministers and people, "be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility." The apostle hero uses a rare and curious word; in the Revised Version it is rendered, "Gird yourselves with humility." Another instance of how Peter"s early life reproduces itself in this Epistle.
1. Humble subjection to one another is his demand. Forego for others something to which you may be entitled some pleasure, or distinction, or convenience, which none could blame you for accepting, but which for the happiness of your brother you willingly give up. And this when you have to stoop to do it, when it involves a bringing down of your pride, when it is on behalf of the unworthy, possibly of an enemy, or one lower than you.
2. This must be a matter of personal discipline. Humility does not grow on us; it is foreign to our proud selfish nature; and the soul which sets out at the Divine bidding to acquire this spirit of humility to which God imparts all grace, will have to be much alone with itself and God, and not be in a moment"s doubt as to where lies one of the great battlefields of life.
3. This humble subjection to one another is greatly due to the keeping of Christs example before us. If we are plagued with pride, with a spirit that stands aloof, that cannot bend, nor yield, nor serve, but that wants to lead and receive homage, that spirit from which God withholds his grace, let us set Christ before us. The mind that was in him will be in us only as we keep him in view; the taw of heaven fulfilled on earth looking, we become like.
III THIS DEMAND (FOR HUMILITY) STILL FURTHER APPLIED TO OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD GOD UNDER AFFLICTION. It is implied here that pride of heart is likely to manifest itself in affliction in two ways.
1. In rebellion against God, casting us down. Affliction may come through many means, but, let the means be what they may, it is "the mighty hand of God." Now, our tendency is to rebel against him and his will, and this rebellion is the essence of pride; it is the soul lifting up its own judgment against the wisdom of the Most High. We call our murmuring at God"s will by much softer names than this, but this is what it is; let us shrink from it with all our might. Here is our Pattern. A Pleader in the dark grove of Gethsemane, pleading in his agony, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;" but adding, in the utter humility of his faith, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
2. In unwillingness to trust him. We think our affairs depend on us, and that, if we fail, they must fail. I say it is a subtle pride that is at the bottom of that, the soul unwilling to let God be everything. We must lose that; for God"s happiness and glory, we must lose it; we must be ready to confide in him absolutely, though we cannot see what he is doing, and cannot do anything more for ourselves. We must rely entirely on his love.
3. But whence comes this humility? "Know thyself." Depend upon it, we shall be humble enough if we know ourselves. But we shall only know ourselves as we know Jesus; in his greatness we discover our littleness, in his goodness our sin, in his life our example, in his love our coldness, in his cross our doom. C.N.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv5, 8 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves.
1Pe_5:5-7
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves.
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Counsels to the younger
I. Submission.
1. The younger are to submit to the elders. Are you young in years, or in the experience of the Christian life? Be not wise in your own conceit, but be willing to receive the advice of your superiors.
2. All are to be subject one to another.
II. Humility. And be clothed, or rather, clothe yourselves with humility.
1. Humility is a garment to be put on. And what garment is more beautiful than humility?
2. A reason is assigned.
(1) God resisteth the proud.
(2) But to the humble-the lowly minded-God gives grace, or favour, pouring it down upon them in richest plenty.
3. Humble yourselves, therefore, says the apostle, and this shall be the result: He will exalt you in due time.
III. Trust in God; casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Humility is closely allied with confidence.
1. Let us look at the import of this exhortation. It is to trust our heavenly Father with ourselves and all our concerns.
2. And here is our warrant for the great privilege: He careth for you. (Thornley Smith.)
All of you be subject one to another.-
Mutual respect
There is a general complaint in our day that reverence is rapidly becoming extinct. The sentiment of respect is gone; each one stands upon his own powers and his own right. I suppose all of us, in a certain degree, recognise the truth of this charge against our own time. We may ask ourselves whether this feeling of personal independence is not in itself a good which may make amends for many losses that accompany the acquisition of it. But any consolation which we might derive from this last reflection is checked by another. Can we claim this sentiment of personal independence as at all characteristic of ourselves? Is it not fading along with the one which appears to contend with it? Is there not less of self-reliance than there was?
I. But a sentence like this, if we felt it to be indeed a command, All of you be subject one to another,-would not that be something more than these speculations about the decline of reverence in an age or a country? That speaks to me. It tells me of a temper which ought to exist in society, which would preserve it; but of a temper which is first of all to be cultivated in myself-which cannot by possibility be diffused through a mass, except as it is formed in the heart of a man. We may look at once to the root of the matter and see whether our respect is merely the effect of the circumstances and accidents in which we live; whether it depends on some external conventional witness of propriety; whether it has been merely taught us by the precept of men; or whether it proceeds from an under source, and is kept alive by springs within, which the Spirit of God Himself is renewing continually. The Bible and Christianity are continually forcing this thought upon us, that nothing can stand which has not a foundation; that if we wish any social edifice to bear the winds and rain, we must dig deep and build it upon a rock; that the passion of the heart for external things and forms, though it looks strong, is not a safe one-not one upon which we can depend. To this point then the apostle brings us. He recognises the relation of younger to elder as a very deep relation, involving duties, calling for subjection. With this natural relation he connects others equally real, though not equally acknowledged. But he has no hope that his admonitions will be heeded unless the principle which lies beneath them is apprehended. All of you be subject one to another. This reverence is not one grounded ultimately upon differences of position or differences of age. Unless each man cherishes it toward every other man; unless he feels that there is a grandeur and awfulness in the fellow creature who is not distinguished from him by any external signs of superiority at all, who has all the external signs of inferiority-unless he feels that there is (the word is a strong one, but it is St. Peters and we cannot change it) a subjection due to every such man, that a positive deference is to be paid him-he will not keep alive the other kind of respect, it will assuredly perish. The old oriental notion that royalty is mysterious, and that when it casts away mystery it ceases to obtain respect, is unquestionably grounded on a great truth. St. Peter does not deny the mystery, but he finds this mystery in the being of man himself; every one he meets is the shrine of it; every beggar carries in him that which an archangel cannot look into, which can be described in no words, measured by no human standards. Try to think of that man as having a whole world within him, unknown to you, unknown to him, which is yet a more wonderful world than this which his eyes and yours look upon; nearer to the centre from which this external one receives its light and heat. Try to think so! But will the trial succeed? Is there any chance of forcing ourselves into so strange a state of feeling? Is not this sympathy with people utterly different from ourselves a special gift to a few individuals, commonly women rather than men? And is it not more properly called pity than reverence?
II. St. Peter meets these questions in the second part of the text: Be clothed with humility. St. Peter knew-no one better-that it is not in station nor in mere example to make a man humble. He was a fisherman, yet he was proud. He conversed with our Lord for three years. He was low, but he aspired to be high. He might be spurned by the people of Judaea as a Galilean, or by the Romans as a Jew; but perhaps he should set his foot upon the necks of both; he should have some goodly place in his Masters kingdom, if not the highest place of all. The self-confidence was brought to the test and fell. What darkness closed in upon him then and shut out all the past and the future! What light was really coming to him through that darkness-a light that illuminated past, present, and future! Such phrases as these, then, which occur so often in the New Testament, Put on Christ, Having the mind of Christ, Be clothed with humility, which are often cast aside as mere figures of speech, oriental modes of thought, were the most accurate, the most exactly corresponding to his inward experience, which the apostle could use.
III. It introduces and explains the third clause of the text, For God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. How shall I be rid of this pride, it is so natural, so ingrained? This must have been St. Peters question very often; it must be ours. At last he found the answer. It was a terrible one. It was an everlasting one. When he was proud he was not sinning against a rule, a precept; he was resisting God. Every act of pride was nothing more than doing battle against Him; refusing to be ruled and moved by Him. And all humility meant nothing else but yielding to His government-but permitting the Spirit of Christ to hold that spirit which He had redeemed, and claimed for His own. And when a man is once bowed to the conviction that he is not meant to be what his Master and King refused to be, that it is not condescension in him to be on a level with those to whom the Prince of the kings of the earth levelled Himself, God giveth grace. All the powers of the universe are then conspiring with him, not pledged to crush his wild Titanic ambition.
IV. St. Peter then could transfer his own hardly won experience to the Church, and could say in his Catholic Epistle to the dispersed of that time, to the dispersed through all time, All of you be subject one to another. So he asserted the true condition of a society while he took down the conceit of its separate members; so he exalted each of these members in the very act of depressing him.
V. Generally this rule of being subject one to another, when applied to a society, implies that we should respect the opinions, habits, individual peculiarities, hereditary prepossessions of every man with whom we have to do; that we should take it for granted he has something which we need; that we should fear to rob him of anything which God has given him. This respect for him does not come from our caring more for him than for truth. It is part of our homage to truth. There is a danger of making him less true, of alienating him from truth, through our desire to attach him to ourselves. And therefore that same subjection one to another must make us resolute to maintain all truth so far as we have grasped it; vehement in denouncing all the habits of mind which, we know from ourselves, are unfavourable to the pursuit of truth, and undermine the love of it. And so this submission to man, which is in very deed submission to God, will preserve us from all servility; from that kind of deference to the judgment of individuals or of multitudes which is incompatible with genuine manliness, because it is incompatible with genuine reverence. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
Seniors should not be over-exacting
There are occasions when it is very helpful to our composure and equanimity to look at our debtor account, and not merely at the credit side. We may have a real claim to anothers deference, and still may be in many respects inferior to him. It is right that the younger should defer to and honour the elder; but it is equally right that the elder should not insist too much upon bare seniority. For others may be in their best bloom and vigour, while we are already in the decline of both. And let us not forget that with all our eldership we are but of yesterday. (J. A. Bengel.)
Be clothed with humility.
Humility illustrated and enforced
I. Humility illustrated.
1. When St. Austin was asked what was the first grace of a Christian, he answered, humility: what the second, humility: what the third, humility. This grace is more fundamental to the nature of all true religion than any other grace whatever. The foundation of repentance is laid in an abasing sense of our guilt. The reason why men are not humble is, that they do not see the greatness of God. It is the effect of all knowledge to humble us, by producing a sense of our distance from the object which we contemplate: the farther we advance in knowledge, the more this distance widens on our view: hence where an Infinite Being, God, is the object of contemplation, there must be infinite scope for humility in His worshippers. The gospel is peculiarly adapted to produce this feeling: this is its very end and effect: no flesh shall glory in His presence; the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. This effect arises from the very constitution of the gospel; as it is a revelation of the free grace of God to sinners, without any respect to moral or natural differences of character.
II. The motive by which such a temper is recommended.
1. God resisteth the proud. The expression is very emphatic; He sets Himself in battle array against him; marks him as an object of peculiar indignation. It is not so said of any other temper. When the heart is filled by pride, nothing but spiritual barrenness and hardness can ensue. In a word, the proud are equally disqualified for the duties of Christianity here, and for the blessings of glory hereafter.
2. But, as it is added, He giveth grace to the humble. The same words are used by the apostle James, with the additional expression, He giveth more grace. The humble feel their poverty, and pray for grace; and their prayers are heard.
III. Let us, then, seek and cherish this grace, the only temper that can make us shine before God, the only one that can render us blessings to each other. The apostle exhorts us to be clothed with humility. Men always use and wear their clothing, and we are to be clothed with this grace as a permanent vesture. It should pervade every part of our character; all the faculties of the mind: it should regulate the understanding, the will, and the affections. And then all other graces will shine the brighter through the veil of humility: it will shed a cheering influence on all. (R. Hall, M. A.)
The loftiness of humility
This is St. Peters command. Are we really inclined to obey it? For, if we are, there is nothing more easy. Whosoever wishes to get rid of pride may do so. Whosoever wishes to be humble need not go far to humble himself. But how? Simply by being honest with himself, and looking at himself as he is. The world and human nature look up to the proud successful man, One is apt to say, Happy is the man who has plenty to be proud of. Happy is the man who can divide the spoil of this world with the successful of this world. Happy is the man who can look down on his fellow men, and stand over them, and manage them, and make use of them, and get his profit out of them. But that is a mistake. That is the high-mindedness which goes before a fail, which comes not from above, but is always earthly, often sensual, and sometimes devilish. The true and safe high-mindedness, which comes from above, is none other than humility. Better to think of those who are nobler than ourselves, even though by so doing we are ashamed of ourselves all day long. What loftier thoughts can man have? What higher and purer air can a mans soul breathe? The truly high-minded man is not the proud man, who tries to get a little pitiful satisfaction from finding his brother men, as he chooses to fancy, a little weaker, a little more ignorant, a little more foolish, than his own weak, ignorant, foolish, and perhaps ridiculous, self. Not he; but the man who is always looking upwards to goodness, to good men, and to the all-good God; filling his soul with the sight of an excellence to which he thinks he can never attain; and saying, with David, All my delight is in the saints that dwell in the earth, and in those who excel in virtue. And why does God resist and set Himself against the proud? To turn him out of his evil way, of course, if by any means he may be converted and live. And how does God give grace to the humble? Listen to Plutarch, a heathen; a good and a wise man, though; and one who was not far from the kingdom of God, or he would not have written such words as these: It is our duty, he says, to turn our minds to the best of everything; so as not merely to enjoy what we read, but to be improved by it. And we shall do that by reading the histories of good and great men, which will, in our minds, produce an emulation and eagerness which may stir us up to imitation. We may be pleased with the work of a mans hands, and yet set little store by the workman. Perfumes and fine colours we may like well enough: bat that will not make us wish to be perfumers, or painters: but goodness, which is the work, not of a mans hands, but of his soul, makes us not only admire what is done, but long to do the like. And therefore, he says, he thought it good to write the lives of famous and good men, and to set their examples before his countrymen. And having begun to do this, he says in another place, for the sake of others, he found himself going on, and liking his labour, for his own sake; for the virtues of those great men served him as a looking glass, in which he might see how, more or less, to order and adorn his own life. Indeed, it could be compared, he says, to nothing less than living with the great souls who were dead and gone, and choosing out of their actions all that was noblest and worthiest to know. What greater pleasure could there be than that, he asks, or what better means to improve his soul? By filling his mind with pictures of the best and worthiest characters, he was able to free himself from any low, malicious, mean thoughts, which he might catch from bad company. If he was forced at times to mix with base men, he could wash out the stains of their bad thoughts and words, by training himself in a calm and happy temper to view those noble examples. So says the wise heathen. Was not he happier, wiser, better, a thousand times, thus keeping himself humble by looking upwards, than if he had been feeding his petty pride by looking down, and saying, God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are? If you wish, then, to be truly high-minded, by being truly humble, read of, and think of, better men, wiser men, braver men, more useful men than you are. Above all, if you be Christians, think of Christ Himself. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
On humility
I. I shall mention some of the cases in which humility of soul will show itself.
1. The natural powers of the human mind will be spoken of with modesty.
2. When he thinks of his graces and attainments, the Christian is clothed with humility.
3. Another genuine expression of humility is a ready acknowledgment of our constant dependence.
II. I shall recommend the practice of humility.
1. That he who humbleth him self shall be exalted, holds good with regard to our connections amongst our fellow men,
2. The advantages of this grace are not confined to temporal consequences; they extend to a future and eternal state.
3. The inhabitants of heaven are celebrated for this grace; and any who are unfurnished with it cannot be members of their society.
4. To recommend the cultivation and practice of this grace, remember our blessed Lord exemplified it in the whole of His conduct.
III. I shall direct to an improvement of this discourse.
1. Though the language of the text speaks of humility as something that is external, Be clothed with humility, nevertheless, if the heart is not humbled, all is empty show.
2. Let it be remembered that this grace is needful in every rank and condition of life.
3. Consider the exhortation, Be clothed with humility, as given by the apostle Peter; and it will direct us to a very particular improvement. Be clothed with humility. This grace is not only a robe of ornament, but a shield of defence. When it adorns the heart and life, it defends the head also in the day of battle. (Robert Foote.)
Humility
I. The nature and the effects of humility.
1. Humility, as it relates to our own private thoughts and judgment, requires that we should entertain no better an opinion of ourselves than we deserve. To judge too severely of ourselves, and to fancy we are guilty of faults from which we are free, cannot be humility, because there can be no virtue in mistake and ignorance. Only as we have all a propensity to extenuate our defects, and to overrate our good deeds, it is safest to correct this bent by forcing the mind somewhat towards the contrary way, and frequently to review our failings, and the many causes which we have of rejecting all conceited thoughts. The imperfections common to human nature are these: Mortality; a stronger propensity to evil than to good; an understanding liable to be frequently deceived, and a knowledge which at the best is much confined. The infirmities peculiar to ourselves are those defects either in goodness, or in knowledge, or in wisdom, by which we are inferior to other persons. To be sensible of these faults, is humility as it relates to ourselves: to overlook them is pride.
2. True humility, as it influences our behaviour towards our Maker, produces a religious awe, and banishes presumption and carelessness and vainglory.
3. Between an unmanly contempt and disregard of ourselves, with an abject fear and blind reverence of others, which is one extreme, and a conceited, overbearing insolence, which is the other extreme, true humility proceeds, always uniform and decent. The humble person never assumes what belongs not to him; he desires to possess no more power, and to receive no more respect from others than is suitable to his own character and condition, and appointed by the customs of society. He is not a rigid exacter of the things to which he has an undoubted right; he can overlook many faults; he is not greatly provoked at those slights which put vain persons out of all patience.
II. The motives to the practice of it.
1. Humility is a virtue so excellent that the Scriptures have in some sort ascribed it even to God Himself. Humility consists principally in a due sense of our defects, our transgressions, our wants, and the obligations which we have received. Therefore such humility cannot be in God, who possesses all perfections. But there is a part of humility, as it relates to oar behaviour towards men, called condescension; and this is sometimes represented in Scripture as a disposition not unworthy of the Divine nature.
2. The example of our Saviour is an example of every virtue, particularly of humility.
3. In the behaviour of the angels, as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures, we find that part of humility called condescension, or a cheerful submission to any offices by which the good of others may be promoted. Hence we learn to think it no disgrace to be, as our Lord says He was, the servant of all. In truth, we cannot be more creditably employed.
4. It is affirmed in many places of Scripture, that humility secures to us the favour of God, and will bring down His blessing upon ourselves and our undertakings.
5. Humility usually gains the esteem and love of men, and consequently the conveniences, at least, the necessaries of life. Since all love themselves, they will probably favour those who never provoke, insult, deride, or injure them, who show them civility, and do them good offices. The humble person, therefore, takes the surest way to recommend himself to those with whom he is joined in society, to increase the number of his well-wishers and friends, and to escape or defeat the assaults of detraction, envy, and malice.
6. The most certain present recompense of humility is that which arises from its own nature, and with which it repays the mind that entertains it; and a very valuable recompense it would be, though it were the only one allotted to this virtue. A humble person neither hates nor envies anyone; therefore he is free from those very turbulent vices which are always a punishment in themselves. He is not discomposed by the slights or censures of others. If he has undesignedly given some occasion for them, he amends the fault; if he deserves them not, he regards them as little. He is contented with his condition, if it be tolerable; and, therefore, he finds satisfaction in all that is good, and overlooks, and in some measure escapes, all that is inconvenient in it. He has a due sense of his unworthiness and defects; by which he is taught to bear calamities with patience and submission, and thereby to soften their harsh nature, and to allay their violence.
7. Lastly: from the account which we have given of humility, we may draw this conclusion, that it is not, as the haughty are inclined to imagine, an unmanly and sordid disposition. It is indeed a virtue so remote from meanness of spirit, that it is no bad sign of a great and exalted mind. On the contrary, if we would know what meanness of spirit is, and how it acts, let us look for it amongst the proud and insolent, and we shall not lose our labour. (J. Jortin, D. D.)
Christian humility
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I. Wherein consists the grace of Christian humility.
1. Humility is directly opposed to pride. As pride consists in having high thoughts of oneself, so humility consists in having low apprehensions of ourselves. Pride is the child of ignorance, humility the offspring of knowledge. They are not opposite errors, between which truth and goodness lie, but the former is a vice, the latter is a virtue; the one is the feeling generated by the belief of a lie, the other is the temper of mind produced by the reception of the truth. Humility may be considered in a twofold point of view, as it respects God and as it respects our fellow creatures, but in these different aspects it is not two virtues, but the same correct estimate of our character and condition influencing our conduct towards God and man. Humility consists in a due sense of our dependence. Pride can only exist in a fancied state of independence; a feeling of obligation wounds; that of constant dependence mortifies pride. Yet man is entirely a dependent being. We derive everything from God: In Him we live and move, and have our being. If we are humble, it will be a pleasing thought to us, that God has unlimited control over us, that we owe everything to Him, and that He has an indisputable right to order our affairs according to the good pleasure of His will. In the discharge of duty, in prosperity and adversity, in circumstances of perplexity, or in all our plans for the future, we shall not lean to our own understanding, nor rely upon our own strength, but rather trust in the Lord with our whole hearts, we shall acknowledge Him in all our ways, and look up to Him for the direction of our steps. But we are not only dependent on God, we are so in a subordinate sense on our fellow creatures. While society is formed of different ranks and orders, there is an intimate union between them, and a constant dependence of the parts on each other. The higher cannot do without the lower ranks, and the latter are almost equally dependent on the former.
2. Humility consists of a proper estimate of our relative importance. As it respects God we are as nothing before Him; He is the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity; from everlasting to everlasting He is God; boundless in might, infinite in all His perfections. Humility towards men will consist very much in a due estimate of our relative importance, not only to each other, but in the view of the Divine Being. Whatever nominal distinctions are recognised in the world, humility will feel that God has made of one blood all nations that dwell upon the earth. What are the mole hills of distinction, the little elevations of human society, when we contemplate it in the mass? or what are they in the estimation of God, who is no respecter of persons? Humility will not put an extravagant value on the distinctions of earth; it will be kind and courteous to all, and in all the suffering and misery it may be called to contemplate in others, it will feel the irresistible force of the appeal, Am I not a man and a brother? It will be ready to render to all their due, tribute to whom tribute is due, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour.
3. Humility will also consist in a low estimate of our knowledge. Be not wise, says the apostle, in your own conceit. In all the distinctions of society there are none in which vanity and self-conceit are so cherished as in that of human literature. Now humility will moderate our estimate of what we know; it will teach us that literary distinction arises far more from adventitious circumstances, over which we have no control, than from any native superiority of mind; and that many of those whom the providence of God has precluded from the cultivation of their minds would, with equal advantages as ourselves possessed, have far outstripped us in the acquisition of knowledge. Humility will cherish a conviction of the imperfection of our faculties. It will feel on every side the bounds of human knowledge: the voice of God saying, So far shalt thou go and no farther.
4. Humility consists in a correct estimate of our moral condition.
(1) We are not only subjects of the Divine government, but we are guilty creatures, under the condemnation of the law of God. Whatever the pride of man may suggest, we are all gone out of the way, we are altogether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one. Humility rightly estimates this moral desolation. It thus prepares the mind for the revelation of Gods mercy, to welcome the glad tidings of a Saviour, and to submit to the Divine method of forgiving sins. And if through grace we are brought to depend on Christ for salvation, humility will characterise every subsequent estimate of ourselves.
(2) A proper estimate of our moral condition will express itself appropriately towards our fellow men.
II. We must enforce the cultivation of humility upon you by various considerations.
1. It is in its own nature necessary to a reception of Christianity.
2. Humility is also an essential part of religion. Our hearts cannot be right with God until we apprehend His majesty and our own meanness-until we realise our entire dependence on Him-until, with humble and imploring faith, we are looking to the Saviour for salvation, and disposed to say, Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief. Humility is equally necessary to our perseverance in the Divine life: the dependence on God it generates is the vitality of our religion; the self-diffidence it creates is our best security.
3. God has put peculiar honour on humbleness of mind, while He has expressed His detestation of the opposite spirit. Every one proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. A high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin. But, on the contrary, He everywhere commends an humble spirit; it is the disposition of mind He delights to favour. Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly.
