1st Peter Chapter 5– John Karmelich

1. My title for this last chapter of 1^st Peter is, “Be an example”.

a) Peter’s letter focuses on the topic of Christian suffering. The bible teaches that all Christians go through suffering.

b) Part of the reason for suffering is the simple fact that the world is full of imperfect people and imperfect people hurt one another. The “sin disease” spreads and hurts people.

c) Another reason is that demonic forces want to harm you. The simple reason is a scared Christian is less likely to be a witness for Jesus. A dead Christian can’t witness to others.

d) The other issue we’ve been dealing with in this letter is that God allows suffering in order to mature us. A doctor may say to you, “this may hurt a bit” (I tremble when they say that! ☺). The doctor doesn’t want to hurt you, but he or she knows that sometimes one has to go through pain to make you healthier. When we have surgery, it is painful and the recovery hurts. In the same way, God allows suffering in our lives in order to make us better spiritually healthier.

e) Which leads back to the opening premise: be an example.

f) Through this letter, we’ve dealt with external forces that cause suffering as well as “internal”. The internal suffering refers to those issues within the body of believers. That includes marriage and dealing with other Christians.

g) In Chapter 5, Peter is pretty much done talking about how to deal with suffering. The only thing left to talk about is how to be an example to others.

h) Chapter 5 is mostly about leadership. It is mainly addressed to church leaders. We are not to hand these verses to our church leaders and say, “deal with this”! ☺ We are to apply them to our own lives in whatever leadership capacity we have. If you are a head of a family, then you are the leader of that family. If you have employees or children under your care, you are their leaders. If you single, then you are leader of one. Further, God calls on you to be an example to those around you. That too, is a form of leadership.

i) As you read Chapter 5, you are going to see verses addressed to elders in the church and young people in the church. The application to you and me is not to see this so much as being written for someone else, but to apply it to your own life and how you can be an example to others.

j) This chapter is all about “dealing with suffering by example”. It is Peter saying, “I’ve just spent four chapters talking about how to deal with suffering. Now I want to talk about how to lead by example as you deal with suffering”.

2. Chapter 5, Verse 1: To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed:

a) Let’s start with the term “elder”. It simply refers to one who is mature. It means someone who is spiritually mature more than physically mature, but it can mean the latter. For the Christian church of that time era, the term “elder” and “leader” were similar words.

b) When you study the Book of Acts, Paul would go to a new town, preach the gospel, get converts, start a church there, appointed leaders and then move on. For a brand new church like that, it’s impossible to have someone who was spiritually mature. Therefore, the term “elder” can also be one who is physically older.

c) Next, notice the term “fellow elder”. Peter calls himself a fellow elder.

i) Peter does not say, “Let me command you to do these things, because I’m Peter, Jesus right-hand guy and therefore, I outrank you!”

ii) Peter appeals to them as an equal, not as a superior officer.

iii) This gets back to my opening premise of “leading by example”. Peter is trying to get the other leaders (elders) to follow his example and not hold a superior rank over the leaders of other Christian churches.

d) The next term Peter uses is “a witness of Christ’s sufferings”.

i) If you study the Gospel’s carefully, Peter was not much of a literal-witness of Christ’s sufferings. The Gospels do not mention Peter actually seeing Jesus at the cross or the scourging prior to the cross.

ii) He was a witness in the sense Peter was around at that time and was close by when these specific events took place.

iii) What’s my point? The leaders Peter was addressing in this letter did not have first hand knowledge of how Jesus suffered. They were taking the information on faith. In a sense, so was Peter and so are we. We are asked to take on faith that Jesus actually suffered and died for our sins and to be an example for us.

iv) Remember that this lesson is about “being an example”, especially during difficult times. Jesus was an example to Peter on how to deal with suffering.

a) It is now Peter’s turn to be a leader. He is not pointing to himself, but pointing to Jesus and saying that is how we are to deal with suffering.

b) That same lesson is to be applied from generation to generation. It is not “look at me, but look at Jesus”. The leader of a church, of a family, or of any group who happens to be a Christian must say, “I’m no better than you because of my leadership role. I look to Jesus as to how to live my life and I want to lead by example to have you do the same.”

e) The next question is “Why is our suffering-in-life necessary? It’s one thing to have Jesus die for our sins and accept that payment. It is another issue that we should have to suffer. The answer is so God can mature us.

i) That is the point of Peter’s last statement, “(I, Peter am) one who also will share in the glory to be revealed.”

