I Peter 2
1 “Wherefore
laying aside” - Those who would wear the white robe of
regeneration must lay aside the filthy
garments (Zechariah 3:3) of the old
carnal life. So
Paul bids us put off the old man and put on the new (Ephesians
4:22, 24; Colossians 3:8,10; compare also Romans 13:14, “Put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ.”
The metaphor would be more striking when, at baptism, the old
dress was laid aside, and the white chrisom was put on.
Paul connects the putting
on of Christ with baptism in Galatians 3:27, and Peter,
when speaking of baptism in
ch.
3:21, uses the substantive (ἀπόθεσις – apothesis – putting away; putting off)
corresponding to the word here rendered (ἀποθέμενοι – apothemenoi - laying
aside) - “all malice, and all guile, and
hypocrisies, and envies, all evil
speakings,” - The sins
mentioned here are all offences against that “unfeigned love
of the brethren” which formed the subject of Peter’s exhortation in the
latter
part of ch. 1:22. (compare Ephesians 4:22-31); the close
resemblance between
the two passages proves Peter’s knowledge of the Epistle to
the Ephesians.
2 “As
newborn babes,” - The words look back to ch.1:3,23. God begat them
again; they were new-born babes in Christ, they must
remember their regeneration.
The rabbis used the same metaphor of their proselytes; but
the apostle was
doubtless thinking of the Savior’s words (Matthew 18:3;
Mark 10:14-15) –
“desire the sincere milk of the word,” – Milk is a good standard of all food;
it contains all the constituents of food. So does the Word of God contain all
elements
of spiritual
nutrition.Desire, (ἐπιποθήσατε – epipothaesate – long for
it eagerly), as babes long for milk, their proper food, the
only food necessary for
them. It seems
that in the adjective λογικόν – logikon - paraphrased
in the
Authorized Version “of
the Word,” rendered “spiritual” or “reasonable” in the
Revised Version) there must be a reference to (λόγος Θεοῦ - logos Theou –
the Word of God ), mentioned in ch.1:23
as the instrument of regeneration, and
called by our Lord (Matthew
4:4, from Deuteronomy 8:3) the food of man (but the
Greek in Matthew is – ῤῆμα – word - as in ch.1:25). The
paraphrase of the
Authorized Version gives the general meaning; but the
adjective means literally,
“reasonable” or “rational.” The apostle is not thinking of
natural milk, but of that
nourishment which the Christian reason can regard as milk for the soul —
SPIRITUAL FOOD,
pure and simple and nourishing, capable of
supporting and strengthening those
newborn babes who not long ago had
been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through
the Word of God. The adjective occurs only in one other
place of Holy
Scripture (possibly Peter may have read it there) — Romans
12:1,
τὴν λογικὴν λατερείαν
ὑμῶν – taen logikaen latereian
humon – the
logical
Divine service of you - where it
means the service of the
sanctified reason as opposed to the mechanical observance
of formal rites.
Thus it seems nearly to correspond with the use of the word
πνευματικός –
pneumatikos - spiritual - by Peter in v. 5 of this chapter, and by Paul
in
I Corinthians 10:3-4. Paul also speaks of milk as the
proper food of babes in
Christ (Ibid. ch.3:2; compare also Hebrews 5:12), though the
thought is somewhat
different; for Peter’s words do not convey any reproof for
want of progress. This
spiritual milk is ἄδολον – adolon - pure,
unadulterated – translated sincere
above - (compare
II Corinthians 2:17; 4:2) - “that
ye may grow thereby:”-
literally, therein, in the use of it. The whole
Christian life on earth, then, is to be
a continuous growth. Here we are all but as infants at the best, and we only come
to maturity in another life. Salvation is the possession of “the measure of the stature
ofthe fullness of Christ.” It is not, as some caricature the Christian doctrine, a
mere
escape from an outward hell, but is the attainment
of the full height of
manhood made God-like. That is the goal set before the Christian — an
ever-progressive approximation to the unreachable God, an ever-increasing
appropriation of infinite perfection into his indefinitely expanding being.
And towards that endless growth and eternally increasing knowledge of
and likeness to the revealed God in Christ, we may be steadily advancing
here. If we will only use the amply adequate means provided for us, and let
our souls feed on the Word of God, we shall grow as
certainly as the child
passes from infancy to boyhood and adolescence. But in order to feeding
on that Word there must be rigid self-restraint, and many a struggle with
lower appetites. Christian growth is no natural process. The painless,
unconscious, spontaneous growth of the infant at the breast, or of the corn
in the field, does not tell us all the facts. There are other symbols of
Christian progress. It is a pilgrimage often to be trodden with bleeding feet.
It is a building which does not “rise like an exhalation,” but tasks strength
and skill to lay its courses. It is a fight often desperate, always real, and in
which that Word of God which is milk for the growing babe, is the sword
for the warrior-hand. We have to fight that we may have room to grow;
and
of our conflict and of our growth the instrument is
the WORD OF GOD!