4. This virtue is enforced by the conduct of our Lord.
5. Humility is an undying grace; it will flourish more perfectly in heaven. All the saints and angels are clothed in this appropriate garb of a creature. Let us, then, cultivate a quality of character which will abide with us through eternity, which will constitute a portion of the bliss of heaven; it will enlarge our happiness on earth, and eminently meeten us for future glory. (S. Summers.)
Humility
The word itself and its history are interesting. There are cases, says Coleridge, in which more knowledge, of more value, may be conveyed by the history of a word than by the history of a campaign. Now take this word humility. It was not a new word when the New Testament was written. It had been used for years. Only it is striking that almost without exception the word humility, used before the time of Christ, is used contemptuously and rebukingly. It always meant meanness of spirit. To be humble was to be a coward. Where could we find a more striking instance of the change that the Christian religion brought into the world, than in the way in which it took this disgraceful word and made it honourable? To be humble is to have a low estimation of ones self. That was considered shameful in the olden time. Christ came and made the despised quality the crowning grace of the culture that He inaugurated. Lo! the disgraceful word became the key word of His fullest gospel. He redeemed the quality, and straightway the name became honourable. Think what the change must have been. Think with what indignation and contempt men of the old school in Rome and Athens must have seen mean spiritedness, as they called it, taken up, inculcated and honoured, proclaimed as the salvation of the world, and Him in whom it was most signally embodied made the Saviour and King of men. Ah, it seems to me more and more that it must have been very hard for those early disciples to have believed in Christ. But let us see, if we can, what the change was that Christianity accomplished, and how it came about. The quality that Christianity rescued and glorified was humility. Humility means a low estimate or value of ones self. But all values are relative. The estimate we set on anything depends of course on the standard with which we compare it.
1. Now Christianitys great primary revelation was God. Much about Him it showed men, but first of all it showed them Him. He, the Creator, the Governor, became a presence clear and plain before mens hearts. His greatness, His holiness, His love-nay, we cannot describe Him by His qualities, for He is greater than them all-He, by the marvellous method of the Incarnation, showed Himself to man. He stood beside mans work. He towered above, and folded Himself about mans life. He entered into mens closets and took possession of mens hearts. And what then? God in the world must be the standard of the world. Greatness meant something different when men had seen how great He was; and the manhood which had compared itself with lesser men and grown proud, now had a chance to match itself with God, and to see how small it was, and to grow humble about itself. Just imagine that when you and I were going on learning our lessons, doing our work, exercising our skill here on the earth, and proud of our knowledge, our strength, and our skill-just suppose that suddenly Omniscience towered up above our knowledge, and Omnipotence above our strength, and the Infinite Wisdom stood piercing out of the sight of our ignorant and baffled skill. Must it not crush the man with an utter insignificance? What is the use of heaving up these mole hills so laboriously close by the gigantic mountainside? But if the revelation is not only this; if it includes not only the greatness but the love of God; if the majesty that is shown to us is the majesty of a father, which takes our littleness into his greatness, makes it part of itself, honours it, trains it, does not mock it, then there comes the true graciousness of humility. It is not less humble, but it is not crushed. It is not paralysed, but stimulated. The energy which the man used to get out of his estimate of his own greatness he gets now out of the sight of his fathers, which yet is so near to him that, in some finer and higher sense, it still is his; and so he is more hopeful and happy and eager in his humility than he ever used to be in his pride. This is the philosophy of reverence and humility as enrichers of life and mainsprings of activity.
2. This is one, then, of the ways in which Christ rescued and exalted humility. He gave man his true standard. He set mans littleness against the infinite height of God. The next way that I want to speak of is even more remarkable. He asserted and magnified the essential glory of humanity. He showed us that the human might be joined with the Divine. Thus He glorified human nature. Ah, if a man must be humbled, and is exalted by his humility, when he sees God, surely when he sees the possibility of himself, there is no truer or more exalted feeling for him than to look in on what he is, and think it very mean and wretched by the side of what he might be, what his Lord has shown him that he was made for. Christ makes us humble by showing us our design. There is nothing more strange, and at the same time more truthful, about Christianity than its combination of humiliation and exaltation for the soul of man. If one wants to prove that man is but a little lower than the angels, the son and heir of God, he must go to the Bible. If he wants to prove how poor and base and Satan-like the soul of man can be, still to the Bible he must go. If you want to find the highest ecstasy that mans spirit ever reached, it is the Christian saint exulting in his God. Do you want to hear the bitterest sorrow that ever wrung this human heart? It is that same Christian saint penitent for his sin. I think we cannot but see the beauty of a humility like this if it once becomes the ruling power of a changed mans life, this humility born of the sight of a mans possible self. It has in it all that is good in the best self-respect. Nay, with reference to the whole subject of self-respect this seems to be true, that the only salvation from an admiration of our own present condition, which is pride, is to be found in a profound respect for the best possibility and plan of our being, which involves humility. So it is the sight of what God meant us to be that makes us ashamed of what we are. And it is the death of Christ for us, the preciousness that He saw in our souls making them worthy of that awful sacrifice, it is that which lets us see our own soul as He sees it in its possibility, and so lets us see it in its reality as He sees it too, and put our pride away and be humble. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
Clothed with humility
The image of the clothing-a word which is used only in this place in the Bible-is thought to have reference to a particular kind of white vestment which used to be worn by slaves. And it was made very long and large, that it might cover not only all the other dress, but the whole figure; and so it may be considered that the believer, remembering well that he is the follower of Him who came not to be ministered unto but to minister, should place all he has and all he is under the folds of a mantling humility, and array himself in a servile robe. But let me caution you not to think that the clothing of humility has anything to do with that robe of which the Bible speaks as the wedding garment. It has nothing to do with it, except that God invariably makes this the lining for that. That is something from without a man; this is from within. That is saving; this is evidential. Now I am persuaded that the first way to grow humble is to be sure that you are loved. The education of almost any child will teach you that if you treat that child harshly, you will make his little heart stubborn and proud; but if he feels that you love him, he will gradually take a gentler tone. So it is with the education through which we are all passing to the life to come. The first thing God does with His child is to make the child feel that He loves him. There is nothing which will stoop a man into the dust like the gentle pressure of the feeling I am loved. The forgiven David, the woman at Jesuss feet, Peter under the look, John in the bosom. Let me advise you further. If you desire to cultivate that posture of mind, accustom yourself, force yourself to do acts of humiliation-whatever is most against your natural taste. There is a still deeper feeling without which you will never have on that robe of humility-you must often sit and receive the droppings of the Holy Ghost. You must meditate with open eye on the meek, humble face of Jesus. You must be in union with Christ. There is a false humility than which none can be more destructive to the character. It is of three kinds. There is humility of external things-in a mortification of the body. But it is a cloak, not a robe-a look, a posture, a ceremony. There is another counterfeit which Satan makes and calls humility. It is what St. Paul calls in his Epistle to the Colossians a voluntary humility-people thinking themselves unworthy to come to God. And there are those who do not know it, but who, like Peter, are under an appearance of humility, indulging contemptuous pride. Thou shalt never wash my feet. I am not good enough to be saved. I am not worthy to come to the Lords Supper. I cannot believe God loves me. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Humility explained and enforced
Humility is that Christian virtue without which no other can exist, and by which every other is beautified, for, whilst the flowers of all the Christian graces grow in the shade of the Redeemers Cross, the root of them is humility.
I. Humility becomes us as creatures. It may also be remarked that the temptation to pride, and consequently the exercise of humility, has very much to do with a comparative view of ourselves and others. It is not in the superiority which we possess over the inferior creatures that we are apt either to exaggerate the difference or to forget that it is from God, but it is in the little advantage which one man may happen to possess above another, whether in mental endowments, bodily powers, or worldly wealth. It is this minor distinction, the comparative difference between man and man, which excites envy in one party and creates haughtiness in another. But the judgment of humility is according to truth. This is the spirit of humility which, like the flower blooming in the valley, delights the eye of the contemplative, who, forgetting the gaudier plants of the garden, finds nothing to charm him so much as the simple beauties of nature.
II. Humility becomes us as sinners.
III. Humility becomes us as disciples of Christ.
1. They must retain a humbling remembrance of past sins. Those sins, though forgiven by Jehovah, must not be forgotten by them, that they may see what they are in themselves, and understand how much they owe to redeeming love.
2. The Christian must also continually watch the state of his heart.
3. Whatever measures of holiness the Christian attains to, he must always remember that by the grace of God he is what he is. Thus all boasting is excluded, for he has nothing but what he has received.
4. There will always, whilst we are on the earth, remain much to be done, much to be attained. Every grace will be defective in measure and mixed with infirmity. The most faultless disciple will here find cause for humiliation. Conclusion:
1. What a delightful character is the man of distinguished humility. He may not have the glory in which the patriot, the hero, or the martyr is enshrined, but he is adorned with the beauties of holiness; he carries about with him the majesty of goodness, if not the dominion of greatness.
2. Learn from this subject to beware of false humility. True humility is diffident and retiring; it is not like the scentless flower, which turns its face to the sun throughout his course, as if for the purpose of being seen, but it is rather like the modest violet, which hides itself in obscurity, and sends forth fragrance from its deep retirement. It employs no herald, it unfolds no banner, it blows no trumpet, but, whilst conferring substantial benefits, it desires to be like the angels, who, while ministering to the heirs of salvation, are unseen and unknown by the objects of their attention.
3. Learn also, while you avoid false humility, to labour for that which is real. Let the young labour for this. Christian humility will teach you the most willing obedience, the most genuine affection, the most respectful demeanour towards your parents, and it will excite you to the most anxious endeavours for the promotion of their happiness. Let not the old neglect this spirit of humility. Do not aggravate the sorrows of your evil days by pride, by peevishness, or by discontent. When almost every leaf is gone from the rose of life, let not its thorns remain. Let parents manifest much of this temper in the treatment of their children. Always endeavour to persuade before you attempt to compel. This is the way to grow in grace, for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. (T. Gibson, M. A.)
Christian humility
In looking into the nature of humility, we discover that it does not involve meanness or servility. It is not pusillanimity. It contains no element that degrades human nature. It is not the quality of a slave, but of kings and priests unto God. It is a necessary trait in all finite character, and therefore it is perfectly consistent with an inviolable dignity and self-respect.
I. In the first place, humility is becoming to man, because he is a creature. Shall a being who was originated from nonentity by almighty power, and who can be reduced again to nonentity by that same power, swell with haughtiness?
II. In the second place, humility is becoming to man, because he is A dependent being.
1. All his springs are in God. He is dependent for life, health, and all temporal things. He is dependent, above all, for spiritual life and health and all the blessed things of eternity.
2. Man is dependent not only upon his Creator, but also upon his fellow creature.
III. In the third place, man should be humble because he is a sinful being. Considering the peculiar attitude in which guilty man stands before God, self-abasement ought to be the main feeling in his heart, for, in addition to the infinite difference there is originally between himself and his Maker, he has rendered himself yet more different by apostasy. The first was only a difference in respect to essence, but the last is a difference in respect to character. How strange it is that he should forget this difference, and, entering into a comparison of himself with his fellow men, should plume himself upon a supposed superiority. The culprits are disputing which shall be the greatest at the very instant when their sentence of condemnation is issuing from the lips of their Judge! There is still another consideration under this head which strengthens the motive for humility. We have seen that the fact of sin furnishes an additional reason for self-abasement because it increases the distance between man and God; it has also made him still more dependent upon God. Nothing but pure and mere mercy can deliver him. But nothing interferes with the exercise of mercy like pride in the criminal. A proud man cannot be forgiven. It involves a self-contradiction. If there be self-asserting haughtiness in the heart, God can neither bestow grace nor man receive it.
IV. A fourth and most powerful reason why man should be clothed with humility is found in the vicarious suffering and atonement of Christ in His behalf. Feeling himself to be a condemned sinner, and beholding the Lamb of God made a curse for him and bearing His sins in His own body on the tree, all self-confidence and self-righteousness will die out of his soul. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
Humility with the fruits of it
I. To explain the nature of humility. Humility consists in a low opinion or esteem. Now the opinion which we form of ourselves is either absolute or comparative, and whichever way we judge it is very certain that a low opinion best becomes us, and is most suitable to our nature and state.
1. First, if we judge of ourselves absolutely, without comparing ourselves with any others, humility and truth too requires that our opinion should be very moderate and low. We know but little, and we live, alas! to little good purpose. What a mixture of corruption is there with every grace, and what a sully of sin in every duty! Again, as to the happiness of our state, what mortal does not feel that he is miserable? Pains and diseases afflict our bodies, crosses and disappointments perplex our circumstances, the gloom of melancholy gathers about the heart, and sorrows overspread the whole world.
2. Humility consisteth in having a low opinion of ourselves as compared with others, whether with God or with our fellow creatures.
II. To set before you the good fruits of humility. To this grace we may apply these words of the prophet, It taketh root downward and beareth fruit upward (Isa_37:31), and the deeper the root is laid, the larger and fairer will the fruit be.
1. Meekness is one pleasant fruit which grows upon humility, and to this we may join the kindred grace of peaceableness or quietness of spirit (1Pe_3:4).
2. Patience is another good fruit of humility, with which we may join the kindred grace of submission. Now patience has respect either to God or man.
(1) Patience in respect to God consisteth in a quiet submission to His afflictive providences without murmuring.
(2) If we further consider patience as it respects men, as it is opposite to fretfulness at their faults and follies, this also is the fruit of humility; for if we were as sensible of our own follies as we should be, we should more patiently bear with the faults and follies of others.
3. Self-denial is another good fruit of humility, and how necessary a duty that is you will learn from those words of Christ (Luk_9:23). We surely esteem the body at too high a rate when we pamper it to the hurt of the soul.
4. The last good fruit of humility which I shall here speak of is contentment. The humble man remembers that, be his worldly condition what it will, it is unspeakably better than he deserves.
III. To urge upon you the exhortation in our text by a few motives. Be ye clothed with humility. For-
1. Consider how high an approbation God has expressed of this grace, and how hateful pride is to Him.
2. Consider what a lovely and engaging example of humility Christ hath set us.
3. Let me recommend humility as a necessary part of your preparation for heaven. (D. Jennings.)
Humility and its greatness
I. Let us examine the source and ground of humility. This is drawn from the knowledge of God and from the relation in which we stand to Him. Hence, where the knowledge of God is absent, the exercise of humility becomes impossible. Humility begins with the knowledge of God, and advances to the knowledge of ourselves. Thus we see at our first step that it consists of something we gain, not of aught we lose. The humble man is rich in his humility, for he has gained that which the proud man has not. Pride is the instinct of ignorance. But we must take another step, and ask how it is that the knowledge of God, instead of puffing a man up with the conceit of an acquisition, only produces humility and the most prostrate lowliness of mind. It might be answered, because the knowledge itself is but a gift freely bestowed; it is a revelation, not a discovery, and therefore implies in itself the obligation of a receiver towards a donor. This is true, but a more complete reply is, that humility is produced by the impressiveness of the majesty and greatness of the Divine Being as revealed to us in His matchless perfections and infinite glory. This knowledge of the glory of God is not a work of nature but a gift of grace. This new knowledge becomes a test whereby we measure ourselves. We cannot help this self-application, since, in knowing God, we have gained a new idea altogether. And it is in the immense difference between what God is and what we are that Christian humility originates and grows. Then, when we read the inspired history of man, lowliness is increased. For there we are told not alone of the immortal spirit breathed into man, but of the Divine likeness in which we were first created, even in the image and similitude of God. And now, standing amid these wonders of revelation, with the wretched experience of ourselves as we are fresh and full upon us, there is not a truth which does not deepen our awe by the very wonderfulness of the realities to which we find ourselves related, and with which we stand in daily contact. For here is the wonder, that true humility grows out of self-respect. No man living has so high a conception of the dignity of human nature as the Christian.
II. From the source and nature of Christian humility let us consider its practical outgoing. Here, again, we must take the side turned towards God first; otherwise we shall be out of order. What are the characteristic feelings and what the corresponding acts which a profound humility produces in our intercourse with God? In the first place, it produces an absorbing and unmeasured admiration. In speaking of so great a being as God, adoration may perhaps be the better word, so long as it is understood to be the adoration not of fear but of love-the adoration of desire, of grateful affection, and of fervent praise. And then, out of adoring praise to the redeeming God by whom we live, arises simple trusting faith in Him. From praise and trust combined there will arise also implicit obedience. For admiration and trust exalt to the highest degree the glory of the Being admired and trusted. Then how can God be wrong in any way? and if right, then every word of His must be kept as a seal of our acceptance. And now we shall see how these three sentiments of adoration, trust, and obedience necessarily affect our relation towards our fellow men. Gentle manners, gentle looks, gentle words ever considerate of other mens feelings, make the true Christian a natural gentleman, and invest him with an intuitive politeness which is but the outgoing of the Divine life within. (E. Garbett, M. A.)
Be clothed with humility
I. Let us be clothed with humility before God. God delights in it; it is the ornament which in His sight is of great price. A lady applied to a celebrated philanthropist on behalf of an orphan child. When he had bidden her draw on him for any amount, she said, As soon as the child is old enough I will teach him to thank you. Stop (said the good man), you are mistaken; we do not thank the clouds for rain-teach the child to look higher and thank Him who gives both the clouds and the rain. That was being clothed with humility before God.
II. Let us be clothed with humility before the world-the proud and gainsaying world. This is the way in which we are to be lights to it add salt in it. Humility does more than argument. If it irritates, it impresses and convinces. An aged patriarch was tauntingly asked by a boastful young Pharisee, Do you suppose that you have any real religion? None to speak of, was the dignified answer, and it went sharp as a javelin into that young Pharisees bosom.
III. Let us be clothed with humility before each other. Yea, all of you be subject one to another. This is hardest of any-this wants more humility than either of the preceding. Mr. Newtons favourite expression to his friends was, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be, but by the grace of God I am not what I once was. (James Bolton.)
The garment of humility
No garment sits so well on human nature, and no ornament so gracefully conceals its deformity, as humility. Yet there is no dress which we find it more difficult to assume. There is something in our imperfect and unsanctified nature which revolts at the very idea of submission, condescension, and inferiority.
I. What is meant by being clothed with humility. To cultivate this grace we need only contemplate ourselves as we really are, examine out true condition, look at our selves in the mirror of truth and righteousness, and we shall come away humbled to the dust.
II. Some advantages to be secured by being humble. Gods commandments have nothing arbitrary about them. Whatever He ordains is for our good.
1. Humility is the great qualification for the reception of knowledge and for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. A proud man will neither learn anything from his neighbour nor receive anything from his God. If a man thinks he knows enough already upon any given subject, he is not likely to learn much more. Humility opens the pathway to all knowledge. By it our minds become docile so that they are prepared to receive every new form of truth. And if we cherish this spirit, may we not learn from all around us? Humility also prepares for the reception of the Divine kingdom into the heart.
2. Humility is essential to the growth of the soul in holiness and grace. All true spiritual progress is the work of God. If he do not yield to the power and grace of God, how can He fashion him after His own will? Humility, then, prepares us to feel our inability to do any good thing of ourselves, and to look for all in God. Humility opens the pathway to honour and glory (Isa_57:15).
4. Humility is associated with the purest happiness. Humility in man helps him to maintain a serenity and calmness amidst all the storms of life. (Harvey Phillips, B. A.)
Two kinds of clothing
A new suit of clothes! Thats a subject in which you all take an interest. When a boy enters the army or navy he puts on a new suit of clothes, blue or red, and that reminds him that he is bound to serve his queen and country, and that he must not disgrace his uniform. I am going to speak to you today about some different kinds of clothing, some good, others bad. First of all, let us think of the clothes which God makes for His beautiful world. He clothes the grass of the field. Every tree has a different shaped dress and a different shade of colour. Even in the winter, when the trees look so bare and cold, they are still clothed by God. Trees have two sets of leaves, one set for the summer, the other for the winter. And God clothes the beasts and birds and gives each exactly the sort of dress which he re quires. You have all seen the mole hills in a field, and sometimes you have caught a glimpse of the mole himself. Well, God has clothed him in a dress like black velvet, which is just fitted for his home underground. The animals which live in cold regions have a warm clothing of fur, and those which live among snow and ice are white, so that their enemies may not easily see them. Now let us think about ourselves. In the Bible we hear of two kinds of clothing, the best and the worst. St. Peter says, Be clothed with humility; thats the best clothing. In the hundred and ninth Psalm we are told of a wicked man who clothed himself with cursing as with a garment; thats the worst clothing. Now I have noticed that very often when children are growing up into big lads and girls, there is a great change in their manners. Did you ever hear the old fable of the donkey who found a lions skin? The donkey covered himself with the skin, and tried to play the lion and frighten the people. But some of them spied his long ears, and recognised his well-known voice, and he was soon stripped of his lions skin and driven away. Now, my boys, if you are tempted to put on a suit of clothes which does not become you, if while still boys you put on the habits of a man, and of a bad man into the bargain, remember the fable of the ass in the lions skin. But when a child has outgrown the good clothing of humility and put on a full suit of pride, there comes another evil from it. He often gives up his prayers and his Bible. I told you that the Bible speaks of the worst kind of clothing; it tells us of a man who clothed himself with cursing as with a garment. I take cursing there to mean all sorts of bad language. The old Greeks tell us a story about the death of Hercules. That strong hero had shot his enemy, Nessus, with a poisoned arrow, and the garment of the slain man was all stained with poisoned blood. Before he died Nessus gave his clothing to the wife of Hercules, telling her that it would make her husband love her always. It came to pass after a time that she gave the fatal garment to her husband, and no sooner had he put it on than the poison seized upon him, and when, in his agony, he tried to put off the clothing, it clung all the tighter, and so he died, killed by his own poison. So it is with the man who clothes himself with a garment of cursing or bad talk; it clings to him and poisons him, body and soul. There are several other kinds of clothing of which I might warn you. One of these is self-righteousness. I have seen a man with a very glossy black suit of clothes, very carefully buttoned up, and at first sight he looked most clean and respectable. But when I came to look more closely, I found that his linen was anything but white and clean. His respectability was all outside. If your clothes are old and worn out or do not fit you, what must you do? You must get a new suit. Well, there are some kinds of clothing which we should cast off as soon as possible. If any of you have put on bad habits, filthy clothing, such as pride, or falsehood, or bad talk, you must change your clothes. Cast off the old garment, and go down on your knees, and ask God for Jesus Christs sake to give you a new dress. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.)