ii) Translation: God did not create us so that we could have as much pleasure on earth as possible and then die. (See 1^st Cor. 15:32). God did create us for the purpose of living with Him forever. God created us to serve Him. In order to prepare us for that eternity, it starts with the free-will choice of loving Him. The remainder of our lives is all about maturing us for that eternity. Sometimes that maturation process requires suffering, just like when the doctor saying, “this may hurt a bit”.

iii) We go through suffering “for the glory to be revealed”. That is all about our next life in heaven. In that sense, our entire Christian life is like a surgery recovery program. We had the disease of sin, God “operated” on us to remove that sin, and then we have to spend the rest of our lives on earth “recovering” from that sin. That recovery process is painful, and thus there is suffering.

3. Verse 2: Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers--not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve;

a) Remember that this portion of the letter is addressed to elders of the church.

b) What we get into here in Verse 2 is the qualifications of an elder.

i) Before we study them, let’s think about the purpose: You can test these to see if you are qualified for some sort of pastoral or leadership role in your church. If you are wondering about the leaders of your church, here is the test for them. Again, you can also apply these principals to any sort of leadership role, but the letter is primarily addressed to leadership in the church.

c) The first key phrase is “not because you must, but because you are willing”.

i) If you can grasp that phrase listed above, the rest of the sentence (Verses 2-3) are examples and on further commentary on that phrase.

ii) Peter is saying in effect, “Never, ever be a church leader just because no one else will do it or because you are doing it out of guilt, or because others think you should be a leader”.

iii) The first and most important qualification of an elder is to be willing.

a) One becomes an elder because they want to do it. Now there are cases where others ask you to lead and you do so willingly. You don’t have to tell your church leadership, “God called me to be a leader, step aside”. ☺

b) If it is God’s desire for you to be a church leader, God will make it happen on His timing. You may go to seminary or bible college in preparation, but it is still on God’s timing.

c) The term “willing” also applies to our attitude. If you or I have employees or have children under our rooftop, we are leaders. The key is we serve God in a leadership capacity out of willingness as opposed to grudgingly.

d) The next phrase is, “not greedy for money”.

i) One does not go into the ministry for the financial benefits. I’ve yet to see someone become very rich by being a professional minister, although it might exist. Someone might think about the ministry, “This is an easy life. All I have to do is counsel people with my opinions, preach the bible and then I can get paid for this!” The point is money should not be the incentive for being a church leader.

ii) Understand I’m not against the idea of the “professional minister”. If we are in a church setting that can afford to pay full time leaders, so be it. Those people need money to live and there is nothing wrong with supporting them financially.

iii) Peter is trying to strike a balance between the two extremes of “laziness and greed”. One extreme is to be lazy in the ministry, which is the opposite idea of doing one’s job “willingly”. The other extreme is only to be motivated by the financial benefits.”

e) The last phrase is, “but eager to serve”.

i) Another danger of ministry is “burn out”. After one has been a leader for a while, there are times of monotony, times where one suffers great criticism and the worse danger of all, the felling of inadequacy. A danger is to think, “I need to be a good example to my flock”. Satan then comes points out your faults, and inadequacy creeps in. Folks, we’re all inadequate to serve God! We do so out of our love for God, and not based on how good we’ve been the last week, month, etc.

ii) A few chapters back, in discussing the issue of marriage, I stated that loving your partner is a decision (not a feeling) based on our commitment to God and not our feelings. God commands us to love our spouses even when they are not loving us. The same idea applies to the ministry. We need to be “eager to serve” not based on our feelings, not based on the circumstances, but because God commands it.

4. Verse 3: not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

a) The sentence of Verse 2 continues in Verse 3.

b) Whenever the New Testament discusses leadership, there is usually a warning against “lording” over people. We might think of the term “dictator” in this regard.

i) For example, to “Lord over” would be to say, “You’ve heard my orders, I don’t see your feet moving, now get moving!” ☺

ii) Leadership in the church is mostly about leading by example. People watch your actions far more than any words you say. Does that mean we have to be perfect? No, but it does mean one has to be willing to admit wrong when it happens and not make excuses over it.

iii) Now sometimes decisions have to be made and a congregation has to live with those decisions. Not every situation can be done by example. In that case, it is essential that the leadership also abide by those same decisions in their own lives as much as the church. That is also “leading by example”.