The
Christian’s soul’s true food is the Word of God! The truth as it
is in Jesus
has no admixture of deleterious matters, is unspoiled by
men’s errors, and
has in it all which the soul needs, which cannot be said of any other “word.”
There is no bodily craving more vehement and tyrannous than that of hunger.
We
all know how an infant cries for food. Such keenness of
appetite ought to
mark every Christian. But the very fact that this hunger has to be enjoined is
a sad
confession. Infants
do not need to be told to seek the mother’s breast.
But ,
alas! We have
to acknowledge languid indifference and often positive
distaste for the
wholesome food which God gives. So this
appetite has to be
cultivated. And that it may, other appetites have to be restrained and starved.
We are like children who eat sweetmeats, and so do not care for our meals. If we
gorge ourselves on the sugared delights of earth, or on the rank “leeks and garlic”
of
from these, and a tight hand on our desires and passions, are essential if we are
to have any healthy hunger for wholesome food. Again, the appetite will in
this
case secure its being satisfied. This hunger is
unlike all other hunger, in
that IT WILL CERTAINLY BE FULFILLED! So the apostle does not even
say drink,
but he only says desire. For he knows that if
there be the longing there
will be the fruition, as certainly as the
air flows into expanded lungs, or the sunshine
into opened eyes. Other longings are often pain, and often vain. This is
blessed
in itself, and blessed in its sure fulfillment. He who can say, “I long
for thy Word,” will always be able to say,
“I did eat it, and it was the joy
and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). Is this eager appetite for the Word
of
God the characteristic of our Christianity? Does
the neglect of Scripture, the
preference of almost any book to the Bible, which so many
of us must
confess, look like it? Does the utter disuse of
meditation by such
multitudes of professing Christians look like it? Can
anybody suppose that
people who scarcely ever occupy their minds with Divine
truth, except when
they languidly sit out a sermon, are thirsting for the
pure milk of the Word?
Concerning
growth - “that ye may grow thereby:” - Peter
bids us “grow in grace”
(II Peter 3:18). We
do not bid a plant to grow; we watch its growth, we assist it.
But Holy Scripture bids
the Christian grow; the commandment implies the
power. Our Father doth not mock us with precepts which we cannot obey.
And
growth in free agents implies
effort.
Growth is a sure proof of life! God requires “the
building up of the body of
Christ,
till we all attain unto the unity of the faith…..unto a full- grown
Man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ!” (Ephesians
4:13-16) The bud that does not become a flower is a
failure. So the Christian
that does not grow
is a failure!
3 “If so
be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” - rather,
if ye
tasted. If ye once
tasted the good Word of God (Hebrews 6:4-5), if ye
tasted of the heavenly gift which comes through that Word
(ch.1:23), long after
it that ye may
grow therein. The “if” does not imply doubt; the apostle supposes
that they have once tasted, and urges them, on the ground of that first taste,
TO LONG FOR MORE! The first experiences of the Christian life stimulate
God’s people to further efforts. The words are a quotation
from Psalm 34:8,
“Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!” This
makes it less probable that
Peter is intentionally playing, as some have thought, on the similarity of the words
χρηστός - chraestos - gracious;
kind - and Ξριστός – Christos – Christ.
The confusion was common among the heathen; and Christian writers, as
Tertullian, sometimes adopted it; Christus,
they said, was chrestus, “Christ
was good;” and Christians, followers of the good Master,
followed after
that which is good. But Peter is simply quoting the words
of the psalm,
and applying them to the metaphor of milk. It is possible
that there may be
an under-current of allusion to the Lord’s teaching in John
6. THE LORD
HIMSELF IS THE BREAD OF LIFE AND FOOD FOR THE SOUL!
The epithet crhsto>v
is not infrequently used of food (see Luke 5:39).
“Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts” – (Malachi 3:10).
The
Word of God is the food of the soul! The
Psalmist says “How sweet
Are
thy words to my taste! Yea, sweeter than
honey to my mouth!”
(Psalm 119:103)
4 “To whom
coming, as unto a living stone,” - Omit the
words, “as
unto,” which are not in the Greek, and weaken the sense.
The participle is
present; the Christian must
be ever coming to Christ, not only
once for all,
but always, every day. The “living Stone” is CHRIST; the “Lord” of
Psalm 34:8 is JEHOVAH. Peter
passes from the figure of milk to that
of a chief cornerstone. So Paul, in I Corinthians 3., after
saying that he
had fed his Corinthian converts “with milk, and not with meat” (I Corinthians
3:2), passes first to the figure of laborers on the land,
and then to that of builders
upon the one foundation WHICH IS JESUS CHRIST! (Ibid. vs. 8-11)
This, like so many other coincidences, indicates Peter’s
knowledge of Paul’s
Epistles (II Peter
3:15-16). Peter may have been thinking of his own name, the
name which Christ gave him when Andrew brought him to the
Lord; though the
Greek word here is not πέτρα -
a
detached stone or boulder that might be thrown or easily moved - but λίθος –
lithos – stone — not the solid native rock on which the temple is built, nor a
piece
of rock, an unhewn stone, but a
stone shaped and wrought, chosen for a chief
cornerstone. But the apostle does not mention himself; he
omits all reference to his
own position in the spiritual building; he wishes to direct his readers only to Christ.