Work tends to humility
I cannot but think that one of the truest ways in which Christianity has made humility at once a commoner and a nobler grace has been in the way in which it has furnished work for the higher powers of man, which used to be idle, and only ponder proudly on themselves. Idleness standing in the midst of unattempted tasks is always proud. Work is always tending to humility. Work touches the keys of endless activity, opens the infinite, and stands awe struck before the immensity of what there is to do. Work brings a man into the great realm of facts. Work takes the dreamy youth who is growing proud in his closet over one or two sprouting powers which he has discovered in himself, and sets him out among the gigantic needs and the vast processes of the world, and makes him feel his littleness. Work opens the measureless fields of knowledge and skill that reach far out of our sight. Is not this what you would do for a boy whom you saw getting proud-set him to work? He might be of so poor stuff that he would be proud of his work, poorly as he would do it. But if he were really great enough to be humble at all, his work would bring him to humility. He would be brought face to face with facts. He would measure himself against the eternal pillars of the universe. He would learn the blessed lesson of his own littleness in the way in which it is always learned most blessedly, by learning the largeness of larger things. And all this, which the ordinary occupations of life do for our ordinary powers, Christianity, with the work that it furnishes for our affections and our hopes, does for the higher parts of us. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
Humility
There are some sins which have resisted every influence but that of Christianity, and over which even the gospel itself seems to obtain a precarious triumph. One of these is pride. To be proud is not only to be what Christianity condemns, but something essentially inconsistent with the first principles of its teaching, and with the special type of character which it seeks to create. Heathenism showed it no such antipathy. Unless it made itself specially ridiculous by trading on obviously false pretences, it was considered a becoming and reasonable tiring. It is not difficult to understand how this should have been so. Pride, to be seen in its objectionable light, must be seen in connection with those truths about God and human nature which Christianity first made known to the world. It is only when it stands in their company it appears as Scripture represents it. How Christianity dethrones this idol of self we know very well. It reminds us that the great thing is not what a man has, but what he is. It reveals in the Person of Christ the true standard of moral excellence. Pride has to come down from its pedestal and take its place in the dust. We see we are not only wrong, but responsible for being wrong. We have been following false ideals. It seems almost impossible to conceive how a proud man can ever have been truly convicted of sin, or brought to receive the salvation of Christ as a free, unmerited gift. It seems more difficult still to believe that such an one is living by the faith of the Son of God, receiving as a sinner daily forgiveness, and as having nothing being indebted to Him for all things. It is hardly to be wondered at that the world should be sceptical of our Christian profession when it sees so much that directly contradicts it. Are we disposed to retract the confession which we made so sincerely when we cried for mercy, that of all sinners we are the chief? Or, are we forgetting what the world really is, as we saw it once in the light of the Cross, when its glory faded till it vanished away, and we cried, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord? Is it assuming its old importance? Be clothed, says St. Peter, with humility. And as we read the words we feel how little of this clothing we have been accustomed to wear, how faintly we have realised the nature of the habit in which we should always be found apparelled. The word which the apostle uses here, and which is translated, Be clothed, is interesting and somewhat rare. It means literally to tie or gird on, and is so rendered in the Revised Version, but apparently it also refers to the peculiar garment that was worn by slaves, and which was the usual mark or badge of their condition.
I. First, St. Peter says, see that your humility is fastened to you as it were so securely nothing shall be able to deprive you of it. He recognises the risk of it being plucked off or laid aside. And among those to whom he wrote the risk was doubtless considerable. In so mixed a community as the Christian Church at that time it would be difficult to subordinate all selfish desires to the common good. And persecution, which was then active, might easily awaken a feeling of resentment or disdain. To be reviled and yet revile not again, to suffer wrong and take it patiently, is never an easy thing. In our ease the danger may spring from a different quarter, but it is no less real. Perhaps we feel our humility to be nothing but a cloak, something put on or assumed which is not natural to us, and in which we pose in a somewhat hypocritical guise. And, of course, a humility which is conscious of itself is no humility at all. It is the most odious of all possible counterfeits. But the girdle or overall of the slave to which St. Peter alludes was his natural dress. It simply indicated his servile condition. There was no inconsistency between the two. And, as we have seen, humility is the natural garb of the Christian, expressing his dependence on Jesus Christ, whose slave he is. Yet the temptation frequently comes to lay it aside, or to give way to a temper which makes it impossible to wear it. It is true, we argue to ourselves, we have much to keep us humble, but not more than these others, or perhaps so much, if they only knew it. Why, then, should we yield to them, or submit tamely to their assumptions? If we give them an inch, they will take an ell, and there is no end to the liberties some may allow themselves, or the length to which they may presume. All this is very natural, but is it Christian? Is it not renouncing the vesture of humility, and finding plausible excuses for the pride that is so ready to assert itself? There are interests that ought to be dearer to us than any personal considerations. Let us be clothed with humility. Let us keep it on firmly. Let our whole life in all its details be ruled by the remembrance that we are not our own, but Christs slaves, and bound to act in accordance with our condition.
II. But, secondly, being clothed with humility means that, being girt with this vesture of servitude, we are always to be ready for service. There are some clothes in which a man cannot work. He puts them on for state occasions. So there are some Christians who always seem, so to speak, to be in dress clothes. They would be quite shocked if you asked them to do something that involved even a little hard work. They are much too dainty and refined for that. Or, they strike you as being available only on great occasions. Are we so clothed with humility as to remember that it is not ours to pick and choose, but to be ready at the Masters call? Do we remember that no act of service is too humble or obscure for us; that we are not to think there are some things for which we are too good, and which we are therefore justified in leaving undone? Whenever we do this, we discard our girdle or cloak of humility. We forget what manner of men we are and the character we wear.
III. Again, St. Peter reminds us that humility is not only indispensable to our serving Christ, but also to our serving one another. The correct text of the passage literally rendered runs thus: Gird yourselves with humility for the sake of one another. And truly no better specific could be devised for developing the happiness and strength of a community. For a great part of the misery and confusion of the world pride is responsible. It makes joint effort impracticable, and is the creator of constant discord and misunderstanding. Pride is an insoluble particle. It resists fusion and protests against amalgamation. Humility presents no such obstacle. It facilitates union. It is mutual concession, in honour preferring one another. Be clothed, therefore, with humility, writes the apostle, and as the precept is so confessedly difficult to obey, it may be well to suggest one or two directions.
1. Let us get out of the way of making ourselves the centre of everything. If we are Christians, self has been dethroned, and it must be forbidden all acts of usurpation. We have found a larger and nobler centre for life, and other interests that are greater and more commanding than our own. Let us put these first-the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Let us remember that these are the interests that endure.
2. A second suggestion I may offer is, that we should think most of all of Christ, and of pleasing Him. When He receives the proper place in our lives everything else will surely come right. It is only when He is forgotten, or His presence is faintly and fitfully realised, other things assume a disproportionate importance. We lose our standard of value, our justness of perception, and our whole perspective becomes confused. (C. Moinet, M. A.)
The shadow shortens
Opinion of ourselves is like the casting of a shadow, which is always largest when the sun is at the greatest distance. By the degrees that the sun approaches, the shadow shortens, and under the direct meridian light it becomes none at all. It is so with our opinion of ourselves; while the good influences of God are at the greatest distance from us, it is then always that we conceive best of ourselves; as God approaches the conceit lessens, till we receive the fuller measure of His grace, and then we become nothing in our own conceit, and God appears to be all in all. (Dean Young.)
Humility a beautiful dress
An Irish preacher named Thady Conellan, who greatly assisted Dr. Monck Mason in his labours connected with the revision of the Hibernian Bible Societys Irish Bible, was eminent not only as an orator, a wit, and a humble unostentatious Christian, but was unmoved by the splendour and gaiety which surrounded him, and retained his simplicity amid it all. A magnificent duchess having one day asked him, Pray, do you know Lady Lorton? was quickly answered, Yes, madam, I do; and she is the best dressed lady in Ireland. How very odd! Best dressed lady in Ireland. What a strange man! Pray, how is she dressed? But her graces surprise was converted to satisfaction when Thady rejoined, Yes, madam, Lady Lorton is the best dressed lady in Ireland, or in England either, for she is clothed in humility.
Vanity
Vanity, or love of display, is one of the most contemptible and pernicious passions that can take possession of the human mind. Its roots are in self-ignorance-its fruits are affectation and falsehood. Vanity is a kind of mental intoxication, in which the pauper fancies himself a prince, and exhibits himself in aspects disgusting to all observers. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Humility a preparation for heaven
Humble we must be, if to heaven we go;
High is the roof there, but the gate is low.
(Robert Herrick.)
Clothed with humility
Humility is the beauty of grace. Be clothed with humility. The Greek word imports that humility is the ribbon or string that ties together all those precious pearls, the rest of the graces. If this string break they are all scattered. (T. Brooks.)
God resisteth the proud.-
The course of things against pride
No one need fail in life, in things temporal or things spiritual, through pride! and yet not be able to know what kept him back. Not temporally, not spiritually, will promotion come-any real progress-while self-conceit is there. The course of the universe is dead against that, and against those who are cursed with it. We do not wonder that the Almighty should oppose Himself to the proud. Even we must often have thought how strange it is that man should be proud at all. What have we to be proud of.
I. God resisteth the proud in his providence. The course of Gods Providence, as a general rule, does (as a matter of fact) keep back the proud from positions of eminence. In practice, the most conceited persons one has ever known are those who have been the deadest failures. The pride tended to the failure, no doubt: but where other disqualifications rendered success impossible, the self-conceit alleviated the mortification of failure. For it is more pleasant for a man to think that he has been very unlucky, than to think he has been very incompetent and undeserving. But, setting aside the case of incorrigibles, it is very striking, as a matter of historical experience, how, when the sore discipline had been borne, when the old conceit was fairly taken out, the tide turned and great success came. Aye, the man could stand it now: and that which would once have intoxicated, was now taken with lowly thankfulness. True are the wise mans words, Before honour is humility! I know, of course, that the question may be put: Have we not sometimes seen self-conceited people in prominent places? And the answer must be, Not often, but sometimes, no doubt. But it is only in appearance that these cases are exceptions to the principle stated in the text. For God resists such, humbles them in various ways. Perhaps He allows them to get the prominent position and then prove conspicuously unfit for it; which is (to one of any worth) the sorest kind of failure. Or the conceited heart is hourly punished by a host of little mortifications and slights, keenly felt through all its morbidly sensitive texture, from which the humble minded are entirely free. Make him chief minister of the State, like Haman: and the proud man has all the enjoyment killed out of his lot by the slighting looks of one unmannerly Jew. Raise the proud man to the throne itself; and he holds his peace of mind at the mercy of any crowd that may raise the shout, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.
II. How God resisteth the proud in his kingdom of grace. Where is boasting here? It is excluded. There is but one lowly gate of humble penitence by which anyone can pass into that family of the redeemed in which alone is salvation. And then this repentance is not just once for all: it must be a daily thing, a strengthening habit. Look at the whole design of grace, and see how from first to last it resists all pride, and cuts hard all human self-sufficiency I It sets out by taking it for granted that we are all guilty, all helpless. It goes on to tell that we can be saved only by entire dependence on another. Then, in the design of grace, though we are saved through Christ only, lye are called to the highest degree of purity, truthfulness, self-sacrifice, devotion of heart and of life to God. Only through the communications of the Blessed Spirit are we able to do anything as we ought. He begins, He carries on, He ends our better life! Thus it is that in Gods kingdom of grace there is no room for pride. It is not merely resisted, it is shut out altogether. And now we may humbly believe that we can discern the reason why God resisteth the proud. There is not in our Heavenly Father, in our Blessed Saviour, the faintest infusion of that wretched jealousy of their creatures which old heathenism ascribes to its gods; that wretched jealousy of human power and wisdom,-even of human goodness, which we can trace in ancient classic tragedy. It is not a touchiness about His own importance, such as we should judge petty and contemptible in a man, that makes God resist the proud. It is because the thing is bad; because it is unlike us and our place; because it must be got rid of before we shall be fit either for this life or for a better. It is all for our true good and our true happiness that God opposes the ever-growing self-conceit. Thus He trains us for duty here and for rest hereafter. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
The proud abased and the humble exalted
I. The folly of pride.
1. Are we proud of our strength? It is far inferior to that of many beasts.
2. Our clothing? It is not so pretty as the peacocks. What is deficient in the head they put outside.
3. Our beauty? It is inferior to many flowers.
4. Our riches? That man is a fool who prides himself upon these, for he is below a chain of pearls or a knot of diamonds.
5. Our birth? He who plumes himself upon this is proud of the blessings of others, not his own.
II. The wickedness of pride.
1. It makes a man especially hateful to God (Pro_8:13; Pro_16:5).
2. It is the most diabolical sin with which we are acquainted (1Ti_3:6).
3. It is the most productive of all sins (Heb_2:5; Psa_10:2; Pro_13:10).
III. The destructiveness of pride. It is the forerunner of shame.
IV. The cure of pride-humility.
1. Be convinced of its great excellency.
2. Store your mind with knowledge.
3. Its effects.
(1) It consists not in railing against yourself.
(2) It consists more in feeling than saying.
Lessons:
1. Never be ashamed of birth, parents, trade, or poverty.
2. Let others be praised in thy presence; object nothing; his disparagement increases not thy worth.
3. Nay, exalt thy brother, if truth and Gods glory need it. Cyrus played only with those more skilful than himself, lest he should shame them by his victory, that he might learn something of them, and do them civilities. (J. Summerfield, M. A.)
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God.-
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
There is nothing which more peculiarly marks the character of the faithful Christian than the manner in which he submits to the dispensations of God. The worldly spirit either repines under misfortune, or is disconsolate; or, at the best, bears up with a mere animal fortitude; it finds no comfort but such as is afforded by the vain world. Religion is the only source from which true comfort can be drawn, and we see her triumphs manifested in the most remarkable manner when the faithful servant of God is overwhelmed with trouble. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Here we may discover powerful reasons intimated why we should bring ourselves into a state of entire submission to the Divine will, and rest resigned under every dispensation. The hand of God is mighty: He is the sovereign Lord of all; has an absolute right to dispose of His creatures according to His good pleasure, and is alone able both to know and to do what their several necessities require. A wise son yields to an affectionate father, even in points where he cannot comprehend the entire wisdom of his discipline; not only because experience has taught him the benefit of subjection, but also for the sake of obedience to a father, who is entrusted with the guidance of him, and has a right to be obeyed. Another consideration here suggested is that all resistance is vain: the mighty hand of God is uncontrollable. Whatever visitation He is pleased to send to a family or to an individual-of sickness, of calamity, of death-there is no keeping it out of the dwelling; it may be softened by resignation, it may be removed, and even blessed by prayer; but we cannot hinder the accomplishment of Gods will. Remark the language of the text; Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God; it is not enough that we be humbled, in a worldly sense, by the stroke of misfortune; that is a consequence, which may of necessity ensue: the loss of possession may drive us into needy solitude; the loss of health destroy our energy and activity; the loss of reputation bring us to shame; the loss of friends oblige us to mourn, from the very feelings of nature; but all this while there may be no humility of heart. (J. Slade, M. A.)
On humbling ourselves before God
I. First, our text is evidently intended to bear upon us in our Church life. Each one of us should think little of himself and highly of his brethren.
1. True humility in our Church relationship will show itself in our being willing to undertake the very lowest offices for Christ.
2. The next point of humility is that we are conscious of our own incompetence to do anything aright. Self-sufficiency is inefficiency. He that has no sense of his weakness has a weakness in his sense.
3. This humility will show itself next in this-that we shall be willing to be ignored of men.
4. We want humility in our Church life, in the sense of never being rough, haughty, arrogant, hard, domineering, lordly; or, on the other hand, factious, unruly, quarrelsome, and unreasonable.
II. Now I will use the text in reference to our behaviour in our afflictions. Frequently our heavenly Fathers design in sending trial to His children is to make and keep them humble; let us remember this, and learn a lesson of wisdom. The most hopeful way of avoiding the humbling affliction is to humble yourself. Be humble that you may not be humbled.
1. And do this, first, by noticing whether you have been guilty of any special sin of pride. Usually our sins lie at the roots of our sorrows. If we will repent of the sin, the Lord will remove the sorrow.
2. In your affliction humble yourself by confessing that you deserve all that you are suffering.
3. But, more than that, humble yourself so as to submit entirely to Gods will. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you in this act of self-humiliation while you meekly kiss the rod.
III. In our daily dealings with God, whether in affliction or not, let us humble ourselves under His hand, for so only can we hope to be exalted. It is a blessed thing whenever you come to God to come wondering that you are allowed to come, wondering that you have been led to come; marvelling at Divine redemption, astonished that such a price should have been paid that you might be brought nigh to God. Let grace be magnified by your grateful heart.
1. When you are doing this be very humble before God, because you have not made more improvement of the grace that He has given you.
2. Next, humble yourself under the hand of God by feeling your own want of knowledge whenever you come to God. Do not think that you understand all divinity. There is only one body of divinity, and that is Christ Himself; and who knoweth Him to the full?
3. One point concerning which I should like every one of us to humble ourselves under the hand of God is about our little enjoyment of Divine things.
IV. I finish by using my text with all earnestness in reference to the unconverted in our seeking forgiveness as sinners. Do you want to be saved? The way of salvation is, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But, you say, I cannot understand it. Yet it is very simple; no hidden meaning lies in the words; you are simply bidden to trust Jesus. If, however, you feel as if you could not do that, let me urge you to go to God ill secret and own the sin of this unbelief; for a great sin it is. Humble yourself. Sit down and think over the many ways in which you have done wrong, or failed to do right. Pray God to break you down with deep penitence. When your sin is confessed, then acknowledge that if justice were carried out towards you, apart from undeserved grace, you would be sent to hell. You have almost obtained mercy when you have fully submitted to justice. Then, next, accept Gods mercy in His own way. Do not be so vain as to dictate to God how you ought to be saved. Be a little child, and come and believe in the salvation which is revealed in Jesus Christ. Ah, say you, I have done this, but I cannot get peace. Then sink lower down. Did I hear you say, Alas, sir, I want to get comfort? Do not ask for comfort; ask for forgiveness, and that blessing may come through your greater discomfort. Sink lower down. There is a point at which God will surely accept you, and that point is lower down. Oh, you say, I think I have a due sense of sin. That will not do. I want you to feel that you have not a due sense of sin, and come to Jesus just so. Oh, but I do think that I have been brokenhearted. I should like to see you lower than that, till you cry, I am afraid I never knew what it is to be brokenhearted. I want you to sink so low that you cannot say anything good of yourself; nay, nor see an atom of goodness in yourself. Come before God a criminal, in the prison dress, with the rope about your neck. You will be saved then. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Submission to Divine dispensation
1. We are to submit to the Divine dispensations in reference to our personal condition. Men, for example, of great talents and large opportunities, instead of shrinking from the responsibility they involve, and wishing it had been their lot rather to have been made mere animals or stones, are to be grateful for their distinction, and with the full force of their talent serve their generation by the will of God. While those whose talents or circumstances, or both, are characterised by mediocrity or poverty, instead of fretting, as though the dispensations towards them of the great Disposer had been unwise or unkind, are to acquiesce in the Divine appointment, and do their best to benefit man and glorify God.
2. We are to submit to the Divine arrangements in social and civil life. In social life, the husband is the head of the wife; parents have authority over children; masters over servants. In civil life, submission is equally imperative. The language of Scripture on this point is singularly precise and unqualified; pity it should have been perverted to purposes of tyranny (Rom_13:1-7; 1Ti_2:1-3; 1Pe_2:13-15).
3. We are to submit to the Divine arrangements in the Church. Instead of sulkiness, there should be cheerful compliance; instead of envy, generousness; instead of paltry pride, the dignity of humility; instead of fitfulness, patience; instead of insubordination, Christian submission. In the Church, emphatically, we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
4. We are to submit to the Divine dispensations which operate in the way of moral discipline. Afflictions are of necessity the present portion of the servants of Christ.
5. Our encouragement, even as intimated in this one verse, is great. Submission is rewarded in the present world. From how many mental and other evils does it save its subjects. How great is their peace, and their joy in the light of the Divine countenance. The chief reward will be bestowed in the world to come. (S. J. Davis.)
Humbling of the spirit, in humbling circumstances
Objection 1. If we let our spirit fall, we will lie always among folks feet, and they will trample on us. No: pride of spirit unsubdued will bring men to lie among the feet of others forever (Isa_66:24).
Obj. 2. If we do not raise ourselves, none will raise us; and therefore we must see to ourselves to do ourselves right. That is wrong. Humble yourselves in respect of your spirits, and God will raise you up in respect of your lot; and they that have God engaged for raising them, have no reason to say they have none to do it for them.
Obj. 3. But sure we will never rise high if we let our spirits fall. God will not only raise the humble ones, but He will lift them up on high; for so the word signifies.
I. The bent of ones heart, in humbling circumstances, should lie towards a suitable humbling of the spirit, as under Gods mighty hand placing us in them.
1. Some things supposed in this. It supposeth that-
(1) God brings men into humbling circumstances (Eze_17:24). There is a root of pride in the hearts of all men on earth, that must be mortified ere they can be meet for heaven. And God brings men into humbling circumstances for that very end (Deu_8:2).
(2) These circumstances prove pressing as a weight on the heart, tending to bear it down (Psa_107:12). They strike at the grain of the heart, and cross the natural inclination.
(3) The heart is naturally apt to rise against these humbling circumstances, and consequently against the mighty hand that brings and keeps them on. The man naturally bends his force to get off the weight, that he may get up his head, seeking more to please himself than to please his God (Job_35:9-10).
(4) But what God requires is rather to labour to bring down the heart than to get up the head (Jam_4:10). Lastly, there must be a noticing of God, as our party, in humbling circumstances. Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it (Mic_6:9).
2. What are these humbling circumstances the mighty hand brings them into? These are circumstances-
(1) Of imperfection. God has placed all men in such circumstances, under a variety of wants and imperfections (Php_3:2). There is a heap of natural and moral imperfections about us; our bodies and our souls, in all their faculties, are in a state of imperfection.
(2) Of inferiority in relations, whereby men are set in the lower place in relations and society, and made to depend on others (1Co_7:24). Now, God having placed us in these circumstances of inferiority, all refractoriness is a rising up against His mighty hand (Rom_13:2).
(3) Of contradiction. This was a part of our Lords state of humiliation, and the apostle supposes it will be a part of ours too (Heb_12:3). Whether these contradictions be just or unjust, God proves men with them to humble them, break them off from addictedness to their own will, and to teach them resignation and self-denial.
(4) Of affliction (Pro_16:19). Prosperity puffs up sinners with pride; and oh, but it is hard to keep a low spirit with a high lot. But God by affliction calls men down from their heights to sit in the dust, plucks away their jay feathers wherein they prided themselves, rubs the paint and varnish from off the creature, whereby it appears more in its native deformity. Lastly, of sin as the punishment of sin (Job_30:19).
3. What it is, in humbling circumstances, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
(1) Noticing the mighty hand, as employed in bringing about everything that concerns us, either in the way of efficacy or permission (1Sa_3:18). And he said, it is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good (2Sa_16:10).
(2) A sense of our own worthlessness and nothingness before Him (Psa_144:3; Gen_18:27; Isa_40:6).
(3) A sense of our guilt and filthiness (Rom_3:10; Isa_64:6). It is the overlooking our sinfulness that suffers the proud heart to swell.
(4) A silent submission under the hand of God. His sovereignty challengeth this of us (Rom_9:20; Psa_39:9; Job_1:21).
(5) A magnifying of His mercies towards us in the midst of all His proceedings against us (Psa_144:3). Has He laid us low? If we be duly humbled, we will wonder He has laid us no lower (Ezr_9:13).
(6) A holy and silent admiration of the ways and counsels of God, as to us unsearchable (Rom_11:33). Pride of heart thinks nothing too high for the man, and so arraigns before its tribunal the Divine proceedings, pretends to see through them, censures freely and condemns.
(7) A forgetting and laying aside before the Lord all our dignity, whereby we excel others (Rev_4:10; Luk_18:11). Lastly, a submitting readily to the meanest offices requisite in or agreeable to our circumstances. Use: Let the bent of your heart then, in all your humbling circumstances, be towards the humbling of your spirit, as under the mighty hand of God. This lies in two things.
(a) Carefully notice all your humbling circumstances, and overlook none of them.
(b) Observing what these circumstances do require of you as suitable to them. Let this be your great aim through your whole life, your exercise every day. Motive
1. God is certainly at work to humble one and all of us.
2. The humiliation of our spirits will not take effect without our own agency therein; for He works on us as rational agents, who being moved, move themselves (Php_2:12-13).
3. If ye do not, ye resist the mighty hand of God (Act_7:51). And of this resistance consider-
(1) The sinfulness, what an evil thing it is. It is a direct fighting against God (Isa_45:9).
(2) The folly of it. How unequal is the match? How can the struggle end well? (Job_9:4).
4. This is the time of humiliation, even the time of this life. Everything is beautiful in its season, and the bringing down of the spirit now is beautiful, as in the time thereof. Consider-
(1) Humiliation of spirit is in the sight of God of great price (1Pe_3:4).