5. Verse 4: And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

a) Based on “pure logic”, you would never want to be a professional minister. The pay is terrible, the hours are long, and your congregation has unrealistic expectations of you. They expect you to be a dynamic speaker every week, a great organizational leader, and be able to read everyone’s mind and instinctively know who is hurting and why. ☺

i) So why do it? The answer is Verse 4. There are rewards in the next life.

b) Remember that we don’t live for the rewards on earth, we “live” to please God. That doesn’t mean we don’t have happiness during this life. It just means our primary focus is on serving God. Our rewards for serving God come in the next life, not in this life.

i) Moses understood that concept: “He (Moses) regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward (in heaven).” (Hebrews 11:24 NIV)

c) The reward itself is a “crown of glory that will never fade away”.

i) Understand that these rewards are not only for pastors and for church elders. Jesus will not say to all of us in heaven, “Now all of you that were pastors and elders, step out of line and go to your left where you’ll receive your crowns of glory. As for the rest of you, we have some other nice gifts.” ☺

ii) When we think of crowns, we think of something you put on a king. A better illustration is the ancient Greek Olympic games, where a laurel crown was placed on the winner. The latter is the idea here. It is the idea of Jesus saying to us, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Reference: Matthew 25:21-23). This is about Jesus saying to us, “You have been a faithful servant. You’ve matured in a way that I wanted you to mature. You were loyal to me despite all the temptations and sufferings to go astray. You get your eternal rewards.”

iii) The idea of “never fade away” is the idea of eternal rewards. We don’t get to go to heaven for 11,231 years and “times up”. ☺ Whatever rewards and honors we have in this life are temporary. Whatever rewards one gets for God are eternal.

d) Let’s get back to the topic of suffering. (We haven’t suffered enough yet on this topic. ☺)

i) Let’s talk about Jesus parable of the “four seeds” in Matthew 13.

a) To paraphrase the parable, the word of God is like seed put in the ground by a farmer. Jesus said this seed will have one of four different reactions: (1) Some seeds are eaten by the birds; (2) Some seeds don’t grow well due to bad weather; (3) some seeds don’t grow well due to bad soil, and (4) some seeds sprout well and produce lots of produce.

b) Jesus goes on to explain that all people fall into one of those four categories. Some hear the Word of God and just plain “don’t get it”. They are like the seeds eaten by birds. It never takes root in their heart.

c) The second group never becomes “fruitful Christians” because they can’t handle the suffering. They are like the seed that suffers from bad (hot) weather. Just like the hot sun can scorch plants, so can suffering cause one to be “unfruitful” for God. It is someone who commits their life to Jesus, then when rough times come, they “can’t handle it” and walk away.

d) The third “unfruitful” group is because they care more about living for this life than God. They are compared to the seed planted in “bad soil”. In this parable, soil is being compared to “grounded in God”. The question is, are you “grounded” in God, or something else? This “unfruitful” person is grounded in the wrong type of soil. It is a person who does commit their life to Jesus, but then becomes more interested in “stuff” than God.

e) The final group is the people that despite the suffering, despite the temptations of this life, stick close to Jesus and “bare lots of fruit”.

ii) Now think about this parable in comparison to Peter’s letter: Peter is talking about dealing with suffering. Why? So we don’t “walk away” when suffering comes. Like that “good soil”, we still need to focus upon God when the rough times comes. At the same time, Peter also uses examples about the “cares of this world”.

a) For example, Peter is saying to be careful about “power trip’s” (lording over people) and to be careful about being a leader for money as opposed to a desire to serve. These are examples similar to Jesus point about “cares of this world make one an “unfruitful” witness for God.

iii) Peter wants his “unfading crown of glory”. He also wants us to have that same crown. What Peter is dealing with all through this letter is avoiding the pitfalls of Christianity. Those pitfalls come in two general categories: “suffering” and “pleasures of this life”. That is Jesus’ point in the 4-soils parable. That is Peter’s purpose in writing this letter, with the heavy emphasis on the suffering aspect.

e) Let’s get back to “leading by example”. This verse opens with “The Chief Shepherd”.

i) That is a title for Jesus. It is a paraphrase of Jesus own self-description: “I am the good shepherd” (Reference: John 10:11 and 10:14).

ii) Remember Peter stated that he is no higher in rank than any other elder in any other church. He is “nothing special” in that regard. The only person higher in rank is Jesus himself. Peter’s point is simply that Jesus is the one we look to and not Peter himself as the authority.

