To Elders and Young Men
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: 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; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
My Understanding: As I prayerfully read through this passage of scripture, the first thing that stood out to me was how vv. 1 and 4 went perfectly along with the lyrics to this song the Lord gave me to write last evening, which is definitely a God thing, and how he works. Then, as I closely examined before the Lord the message from this passage, I saw three basic sections: 1. The Appeal, 2. The Attention, and 3. The Appearing.
The Appeal
Jesus Christ, God the Son, left heaven, humbled himself, took upon himself the flesh of man, was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin, and suffered as we suffer so that he could become our great, sympathetic and compassionate high priest. Then, he was crucified on a cross, as well as he took upon himself all of our sins, which was the greatest suffering of all. He was buried, and our sins were buried with him, and then he rose from the grave, triumphing over death, hell, Satan and sin – the penalty of sin and the control of sin over our daily lives – leaving our sins in the grave. He rose victorious so that we could be free from the penalty and control of sin, and so that we could have victory over sin, too, as well as to be free to walk humbly in faith and obedience to Jesus Christ on a daily basis.
Peter was a witness of Christ’s sufferings. As we recall, Peter was the one who claimed he would never deny the Lord, and yet, just as Jesus had said would happen, when Jesus was arrested, Peter denied him three times, the last time even denying him vehemently. Yet, Peter repented, and the Lord Jesus had him reaffirm his love for him three times: “Peter, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” “Then, Peter, feed my sheep.” And, that is the job of elders – to feed God’s sheep because they love the Lord.
Yet, this responsibility is not exclusive to elders. We are all instructed to make disciples of all nations and to teach them everything Jesus taught us. We are all instructed to encourage one another, to use our spiritual gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ, to share with one another songs, hymns and spiritual songs, for older women to teach younger women, and older men to teach younger men, etc. As well, many of these spiritual principles Peter is exhorting his fellow elders to emulate apply to all believers in Jesus Christ.
So, in our service to the Lord and in our sharing of our gifts and ministry of love to others, we should all serve the Lord and others, not because we must, but because we are willing and because we are eager (enthusiastic and excited) to serve our Lord and to love other people, because we truly love Jesus, and because we are so thankful for all that he has done for us. We should desire to love others as Jesus loves us and gave himself up for us so that we could be free from sin and could be free to walk humbly before him in faith and obedience. This should be our primary goal in ministry – to bring others to faith and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, because salvation is the greatest gift of all. Yet, in all of this, we should not act like we are the master over people, because the Lord Jesus should be their only master, but rather we should lead by example. In other words, actions speak louder than words. When we teach others, we need to be learning at Jesus’ feet, too, and applying those same principles we teach others to our own lives so that, not only are we sharing the gospel in words, but we are teaching the gospel by how we live our lives.
The Attention
One day Jesus is coming again to receive his bride, his true church, i.e. his followers to himself, and to take us to be with him forever. Until that time, we are supposed to be watchful. This is like being a guard, a lookout, or a sentry, i.e. somebody who is assigned to keep watch and to warn of approaching danger. It means to observe, examine, and scrutinize (be discerning), as well as it entails paying attention, being cautious, and keeping an eye out for danger, i.e. in particular the kind of danger that would lead us into sin and would lead us away from pure devotion to Jesus Christ and/or into a trap of deception. So many believers just go with the flow of what everyone else is doing without considering whether or not how they are behaving is what is pleasing to God and/or whether or not they are in any way participating in sin, either by giving their approval through allowing sin to entertain them through movies, TV, the internet, etc. or whether they are literally actively living out sinful acts in their daily lives. We need to stop letting life just happen to us and just go along with what everyone else is doing, but we need to be deliberate in how we live our daily lives so that we are living lives pleasing unto our Lord as we watch for his appearing.
We, thus, need to give careful attention to how we live. We need to guard against greed of all kinds and the love of money, which is the root of all evil. We need to clothe ourselves with humility, i.e. humility is something we must put on daily out of a choice of our wills by resisting any temptation to allow pride to take a foothold in our lives or to give into prideful thoughts or actions. This might mean allowing people, sometimes, to openly criticize us without us coming to our own defense, or it might involve allowing people to think things about us that are not true, in order to keep us from boasting or trying to build ourselves up in other people’s eyes. This scripture says that God will lift us up in due time.
We also have to be a sentry and a guard and be watchful because we have an enemy who is out there to destroy us in any way he can. So, that is why it is so critical that we remain continually alert and are self-controlled rather than allowing ourselves to be controlled by sin, by our circumstances or by other people. If we take garbage into our minds, garbage is what will come out. We can’t expect to be able to resist Satan if we are taking into our minds what glorifies Satan, the flesh and sin. We need to present ourselves as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing to him, and not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed in the renewing of our minds (see Rom. 12:1-2).
The Appearing
Peter described himself, in v. 1, as “one who will also share in the glory to be revealed.” Then, in v. 4 he said, “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” And, v. 10 says, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” So, what is this eternal glory that we have been called to and that we will share in when Christ is revealed? This glory spoken of here is the honor, praise, dignity, majesty, godly character, magnificence, splendor, excellence, and absolute perfection of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When Jesus is revealed, and when he returns for his bride, we will be changed into glorified bodies and we will share in the divine character of God, not that we will be God, obviously, but that we will perfectly wear his character and will thus share in HIS glory – his praise, honor and godly character. Right now, we wear his character, as He is within us and is living out through us his divine character, yet we are still in fleshly bodies, too, that war against godly character. Yet, when he comes again and takes us to be with him, that imperfect will disappear and we will be perfect in Christ, no longer vulnerable to sin, but perfectly united with Christ in mind, body and spirit. Oh, what a glorious day that will be when we are freed of these flesh bodies and we wear the crown of glory that will never fade away!
Magnify Him/ An Original Work / April 17, 2011
Glory to the Father, and glory to the Son;
Praise the Holy Spirit – our God, the Three in One.
Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end;
Savior, sanctifier, healer, the Amen!
Jesus reigns forever; He is the King of kings.
He is our Redeemer, the Lord of everything.
Through His blood He saved us, and brought us victory;
Purifying, our debt buying, so we’re free!
Soon He’s coming back for us, to make us His bride.
He asks that we watch ‘til the time when He arrives.
When He comes, what glory then will be ours to share;
Magnify Him when we meet Him in the air!
Music Score: http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/Christsfreeservant/MagnifyHim30.jpg
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