(2) It is no easy thing to humble mens spirits; it is not little that will do it; it is a work that is not soon done. There is need of a digging deep for a thorough humiliation in the work of conversion (Luk_6:48).
(3) The whole time of this life is appointed for humiliation. This was signified by the forty years the Israelites had in the wilderness (Deu_8:2; Heb_12:2).
(4) There is no humbling after (Rev_22:11). If the pride of the heart be not brought down in this life, it will never be.
5. This is the way to turn humbling circumstances to a good account: so that instead of being losers, ye would be gainers by them (Psa_119:71).
(1) Humiliation of spirit is a most valuable thing in itself (Pro_16:32). It cannot be bought too dear.
(2) Humility of spirit brings many advantages along with it. It is a fruitful bough, well laden, wherever it is. It contributes to ones ease under the cross (Mat_11:30; Lam_3:27-29). It is a sacrifice particularly acceptable to God (Psa_51:17). The eye of God is particularly on such for good (Isa_66:2). And it carries a line of wisdom through ones whole conduct (Pro_11:2), With the lowly is wisdom. Lastly, consider it is a mighty hand that is at work with us; the hand of the mighty God; let us then bend our spirits towards a compliance with it, and not wrestle against it. Consider
(a) We must fall under it. Since the design of it is to bring us down, we cannot stand before it; for it cannot miscarry in its designs (Isa_46:10), My counsel shall stand.
(b) They that are so wise as to fall in humiliation under the mighty hand, be they never so low, the same hand will raise them up again (Jam_4:10). Directions for reaching this humiliation.
1. General directions.
(1) Fix it in your heart to seek some spiritual improvement of the conduct of Providence towards you (Mic_6:9). Till once your heart get a set that way, your humiliation is not to be expected (Hos_14:9).
(2) Settle the matter of your eternal salvation, in the first place, by betaking yourself to Christ, and taking God for your God in Him, according to the gospel offer (Hos_2:19; Heb_8:10). Lastly, use the means of soul humbling in the faith of the promise (Psa_28:7).
2. Particular directions.
(1) Assure yourselves that there are no circumstances so humbling that you are in, but you may get your heart acceptably brought down to them (1Co_10:13; 2Co_12:9).
(2) Whatever hand is, or is not, in your humbling circumstances, do you take God for your party, and consider yourselves therein as under His mighty hand (Mic_6:9). Men in their humbling circumstances overlook God; they fix their eyes on the creature instrument, and, instead of humility, their hearts rise.
(3) Be much in the thought of Gods infinite greatness; consider His holiness and majesty, fit to awe you into deepest humiliation (Isa_6:3-5).
(4) Inure yourselves silently to admit mysteries in the conduct of Providence towards you, which you are not able to comprehend, but will adore (Rom_11:33).
(5) Be much in the thoughts of your own sinfulness (Job_40:4).
(6) Settle it in your heart that there is need of all the humbling circumstances you are put in (1Pe_1:6).
(7) Believe a kind design of Providence in them towards you.
(8) Think with yourselves that this life is the time of trial for heaven (Jam_1:12).
(9) Think with yourselves, how it is by humbling circumstances the Lord prepares us for heaven (Col_1:12).
(10) Give up at length with your towering hopes from this world, and confine them to the world to come. Lastly, make use of Christ in all His offices for your humiliation, under your humbling circumstances. That only is kindly humiliation that comes in that way (Zec_12:10).
II. There is a due time wherein those that now humble themselves under the mighty hand of God will certainly be lifted up. First, a general view of this point. And consider-
1. Some things implied in it. It bears-
(1) That those who shall share in this lifting up must lay their accounts, in the first place, with a casting down (Rev_7:14; Joh_16:33).
(2) Being cast down by the mighty hand of God, we must learn to lie quiet under it, till the same hand that cast us down raise us up (Lam_3:27).
(3) Never humbled in humbling circumstances, never lifted up in the way of this promise.
(4) Humility of spirit in humbling circumstances ascertains a lifting up out of them some time with the goodwill and favour of Heaven (Luk_18:14).
(5) There is an appointed time for the lifting up of those that humble themselves in their humbling circumstances (Hab_2:3). We know it not, but God knows it, who has appointed it.
(6) It is not to be expected that immediately upon ones humbling himself, the lifting up is to follow. No, one is not only to lie down under the mighty hand, but lie still waiting the due time; humbling work is longsome work.
(7) The appointed time for the lifting up is the due time, the time fittest for it, wherein it will come most seasonably. Lastly, The lifting up of the humbled will not miss to come in the appointed and due time (Hab_2:3). Time makes no halting, it is running day and night; so the due time is fast coming.
2. A word in the general to the lifting up abiding those that humble themselves. There is a twofold lifting up.
(1) A partial lifting up, competent to the humbled in time during this life (Psa_30:1). This is a lifting up in part, and but in part, not wholly; and such liftings up the humbled may expect while in this world, but no more.
(2) A total lifting up, competent to them at the end of time, at death (Luk_16:22). Then the Lord deals with them no more by parcels and halves, but carries their relief to perfection (Heb_12:23). Now there is a due time for both these.
3. The certainty of the lifting up of those that humble themselves under humbling circumstances. And ye may be assured thereof from the following considerations.
(1) The nature of God, duly considered, insures it (Psa_103:8-9). Infinite power, that can do all things. Infinite goodness inclining to help. He is good and gracious in His nature (Exo_34:6-9). And therefore His power is a spring of comfort to them (Rom_14:4). Infinite wisdom that does nothing in vain, and therefore will not needlessly keep one in humbling circumstances (Lam_3:32-33).
(2) The providence of God, viewed in its stated methods of procedure with its objects, insures it. Turn your eyes which way you will on the Divine providence, ye may conclude thence, that in due time the humble will be lifted up
(a) Observe the providence of God in the revolutions of the whole course of nature, day succeeding to the longest night, a summer to the winter, a waxing to a waning of the moon, a flowing to an ebbing of the sea, etc. Let not the Lords humbled ones be idle spectators of these things; they are for our learning (Jer_31:35-37).
(b) Observe the providence of God in the dispensations thereof about the man Christ, the most august object thereof, more valuable than a thousand worlds (Col_2:9). Did not Providence keep this course with Him, first humbling Him, then exalting Him; first bring Him to the dust of death, in a course of sufferings thirty-three years, then exalt Him to the Fathers right hand in eternity of glory? (Heb_12:2).
(3) Observe the providence of God towards the Church in all ages. This has been the course the Lord has kept with her (Psa_129:1-4).
(4) Observe the providence of God in the dispensations of His grace towards His children. The general rule is (1Pe_5:5). Lastly, observe the providence of God at length throwing down wicked men, however long they stand and prosper (Psa_37:35-36).
(5) The Word of God puts it beyond all peradventure, which, from the beginning to the end, is the humbled saints security for a lifting up (Psa_119:49-50). Consider-
(a) The doctrines of the Word which teach faith and hope for the time, and the happy issue the exercise of these graces will have.
(b) The promises of the Word whereby Heaven is expressly engaged for a lifting up to those that humble themselves in humbling circumstances (Jam_4:10; Mat_23:12).
(c) The examples of the Word sufficiently confirming the truth of the doctrines and promises (Rom_15:4). Lastly, the intercession of Christ, joining the prayers of His humbled people in their humbling circumstances, insures a lifting up for them at length. Secondly, I proceed to a more particular view of the point.
1. We will consider the lifting up as brought about in time, which is the partial lifting up. And-first, some considerations for clearing the nature thereof.
(1) This lifting up does not take place in every case of a child of God. Objection, if that be the case, what comes of the promise of lifting up? Where is the lifting up, if one may go to the grave under the weight? Were there no life after this, there would be weight in that objection; but, since there is another life, there is none in it at all. Question, but then, may we not give over praying for the lifting up in that case? We do not know when that is our case; for a case may be past all hope in our eyes and the eyes of others, in which God designs a lifting up in time, as in Jobs (Job_6:11).
(2) However, there are some cases wherein this lifting up does take place. God gives His people some notable liftings up, even in time raising them out of remarkable humbling circumstances. Lastly, all the liftings up the humbled meet with now are but pledges, samples of the great lifting up abiding them on the other side; and they should look on them so. Secondly, the partial lifting up itself. What they will get, getting this lifting up promised to the humbled. Why, they will get-
1. A removal of their humbling circumstances.
2. A comfortable sight of the acceptance of their prayers put up in their humbling circumstances.
3. A heart-satisfying answer of these prayers, so as they shall not only get the thing, but see they have it as an answer of prayer; and they will put a double value on the mercy (1Sa_2:1).
4. Full satisfaction as to the conduct of Providence in all the steps of the humbling circumstances, and the delay of the lifting up, however perplexing these were before (Rev_15:3).
5. They get the lifting up together with the interest for the time they lay out of it.
6. The spiritual enemies that flew thick about them in the time of the darkness of the humbling circumstances will be scattered at this lifting up in the promise. Thirdly, the due time of this lifting up. The humbling circumstances are ordinarily carried to the utmost point of hopelessness before the lifting up. The knife was at Isaacs throat before the voice was heard (2Co_1:8-9). Lastly, due preparation of the heart for the lifting up out of the humbling circumstances, goes before the due time of that lifting up according to the promise. (T. Boston.)
The benefit of afflictions
I. The hand of God is an expression used in various parts of Scripture to denote the Almightys interference with the sons of men, in a way both of providence and grace. Thus in Act_4:28 it signifies His eternal purpose and executive power. In Psa_104:28 it denotes His providential bounty and goodness. In Joh_10:29 it denotes His mighty power to preserve and defend. It is used likewise with reference to the inspiration of the prophets: The hand of the Lord was on Elijah. In other places it expresses the help of the Almighty. Nehemiah and Ezra repeatedly acknowledge the Divine aid which was vouchsafed in these words, according to the good hand of God upon us. The Psalmist uses it to denote Gods merciful corrections (Psa_32:4; Psa_38:2). It is clearly in this latter sense that we are to regard the expression in our text. Is it asked, then, how God lifts up His heavy hand upon His people, and how they may know that it is lifted up? I answer, in various ways. In all things He consults the spiritual good of His children. He varies therefore the mode of correction, as well as the degree of it, to their peculiar circumstances and situations. Upon some His hand is lifted up in a way which is only known to themselves and to their God. Their comforts are withdrawn. Their evidences are clouded. Perhaps they are reduced to the very brink of despair. But the Lord does not always correct from His own immediate presence. The devil may be the executioner of His chastisement, as in Jobs case. The wicked, too, are spoken of by the Psalmist as the Lords hand (Psa_17:13). They may oppose, they may persecute. Worldly losses, pain, sickness, disappointments, interruptions of domestic happiness, the death of friends and beloved relatives, are all tokens of the uplifting of the mighty hand of God.
II. Our duty under the uplifted hand of God. Humble yourselves, that is, be lowly. Yield to the hand which smites you. Say, It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good. The precepts of the gospel go directly counter to our depraved nature. Were it not for the restraining grace of God, there is no length of repining which we should not run. But the believer has been made a new creature in Christ Jesus. Grace has called him back to that Sovereign from whom he had revolted. The expression in our text, humble yourselves, seems to imply three things; consciousness of a necessity for the trial, patience under the pressure of it, and a believing expectation of deliverance.
III. The happy effects resulting from this duty of humbling ourselves. That He may exalt you in due time. This expression may denote the removal of the trial when it has effected its purpose; or the esteem which the believer frequently obtains, even from an ungodly world, by his firmness and consistency of conduct; or that eminence in the graces and blessed fruits of the Spirit which beautifies his soul and renders him really exalted. For holiness, or, in other words, conformity to the image of the Saviour, is alone true greatness. (W. C. Wilson, M. A.)
Self-abasement and Divine exaltation
I. The kind of suffering which the text represents is that from which there is no present escape. Peter is not referring to very light suffering-to sorrow, that is here during this moment and that will be gone the next. Incurable sickness-incurable disease in the body, is the mighty hand of God on a man. Confirmed weakness or infirmity of the body or mind, is the mighty hand of God on a man. Inflexible poverty. Persecution, continued and unavoidable. The hand of God is always upon us, but it is not always equally felt, or upon us in the same form. The hand of God is in all our circumstances. Is it not in persecution, where the hand of man is most evident? If Shimei curse, let him curse, for God hath sent him. Unless it were better for you to be persecuted for your religions sake, God would not permit you to be persecuted. Your wisdom is cheerfully to submit.
II. The text prescribes our behaviour in suffering, and suggests the strongest motives for the adoption and pursuit of such conduct. Do you notice how in Bible teaching God deals with us as wise parents treat little children? Good parents direct little children about everything, for they need such direction. Recognise this, and instead of seeking to have your own way about anything, try to find out Gods way, and follow that way by the leading of the Saviour and by the grace of the Holy Ghost. There is a kind of submission which we cannot avoid. If God put His mighty hand upon us, intending to keep us under it, we know of a surety that we cannot escape. But with this inevitable submission there may be great pride of heart, expressing itself in murmuring and unholy rebellion; expressing itself in sinful efforts to get away from the suffering and in a determination not to realise it, and not to be thoroughly loyal in our thoughts and feelings as to our circumstances. A contrary behaviour is prescribed here. We are required to be still, silent. Aaron held his peace. Humility is that chastened emotion which we feel when conscious of our inferiority, our sinfulness, our weakness, our poverty, our helplessness, and our nothingness. Many motives might be suggested.
1. There is one motive springing from the words, the hand of God. That sorrow from which I cannot escape is a hand. It is not a chance, it is not an accident, there is a hand in it. It is connected with thought, feeling, purpose, plan, intention, wisdom.
2. The hand of God, the mighty hand. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. God has a good intent in your depression. He is intent upon exalting you. His love for you involves this. His sending His Spirit to take possession of your nature, to regenerate and sanctify and enlighten, shows that He desires to exalt you. Already, so far as character is concerned, God has lifted you up. But His aim is to exalt your entire humanity, to lift it up in all its states, and in all conditions. And God is making all things work together for this. God desires to exalt, and the exalting must be with Him. It must not be your attempt, your effort.
3. For this exaltation there is a season of which God can only judge. There is a due time. This lifting up is never too soon. There is a season for it, and that season is in the soul. The advent of the exaltation is, without doubt, dependent on our self-humiliation. You must mourn, to have your sorrow turned into joy.
4. Some men are ashamed of suffering. That is very much like being ashamed of Christ. Oh, what a change in mens notions and feelings would be effected if the poverty of Joseph the carpenters son were more before them, and if they lived more as in His presence and under His eye. The mighty hand of God, is on some of you. Is there not a cause? May not that cause be in certain faults and defects? (S. Martin.)
Humiliation of soul under Gods mighty hand
I. The text insists upon the recognition of the agency of God in all our afflictions. The mighty hand of God.
1. Now, observe that this recognition embraces, not second causes, but the immediate hand of God. We must go at once to the First Cause; or else we dishonour God under every trial.
2. Then observe, again, that this recognition must be of the hand, from which there is no escape: the mighty hand of God. I see His mighty hand in creation, forming the beautiful world in which I live; and in providence I see that same hand regulating every event in the universe. And if I recognise that hand aright, I shall see it no less in, and bringing to pass, every affliction with which I am assaulted. It could not have come to me without a mighty hand. And while I see this, it is in vain to resist it.
3. But, then, this recognition must be of the hand of God, the mighty hand of God. And how sweet is this! the hand of God. Power alone would make me afraid, but it is not the hand of a tyrant-it is the hand of God; my covenant God; my God, who gave His dear Son for me; my God, who has promised to keep and to bless me, and to take me eventually to His kingdom of glory. What infant feels alarmed when its mothers hand is upon it?
II. The text shows us the spirit in which that Divine agency is to be recognised. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. This includes a deep sense of the malignity and evil of sin, which brings all our sorrows, as committed against a holy God and a righteous law, and also especially its aggravation, as against a God of love and of grace, as revealed in the gospel.
III. A promise to encourage and to enforce this recognition of the hand of God: That He may exalt you in due time. There is a threefold exaltation, of which the Scripture speaks.
1. The first is an exaltation in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. To stand complete before my God, with a justification in which His own eye can see no fault; to feel that I am an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ, and that eternity with all its blessings is my own forever.
2. But, secondly, there is an exaltation also from the deepest woe and trial into which we can be brought, and of which the Scriptures speak. David says, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry; He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings; and He hath but a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.
3. And then there is exaltation to the throne of glory. And the first is connected with the last; he that is exalted by the imputed righteousness of Christ, shall eventually be exalted to the throne of glory. (James Sherman.)
The mighty hand of God
We might have thought that such a command as this was somewhat unnecessary. We might have supposed that it needed but for God to stretch out His hand, and every creature would go down into the dust before Him. But no one who has accurately watched the working of any affliction upon his own or anothers heart will say this. There are three ways in which the chastening hand of God may be wrongly received. You may not see it all. This is what Israel did when Isaiah put up his plaint-Lord, when Thy hand is lifted up, they will not see-but he sternly adds, They shall see. Or you may see-but you may think but very little of it. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. Or, at a lower point than both-you may see, and estimate the judgment, and the very sense you have of it may harden your heart into pride and rebellion, irritating your temper and making you more resolute for evil. This is what Pharaoh did and Ahaz. Strange that it should be so! Yet all history bears witness to the fact that times of national suffering, of famine, or plague, have been times of extraordinary wickedness: for the sorrow of the world worketh death. All evil that is in the world is traceable at last to one primary cause; the right relationship has been interrupted between God and His creatures. If man goes up too high, or God is put down too low, then evil is sure to follow. Therefore the first thing is to rectify this. We must be lower, and God must be higher. Hence the primary law of all affliction, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God. Now it is quite certain that no man does really humble himself under anything which he does not recognise and feel to be the hand of God. No one humbles himself to an accident. No one humbles himself to a punishment; but to the hand which deals it. And the more that hand is admired and loved, the deeper will be the abasement, and the easier it will be to make it. Therefore it is all-important, in every trial that comes upon you, nationally or individually, that you should at once see-not natural causes, not even the scourge itself-but only the hand of God is upon you. It is a grand image-the mighty hand of God. Very mighty must it be, when He measures the water in its hollow, and meets out the heaven with its span. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Bending without breaking
It was an ice time in New England. One of those rare days which come once or twice every winter, and, sometimes, even in April, in northern climes, when every bush and every twig of every stately tree trunk is thickly coated with glistening crystals. The whole country is transformed into fairyland, and Aladdins cave is outdone by each patch of scrubby oak trees. We noticed, as the engine whirled us through this enchanted land, that the slenderest of all our northern forest trees, the white birch, was prostrated to the very earth, and that thousands of these trees were lying prone, as if felled by the woodmans axe. What a pity! we involuntarily said to ourselves; but on going over that same line of road the next day, we saw that it was not the birches that needed our pity, but the sturdy oaks and the upright elms and the heavily clothed pines. The birches were bent to the earth, to be sure, but the statelier trees were broken and maimed, and sometimes rent in two, by the burden of the ice. The birches bowed their backs, but sprang up again when the burden was removed. The trees of the forest are typical of certain characters. He who bows submissively before Gods providences is not the one who is broken by them. He maybe prostrated by heavy grief for a little time, but he soon springs up when the sun shines again. Only he who strives to bear by his own might, and in his own strength, the grievous ills of life is broken by them. To obsequiously prostrate ones self before earthly power may be the part of the craven. To bow before the will of God is a sign of inherent strength rather than of weakness, of manliness rather than of pusillanimity. Pride misses the blessing that is always in store for humble submission. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Casting all your care upon Him.-
The pride of care
The two parts of the text, taken together, state this truth, that anxiety carries with it a division of faith between God and self, a lack of faith in God proportioned to the amount of care which we refuse to cast on Him; an excess of self-confidence proportioned to the amount which we insist on bearing ourselves. Therefore the apostle says, Humble yourselves under Gods mighty hand. Confess the weakness of your hand. Do not try to carry the anxiety with your weak hand. Cast it all on Him. The Revised Version has brought out a very important distinction by the substitution of anxiety for care. Anxiety, according to its derivation, is that which distracts and racks the mind, and answers better to the original word, Which signifies a dividing thing, something which distracts the heart and separates it from God. The word careth, on the other hand, used of God, is a different word in the original, and means supervising and fostering care, loving interest, such care as a father has for a child. I want to show how the spirit which refuses to give up its dividing anxiety to God is allied to pride, and unbecoming a child in the household of a Divine Father who cares for him. Pride, I say-subtle, unconscious pride-is at the bottom of much of this restlessness and worry. The man has come to think himself too important, to feel that the burden is on his shoulders only; and that, if he stands from under, there must be a crash. And, just to the degree in which that feeling has mastered him, his thought and faith have become divided from God. Let us give him his due. It is not for his own ease or reputation that he has been caring. It is for his work. And yet he has measurably forgotten, that, if his work be of God, God is as much interested in his success as he himself can be; and that God will carry on His own work, no matter how many workmen He buries. He divides the burden, and shows whom He trusts most by taking the larger part himself, when God bids him cast it all on Him. God, indeed, exempts nobody from work. We may cast our anxiety, but not our work, on Him. There are few men in responsible positions who have not felt the force of a distinguished Englishmans words, I divide my work into three parts. One part I do, one part goes undone, and the third part does itself. That third part which does itself is a very expressive hint as to the needlessness of our fretting about at least one-third of our work, besides giving a little puncture to our self-conceit by showing that, to one-third of our work, we are not quite as necessary as we had thought ourselves. And as to the third, which the God-fearing man cannot do, and which therefore goes, or seems to go, undone, there is a further hint that possibly that third is better undone, or is better done in some other way and by some other man. A young lady had consecrated herself to the work of missions, and was about to go to India. Just at that point an accident disabled her mother, and the journey had to be deferred. For three years she ministered at that bedside, until the mother died, leaving as her last request that she should go and visit her sick sister in the far west. She went, intending to sail for India immediately on her return; but she found the sister dying with consumption, and without proper attendance; and once more she waited until the end came. Again her face was turned eastward, when the sisters husband died, and five little orphans had no soul on earth to care for them but herself. No more projects for going to the heathen, she wrote. This lonely household is my mission. Fifteen years she devoted to her young charge; and, in her forty-fifth year, God showed her why He had held her back from India, as she laid her hand in blessing on the heads of three of them ere they sailed as missionaries to the same land whither, twenty years before, she had proposed to go. Her broken plan had been replaced by a larger and a better one. One could not go, but three went in her stead: a good interest for twenty years. But there is a class of cases where anxiety is clearly prompted by self-interest, vanity, and worldly ambition. Self cannot cast such anxiety on God, because God will not take it. When God bids us humble ourselves, He surely will not minister to our pride. God does not hold out His arms to our burdens unconditionally; He is willing to take the burden on His hand, if we ourselves will come and stay under His hand, not otherwise. He refuses to take the care without the self. If we will put the self into His hand absolutely, He will take it, care and all. But many an one would like to cast the care on God, and keep the self in his own hand. Casting all our care on God is casting self on God, for self is our worst care. It is not merely coming to God with our failures, and asking Him to make them good, but it is confessing also that our unaided self is the worst failure of all, and saying frankly to our heavenly Father, Without Thee I can do nothing. God has different ways of teaching this lesson. You know how a schoolmaster will sometimes shut himself up with a dull pupil, and hold him down to a problem. So God Sometimes shuts a man up with himself and his own helplessness. Even then He does not force the mans will; but He means that he shall for once look squarely at the impotence of self, that he shall for once confess to himself the fact that self has exhausted its resources, that the world cannot help him, that he has nothing in heaven or earth but God. That, as men see it, is a terrible blow to pride. The bitterest draught that ever a man is called on to drink is the confession that he cannot help himself. The world says a man is at his worst then. I am not sure of that. The Bible would say that he is just within reach of his best. The result of this humbling of self, and throwing it with its anxiety on God, is quite contrary to human logic. The world says the man who is humbled is the crushed man, the defeated man. The world is right, if the man is simply crushed into submission by overwhelming power; but the world is quite wrong if the man has voluntarily bowed the high head of his pride, and has cheerfully yielded up his will with his care to God. Such humbling, if Scripture is to be believed, is the way to exaltation: He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. You see something of the same kind in ordinary matters. Now and then you find a man with more conceit than ability, with more self-confidence than resources, who attempts to lead a great movement, or to conduct a great business; and the very position brings out his weakness, and the more men say he is a fool and a weakling. And yet not a few men have had the sense or the grace to see the true state of the case in time, and to swallow pride, and frankly to confess weakness by retiring from a place for which they were unfit. From that moment they began to rise. They never rose to the high position which they coveted at first, but they rose to a true position which they could hold; and that was really higher than the false position which they could not hold. They became respectable and useful men, doing good work in lower places. What is true in some cases in society is true always of men in relation to God. The man is always in a false position, a position he cannot fill, when he ignores God and tries to take care of himself. He is a better man, a more efficient man, by humbling himself under Gods hand and letting God take care of him. Read on a little farther in this same chapter, and you find that thought again: The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. Ah! that is exaltation indeed; security, steadfastness, mastery over that which burdens the world, peace which the world cannot give nor take away. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
A cure for care
Very comforting has such an exhortation been to suffering saints in all ages. Possibly Peter had in his mind when he penned it Psa_55:22. The Jewish Church on many a dark and cloudy day entered into the spirit of our text. Luther, we are told, in the trying times of the Reformation, used to say to Melancthon, Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth psalm, and let them do their best; and so they sang in their own German tongue that grand old psalm. Thus they cast all their care on God. Let us consider this subject of care or anxiety, first, in some of its negative aspects.