6. Verse 5: Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older.

a) After spending four verses on elders, Peter spends one whole sentence on younger men.

b) The key phrase is “be submissive”. That simply means to put the “will” of the elder of their church above their own.

c) If a person is called to lead, then those under him must submit to that leadership.

i) The hard part for all of us is we want to do it our way. We don’t want to submit because we’re 100% convinced our way of doing things is better than theirs.

ii) That too is a lack of faith in God. It is like us telling God, “Lord, you know those leaders you appointed? Well, You’ve made a big mistake, let me tell you!” ☺

iii) If you are the member of a church congregation, you always have the right to go elsewhere. As long as you remain in that church, the command here is to be submissive to the leadership’s decisions. Do those leaders mess up? Sure, but that is God’s problem to fix them, not yours. If you do approach a leader on the topic, one must do it humbly and accept their decisions.

d) This leads to the question: When should one leave a church for another?

i) First of all, I’m making the assumption that this is an option. Some people live in locations where there is only one church within a reasonable distance.

ii) Sometimes we have to me. It may be a case of having to move to a different city. It may be a case where your particular gifts and talents are needed elsewhere (e.g., being a missionary).

iii) If the church where you are attending is getting away from God’s word and the fundamental concepts of Christianity, then one should go elsewhere. That is different from “my bible interpretation is different from your bible interpretation”. I’m talking about churches that no longer take God’s word seriously.

iv) The wrong reason to leave is because, “I don’t like the way they do things around here. If the church won’t do things my way, I’m out of here”.

v) Peter is calling us to be submissive to the church leadership. It is God’s problem to hold them accountable, not ours.

vi) A church is place where one serves other Christians and one grows in their faith. I like the expression, “Bloom where you are planted and plant where you bloom”. Look for a church where you are spiritually “fed” and, more importantly, it is a place where you can serve others. One then has to accept that imperfect people run the church. Mistakes will be made we have to deal with them lovingly.

7. Verse 5 (cont.): All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another,

a) Notice the words “all of you”. That means Peter is no longer addressing the young adults, but young and old alike.

b) Then Peter says, “clothe yourselves with humility toward one another”.

i) This means the elder should not say: “I’m in charge, deal with it”. ☺

ii) This means the younger member should not say, “You’re wrong, deal with it”. ☺

iii) This gets back to my opening line of “lead by example”.

iv) If one acts humbly as a leader, others are more likely to follow. If one acts humbly as a follower, it makes the leader a better leader and a more humble leader.

v) Understand what humility is: Humility is not putting yourself down and thinking lowly of yourself. Humility is “not thinking of yourself at all”. It is about putting other’s needs in front of yours. It is similar to the biblical idea of love.

c) Peter uses the phrase, “clothe yourself with humility”.

i) Clothing is not something we are born with. It has to be put on your body. I take the same view about humility. Our natural instinct is to put ourselves first. Our natural instinct is to ponder, “What’s in it for me?” Humility is the opposite of our ego’s. Humility must be put on like clothing because it is not our naturally way of behaving. The secret to humility, like every other aspect of the Christian life is all about praying and asking God to work through you. Pray to God to make us more in His image, which is to act in humility toward one another.

8. Verse 5 (cont.): because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

a) Here is your memory verse of the week. I made it easy for you and only gave you one third of Verse 5 to memorize. In fact, this is a quote of Proverbs 3:34. Therefore, you are memorizing a two-for-one bible special today. ☺

b) In Chapter 3, Verse 7, I discussed Peter’s statement of “our prayer life being hindered.

i) That verse talks about when husbands are arguing with their wives, somehow, their prayer life becomes hindered. Questions arise as to what Peter meant by hindered and just how our prayer life is hindered. My response was “I don’t care how much my prayer life is hindered. When I’m about to be hit by a truck, I don’t want my prayer life hindered in any way, shape or fashion”. ☺

ii) I bring up that point here, because we have the same point in Chapter 5, Verse 5.

a) It starts with “God opposes the proud”. I don’t know what “opposes” exactly means, in the same way I don’t know what “hindered” exactly means. Either way, I’m not crazy about it. ☺ I don’t want God opposing me in any way shape or fashion!

b) Remember this verse is addressed to all Christians. Peter is addressing Verse 5 to “all of you”. That means all believers.

c) In those moments where our ego’s kick in and we are “proud”, at that moment, “God opposes us”. If you believe the bible is the Word of God, you have to accept that statement.

