📖 1 Peter Intensive — Unit 12: Shepherds and the Roaring Lion

Text: 1 Peter 5:1-14

Shepherd the Flock of God

As Peter brings his letter to a close, he turns first to the leaders of the church. "The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ...Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away" (1 Peter 5:1-4). Peter does not pull rank as an apostle; he calls himself simply a fellow elder, one who has also witnessed Christ's sufferings. His charge to the elders is to shepherd God's flock — not their own flock, but God's. A shepherd leads, feeds, and protects the sheep, and he does it in a certain spirit: willingly, not because he is forced; eagerly, not for shameful profit; and above all as an example, not as a tyrant lording it over the people. The earlier picture of Christ as the Shepherd of our souls now becomes the pattern for every undershepherd. And there is a reward worth more than any earthly gain: when the Chief Shepherd, Christ Himself, appears, the faithful shepherd will receive a crown of glory that never fades.

Sending Ammunition to the Enemy

Before the Second World War, the United States made a deal to ship great quantities of scrap metal to another nation — metal that was reportedly used to build some of the very airplanes that later bombed Pearl Harbor. It is never wise to hand your enemy the raw material he can one day use to sink you. Yet this is the very mistake believers make again and again with the enemy of their souls, the devil. Peter's warning in this chapter reveals three ways a Christian can hand his enemy the ammunition with which to bomb him later. The three are pride, anxiety, and suffering, and they share a single strategy: each one gets the believer to focus on something other than Jesus — on himself, on his worries, or on his pain. The devil can defeat a believer who looks at those things; he cannot defeat Jesus. The wise course, then, is to surrender each one to Christ and refuse to send ammunition to the enemy.

Pride: Clothe Yourselves with Humility

"Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:5-6). The first piece of ammunition is pride. The Pharisees had a wrong idea of greatness; they wanted the best seats, the title of Rabbi, the praise of men. But Jesus taught that greatness comes through service, not recognition, and that whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Pride is no small fault, for it was the very sin behind the devil's own fall from heaven. When a man's whole life begins to revolve around himself, growing more self-seeking and self-promoting, the devil has him exactly where he wants him. The Christian businessman Howard Butt confessed that it is his pride that makes him feel independent of God, and that pride is finally "the idolatrous worship of myself" — which, he added, is "the national religion of Hell." The remedy is to be clothed with humility, for God sets Himself against the proud but pours grace on the humble. Those who humble themselves under God's mighty hand are the ones He will lift up in His own good time.

History offers a vivid sermon on this. When Louis XIV of France, who had called himself "the Great" and once declared "I am the State," was buried, his funeral was the most magnificent in Europe. His body lay in a golden coffin, and by his orders the great cathedral was darkened, lit by a single candle above the casket to dramatize his glory. Thousands waited in hushed silence. Then the bishop rose to speak, reached down, snuffed out the candle, and said only four words: "Only God is great." Every human glory is a candle soon snuffed; God alone is great, and the humble who know it are the ones He honors.

Anxiety: Cast All Your Care on Him

"Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). The second piece of ammunition is anxiety. Worry lets Satan slip in between the believer and his Lord, pressing him to live in fear instead of faith. Peter's command is to cast all our care upon God, and the reason is tender: because He cares for us. Yet here many believers stumble in a curious way. They pray about their burdens, and then they get up from their knees with the burden still sitting squarely on their own shoulders. To cast a care upon God is to release it to Him and to leave it there, not to snatch it back the moment prayer is over. Consider a small child about to receive a painful injection. As the needle approaches she turns her eyes to her father, who takes her hand and fixes his gaze on hers, and a calm comes over her face. She is comforted not by any spoken answer but simply by his presence with her in the trial. So it is with the believer. The God who cares is present, and the soul that fixes its eyes on Him finds peace, hands over its anxieties, and rests.

The Roaring Lion: Be Vigilant and Resist

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world" (1 Peter 5:8-9). The third piece of ammunition is suffering, and here Peter names the enemy directly. The devil is real and dangerous, prowling like a roaring lion in search of prey, so the believer must be sober and alert, never careless. Yet the devil is also a defeated foe, and he is not to be feared. The command is to resist him, standing steadfast in the faith and refusing to give way. Peter strengthens the believer with the reminder that he does not suffer alone: the very same sufferings are being borne by the whole brotherhood of believers across the world.

The history of that brotherhood is full of those who resisted the lion and did not yield. The aged Polycarp, brought into the arena to be burned alive, was urged to save his life by reviling Christ. He answered, "Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He never once did me wrong; how then can I blaspheme my King, who has saved me?" In our own age, three condemned men in Uganda went before a firing squad with their faces shining, having found Christ in prison, and waved to the watching crowd before the shots were fired, so that even their executioners were left bewildered. The missionary Adoniram Judson, after terrible sufferings in a Burmese prison, asked a king for permission to preach; the king refused, saying his people would not heed Judson's words, but they would surely take notice of his scarred hands. In every century the lion has roared, and in every century faith has stood firm. The lion can roar, but he cannot devour those who belong to Christ and resist him steadfast in the faith.

The God of All Grace

Now Peter turns from the battle to the certain end of it. "But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen" (1 Peter 5:10-11). Here is the promise that has carried suffering saints through every trial. Notice the balance: the suffering is only "a while," but the glory is eternal. And notice who does the work — God Himself. The God of all grace, who first called His people to glory, will personally perfect what is lacking in them, establish what is shaky, strengthen what is weak, and settle them on a firm foundation. The same fire that the enemy meant for their ruin, God uses to make them complete and unshakable. To this God of all grace, Peter ascribes the glory and the dominion forever.

Final Greetings

Peter ends with warm and personal words. "By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly...She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen" (1 Peter 5:12-14). He wrote, he says, through the hand of Silvanus, sending greetings from the church where he was (which he calls Babylon) and from Mark, whom he loved as a son. He asks them to greet one another with the kiss of love, the warm affection of the family of God. And he closes the whole letter with a single, fitting word for people in the fire: peace — peace to all who are in Christ Jesus. The God of all grace, the Chief Shepherd, and the peace of Christ are the last and best words of this letter to a suffering church.

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