1. Christians ought not to make cares for themselves. How many business men, with limited capital and little experience, rush into difficulties.
2. Neither ought Christians to conjure up imaginary troubles, or to anti-date their troubles. How very miserable some people are because of that dreadful tomorrow.
3. Neither ought we to be careless in reference to the future.
Approaching the positive aspect of our subject, and taking it for granted that men are not making cares for themselves, the question presses upon us, Is there a remedy for care?
1. So far as many are concerned, the text might just as well have read, Cast none of you your care on God, for God does not care for you. So far as even many professing Christians are concerned, the text might have run thus: Casting your great cares upon God, and so far as daily cares are concerned, do the best you can to bear them. So far as the burden of sin is concerned, the believing, trusting soul says, Thank God all is well. I have realised that my blessed Saviour bore the huge burden away; but it is the little cares of every day life. Yes, these little cares and daily worries bring the careworn look, and leave behind the wrinkles. Now, here in this text we have Gods own remedy, for, observe, it is not some of your cares, or your great cares, but all your care.
2. Observe the blessed assurance here given, for He careth for you. (W. Halliday.)
Casting care
I. Mans care. The sources from whence our cares arise.
1. There are frequent misunderstandings with our fellow men.
2. There are our business and family claims.
3. And there are the religious claims that press upon us. Few of us have as much care from this source as we ought to have.
II. Gods care. He careth for you. His care cannot be quite like ours. There can be no fretfulness in it, and no sort of fear and despair.
1. His care of all the creatures He has made, and all that is involved in giving to each his meat in due season.
2. But we may further think of Gods precise knowledge of our anxieties.
3. But there is something more and better than even this; there is Gods care of us in the midst of our anxieties. He cares for the influence of things on our characters rather than for the things, as the goldsmith cares for his gold rather than for the fire.
III. Gods care of us is a persuasion to cast our care on him. He cares, why should we? Why should we not be as calm as the sailor boy in the wild storm who knew that his father held the helm? But it is easier to speak in general terms about our casting care on God than it is to explain precisely what it involves. A very simple illustration may help our apprehension. A small tradesman had a case coming on in the county court, on which, for him, every thing depended. A decision given against him meant ruin. Worrying over it day and night, he had become thin, looked haggard, lost appetite and sleep. One day there came into his shop a friend of his boyhood, whom he had not seen for years. This friend was much distressed at his appearance, and said, Why, whatever is the matter with you? I am sure you must have some grave anxiety weighing on your mind. The tradesman poured out to his friend all the story of his troubles; and then that friend said, Dont you trouble any more about it. I am a lawyer, and practise at the courts, and I have had just such cases as yours. I see where the point of difficulty in your case is, and I have no doubt we shall be able to get you through all right. You trust the matter entirely to me. I will appear for you, and all will be well. What a relief that tradesman felt! He had lost his burden, for he had cast it on his friend. O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake Thou for me. (The Weekly Pulpit.)
Cast care on God
I. Who the persons are to whom the exhortation may properly be addressed. He writes to those who are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. He addresseth believers in Christ Jesus, who loved Him though unseen, whom he distinguished as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. These are the objects of Gods paternal care, and they only are qualified to east their care upon Him. You cannot cast your care upon God till your acquaintance with Him be begun.
II. The nature and extent of the duty itself. It differs entirely in its nature from that carelessness and insensibility which the bulk of mankind too generally indulge. The character of the persons to whom this exhortation is addressed doth likewise serve to limit the extent of the duty. It is not every sort of care that we are invited to cast upon God, but only the care of those things which the Christian dare avow in the presence of his Father, and humbly ask of Hint by prayer. We must first examine the object of our desire, whether it be good in itself and fit for us; whether it be subservient to our spiritual interest; and if not, we must neither cast the care of it upon God nor keep it to ourselves, but throw it away altogether.
1. A steadfast persuasion that all events are ordered by God; that we and all our interests are continually in His hand, and that nothing can befall us without His permission.
2. To cast our care upon God is to make His will the guide and measure of ours.
3. That we renounce all confidence in the creature, and place our trust in God alone. A divided trust between God and the creature is as foolish and unsafe as to set one foot upon a rock and the other upon a quicksand.
4. To east all your care upon God implies a full and unsuspecting dependence upon His wisdom and goodness; such a dependence as quiets the mind, disposing it to wait patiently upon God, and to accept with thankfulness whatsoever He is pleased to appoint. (R. Walker.)
Earthly and heavenly care
The first difficulty in ridding ourselves of irreligious care is in distinguishing it from that better kind of care which is a duty. While St. Paul bids the Philippians be careful for nothing, he commends the Corinthians for their carefulness, classing it with the graces of self-purification and zeal. He says he would have the disciples without carefulness; yet there is plainly a limit to this recommendation, for he exhorts them to be careful to maintain good works, and takes upon himself the care of the churches. How shall we at once have care and cast care away? There must be a principle that reconciles these apparent disagreements. It will not do to answer that the difference is one of quantity. It is common to say that the great mistake about earthly care is in allowing too much of it; that it is innocent in moderate measures. But there are kinds of care so purely selfish, so earthly, so poisoned with envy, avarice, or the passion for admiration, that they are evil irrespective of all questions of more or less. Christ does not form souls into His like ness by such rules. He breathes into them new desires, baptizes them into a new spirit. Equally vain is it to undertake to strike out a Christian course by saying we will distinguish between the objects of our anxiety-as by being careful for the spirit and negligent of the body; careful for faith and hope and charity, but negligent of daily business, household, and society. This is not Christs righteousness. Jesus shows us the Father Himself taking care of the fowls of the air, of sheep and oxen, and of the little fibres of our bodily frames. Whatever care is right at all is right here, as well as hereafter. And the burden that we are to cast on the Lord is the burden of the life that now is. At this point precisely we strike the true distinction and the Christian doctrine. All right and lawful care is just that which we can at all times, and in all places, carry with us to our Lord, to rest it on that sympathising heart in Him which has already carried our griefs, and healed the disorder of the world by the stripes of His sacrifice. It is the care which keeps the responsibility of life without despairing under it. It is willing suffering, and unwillingness is the only intolerable burden. Rid of that, nay future care is gone. The forbidden care is that which we cannot carry with us to God or cast contentedly into His keeping. It hinders the affections when they try to rise heavenward. It doubts whether Christ is still near at hand and His grace sufficient. This is earthly care, unprofitable, unreasonable, unholy care-the care that wears out men and women before their time. We can take this principle with us into each of the three great regions where anxiety is most apt to become excessive. We have a world without us, a world within us, and a world before us, where our responsibility is accompanied at every step with care.
1. In the world without us we have seen how carefully we are called to live. Blessed is the man who, having done his best, can settle himself calmly into Gods order for him, put anxiety behind him at the end of each days work, reckon results as Gods alone, believe that God takes care of ships and harvests as well as of rituals and revelations, and so cast every burdensome care on Him.
2. There is a world before us. The very mystery of that veiled country seems to tempt the imagination to people it with alarms. Take no thought for the morrow as tomorrow, as something lying outside of our control, held by Gods hand for purposes of His own. Accept the heavenly order. Behold the lilies how they grow.
3. There is a world within us, where the spiritual formation of us goes on and our eternity is making for us every hour. Doubtless there are some minds that never thought of it as possible that any care about their spiritual salvation and the things of religion could be wrong. Yet if you would come to the heights of holy living with Christ and His saints, you must learn that impatience does not cease to be impious because it goes to church, nor does a complaining spirit honour the Redeemer though it uses the vocabulary of piety. If your anxiety is only about your salvation as a selfish and exclusive thing, it is earthly care, and needs to be cast off. (Bp. Huntington.)
Trust in God
I. Some plain illustration of the duty here enjoined.
1. A firm persuasion of His infinite perfections, of His all-governing providence, and of His watchful care.
2. A calm and constant reliance on Him, through Jesus Christ, the only Mediator.
3. An unreserved resignation of our lot to the disposal of that God and Saviour on whom our hopes for eternity are placed.
4. Casting our cares on God not only implies referring our present and future lot to the unerring disposal of His wisdom, but holding delightful intercourse with Him in the various occurrences of our daily pilgrimage through life.
II. Some plain directions for enabling you rightly to cast your burdens on the Lord, even in the time of severest distress.
1. Be sure that you are interested in Christ, and that you rely on His merits and mediation.
2. Live daily by faith on God Himself, as your all-sufficient portion through the Redeemer; and then you may cheerfully leave it with Him either to wound or to heal, to exalt or to lay low.
3. For enabling you to cast all your cares on the Lord, and, in all the trials of life, to maintain a steady trust in Him who reigns omnipotent, live daily by faith on the great and precious promises of His Word; let these promises be your support.
4. If you would live without anxious care, and would maintain habitual trust in God amidst the dangers and trials of life, look on this life as your pilgrimage, and long for heaven as your home. This will prevent your indulging in immoderate attachment to the things of time, and will preserve you from many mortifying disappointments which produce fretfulness and depression.
Conclusion:
1. Learn how foolish and arrogant those persons are who trust for safety and success in themselves, independently of God; who rely on their own wisdom, talents, or exertions.
2. Learn that equally foolish and arrogant is confidence in the arm of flesh, or placing your trust in fellow mortals.
3. Learn how well it becomes us to unite in the devotional triumph of David, Happy is he who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.
4. Let me now direct my exhortation to those who have taken the glorious Jehovah for their refuge and their trust.
(1) Mark with care the daily dealings of Providence towards you and yours; treasure them up in your memory for a time of need, and diligently observe the frame of your own mind, both under mercies and trials.
(2) Remember that your trials are all necessary, and are sent in love, to purify you from sin, to wean you from the world, to bring you near to God, and to prepare you for heaven.
(3) Cast all your burdens on the Lord, and both hope and quietly wait for His time and manner of deliverance. (A. Bonar.)
How to dispose of care
There is such a thing as care. Who does not know it by experience? It is a burden, and it has also a sting. There is care both for ourselves and others, which God Himself has cast upon us; and of which it were sinful to attempt to make any other disposition. But over and above this, there is a largo amount of anxiety which is unnecessary, useless, injurious. But what shall we do with it? Divide it with others we may to some little extent. There is such a thing as sympathy. Yet the very etymology of the word sympathy evinces that it is no remedy. It is, after all, a suffering together. Mixing tears does indeed diminish their bitterness. There is a better way of disposing of care than to cast it on our fellow creatures. Indeed, what fellow creatures can we find who have not enough of their own to bear? There are some who cast off care without reference to what becomes of it. They sing, Begonia, dull care. These are the reckless. Care may go at their bidding, but the worst of it is it is sure to return again, and it comes back a heavier burden. This is not the way to dispose of care. Yet there is a way whereby all excess of anxiety may be effectually removed. It is to cast care on God. He can take the burden, however heavy. You do not doubt that; but you ask, Will He?-may I cast it on Him? Will such greatness stoop to such littleness?-such holiness come down to such vileness? Yes, it will, for condescension is one characteristic of greatness. So far is it from being presumption to cast your care on God, it is a sin not to do it. There is a reason given by Peter for casting care on God, that is inexpressibly touching. He follows no flourishing of rhetoric, but says, He careth for you. Why should you care for yourself, since God cares for you? What a thought to carry through this vale of tears, and to go down with into the deeper valley of death, that God cares for me! Some poor saints think nobody cares for them. But God does. Is not that enough? (W. Nevins, D. D.)
A cure for care
I. The disease of care.
1. Care even when exercised upon legitimate objects, if carried to excess, hath in itself the nature of sin. Anything which is a transgression of Gods command is sin, and if there were no other command, the one in our text being broken would involve us in iniquity. Besides, the very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting of ourselves into His place, to do for Him that which we dream He either cannot or will not do; we attempt to think of that which we fancy He will forget; or we labour to take upon ourselves that burden which He either is not able or willing to carry for us.
2. But, further, these anxious cares very frequently lead to other sins, sometimes to overt acts of transgression. The tradesman who is not able to leave his business with God, may be tempted to indulge in the tricks of trade; nay, he may be prevailed upon to put out an unholy hand with which to help himself. Now this is forsaking the fountain to go to the broken cisterns, a crime which was laid against Israel of old, a wrath provoking iniquity.
3. As it is in itself sin, and the mother of sin, we note again that it brings misery, for where sin is, sorrow shall soon follow.
4. Besides this, these anxious cares do not only lead us into sin, and destroy our peace of mind, but they also weaken us for usefulness. When one has left all his cares at home, how well he can work for his Master, but when those cares tease us in the pulpit, it is hard preaching the gospel. There was a great king who once employed a merchant in his service as an ambassador to foreign courts. Now the merchant before he went away said to the king, My own business requires all my care, and though I am always willing to be your majestys servant, yet if I attend to your business as I ought, I am sure my own will be ruined. Well, said the king, you take care of my business, and I will take care of yours. Use your best endeavours, and I will answer for it that you shall be nothing the loser for the zeal which you take from yourself to give to me. And so our God says to us, as His servants, Do My work, and I will do yours. Serve Me, and I will serve you.
5. These carking cares, of whose guilt perhaps we think so little, do very great damage to our blessed and holy cause. Your sad countenances hinder souls who are anxious, and they present a ready excuse for souls who are careless.
6. I close the description of this matter by saying that in the most frightful manner cares have brought many to the poisoned cup, the halter, and the knife, and hundreds to the madhouse. What makes the constant increase of our lunatic asylums; why is it that in almost every country in England new asylums have to be erected, wing after wing being added to these buildings in which the imbecile and the raving are confined? It is because we will carry what we have no business to carry-our own cares, and until there shall be a general keeping of the day of rest throughout England, and until there shall be a more general resting of our souls and all we have upon God, we must expect to hear of increasing suicides and increasing lunacies.
II. The blessed remedy to be applied. Somebody must carry these cares. If I cannot do it myself, can I find anyone who will? My Father who is in heaven stands waiting to be my burden bearer.
1. One of the first and most natural cares with which we are vexed is the care for daily bread. Use your most earnest endeavours, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God; if you cannot do one thing do another; if you cannot earn your bread as a gentleman earn it as a poor man; if you cannot earn it by the sweat of your brains do it by the sweat of your brow; sweep a crossing if you cannot do anything else, for if a man will not work neither let him eat; but having brought yourself to that, if still every door is shut, Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
2. Businessmen, who have not exactly to hunt for the necessaries of life, are often tormented with the anxieties of large transactions and extended commerce. I say, Brother, hold hard here, what are you doing? Are you sure that in this you have used your best prudence and wisdom, and your best industry, and given it your best attention? Yes. Well then, what more have you to do? Suppose you were to weep all night, will that keep your ship from going on the Goodwin sands? Suppose you could cry your eyes out, will that make a thief honest? Suppose you could fret yourself till you could not eat, would that raise the price of goods? One would think if you were just to say, Well, I have done all that is to be done, now I will leave it with God, that you might go about your business and have the full use of your senses to attend to it.
3. Another anxiety of a personal kind which is very natural, and indeed very proper if it be not carried to excess, is the care of your children. Mother, father, you have prayed for your children, you trust you have set them a holy example, you labour day by day to teach them the truth as it is in Jesus; it is well, now let your souls quietly expect the blessing, leave your offspring with God; cast your sons and daughters upon their fathers God; let no impatience intrude if they are not converted in your time, and let, no distrust distract your mind if they should seem to belie your hopes.
4. But each Christian will in his time have personal troubles of a higher order, namely, spiritual cares. He is begotten again unto a lively hope, but he fears that his faith will yet die. As yet he has been victorious, but he trembles lest he should one day fall by the hand of the enemy. I beseech thee, cast this care upon God for He careth for you. Never let anxieties about sanctification destroy your confidence of justification. What if you be a sinner! Christ died to save sinners. What if you be undeserving! In due time Christ died for the ungodly. Grace is free. The invitation is still open to you; rest the whole burden of your souls salvation where it must rest.
5. There are many cares not of a personal but rather of an ecclesiastical character, which often insinuate themselves and plead for life, but which must nevertheless be put away. There are cares about how Gods work is to be carried on. We may properly pray, Lord, send labourers, and with equal propriety we may ask that He who has the silver and the gold may give them for His own work; but after that we must cast our care on God. Then, if we get over that, there will be another anxiety-one which frets me often enough-which is, the success of Gods work. Husbandmen, your Great Employer sent you out to sow the seed, but if no grain of it should ever come up, if you sowed the seed as He told you, and where He told you, He will never lay the blame of a defective harvest to you. And sometimes there is another care, it is the care lest some little slip made by ourselves or others should give cause to the enemy to blaspheme. A careful jealousy is very well if it leads to caution, but very ill if it leads to a carking, weak anxiety,
III. The sweet inducement to leave your burden: He careth for you.
1. Believe in a universal providence, the Lord cares for ants and angels, for worms and for worlds; he cares for cherubim and for sparrows, for seraphim and for insects. Cast your care on Him, He that calleth the stars by their names, and leadeth them out by numbers, by their hosts. Let His universal providence cheer you.
2. Think next of His particular providence over all the saints. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.
3. And then let the thought of His special love to you be the very essence of your comfort. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. God says that as much to you as He said it to any saint of old. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
On solicitude
Man is made up of soul and body. To accomplish the happiness of such a being it is necessary that both of these should be free from disquietude. It is therefore the great aim of religion to point out the most amiable views of the character of God, and to inculcate the exercise of perpetual hope, and trust in His most beneficent providence as the only effectual instrument of our present felicity.
I. Such a precept as this cannot be supposed to inculcate an entire negligence, or a total inattention, to our external situation in life. Religion expressly forbids us to be slothful in business. It calls us to action. God is concerned for your good, and careth for all your interests.
II. To offer some arguments to enforce this precept.
1. All immoderate care is highly criminal and impious in its nature. Weak must be that faith, and little must that mind have learned of the nature of its Creator, which can observe that He dispenses His bounty in such abundance through all the works of His hands, and still entertain the secret thought that His love is exhausted on the minutest objects, and that there is nothing in reserve for the sons of men.
2. All inordinate care about the events of life is offering an affront to the love and goodness which we have formerly experienced, and deeply partakes of the nature of ingratitude to God.
3. An anxious, a discontented temper of mind, must prove a source of misery, must subject the soul to perpetual uneasiness and pain in all the situations of life. He is blind to every comfortable circumstance that may enter into his lot. His imagination ever dwells upon some disagreeable point; and it is not in the power of all the enjoyments of this world to give it any sort of solace.
4. All such peevish care is utterly unprofitable and impotent, and totally incapable of ever accomplishing its end. The stream of providence perpetually rolls on with an impetuous current; and he who ventures to oppose it shall only fatigue himself and waste his strength and spirits in vain. (John Main, D. D.)
A sermon to ministers and other tried believers
The verse preceding is, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. If we are truly humble we shall cast our care upon God, and by that process our joy will be exalted. Oh for more humility, for then shall we have more tranquillity. Pride begets anxiety. The verse which follows our text is this-Be sober, be vigilant, etc. Cast your care upon God, because you need all your powers of thought to battle with the great enemy. He hopes to devour you by care.
I. First, expound the text-Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you. The word used in reference to God is applied to caring for the poor, and in another place to the watchfulness of a shepherd. Our anxiety and Gods care are two very different things. You are to cast your care, which is folly, upon the Lord, for He exercises a care which is wisdom. Care to us is exhausting, but God is all-sufficient. Care to us is sinful, but Gods care of us is holy. Care distracts us from service, but the Divine mind does not forget one thing while remembering another. Casting, says the apostle. He does not say, laying all your care upon Him, but he uses a much more energetic word. You have to cast the load upon the Lord; the act will require effort. Here is a work worthy of faith. You will have to lift with all your soul before the burden can be shifted; that effort, however, will not be half so exhausting as the effort of carrying your load yourself. Note the next words: Upon Him. You may tell your griefs to others to gain their sympathy; you may ask friends to help you, and so exercise your humility; but let your requests to man be ever in subordination to your waiting upon God. Some have obtained their full share of human help by much begging from their fellow Christians; but it is a nobler thing to make known your requests unto God; and somehow those who beg only of God are wondrously sustained where others fail. Cease, then, from man; cast all your care upon God, and upon Him only. Certain courses of action are the very reverse of casting all your care upon God, and one is indifference. Every man is bound to care about his life duties, and the claims of his family. Casting care upon God is the very reverse of recklessness and inconsiderateness. It is not casting care upon God when a man does that which is wrong in order to clear himself; yet this is too often tried. He who compromises truth to avoid pecuniary loss is hewing out a broken cistern for himself. He who borrows when he knows he cannot pay, he who enters into wild speculations to increase his income, he who does aught that is ungodly in order to turn a penny is not casting his care upon God. How, then, are we to cast all our care upon God? Two things need to be done. It is a heavy load that is to be cast upon God, and it requires the hand of prayer and the hand of faith to make the transfer. Prayer tells God what the care is, and asks God to help, while faith believes that God can and will do it. When you have thus lifted your care into its true position and cast it upon God, take heed that you do not pick it up again. Henceforth let us leave worldlings to fret over the cares of this life; as for us, let our conversation be in heaven, and let us be anxious only to end anxiety by a childlike confidence in God.
II. To enforce the text. I will give you certain reasons, and then the reason why you should cast all your care upon God.
1. First, the ever blessed One commands you to do it. If you do not trust in God you will be distinctly sinful; you are as much commanded to trust as to love.
2. Next, cast all your cares on God, because you will have matters enough to think of even then. There is the care to love and serve Him better; the care to understand His Word; the care to preach it to His people; the care to experience His fellowship; the care so to walk that you shall not vex the Holy Spirit. Such hallowed cares will always be with you, and will increase as you grow in grace.
3. And, next, you must cast your care upon God, because you have Gods business to do.
4. You ought to do it not only for this reason, but because it is such a great privilege to be able to cast your care upon God.
5. Let me add that you ministers ought to cast all your care upon God, because it will be such a good example for your hearers. Oar people learn much from our conduct, and if they see us fretting they will be certain to do the same.