d) The verse says, “God opposes the proud”. It does not mean God strikes us dead on the spot. ☺ I wouldn’t be typing this lesson if that were true! Somehow, our relationship with God gets hindered when we are proud.

iii) My point to all of this, and the reason I encourage you to memorize this sentence is that this concept is a motivation tool for submission.

a) You want a motivation to love others? Your prayer life is hindered when it is not! You want a motivation to be humble? God “opposes the proud”. Again, we can talk all day about the possibilities what that statement means. Whatever it means, it can’t be very good for our lives!

c) The last part of that statement says, “but (God) gives grace to the humble“.

i) The same way I don’t want God opposing me or hindering my prayers, I very much want God’s grace. I’m not ashamed to admit that! ☺

ii) Grace is God’s unmerited favor. It is like getting a wonderful present for no particular reason. It is getting a special blessing for no particular reason. It is God saying He wants to bless us only because He wants to bless us. A God of love wants to express that love. Grace cannot be earned by definition.

iii) How do we get this grace stuff? The answer is that dreaded word, “humility”. ☺

a) It means turning away from our old egotistical self and putting others needs in front of our own.

b) If we want God’s grace in our lives, we have to be humble in the sense that we submit our wills to God and put other’s needs in front of our own.

9. Verse 6: Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

a) Verse 6 expresses the same idea of “God’s grace to the humble” using different words.

b) I say that because Verse 6 says God will “lift you up” if you are humble.

c) So what does “lift you up” mean? The implication is salvation as in “lift you up into heaven”.

d) My personal view is that term has a broader meaning. Peter is writing to Christians. Peter’s readers are already saved. In the last verse, Peter talks about a “crown of glory” that awaits us. Reading this verse in context, I believe it is more about “rewards”.

e) Since Verse 5 says, “God gives grace to the humble”, then the phrase “lift you up” refers to the grace God pours upon us in this life as well as the next. It refers the internal joy one can have despite whatever suffering is happening around us.

10. Verse 7: Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

a) Here’s your other memory verse of the week. This one is short too. ☺

b) We’ve been talking about suffering for five lessons now. I can just hear people thinking, “Yeah this is easy for you to say. You don’t know what I’ve gone through. You have no idea how bad my situation is. You cannot imagine what I’ve been through”.

i) My first question is, “Is God big enough that He can handle your problems?”

c) Once you grasp the concept that God is bigger than your problems, then and only then should you apply Verse 7. This verse is about giving your problems to God.

d) OK, how does one “cast our anxieties upon Him”? It’s time for another prayer:

i) “Lord, I am so worried about what is happening right now. It is so painful that I can barely stand it. I don’t know what to do. The bible says I am to cast my anxieties (worries) upon You, so I’m doing that right now.” For the next one minute, I’m not going to worry about it. When that minute is up, I’ll pray again until I can handle two minutes of not worrying in a row.” ☺

ii) (Prayer-cont.). “Help me to learn that You are big enough that to handle my problems. Help me to learn that You do care for me, that You are aware of what is happening and You are allowing this situation to happen in my life. Let not this lesson be wasted. Help me to have peace about it and discernment of what to do. Now give me a little peace and we’ll talk again when the worries come back. In Jesus name, amen.”

iii) That is a sample of “casting your cares upon Him”. You don’t have to use the exact words I stated. It is about giving God your problems.

iv) There is a classic joke about worrying that goes as follows: A man tells his wife, “Honey, I’m tired of worrying all the time. I’ve hired a man to do all of my worrying for me. The wife says, “What do we have to pay him?” He responds, “He charges $10,000 per week.” The wife then says, “But we only make $5,000 per week.” The husband then says, “Yeah, but that’s his problem to worry about”. ☺

a) In a sense, God is like the man charging $10,000 per week. Our job is to give those worries to God. Let Him “figure it out” how to deal with it.

b) The corollary to this issue is that once we give it to God, our job is not to go live in a cave and then let God solve it. We still have to “move on” in life. The point is about trusting that God is working it out.

c) Remember this verse was written to people who were under death threats for their belief in God. And you thought you had worries! ☺ Peter is telling them to cast their worries unto God. If they can do it, so can we!

11. Verse 8: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

a) All right, once we give our cares to God, and our now spending our valuable 30 seconds not worrying about our problems before those worries come back, ☺ what next?

i) Peter then says, “Be self-controlled and alert”. What does that mean?

ii) Self-controlled is as it says: It is about controlling one’s behavior.