6. But the reason of reasons is that contained in our text-He careth for you. Because He hath set His love upon us we can surely cast our care upon Him. He has given us Christ, will He not give us bread? See, He has called us to be His sons, will He starve His children? See what He is preparing for you in heaven, will He not enable you to bear the burdens of this present life? We dishonour God when we suspect His tenderness and generosity. We can only magnify Him by a calm faith which leans upon His Word. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The wisdom of God in His providence
I. Consider the nature of the duty here required, which is to cast our care upon God.
1. That after all prudent care and diligence have been used by us, we should not be farther solicitous about the event of things which, when we have done all we can, will be out of our power.
2. Casting our care upon God implies that we should refer the issue of things to His providence, which is continually vigilant over us and knows how to dispose all things to the best.
II. The argument which the apostle here useth to persuade us to this duty of casting all our care upon God, because it is He that eateth for us.
1. That God taketh care of us, implies in general that the providence of God governs the world and concerns itself in the affairs of men and disposeth of all events that happen to us.
2. The providence of God is more peculiarly concerned for good men, and He takes a more particular and especial care of them. And this David limits in a more particular manner to good men: Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
III. Let us now see of what force this consideration is, to persuade to the duty enjoined.
1. Because if God cares for us, our concernments are in the best and safest hands, and where we should desire to have them; infinitely safer than under any care and conduct of our own.
2. Because all our anxiety and care will do us no good; on the contrary, it will certainly do us hurt. (Abp. Tillotson.)
What to do with care
What is care? The word has two shades of meaning. It means simply attention when it is said: He took care of him. But it signifies anxiety in the expression: Ye shall eat bread with care. Now it is possible to begin with that kind of care which signifies attention, and to go on to that which signifies anxiety. It is there that our danger lies. Attention is an advantage; anxiety is an evil. It is our duty to be attentive; and it is equally our duty to avoid anxiety. A young man, for instance, who has lust closed his school life and gone to business, finds himself surrounded by things new and strange. He applies himself with earnestness to understand his duties, and to meet the approval of his employer. While impelled by a conscientious desire to do right and well, he is in the line which conducts to success; but if he allows a harsh word to discourage him, or a failure or two to throw him into despair, he passes into a state of mind presenting the greatest obstacles to progress. A person conducting his own business must give it attention, or it will cover him with dishonour. It says little for a mans Christianity if he comes to poverty by his own negligence. But how easily he may pass across the line which leads to over-solicitude I Look, again, to the mother of a family. Is there any human sentiment more disinterested, pure, and fervent than a mothers love? Have you not known it to grow into an agitating and almost selfish apprehension? What can be said about the care due to the soul? Can that be excessive? In a world which is full of temptations to negligence and hardness of heart, what can be done without intense diligence and application? So long as care is just and healthful, it cannot be too great on this subject. But for this right state of mind many substitute a state made up of doubt and terror. Now how are we to be freed from a burden which is so embarrassing? What are we to do with it? We are desired to cast it all upon God. But how do we know that He will accept our care? From His own assurance that He careth for us. He careth for us. He has not forsaken the world He made; how is it possible that He should have ceased to think of the creatures He has so wonderfully endowed? The same wisdom which made us capable of perception, judgment, and forethought, watches over all our mental operations. While all men are under this providential charge, there are some whom He has brought into a special relation to Himself. He takes the deepest interest in them. Nothing can affect them which does not affect Himself. How strange that any of them should be crushed with anxiety! It is this confidence in Gods care for us which leads us to cast our care on Him. This assurance will prompt us to tell Him, with all openness of heart, whatsoever oppresses us. We know how much in a time of sorrow we are relieved by the mere communication of our grief; we seem to have parted with much of it when we have simply transferred the knowledge of it to another mind. With much greater reason may we expect such a result to follow from looking to our Father in heaven, and recounting to Him the cause of our dread, and seeking from Him the needed succour. This trust in Him who careth for us, imparts not only relief from oppression and new power for duty, but leads us into the position most honouring to a creature. It brings us into immediate fellowship with God; it establishes an interchange of thought and trustful love between our hearts and His. We then give Him proof of our confidence, and He responds to the sentiment which His own Spirit had awakened with all the fulness of His nature. (C. M. Birrell.)
Human cares and the Divine care
I. There are those who declare that the words have no meaning. They see no He in the universe. True, they speak of nature, not only with deep reverence, but in terms so warmly personal, that we are sometimes tempted to think that their science has found what their faith had lost; but, if we may trust their own assertions, it is not so, for they find no evidence in nature of a living God. Such men can have no resource outside of themselves in times of sorrow and anxiety. No man can cast his care upon an it. The materialists creed fosters an inhuman quite as much as an ungodly type of character. If ever the pressure of care becomes too heavy for him to bear it alone, one of two results will follow: either the creed will break down or the man will.
II. Although atheism may be no temptation to us, we may still find it difficult to realise that God really cares for us.
1. Easier to believe that He cares for the universe at large, or even for this world and the human race us a whole, than that He takes any interest in us, as individuals. Too prone to think of Him as exercising some kind of care over us as a general does over his troops. But He is not a general, but a Father, and has room in His infinite heart for each one of us. He cares for me.
2. Some (me may say, I cannot think God cares very much for me, or He would not allow me to suffer as I do, and give me this weary burden of care to bear day by day. Like a child complaining of having hard lessons to learn. But are we not assured that our very trials are the pledge of Gods love? If we had no care, we might begin to doubt whether God cared for us.
III. Then the practical lesson of the text is this, that if we lift the burden of our care at all, we are to lift it for the last time, that we may cast it upon God. Once there it becomes Gods care, not ours. Because God cares for us, He will care for it.
IV. The little word all includes even the trivial and passing anxieties of each day. (G. S. Barrett, B. A.)
Confidence in God lubricates life
There is nothing in the teachings of the Bible that tends to remove the stimulus to industry, or to take away the necessity of enterprise. It is neither industry nor enterprise that ever hurts anybody. They are pleasurable and whole: some, and we shall not wish the motive which inspires them taken away. It is with men as it is with machinery. Everybody that knows anything about machinery knows that it wastes faster when it is allowed to stand still than when it is worked, if it is worked aright. If a watch stands still a year, it wears out as much as it would in running properly two years. But where machinery runs without oil, and squeaks and grinds, it gets hot, and wears out speedily. Now anxiety is in human life just what squeaking and grinding are in machinery that is not oiled. In human life, trust is the oil. Confidence in God is that which lubricates life, so that industry and enterprise develop the things we ought to have, and do it in such a way that they bring pleasure with them. (H. W. Beecher.)
Invented worries
Mosquitoes are not nationalised everywhere; but worries are. Their sting is not outwardly perceptible, but it is painful enough within. Some of our foreign friends want to know, as they retire to rest themselves, How to make outdoor life attractive to mosquitoes?-a humorous enough puzzle. We know, however, one thing-that mosquitoes come without our consent; but that we are foolish enough to invent worries-to entertain worries-and to do everything else with them but cast them where we know that all our cares may and ought to be cast. (W. M. Statham, M. A.)
Casting all your cares upon Him
In the summer of 1878, says Mrs. Sarah Smiley, I descended the Right with one of the most faithful of the old Swiss guides. Beyond the service of the day, he gave me unconsciously a lesson for life. His first care was to put my wraps and other burdens upon his shoulders. In doing this he asked for all; but I chose to keep back a few for special care. I soon found them no little hindrance to the freedom of my movement; but still I would not give them up until my guide, returning to me where I sat resting for a moment, kindly but firmly demanded that I should give him everything but my Alpine stock. Putting them with the utmost care upon his shoulders, with a look of intense satisfaction he again led the way. And now in my freedom, I found I could make double speed with double safety. Then a voice spoke inwardly: O foolish, wilful heart, hast thou, indeed, given up thy last burden? Thou hast no need to carry them, nor even the right. I saw it all in a flash; and then, as I leaped lightly from rock to rock down the steep mountain side, I said within myself, And even thus will I follow Jesus, my Guide, my Burden bearer. I will rest all my care upon Him, for He careth for me. (W. M. Statham, M. A.)
Nursing cares
Men do not avail themselves of the riches of Gods grace. They love to nurse their cares, and seem as uneasy without some fret as an old friar would be without his hair girdle. They are commanded to cast their cares upon the Lord; but even when they attempt it, they do not fail to catch them up again, and think it meritorious to walk burdened. They take Gods ticket to heaven, and then put their baggage on their shoulders, and tramp, tramp the whole way there afoot. (H. W. Beecher.)
He careth for you.-
Divine care
He careth for all. He careth for the inorganic creation. His care embraceth the smallest atom and the mightiest globe. He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down. All the changes in the atmosphere are with Him. He covereth the heaven with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth. The sea is under His care. Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them (Psa_89:9). He careth for vegetable existence. He causeth grass to grow for the cattle, and herbs for the service of man. He sendeth forth His spirit, and reneweth the face of the earth. He careth for irrational creatures. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. He feedeth the fowls of the air. Most assuredly, then, He careth for man, His intelligent offspring. He careth for you; the race, the nation, the family, the individual; and especially for you, the individual.
I. It is a demonstrable fact.
1. Antecedent reasoning bears testimony to this fact. He is our Creator. Does the artist, who has exerted his genius to the utmost in the production of that which he considers his masterpiece, watch over it with care? That which he produced, is he not anxious to preserve? He is our Proprietor. With what care do men watch over their own property. Is the Eternal indifferent to what becomes of His property? He is our Father. He is our Redeemer. Will He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, cease to watch over us every moment with the utmost care? The very relations which He sustains to us urge the conclusion.
2. The condition in which we were born into this life. We come into this world the most helpless of all helpless creatures. We find the world exquisitely fitted to our organisation in every point. The fitness of the world to us shows that He careth for us.
3. The unequivocal teaching of the Bible. Can a woman forget her sucking child, etc. The consciousness of the Christian. Every Christian feels that God careth for him.
II. It is a glorious fact.
1. It encourages the most unbounded trustfulness. Who is He? One who is infinite in wisdom, goodness, and power.
2. It encourages adoring gratitude. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Gods care
I. Its objects.
II. Its nature.
1. Cordial and tender.
2. Active and efficacious.
3. Patient and unwearied.
4. Permanent and lasting.
III. Its evidences.
1. The relation ship He acknowledges.
2. His own testimony and promises.
3. Our own experience.
4. The undertaking for our salvation.
IV. Its inferences.
1. The wonderful nature of our God.
2. The duty and obligation which devolve upon us-to love Him in return.
3. The acknowledgment. (Homilist.)
He careth for you
He careth for you, He careth for us all, for man and for all animate creation. How has God helped humanity to comforts through the ages! If we look at the contour of continents, at ocean currents, at mountain heights and ranges, at plateaus, at rivers as they run, at lake chains, at animal life, at vegetable growth, at rock formation, or at prevailing winds and calms, all of these things speak of a Fathers care for His children, and all of design, as plainly as the intricate mechanisms of loom, or watch, or machine tell of a master mechanics plans and work. God loves man. He cares for you and for me, and proves it by climate and soil and by all the aids to commerce and society. Given a little more or less atmospheric pressure, a little more or less of Gods holding, which men have dared to nickname gravity, a few more or less degrees of heat, a variation from Gods physical laws by so much as a fraction of a degree in direction or of a single mile a year in velocity, and wreck and ruin would result. He careth for us, and cradles us carefully, and fans us with pleasant breezes, and feasts us with delicacies, and wafts pleasant odours to us, and makes us glad with beauty and a thousand joys. We are His children. Not a mountain is too high, not a river too swift, not a plain too arid, not a wind too penetrating; for our Father made it so. Not a ray of light, or a flake of snow, or a crystal of frost, or a degree of heat from all eternity, but it hath been His messenger, His loving messenger to our race. Not a birds song, not a blossom or fruitage, not a blade of grass but it tells Gods care. May we not go further and trust enough to say, not a poisonous reptile, or devouring beast, or noxious plant, not even sorrow, or pain, or death, but some way He makes it do His will for good to humanity. (H. E. Partridge.)
Christ the Care bearer
I. There is no one to whom these words should not come as a message of comfort and encouragement. For care is one of those things which fall to the lot of everybody, young and old. Poverty and wealth alike entangle us in the meshes of anxiety. This arrangement of Providence by which every man succeeds to a heritage of care has been ordained by God for the wisest and most gracious ends. There is a story told of an ancient king that he stood one day before the door of a husbandman, and called upon the husbandman to come out to him. But being busy with something else he refused to come out, or even to open the door so that the king might come in. And so, to bring the man to his senses, the king lit a firebrand and cast it into the husbandmans granary. And that brought him out. Now that is the function of our cares. They lead us out to God, and they bring God into us. They show us the poverty of our own resources, and they reveal to us the unsearchable riches of Christ.
II. The great question is, what are we to do with our care? We are to cast our care upon God. Two thousand years ago, this same question was very much debated by the learned men of Greece and Rome. Some of them thought that the remedy for care was to banish from their minds all thought of future trouble, and to enjoy the pleasures of the passing moment as long as they were capable of enjoying them. But what a pagan doctrine that is. It tells a man to enjoy life while he can; but it has no word to say to those who are under the cloud of trouble, and are enjoying it no more. There was another school of those ancient moralists who tried to remedy that defect. They taught that poverty and wealth are the mere accidents of life. If a man becomes poor, the man himself, in his own true nature, is no worse; and if he becomes rich, he is no better. So it is with sickness and health. They are the mere accidents or appendages of life. Man himself is greater than they. The true wisdom of life, therefore, is to be indifferent to them. That doctrine is very much like Dr. Johnsons cure for toothache-to treat it with contempt-a very good cure when we are not suffering from toothache. Now Peter, in the text, is no speculator nor theoriser. He knows that it is not in human nature to be insensible to these things, and he comes forward, like a practical man, with a definite direction as to how we are to treat a real evil which we cannot ignore, and that direction is that we are to cast our care upon God. But now, how is this to be done? Our cares are manifold, and there are different ways of transferring them to Him who has promised to bear them for us. Some people find that they can best get rid of their cares by carrying them to God through the avenue of prayer. Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee. Some cares will best be escaped by rising above them on the wings of praise. For songs are not always the expressions of gladness, and if you read the Psalms of David you will find that many of them were wrung out of his soul by the visitations of care. There is one other method which will hardly fail to dispel them, and that is, to allow God to speak to us. This is done by reading the Word of God, and the effectiveness of this exercise as a care remover is one of the commonest experiences of the Christian life.
III. The kind of cares which God will bear for us. And we learn from the text that they are not confined to any particular class: for we are enjoined to cast all our care upon Him. Many of our cares are trivial. The greatest care that a man can feel is the burden of sin. God careth for you (Isa_1:18; 1Pe_2:24). If God frees us from the greatest care of all, you may rest assured that He will also free us from every lesser care (Mat_6:25-34).
IV. We have to notice the reason why we should cast our care upon God. It is stated in the text, and is both intelligible and satisfactory. Peter boldly asserts that we are the objects of the Divine solicitude. There is no truth of which men of faith have been more firmly assured than this same truth of the loving kindness of God, and of His tender care for His children. It sheltered Abraham when, in the greatest trial of his life, he said calmly to his son, The Lord will provide. It was to Moses the secret place of the Most High when, in the prospect of death, he exclaimed, The Eternal God is a refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And nowhere more than in the Psalms of David do we trace the cheering, and soothing, and strengthening influence of a firm faith in Gods loving care. (J. L. Fyfe.)
God not an abstraction
(with Eph_4:30):-The first of these texts speaks of the Spirit of God as being hurt by frivolous speech, or wrathful passion, or irritable temper in Christians; so that He would be grieved into silence or distance by such offences. The second text speaks of God as entering into all the anxieties of our life. Thus we see that each of these great apostles, St. Paul and St. Peter, was accustomed to think of God, not as a Being too distant or impassive to be affected by our conduct or emotions, but as an ever-present, sensitive, Almighty Spirit-a living Holiness and a living Love. Such a notion of God thus disseminated throughout Europe and Asia by the apostles of Christ was new to both continents. As for the Greeks, Aristotle, the very chief thinker amongst them, says that anyone would laugh if a man were to say that he loved Jupiter. The work of Jupiter was to shake the heavens as the Thunderer, not to draw near to men, to enter into their joys or woes. What the Greeks did not know, the Romans knew not. Equally unknown to Asia was the idea of a God with feeling, one who could be grieved by men, one who could suffer with and help us. In Brahminism, the grand old religion of India, the Supreme God is always represented as lost to man in the depths of His own infinity, absorbed in the dreams of His own glory, too high and too holy to have the slightest concern for the vile universe which lesser gods had called into existence between them. In Buddhism, a comparatively modern reformation, God is removed still further from man; He loses even His personality. There is no living God at all, says today the religion of two hundred millions of mankind-only one eternal order; and the final reward of right-doing is to lose ones personal existence and become impersonal parts of the Eternal Force. Just as debased a belief in necessity, in the form of extreme Augustinianism, has prevailed among the common people of Europe. But why this reference to Asia with its errors? Because the very same influence which has been the ruin of Asia is at work around us in Europe, in Christendom. The far larger part of English thought respecting God is affected by the very same delusions as to the insensibility of the Divine nature; for is not the prevailing notion among all the ranks of our people, especially when they wish to be philosophical, that all the popular and Scriptural language respecting God as a living person near at hand, and full of active thought and feeling respecting ourselves, is only an accommodation to the weakness of the lowest order of mind? Now, if this be true, it is obvious to remark, first of all, how uninteresting a thing the worship of such a God must be! One to whom you bring thought, anxiety, emotion, passion, praise, affection, gratitude, the agonies of prayer, and who in return looks upon you as might a great marble colossus, with one calm eternal gaze of infinite power, but without the slightest approach to a responsive sympathy or fatherly love. Now, the whole of the Divine revelation which culminates in Christ is directed to the establishment of a better knowledge of Him who is not far from anyone, and who is acquainted with all our ways. Truly, our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Now, consider how strange it would be if God were not such a Being as this; if He, the Creator of all sensibility, were the only Spirit who was devoid of earnest sense and feeling. Is this world the work of a Father who has no delight in His children, in their work, in their play, in their troubles, or in their joy? Is His goodness only such an attribute as withered theologians might talk of, like a dry flower in a travellers book, only a mockery of the beautiful living reality? Is it nothing better than an abstraction? Then consider next what an effort seems to be made in nature to convey to our minds on all sides the impression of there being feeling ii, God. Does not every beautiful form in plants or flowers breathe forth the very feeling of some great work of art? But the senses do not reveal enough for the soul; the heart asks for a richer and fuller communion. We have it in Christ. Christ calls on us to unlearn that false lesson of the impassive God. Now you cannot fail to notice the bearing of such thoughts as these on all our views of Gods work, both in nature and in redemption. The English pagan, the modern Buddhist, with his exalted conception of a Deity who transcends thought, and soars in his infinity far above any genuine feeling, takes what comes of outward benefit as the result of so much physical machinery guided by mans intelligence. He feels no more thankful to God for his daily blessing than he would feel thankful to a cotton engine for pouring out its endless yarn. But let a man once see through the hateful falsehood of this philosophy, and learn to believe in the all-sensitive nature which pervades the world, then how differently will he recognise the source of his daily blessings! Just as we should appreciate any entertainment given us by a friend-as a table covered with fruit or flowers-so shall we then acknowledge the ever-present love which is daily loading us with benefits. And, as we should abhor a crowd of English vagrants who might hurriedly snatch up the benefactions of some cheerful giver, and depart from his door without even a word of thankfulness or affection, so hateful will then appear the conduct of mankind who take Gods gifts in daily life and depart without a look of gratitude. Much more in all that relates to Christ, the unspeakable gift. The whole lesson of the Atonement by the death of Christ is lost for those whose philosophy leads them to disbelieve in the sensibility of God to pain or to sacrifice. He that spared not His own Son, but freely gave Him for us all. Every word here speaks of a self-crucifying compassion, a self-exacting benevolence. Once more, it is easy to see the bearing of this line of thought on our own habitual feeling towards God if we live surrounded by this all-sensitive Spirit. (E. White.)
He careth for you
I. I prove that God takes care of you by showing what he has already done.
1. He has created us.
2. He has died for us.
3. He has, also, risen from the dead for us.
4. He has called us to be His children.
5. He has redeemed us.
6. He has changed our nature.
7. He has cleansed us.
8. He has directed the steps of our life.
II. Let us prove that our Father cares for us by what he is now doing.
1. He is living for us.
2. He is dwelling in us.
3. He is showing mercy to us. Is not the preservation of your life a proof that God careth for you?
4. He is bearing with you.
III. I would prove that God careth for you by what he has undertaken to do. The Lord has undertaken to be your Father. (W. Birch.)
The Lord careth for you
One very hot summers day I was driving along a dusty road, when I overtook a woman with a heavy basket on her arm. I did not want to feel like the priest in the story that Jesus told, who passed by on the other side, so I offered her a ride. She gladly accepted it, but as she rode still carried the heavy basket on her arm. My good woman, I said as kindly as I could, your basket would ride just as well in the bottom of the trap, and you would be much more comfortable. Ah, so it would, sir, thank you; I never thought of that, she said, as she put her burden down. That is very much like what I often do, I remarked after a little while. Like you do, sir? and the woman looked up inquiringly. Yes; I, too, often carry heavy burdens when there is no need for it. She waited for my explanation. The Lord Jesus has taken me up into His chariot, and I rejoice to ride in it, but very often I carry a great burden of care on my back that would ride just as well if I put it down, for the Lord would carry me and my cares too. Yes, bless the Lord! said she, with a joy that told that she had found the cure for care. It is true, sir, when He takes us up in His chariot, He taken cares and all. Here is the cure for your cares, for all the little daily worries and the burdens of anxiety that oppress you-the Lord careth for you. (M. Guy Pearse.)
Cared for
Away in my native town lived an old woman, very poor and very wretched. Sickness and poverty and age together had made her as wrinkled and soured as she could be. Everybody had heard her long tale of troubles over and over again, and she made the most of them, as folks generally do, and invariably ended with the doleful moan, Im old, and lone, and poor and Ive got nobody in all the world to give me a bit of care. One day she came hurrying up to our house as fast as her stiff joints could carry her; her face seemed to have lost half its wrinkles, her eyes actually shone with delight. What can have happened? thought everybody, as she came near. Everybody soon knew. Bless ye, she cried, Ive got a letter from my boy in California-and I thought he was dead years agone-and hes doing well, and he says I mustnt fret, for hell care for me as long as I live. She had lost her care-somebody cared for her. (M. Guy Pearse.)
Gods regard for individuals
It is said that the great Duke of Wellington, before one of his earliest campaigns, had a soldier, with his full marching accoutrements, accurately weighed. Knowing what one soldier of average strength had to carry, he could judge how far his army might be called to march without breaking down. Our God does not deal in averages. He, with infinite wisdom, knows the powers of each individual and all the events which affect us. (A. Reed, B. A.)
Gods care for us
When a tiny boy, trying to help his father move his books, fell on the staircase beneath the weight of a heavy volume, his father ran to his aid and caught up in his arms boy and burden both, and carried them in his arms to his room. And will God deal worse with us? He cannot fail or forsake. He can smite rocks, and open seas, and unlock the treasuries of the air, and ransack the stores of the earth. Birds will bring meat, and fish coins, if He bid them. He takes up the isles as a very little thing; how easily, then, your heaviest load, while there is nothing so trivial but that you may make it a matter of prayer and faith. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The Divine oversight
The seaman is in the storm; he has furled the sails and thrown out the anchor; he has done what he could-the rest is with God. Nor will anxious thought, or foreboding care, save him; fresh effort itself may only land him on the rocks-his strength is in sitting still. There is a story told of John Rutledge, sailing on the American lakes, when the ice gathered around the ship, and destruction seemed inevitable, for the immense masses were gradually closing in, and the captain told them that no human effort could save them; how that he knelt down and prayed, and as he prayed, the wind which had been against them changed, and blew behind, and opened a way through the ice, pushing it back from the ship and widening a passage, so that she was saved. And when they came to the captain and said, Shall we put on more canvas? his reply was, No! dont touch her! Someone else is managing this ship. We need to learn that lesson daily. Some one else is managing these lives of ours. Do we believe in God? Shall we not live and act, then, as if we did so?
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv5, 8 Chapter 17
Chapter 17
BE CLOTHED WITH HUMILITY
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1Pe_5:5-7
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 1Pe_2:13 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 favorite 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 behavior 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 realized 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 Christs 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" {Joh_13:4} 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 Lords 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 masters treatment of his watchful servants: "He shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them." {Luk_12:37} Such has been the Lords 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 {Pro_3:34} 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 (υπερηφανοι) by which these haughty ones are described indicates a desire to be conspicuous, to stand apart from and above their fellows. They are self-centered, 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 Gods dealing. He pays men with their own coin. Jacobs 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 offenses 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?". {Psa_118:6} He had realized 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 Gods 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 Lords 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. Gods favor 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 Gods 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". {Deu_3:23-26} And so the meek prophet, who knew that his withdrawal was for the peoples sake, having sung, "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, a people saved by the Lord?" {Deu_33:29} 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 eiders 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 honoring them, the younger were honoring 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 armor 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 Gods 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 Psalmists words, "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass". {Psa_37:5}
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. Peters 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. {Psa_55:22} 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.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5–7. Likewise, ye younger. Some scholars think that all…
5–7. Likewise, ye younger. Some scholars think that all who are not elders are meant. Among the Greeks “younger” sometimes meant those inferior in position. Perhaps the word enforces this sense as well as those younger in years. Be subject unto the elder. “Elders” in the Greek. The duty of submissiveness and humility is the thought of the passage. Yea, all be subject to one another. The literal rendering is “Wrap yourselves up in humility one to another.” Mutual deference must be shown, as well as mutual service. God resisteth the proud, etc. Quoted from Prov. 3:34.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv5, 8 1Pe_5:5. Be clothed.—Lit. “gird yourselves.” Perhaps the word refers…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1Pe_5:5. Be clothed.—Lit. “gird yourselves.” Perhaps the word refers to the frock, or apron, distinctive of slaves. Strictly, the Greek word means, “tie yourselves up in humility.” ἐγκομβώσασθε, from κόμβος, a top-knot, as a cock’s comb, or bow-knot, or ornamental fastening by which vestments are drawn about the wearer. Make humility your outermost, conspicuous dress, that which covers all the rest, or binds all into one. (There was a peculiar kind of cape, well known by a name taken from this verb—we might call it a “tie-up”—and this kind of cape was worn by slaves, and by no others. It was, in fact, a badge of servitude.)
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1Pe_5:6. Humble yourselves.—Especially with a view to the quiet bearing of the afflictions and distresses you may be called to endure.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Pe_5:5-7
Humility in Church Relations.—It is but natural that the apostle, in giving his advice to the Church, in view of its circumstances of disability, temptation, and peril, should first address the “elders” or officials, and then address the members of the Church, dividing them into the “younger ones” and the “rest.”
I. Humility in the younger takes form as submission.—“Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder.” The very energy of activity and enterprise, that should be characteristic of young people, may make them unduly confident, and over-masterful. Young people will seldom take any advice from the older ones. But the Christian spirit should have its influence on this characteristic weakness, and make the young members humbly submit themselves to superior wisdom and experience. Humility in Church life, possessing both the younger and the elder, would enable the energetic younger to inspire the slow and sluggish elder; and the careful and experienced elder to tone and temper the impulsive younger.
II. Humility in the elder takes form as service.—“Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another.” When St. Paul would plead for Christian humility, he presents the example of Christ, saying, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”; and when we follow his illustration we see that it was a mind of humility which showed itself in service—sacrificing service. If, without asserting himself, or getting for himself, each member is supremely anxious to find opportunities for serving the others, there need be no fear whatever of the Church relations being pleasantly sustained. And St. Peter, perhaps, had especially in mind the way in which such humble and self-forgetting mutual service would help the Churches in the time of difficulty and strain, which might involve serious loss and persecution for particular members. The times provided plentiful occasions for fulfilling the injunction, “By love serve one another.”
III. Humility in all the members of the Church towards God.—This is the humility—basal humility—on which must rest all humility in the various relations of the Church. A man will never be humble-minded in his relations with his fellow-man unless he is, and keeps, humble-minded towards God. And this is the right attitude to take before God. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” But is this to be taken as vague and general, or as precise and particular? If the latter, then St. Peter means, by the “mighty hand of God,” just those circumstances of distress and peril in which the Christians were then placed, which, from one point of view, were the schemes of enemies, but from a higher point of view were the permissions, and overrulings, and discipline, of God—the “mighty hand of God”—to which they should respond in the humbling of a cheerfully gracious submission and endurance. Taken in this light, we see at once how the sentence, “casting all your care (anxiety) upon Him,” is a very tender and pathetic re-statement of the earlier sentence: “humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.” It is the best sign of a true humility before God that we do not try to keep our own care, as if we felt that we could, but are fully willing, in a child-spirit, to let our Father care, being quite sure that He does care. The humility of the child before God will be sure to nourish the humility of the brother, which will find fitting expression in all the relations with the brothers. “It would be a sad calamity for Christians under persecution, suddenly to find God Himself in array on the enemy’s side; and this they would find if they went against discipline.” “The humility here recommended is not merely a submissive bearing of the strokes which it pleased God to let fall upon them, but it was to be shown in their bearing towards one another.”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Pe_5:5-7. Service Free from Care.—Single sentences taken out of Bible passages may oftentimes suggest very beautiful and very helpful meditations and sentiments; but he would be a very limp and weak Christian, having no strengthening principles, and no strong grip of steadying truths, who should persist in living entirely on single texts. The familiar words, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you,” have made solacing music for our souls in many of the anxious times of life. We love them, as we love the friends who have put their hands gently into ours when we entered, and went through, the dark valleys of our life’s sorrows. And yet the passage into which those words are fitted lights up the familiar sentence with new meaning, and gives it a fresh, and more practical bearing on that Christian life which we are pledged to live. We may be quite sure that St. Peter dwelt much in thought upon the brief time of his fellowship with the “Man, Christ Jesus,” in whom he discerned the “Son of God.” And two scenes especially must have come up before him with great frequency. He would often see the high priest’s palace; recall again his shameful denials of his Lord; and feel afresh the “look” that melted him into penitence. But he must have tried to shut out that scene: to dwell on it too much was to bring undue depressions upon his spirit. He would turn to another scene; he would free his thoughts from weak and sinful self, and try to fix them upon Jesus. St. Peter would love to go over again and again the scene in the upper chamber before the Lord’s last Passover—though it also had its smaller humiliations for him. He would see again the surpassing dignity of his Divine Lord, as He rose from supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel, and girded Himself, as if He were but the servant of the house; poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. Could St. Peter ever forget the look that was on the face of his Lord when He had taken His garments, and was seated again. Could He ever lose out of his soul the words that were then spoken by Him “who spake as never man spake”? They thrill us now as we read them. How they must have thrilled him who heard them fresh from the sacred Lips! “Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I, then, he Lord and the Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you.” The scene was evidently in St. Peter’s mind, and the words were evidently in his memory, when he wrote the passage which is before us as a text. He has been, in the previous verses, giving particular counsels, precisely adapted to the “elder” and to the “younger” members of the Church. And then he thinks of something that needs to be pressed upon the attention of every one. It is the example of their Divine Lord, and his, on that solemn supper night. “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.” Remembering that St. Peter wrote his letter to Jewish Christians scattered abroad, who were called to endure much and varied persecution on account of their faith in Christ, the point of His counsel at once appears. Such persecution was but Divine discipline. They would lose all the blessing of it if they resisted, repined, and let it make them feel hard and unloving. Better, far better, humble themselves under God’s mighty hand; submit to His providential dealings; see how the afflictions and persecutions affected them all alike, rich and poor, and were designed to draw them into a nearer and more helpful brotherhood. One thing they could do, and it would bring them the best cheer in their time of trouble; forgetting their own dignities, they could “gird themselves with humility,” and by love “serve one another.” They could fill up their lives with the joy of Christlike service; and as for the care’s, and anxieties, which persecutions might bring, or even this loving service of others might bring, they could cast all such cares on God, in the absolute confidence that He was caring for them. We may get St. Peter’s counsel duly impressed upon our hearts, and with fitting applications to our own precise circumstances, if we consider
(1) that the service of one another demands humility;
(2) that the service of one another at once relieves from cares, and brings cares;
(3) and that the cares which service brings, God bears with us.
I. The service of one another demands humility.—Our Lord’s symbolic teachings in the upper room were called forth by the failure of His disciples to serve one another. Not one of them was willing to do the lowly, kindly service of washing the feet of the others. And their failure was due to their lack of humility. They were all self-interested; each had an exaggerated estimate of his own importance. In their self-consciousness and pride they had even been disputing as to which had the claim to the most honourable offices in the kingdom which they expected to see so soon established. Each one thought he was a proper person to be served, and as long as each one thought so, he was not likely to demean himself to serve—certainly not in such lowly ways as washing feet. We can never serve one another while we keep up undue estimates of our own importance. The man who has to take care of his own dignity will never take care of anybody else’s well-being. He is over-occupied. For those first disciples the object-lesson given them was a severe and searching one. The Master Himself, whose dignity was unquestionable, took a towel, and girded Himself, as if He were a servant, and cheerfully did a servant’s work. He showed them that the humility which can serve is a distinguishing mark of true greatness, and is perfectly in harmony with the highest offices. Had He thought of what was due to Him, He never would have served humanity at the cost of self-sacrifice. Because He could humble Himself to serve humanity, therefore God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. The idea—essential idea—of Christian discipleship is “service,” because another essential idea of it is “humility.” St. Augustine was right when he answered the question, “What is the chief grace of Christianity?” by saying at once “Humility.” Humility is the most striking thing in a man’s conversion. He is self-humbled in the conviction of sin; and he is self-humbled in being obliged to accept salvation as a gift of grace. And that humility is the rootage of the new regenerate character. As the new life unfolds, it will soon be evident how it brings a man into tender, sympathetic relations with his fellow-men, and inspires him to watch for and meet all opportunities of service. But let the new regenerate life fail to grow; let the old “self” come back, nourishing the old pride, and inevitably the interest in others declines, and a life of service begins to look mean and humiliating. “Gird yourselves with humility,” and keep yourselves girded, and you will want to “serve one another.” Undo that girdle, put it away from you, and then other people may wash disciples’ feet—you won’t. So far from helping disciples to serve one another, you will expect the disciples to serve you. It is a thing to set ever freshly before us, that we must be striving to gain this mind of Christ—the humility that loves to serve. St. Peter speaks of humility, in a figurative way, as a garment to be put on. The word here rendered “be clothed” is a very expressive one, being derived from κόμβος, a string, or band, with which a garment is fastened to the person; so that humility is to be put on as an outer dress, to ornament the wearer; and to be kept on (because tied in knots), and not merely to be worn on certain occasions.” There is a secret in Christian humility. It is the attitude of a man among men who has humbled himself before God—humbled himself “under the mighty hand of God.”
II. The service of one another at once relieves us from cares and brings to us cares.—It relieves us from the cares which come to us out of difficult and distressing circumstances. Many a Christian man has felt overwhelmed; every door has seemed shut up, every sphere over-weighted; every attempt results in failure, every prospect looks dark. Moved by the comforting Spirit, he just leaves it all, and goes out to serve somebody, to find some soul more sorely stricken than he is, and to cheer such a soul with the consolations of God. That man, in the service of another, finds his own cares relieved. What he has been saying, in his efforts to serve, has come right home to his own heart, and he returns upon his own cares, and they do not seem quite so heavy and so dark. He can almost be sure that there is a little break in the sky that is ushering in the dawn of a brighter day for him. What a cheer for his own sorrows St. Paul must have gained when he tried to serve the sorrowing Corinthians! He speaks of the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” Many a Christian has been overwhelmed with doubts; has found himself questioning this and that, until the very foundations of truth seem to have given way, and he has not even a corner-stone left on which to rest a hope. He is a wise friend to the doubter who takes him away from study, and books, and thoughts; refuses to argue anything with him, but leads him out to the widowed, the fatherless, the sick, the lost, whom he may serve. The cares of doubt will soon be relieved, and charity will bring back faith. And there is a sense in which the cares of the spiritual life may be relieved by the humble serving of others. If we make attention to spiritual life too exclusive, we are sure to become morbid, full of moods, dependent on feelings, and insincere in reading our own experiences. It is the best relief to go and undertake some Christian work. Give up brooding over varying feelings, and go out and undertake some service of righteousness and charity. Never mind about spiritual emotions; they will take care of themselves. Become intensely anxious about good works; this good work, “by love serving one another.” Many a young Christian has begun to keep a diary of his feelings, and kept on with it until he discovered that it was making him morbid and miserable; and then he flung the diary away for ever, let God take care of his feelings, and spent himself in active service—girded himself, and set himself to do the Christly work of “serving others.” But it is also true that the service of others brings cares. It brings their cares upon us whom we serve, for all true service rests upon sympathy, upon fellow-feeling; and it means that we take the cares of others upon our own hearts and hands. But this is the holiest and most Christlike form that human care can take; and with absolute assurance of help, for us and for them, we may cast these cares of others upon God. But if we devote ourselves, in a generous spirit of self denial, to the helping of others, we shall also find the service brings cares concerning ourselves. Oftentimes they will be cares taking form as temptations. It may be suggested to us that our lowly deads may affect our reputations; our readiness to serve others may seem to prevent our getting on in life, and may even make earthly prosperity impossible. We may hear men saying of us, He is always looking after other people, but he never seems to look after himself. It is true that no man ever yet made himself poor by what he gave away for Christ’s sake, and no man ever yet ruined his life-prospects by unselfish devotion to the service of others. A man may miss what he imagined for himself, or what others have hoped for him. That is very possible. But God stands by every Christly man; takes his care upon Himself, and sees that the man gains the “best of both worlds,” just the best of both worlds for him. Does such care come pressing on any of you? Have you almost become convinced that a life of service cannot be a life of worldly success? Cast that care on God. I know how He will comfort you. He will say in your soul, “A life of service is a life of success.” To serve is heaven. To serve is angelic. To serve is Christly. To serve is Divine. And to be heavenly, Christly, angelic, and close kin with God, is success.
III. The cares which service brings, God bears with us.—“For He careth for you.” We dwell frequently on the delightful thought that God is concerned about us, and that His loving interest wraps us round, keeps us safe, and holds us up. But we do not so often see the limitation of the assurance. God careth for you, precisely you who are girding yourselves to serve one another, and find that various cares come to you as you render the service. God careth for you, who have characters which find revealing expression in service. God is interested in you, and in yours, in your circumstances, but only in them for the sake of you. God cares for character. Do not in the least fear. God will take care of that. God will nourish that. God will reward that. Faithfully live out the Christian life, as a life of humility that loves to serve. Faithfully live it out, whatever it may seem to cost you, whatever loss it may seem to involve. Man may misread your life. He is very likely to do so. You may misread it yourselves. You are even more likely to so. But God makes no mistakes, and never misunderstands. He sees some doing service—washing disciples’ feet—in a spirit of ostentation, and He turns away from the unlovely sight. He knows whether His servants are girded with humility for their service. He estimates the cares that come upon them, He cares for them. And His care has in it a purpose of infinite love. The care shines in the smile that cheers the workers. The care reaches down “everlasting arms” to uphold the workers. The care bids the angels keep ready the “many mansions,” the resting places, until the day when those who have served others shall themselves be served. He shall bid them sit down to meat, and come forth Himself and serve them. Ministers, serving one another; casting all self cares on God, while we do His work, quite sure that He careth for us;—this many of us may have to win; this many of us may have to keep. “Gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another.” And of this be quite sure, “He careth for you.”
1Pe_5:5. Humility.—This was not a new word when the New Testament was written. It, or its Greek equivalent, was very common, but used only contemptuously and rebukingly. It always meant meanness of spirit. To be humble was to be a coward. It described a cringing soul. It was a word for slaves. Where could we find a more striking instance of the change that the Christian religion brought into the world than in the way in which it took this disgraceful word, and made it honourable? To be humble is to have a low estimation of one’s self. That was considered shameful in the olden time. You insulted a man if you called him humble. It seemed to be inconsistent with that self-respect which is necessary to any good activity. Christ came, and made the despised quality the crowning grace of the culture that He inaugurated. The disgraceful word became the key-note of His fullest gospel. He redeemed the quality and straightway the name became honourable. What was the change that Christianity accomplished, and how did it come about? Humility means a low estimate or value of one’s self. But all values are relative. The estimate we set on anything depends on the standard with which we compare it. And so values are always varying as the standard or the object with which you compare the thing that you are valuing changes. Christianity’s great primary revelation was God. Much about Him it showed men, but first of all it showed them Him. He stood beside man’s work. And God in the world must be the standard of the world. Greatness meant something different when men had seen how great He was; and the manhood which had compared itself with lesser men, and grown proud, now had a chance to match itself with God, and to see how small it was, and to grow humble about itself. It is wonderful how the smallest man can keep his self-complacency in the presence of the largest But let that small man become a Christian; that means, let the narrow walls of his life be broken down, and let him see God, present here by Christ. At once, then, all is changed. It would be a fearful thing if the only thing that Christ showed us of God were His greatness. The pure humiliation would be too crushing. But the revelation is not only this. It includes not only the greatness, but the love, of God. The majesty is that of a father, which takes our littleness into His greatness, makes it a part of itself, honours it, trains it, does not mock it; then there comes the true graciousness of humility. It is not less humble; but it is not crushed. The energy which the man used to get out of his estimate of his own greatness, he gets now out of the sight of his Father’s, which yet is so near to him that, in some finer and higher sense, it still is his; and so he is more hopeful, and happy, and eager, in his humility than he ever used to be in his pride. The true way to be humble is not to stoop till you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that shall show you what the real smallness of your greatest greatness is. The first is the unreal humility that goes about deprecating human nature; the second is the genuine humility that always stands in love and adoration, glorifying God. Christ also rescued and exalted humility by magnifying the essential glory of humanity. There never was any life that so superbly asserted the essential worth of humanity—showed what a surpassing thing it is to be a man—like that sin-convicting life of Jesus. He showed us that the human might be joined to the Divine. He glorified human nature, and by this glorification He taught man that it was his true place to be humble. There is nothing more strange, and at the same time more truthful, about Christianity than its combination of humility and exaltation for the soul of man. Christianity puts men face to face with the humbling facts, the great realities, and then humility comes upon the soul as darkness comes upon the face of the earth, not because the earth has made up its mind to be dark, but because it has rolled into the great shadow.—Phillips Brooks.
1Pe_5:6-7. Perfect for Service.—The “captain of our salvation” was “made perfect through sufferings.” “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” If we would be like Him in His glory, we must first be like Him in His sufferings. Good things come after trouble. It is well to try and look upon life aright before we are forced to do so by the pressure of outward misery. We are to imitate Christ, so far as it is possible, in the particular sort of employment which He chose—namely, in the mixing with other men; neither for business only—that is, in the way of our calling; nor yet for pleasure only—that is, in common society; but for charity in its largest sense—that is, from a desire to do good to the bodies or souls of others. This Christ-like employment is most suited to our state on earth, and especially helps us to make that state happy, by enabling us to rid it of its carefulness. Half, and more than half, of the practical faults in the world arise from looking upon life in a false view, and expecting from it what God does not mean us to find in it. He to whom all things future are as present, suited both His life and His words to what He knew would be ever the chief error of mankind. He knew that social and civil activity were sufficiently natural to man to need no encouragement. He knew that knowledge would be pursued, and arts and sciences cultivated. But He knew that the kingdom of God and His righteousness would not be sought after; He knew that men would look carefully enough on the things of this life, but would care for little beyond it. He therefore made that so valuable which could help us forward to our real and eternal life, and that so trifling, when received in faith, which can but give joy and sorrow for a moment. Life is before us as a trial-time of uncertain length, in which we may fit ourselves, if we will, for an eternal life beyond it. We may be thankful to God when He makes our training for eternity consist in the doing great and useful actions, in bringing forth much fruit; but we, each of us, are doing our business as thoroughly, are answering as completely the purposes for which we were sent into the world, if we are laid for years on a bed of sickness, and made incapable of action. It is not true that our great business or object in this world is to do all the good we can in it; our great business and object is to do God’s will, and so to be changed through His Spirit into His image that we may be fit to live with Him for ever. His will is declared to us by the course of His providence, putting us into different situations of life where different duties are required of us. But these duties are duties because they are His will; and if performed without reference to Him, however good our motives may be, the great business of life is left undone. To keep this end in view is a wonderful means of ridding life of its carefulness. If simply to be useful in our generation be our main object, our happiness cannot but greatly depend upon outward circumstances. Weakened health, and early death, spoil usefulness. When we recollect what is indeed our real business here, we cast at once all our care on God, and resign ourselves contentedly to His disposal. It is with reference to this view of life especially that Christ’s particular employment, the mixing with others, not for business, or for pleasure, but to do them good, is so exceedingly useful. It is surprising how much pleasure may be given every day, how much suffering relieved, and how much good done. But how can we secure such a life? We may not be able to imitate Christ exactly in this point, but we must find opportunity to do sometimes what He did always. In every station or employment, we must find opportunity, or make it, if we would not deprive ourselves of what may well be called the path of daily living. And God will enable us to make a great deal even of our common intercourse with others; and here we all have our opportunities, unless we choose to neglect them. Such, then, is Christ’s daily lesson to us; not to be idle or slothful in our work; and to sanctify it all by doing it as to Him, and not to man.—Thomas Arnold, D.D.
1Pe_5:7. Casting Care.—This familiar verse is more suggestive studied in its connection. The apostle is commending the great grace of Christian humility; first on the younger members of the Church in all their relations with the elder, and then on all the members in their various Church relations. Then follows this striking expression: “Be clothed with humility,” or “Gird yourselves with humility.” The picture presented to us is that of the Eastern gentleman, whose long, loose, and flowing garments are not held in place, or properly set off, until the handsome folded girdle is skilfully adjusted about the loins. St. Peter would remind us that there is a dress of Christian graces with which we should be clothed; but the various graces will not take orderly forms and relations, nor will they be complete, unless we are girded about with the sweet grace of Christian humility. Then the apostle reminds us that there is a foundation humility upon which our humble relations one with another must depend. It is the humbling of the self before God. Our text, taken with the immediately previous sentence, reminds us that the same truth may need setting in different forms, in order to meet the needs of various classes of persons. There are strong, energetic persons, who need to have truth stated strongly, and in tones of command. To them St. Peter says, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” But there are also gentle souls, to whom the truth comes most effectively when it sounds like a “still small voice,” and falls like the night dews. To meet their case St. Peter repeats his command; and now it is, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” Humble souls find it easy to “cast their care.” They who can “cast their care” must be humble.
I. Think of man’s care.—“All your care.” By “care” is meant “anxiety” rather than “affliction.” Anxiety suggests the daily worry, the care about a thousand things. Care arises from:
1. Our frequent misunderstandings with our fellow-men. It comes because we persist in estimating things from our own points of view.
2. Our business and family claims. For these we need the word “harassed.”
3. Our religious claims. There should be grave anxiety as to the spirit of our life, and the tone of our example. And there should be constant watchfulness to find out, and willingness to respond to, all the reasonable demands made on our time or on our money.
II. Think of God’s care.—“He careth for you.” One is surprised to find the same word used for God as for ourselves. His care cannot be quite like ours. There can be no fretfulness, no worry, in it.
1. See His care of all the creatures He has made.
2. His precise knowledge of our anxieties.
3. His care of us in the midst of our anxieties.
III. God’s care of us is a persuasion to cast our care on Him.—“For.” He cares; then why should we? He is able; He is wise; He knows all; He loves with an everlasting love; He is our Father. Why should we not be as calm as the sailor boy in the wild storm, who knew that his father held the helm? If we would see precisely what is meant by “casting our care on God,” let us think of the prophet lifting up holy hands, and saying that most full, most touching, of all Bible prayers, “O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake Thou for me.” Is this “casting care” difficult? It is life’s great lesson. Yokes cease to rub and press when God bears them with us. Crosses are lightened when God bears them with us. And He always takes the heavier end. Some, however, do not know God well enough to trust Him thus simply, thus perfectly. Of all the burdens He would have cast upon Him, the first is that of the unpardoned soul. That! Yes; that greatest of all our cares we may “roll off” on Him “who careth for us.”
The Care of One Who Loves.—The care which God has is the care of one who loves, and therefore takes on his own heart the troubles of his beloved one. And what does He do with our care when thus we cast it upon Him? He does not take it and put it right away, hiding it for ever from our view. We wish He would do that. He does something altogether better. He takes the burden of care and puts it gently back on our shoulders, saying, “Remember, it is My care now; it is yours no longer. And now I want you to carry it for Me.” Then the yoke feels easy, and the burden is light.
Human Cares and the Divine Care.—The value of the injunction in the former half of the text depends entirely upon its latter half. For until we can get men to believe in the care of God for them, we shall never persuade them to cast all their care upon Him. It must be confessed, however, that it is not easy for any of us adequately to realise what these words, “He careth for you,” mean.
I. There are those who declare that the words have no meaning.—They see no “He” in the universe. True, they speak of nature with reverence, and in terms so warmly personal that we are sometimes tempted to think that their science has found what their faith had lost; but, if we may trust their own assertions, it is not so, for they find no evidence in nature of a living God. No man can cast his care upon an IT. The materialists’ creed fosters an inhuman quite as much as an ungodly type of character. If ever the presence of care becomes too heavy for him to bear it alone, one of two results will follow: either the creed will break down, or the man will. Hence suicide is so often the consequence of atheism.
II. We may find it difficult to realise that God really cares for us.—
1. Easier to believe that He cares for the universe at large, than that He takes any interest in us as individuals. Too prone to think of Him as exercising some kind of care over us, as a general does over his troops. He is not a general, but a Father. To rightly understand this text we must read, “He cares for me”; or,
2. Some one may say, “I cannot think God cares very much for me, or He would not allow me to suffer as I do, and give me this weary burden of care to bear day by day.” Like a child complaining of having hard lessons to learn. Very often trials and anxieties are the pledge and token of God’s love. If we had no care we might begin to doubt whether God cared for us.
III. If we lift the burden of our care at all we are to lift it for the last time, that we may cast it upon God.—Once there, it becomes God’s care, not ours. Because God cares for us, He will care for it.
IV. The little word “all” includes even the trivial and passing anxieties of each day.—To suppose that some cares are too insignificant to take to God in prayer is not to honour Him, but unnecessarily to burden ourselves. It has been said that “white ants pick a carcase quicker and cleaner than a lion does”; and so these little cares may even more effectually destroy our peace than a single great trouble if, in our mistaken reverence for God’s greatness, we refuse to cast them upon Him. G. S. Barrett, B.A.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
1Pe_5:7. God’s Love Inexhaustible.—Suppose a meadow in which a million of daisies open their bosoms, all at one time, to the sun. On one of them, while it was yet a bud, a little stone has fallen. At once crushed and overshadowed, it still struggles bravely against all odds to expand its petals like the rest. For many days this effort is continued without success. The tiny stone, a mighty rock to the tiny flower, squats on its breast, and will not admit a single sunbeam. At length the flower-stalk, having gathered strength by its constant exertion, acquired force enough to overbalance the weight, and tossed the intruder off. Up sprang the daisy with a bound; and in an instant another floweret was added to the vast multitude which in that meadow drank their fill of sunlight. The sun in heaven was not incommoded by the additional demand. The new-comer received into its open cup as many sunbeams as it would have received although no other flower had grown in all the meadow—in all the earth. Thus the sun, finite though it be, helps us to understand the absolute infinitude of its Maker. When an immortal being, long crushed and turned away by a load of sin, at length, through the power of a new spiritual life, throws off the burden, and opens with a bound to receive a heavenly Father’s long-offered but rejected love, the Giver is not impoverished by the new demand upon His kindness. Although a thousand millions should arise and go to the Father, each would receive as much of that Father’s love as if he alone of all fallen creatures had come back reconciled to God.—Rev. William Arnot.
Providential Care.—When a child (says Mrs. Mary Winslow, in her diary, then Mary Forbes) I accompanied my parents, during the French war, on a visit to England. Our vessel was a light barque, carrying a few guns, and but ill furnished for severe conflict with the enemy. On entering the Channel, midway between the English and French coast, a ship of war bore in sight. It was toward night, and as she appeared to bear down upon us, our captain prepared for action. My mother and I were hurried from the cabin to what was thought a place of greater safety below. My father remained on deck. All was confusion above us, while I was astonished at being thus suddenly removed from my comfortable berth to the dismal quarters beneath the decks. We had not been long there when I observed a boy come occasionally to the place of our imprisonment, and, with a large horn in his hand, take something from out of a barrel, having first fixed a lighted candle upon its edge, and leaving it there. Observing, as I sat upon my mother’s lap—who was too much absorbed in anxiety to notice the circumstance—that the piece of candle was nearly burnt to the edge, I got down, put out my hand, and took it away, saying, “Mamma, this will burn the barrel.” It was a cask of gunpowder. Had I not removed it that moment, or in removing it had a spark fallen from the lengthened wick, the vessel and all on board must have been blown to atoms.
God’s Care of His servants.—Paul Gerhard was, many years ago, a great preacher in Brandenburg, Germany, and he loved to preach from his heart what he saw and believed in the Word of God. But the “Great Elector” of Brandenburg did not like his preaching, and sent to say to him, “Paul Gerhard, if you cannot preach differently from that, you must leave this country.” Gerhard sent back a message that it would be very hard to leave his home, his people, his country, and his livelihood; but he could only preach what he found in God’s Word, and as long as he lived he would preach that. So he had to go into banishment with his wife and little children. At the end of the first day’s journey they came into a wood, and rested at night at a little inn they found there. The little children were crying and clinging to their mother, and she too, who had kept up all day, now began to weep. This made Gerhard have a very heavy heart. So he went alone into the dark wood to think and pray. While he was in the wood this text came to his mind and comforted him: “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass.” “Yes,” he thought, “though I am banished from house and home, and don’t know where to take my wife and children for shelter to-morrow, yet God, my God, sees me in this dark wood. Now is the time to trust Him. He will show me the way through. He will bring it to pass.’ ” He was so happy that he remembered that text, and so thankful to God, that he tried to make the text into a hymn as he paced up and down between the trees. Every verse begins with a word or two from the text, so that if you read the first words of each verse you just read the text. When he went into the house he told his wife about the text, and began to repeat to her his hymn. She soon dried her tears (the children bad already gone to sleep), and become as hopeful and trustful as Gerhard himself. They had scarcely retired to rest when they heard a great noise at the door. It seemed as though some important person were knocking there. When the landlord opened the door, a man on horseback said aloud, “I am a messenger. I come from Duke Christian of Merscberg, and I am in search of Paul Gerhard. Do you know whether he has passed this way?” “Paul Gerhard,” said the landlord. “Yes, he is in this house.” “Then let me see him instantly,” said the Duke’s messenger. And the messenger handed to the good man a large sealed letter. It came from the Duke Christian, and it said, “Come into my country, Paul Gerhard, and you shall have church, and people, and home, and livelihood, and liberty to preach the gospel to your heart’s content. Gerhard’s hymn commenced thus:—
“ ‘Commit thy way,’ O weeper,
The cares that fret thy soul,
To thine Almighty Keeper,
Who makes the world to roll;
“ ‘Unto the Lord,’ who guideth
The wind and cloud and sea;
Oh, doubt not, He provideth
A pathway, too, for thee.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv5, 8 When John Fletcher was asked, “What is the most…
ARGUMENT 24
PERFECT HUMILITY
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When John Fletcher was asked, “What is the most important Christian grace?” he answered, Humility.” To a second inquiry he said, “Humility.” To a third he answered, “Humility,” when the inquirer desisted.
5. “Likewise ye younger people submit to the elder, and all put on humility toward one another, because God resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace to the humble.” Oh, how beautiful and bright the sweet and amiable grace of humility shines in every walk of life. It is believed that the Archangel Lucifer fell from heaven when he permitted spiritual pride to creep in, while unfortunately he ventured to contemplate the splendor and glory of the gigantic intellect which God had given him. John Wesley pronounces pride the great mother sin, whose daughters curse the earth and fill hell. If you can keep your pride thoroughly crucified, you will never fall, because God’s grace will ever sustain you.
6. “Therefore humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God in order that in His time He may lift you up.” The Bible reveals a topless heaven and a bottomless hell, consentaneous to the illimitable progress of all finite beings, whether on an upward or a downward tread. All the wicked are sinking every moment by the tremendous weight of their sins. At an unsuspected moment, hell fire rolls over them and they continue to sink forever, because hell has no bottom, i.e., they illimitably progress in sin and misery through all eternity. On the contrary, God’s truly faithful people progress in wisdom and holiness, not only through this life, but throughout never-ending eternity. We all desire the upward trend, but oh, how men and devils deceive us. God’s ways are the opposite of man’s ways. Man says, “Climb,” God says, “Humble yourselves.” In God’s vocabulary, to go up is to go down, and to go down is to go up. Pride lifts you up, to drop you the more precipitously into hell. Humility humbles you down in the dust, where God’s angels ever linger, to encircle you in their pinions of light and favor you with a balloon ride to heaven.
7. “Casting your care upon Him, because there is a care to Him for you.”
This is the Christian secret of a happy life. God wants us to be free as angels, disencumbered of every care, swift as birds of paradise to go on His missions of love and mercy. He wants to carry us and all of our burdens, so we may be perfectly free to do His sweet will on earth, as the angels do it in heaven.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v5 1 Peter
1 Peter
THE SLAVE’S GIRDLE
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1Pe 5:5.
The Apostle uses here an expression of a remarkable kind, and which never occurs again in Scripture. The word rendered in the Authorised Version ‘be clothed,’ or better in the Revised Version, ‘gird yourselves with,’ really implies a little more than either of those renderings suggests. It describes a kind of garment as well as the act of putting it on, and the sort of garment which it describes was a remarkable one. It was a part of a slave’s uniform. Some scholars think that it was a kind of white apron, or overall, or something of that sort; others think that it was simply a scarf or girdle; but, at all events, it was a distinguishing mark of a slave, and he put it on when he meant work. And, says Peter, ‘Do you strap round you the slave’s apron, and do it for the same reason that He did it, to serve.’
So, then, there are three points in my text, and the first is what we have to wear; second, what we have to wear it for; and, third, why we should wear it.
I. What we have to wear.
‘Gird yourselves with the slave’s apron of humility.’ Humility does not consist in being, or pretending to be, blind to one’s strong points. There is no humility in a man denying that he can do certain things if he can do them, or even refusing to believe he can do them well, if God has given him special faculties in any given direction. That is not humility at all. But to know whence all my strength comes, and to know what a little thing it is, after all; not to estimate myself highly, and, still further, not to be always insisting upon other people estimating me highly, and to think a great deal more about their claims on me than fretfully to insist upon my due modicum of respect and attention from others, that is the sort of temper that Peter means here.
Now, that temper which may recognise fully any gift that God has given me, its sweep and degree, but that nevertheless takes a true, because a lowly, measure of myself, and does not always demand from other people their regard and assistance, that temper is a thing that we can cultivate. We can increase it, and we are all bound to try specifically and directly to do so. Now, I believe that a great part of the feeble and unprogressive character of so many Christian people amongst us is due to this, that they do not definitely steady their thoughts and focus them on the purpose of finding out the weak points to which special attention and discipline should be directed. It is a very easy thing to say, ‘Oh, I am a poor, weak, sinful creature!’ It would do you a great deal more good to say, ‘I am a very passionate one, and my business is to control that quick temper of mine,’ or, ‘I am a great deal too much disposed to run after worldly advantage, and my business is to subdue that,’ or, ‘I am afraid I am rather too close-fisted, and I ought to crucify myself into liberality.’ It would be a great deal better, I say, to apply the general confession to specific cases, and to set ourselves to cultivate individual types of goodness, as well as to seek to be filled with the all-comprehensive root of it all, which lies in union with Jesus Christ. We have often to preach, dear brethren, that the way of self-improvement is not by hammering at ourselves, but by letting God mould us, and to keep the balance right. We have also to insist upon the other side of the truth, and to press the complementary thought that specific efforts after the cultivation of specific virtues and all the more if they are virtues that are not natural to us, for the gospel is given to us to mend our natural tempers--is the duty of all Christian people that would seek to live as Christ would have them.
And how is this to be done? How am I to gird upon myself and to keep--if I may transpose the metaphor into the key of modern English--tightly buckled around me this belt which may hold in place a number of fine articles of clothing?
Well, there are three things, I think, that we may profitably do. Go down deep enough into yourself if you want to cure a lofty estimate of yourself. The top storeys may be beautifully furnished, but there are some ugly things and rubbish down in the cellar. There is not one of us but, if we honestly let the dredge down into the depths, as far down as the Challenger’s went, miles and miles down, will bring up a pretty collection of wriggling monstrosities that never have been in the daylight before, and are ugly enough to be always shrouded in their native darkness. Down in us all, if we will go deep enough, and take with us a light bright enough, we shall discover enough to make anything but humility ridiculous, if it were not wicked. And the only right place and attitude for a man who knows himself down to the roots of his being is the publican’s when ‘he stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, and said, God be merciful to me a sinner.’ Ah, dear friends, it will put an end to any undue exaltation of ourselves if we know ourselves as we are.
Further, let us try to cultivate this temper, by looking at God, and having communion with Him. Think of Him as the Giver of anything in us that is good, and that annihilates our pride. Think of Jesus as our pattern; how that kills our satisfaction in little excellences! If you get high enough up the mountainside, the undulating country which when you were down amongst the knolls showed all variations of level, and where he who lived on the top of one little mound thought himself in a fine, airy situation as compared with his neighbour down in the close valley, is smoothed down, and brought to one uniform level; and from the hilltop the rolling land is a plateau.
I have heard of a child who, when she was told that the sun was ninety-five millions of miles off, asked if that was from the top or the bottom storey of the house! There is about as much difference between the great men and the little, between heroes and the unknown men, as measured against the distance to God, as there is difference in the distance to the sun from the slates and from the cellar. Let us live near God, and so aspiration will come in the place of satisfaction, and the unattained will gleam before us, and beckon us not in vain, and the man that sees what an infinite stretch there is before him will be delivered from the temptations of self-conceit, and will say, ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected, but I follow after.’
But there is another advice to be given--cultivate the habit of thinking about other people, their excellences, their claims on you. To be always trying to get a footing in a social grade above our own is a poor effort, but there is a sense in which it is good advice--live with your betters. We can all do that. A man writes a bit of a book, preaches a sermon, makes a speech--all the newspapers pat him on the back, and say what a clever fellow he is. But let him steep his mind and his heart in the great works of the great men, and he finds out what a poor little dwarf he is by the side of them. And so all round the circle. Live with bigger men, not with little ones. And learn to discount--and you may take a very liberal discount off--either the praises or the censures of the people round you. Let us rather say, ‘With me it is a very small matter to be judged of man’s judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.’
There are plenty of hands, foremost among them a black one that is not
so much a hand as a claw, ready to snatch the girdle of humility off
you! Buckle it tight about you, brother; and in an immovable temper of
lowly estimate of yourself live and work.
II. The second thought here is, What we are to wear the apron or girdle for?
The Revised Version makes a little alteration in the reading as well as in the translation of our text, the previous words to which, in the Authorised Version stand, ‘Yea, all of you be subject one to another.’ There is another reading which strikes out that clause, and adds a portion of it to the first part of my text, which then runs thus: ‘Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility to serve one another.’ That is what Christian humility is for. The slave put on his garment, whatever it was, when he had work to do.
But perhaps there is a deeper thought here. I wonder if it is fanciful to see in the text one of the very numerous allusions in this epistle to the events in our Lord’s Passion. You remember that Jesus laid aside His garments, and took a towel, and girded Himself, and washed the disciples’ feet, and then said, ‘The servant is not above His master. I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.’ Probably, I think, there floated before the memory of the man who had said, ‘Lord, Thou shalt never wash my feet,’ and then, with the swift recoil to the opposite pole which makes us love Him so much, hurried to say, ‘Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head’--some reminiscence of that upper chamber, and of how the Master had girded Himself with the slave’s apron, or towel, in order that He might serve the disciples; and then had told them that that was the pattern for all Christian men, and for all Christian living till the very end.
Service coming from humility, and humility manifested in service, are the requirements laid down in the text. Humility is the preparation for service; and service is the test of humility. If a man does not feel himself to be needy and low, he will never be able, and he will never be willing, to help those that are. You must go down if you would lift up. Laces and velvets and the fine feathers that the peacocks of self-conceit in this world strut about in are terribly in the way of Christian work. Rough work needs rough dress; and the only garb in which we shall be able to do the deeds of self-sacrifice that are needed in order to help our brethren is humility, the preparation for all service.
But, further, service is the test of humility. Plenty of people will say, ‘I know that I have nothing to boast of,’ and so forth; but they never do any work. And there is a still more spurious kind of humility, that of a great many professing Christians {I wonder of how many of us} who, when we ask them for any kind of Christian service, say, ‘I do not feel myself at all competent. I am sure I could not take a class in the Sunday School. I do not feel sufficiently master of the subject. I cannot talk. I have no facilities for influencing other people,’ and so on. Too many of us are very humble when there is anything to be done, and never at any other time as far as anybody can see; and that sort of humility the Apostle does not commend. It is unfortunately very frequent amongst professing Christians. Christian humility is not particular about the sort of work it does for Jesus. Never mind whether you are on the quarter-deck, with gold lace on your coat and epaulettes on your shoulders as an officer, or whether you are a cabin-boy doing the humblest duties, or a stoker working away down fifty feet below daylight. As long as the work is done for the great Admiral, that is enough; and whoever does any work for Him will never want for a reward. There are some of us who like to be officers, but do not like carrying a musket in the ranks. Humility is the preparation for service, and service is the test of humility.
III. Lastly, why we should wear this girdle.
There is one reason given in my text, which Peter quotes from the Old Testament. ‘God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.’ That is often true even in regard to outward life. Providence and man often seem to be in league together to lift up the lowly ones and thwart the proud. If a man walks with his head very high, in this low-roofed world, he is pretty sure to get it knocked against the rafters before he has done. But it is the spiritual region that the Apostle is thinking about, in which the one condition of receiving God’s grace is a lowly sense of my own character and nature, which is conscious of sin and weakness, and waits before Him. And the one condition of not receiving any of that grace is to keep a stiff upper lip and a high head. If I think that I am rich, ‘and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,’ that ‘nothing’ is exactly what I shall get from God, and if I have need of everything, and know that I have, that ‘everything’ is what I shall get from Him. ‘He resisteth the proud, and He giveth grace to the humble.’ On the high barren mountain-tops the dew and the rain slide off and find their way down to the lowly valleys, where they run as fertilising rivers. And the man that is humble and of a contrite heart, ‘with that man will I dwell, saith the Lord.’ If we gird ourselves with the slave’s dress of humility, then we shall one day have to say, ‘My soul shall rejoice in the Lord, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; and He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness; as a bridegroom decketh himself with his ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v9 kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
world
kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v6 Humility and vigilance enjoined:
Humility and vigilance enjoined:
v. 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time;
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v. 7. casting all your care upon Him, for he careth for you.
v. 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring Lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour;
v. 9. whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
The lesson which the apostle opened in the first paragraph he here concludes with an urgent appeal: Humble yourselves, then, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in His time. The reference is to the suffering which He sends His Christians. The pride of the human heart is inclined to resent this chastisement, to murmur, and to grumble. But true Christians will repress this tendency, will willingly bow themselves under the chastening hand of their almighty Lord and Master, will cheerfully bear all the misfortunes which He thinks it best to inflict. If this is the case, then God, in His mercy, will also lift up them that are His out of the slough of despondency which threatens to engulf them, and will make them feel the fullness of His goodness in Christ Jesus.
In thus bearing the misfortunes, and even the chastisements which fall to their lot, with meekness and patience, the apostle suggests to the Christians: Casting your every care upon Him, for He cares for you. All the cares and worries of this present life, everything that bothers the Christians, in its entirety, and once and for always, they should simply cast upon their heavenly Father, making a recurrence of foolish care and worry impossible. See Psa 55:23; Mat 6:25-34, If Christians thus, by the prayer of faith, put everything that worries them into the care of their heavenly Father, they will realize and experience the truth of His many promises; they will find out that God takes a personal interest in every one of them, that without His will or permission not a hair of their head will fall to the ground.
But while yielding to God’s almighty hand, we should stand firm against the attacks and blows of Satan: Be sober, be vigilant; your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, is walking about, seeking whom he may devour: to whom offer resistance, firm in the faith, knowing that the selfsame sufferings are befalling your brotherhood in the world. That is the attitude of mind, the disposition, which we must find in the Christians at all times, to keep a clear mind, unclouded with the cares of this life, to be on the lookout against dangers and enemies all the time, never to slacken in vigilance for so much as a moment. For the most powerful enemy, the most mighty adversary, is the devil, the murderer from the beginning. Just as the roaring of the lion is intended to terrorize and intimidate the animals, as he goes forth to seek his prey, making them cower before him in cringing helplessness, thus the devil makes use of similar schemes. By the enmity and the threats of the children of the world he tries to reduce the Christians to a state of helpless terror, when they will be unable to resist his attack and will become a prey to him and to eternal damnation. He does not easily attack an entire congregation, but he singles out such as seem to offer the best chance for a successful onslaught. And it is the culmination of his joy if he succeeds in drawing some poor soul down into his kingdom of darkness. There is only one approved way for the Christians, individually and collectively, to save their souls at such a time, namely, by offering unyielding resistance, by being firm in the faith. For faith clings to Christ and to His Word, knowing that a single word taken from God’s eternal truth is sufficient to fell Satan with all his power. And in this resistance another thought will serve to strengthen the believers, namely, that the very same kind of sufferings is being accomplished in the case of the entire brotherhood, the entire Christian Church in the world. This world is the devil’s stamping-ground, here he exercises his power; hence we may expect that he will try with all his might to regain control also of our souls. The consciousness, therefore, that others are in the same condition, that all the other children of God in the world are suffering and battling in the same way as we are, will serve to comfort and to strengthen us.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5, 8 General Information:
General Information:
Peter gives an instruction specifically to younger men and then continues to instruct all of the believers.
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In the same way
This refers back to the way the elders submitted to the Chief Shepherd in 1 Peter 5:1-4.
All of you
This refers to all believers, not just the younger men.
clothe yourselves with humility
Peter speaks of having the moral quality of humility as putting on a piece of clothing. AT: "act humbly toward each other" or "act with humility" (See: Metaphor)
under God's mighty hand so
Here the word "hand" refers to God's power to save the humble and punish the proud. AT: "under God's great power so" or "before God, realizing that he has great power, so" (See: Metonymy)
Cast all your anxiety on him
Peter speaks of anxiety as if it were a heavy burden that a person places on God, rather than carrying it himself. AT: "Trust him with everything that worries you" or "Let him take care of all the things that trouble you" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
submit
clothe
humble
servant
proud
grace
might
hand
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5, 9 5:5 You who are younger: This phrase, in contrast…
5:5 You who are younger: This phrase, in contrast to the elders, might refer to a particular class of ministers, perhaps elders in training or those who assisted the elders in various ways. But probably it simply denotes the younger individuals in the church (see, e.g., 1 Jn 2:12-14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.