He is plainly referring to the Lord’s own words in Matthew
21:42, where Christ
applies to Himself the language of Psalm 118. He described Himself as a
Stone; Peter adds the epithet (λίθον ζῶντα – lithon zonta – living stone). The
figure of a stone is inadequate, all figures are inadequate, to
represent heavenly
mysteries. This stone is not, like the stones of earth, an inert
mass; it is living, full
of life; nay, it gives life, as well as strength and
coherence, TO
THE
STONES THAT ARE BUILT UPON IT for THE LORD HATH LIFE
IN HIMSELF — He is risen from the dead, and IS ALIVE FOR EVER
MORE! - “disallowed indeed of men,” - Peter
slightly varies the quotation, and
attributes to men in general the rejection ascribed in
Psalm 118:22 and in the Gospel
to the “builders” (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke
20:17; Acts 4:11). “He
was despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:3; Matthew 26:57-68). In his
speech before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:11), Peter had directly
applied the prophecy
to the chief priests -“but chosen of God, and precious,”
rather, as the Revised
Version, with God elect, precious, or perhaps
better, honored; a reference to
Isaiah 28:16. He was rejected of the builders, but chosen of
God; despised
of men, but with God held in honor. The adjective is not the same as that
rendered “precious” in ch.1:19: τίμος - timios –precious - there marks
THE PRECIOUSNESS OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST IN ITSELF –
ἔντιμος – entimon – precious - here, the honor with which God “hath
highly exalted him.”
“To whom coming.” The original word implies, by the force of a compound,
A VERY CLOSE APPROACH! We must be so near Him as to touch Him,
if His transforming power is to flow into our hearts. A hair’s breadth of
separation
is enough to stop the passage of the
electric current. The thinnest film
of distance between
the soul and Christ is thick enough
to be an impenetrable
barrier. There must be a real living contact if His life is to pour into my veins.
And if we ask how this close approach is to be effected, our Lord’s own words are
the
simplest answer, “He
that cometh unto me shall never hunger, and he that
believeth on me shall never thirst.” We
come in the act of faith. To trust Him is to
draw near to Him. Faith is the approach of the soul to Christ, and we touch
when,
with the reliance of our whole nature, we grasp His cross, and
Him
who died on it, as our only Foundation. But
that act of faith must be
continuous, if we are to draw life from Him in an unbroken stream. The
form of expression in the Greek shows that the “coming” is not an act done
once for all, but ONE CONSTANTLY REPEATED! The grace drawn from
Christ in a moment of active faith cannot be stored up for use in a time when faith
has fallen asleep. As soon as we cease to draw near to Him,
the flow stops.
There must be a present faith for a present blessing. Let us, then, rely on no
past acts of devout emotion, but hourly renew our conscious faith, and
seek
to nestle closer to His side, from whom all our life and all
its hopes
and joys, with all its goodness and power, proceed. So shall there rise up
into us, from the living Root, the sap which shall produce in us flowers and
abiding
fruit (John 15). So
shall there be one life in Him and in us!
(“that
they may be one, even as we are one: I
in them, and thou in
me,
that they be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and has loved them, as thou hast loved me.” – John
17:22-24)
All
hearers of the gospel and all sincere and
faithful Christians have reason to
rejoice that their Savior Jesus is “ELECT AND PRECIOUS”. If God the
Father
sets such honor upon Christ, there is encouragement to believe that
Christ’s
work shall not fail. (“The
zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform
this!” – (Isaiah 9:7)
5 “Ye
also, as lively stones,” - rather, living
stones. The word is the same as
that used in v. 4. Christians are living stones in virtue of their union with
the
one living Stone, Jesus Christ: “Because I live, ye shall live also.” (John 14:19) –
“are built up a spiritual house,” - rather, be ye built up. The imperative
rendering seems more suitable than the indicative, and the
passive than the
middle. The Christian
comes; God
builds him up on the one Foundation.
The apostle says,” Come to be built up; come that ye may be
built up.” The
parallel passage in Jude 1:20, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on
your most holy
faith,” might seem to point to a reflexive
rendering here;
but the verb used by Jude is active, ἐποικοδομοῦντες – epoikodomountes –
building up.
Jude is apparently thinking of the human
side of the work, Peter of
the Divine; in the deepest sense CHRIST IS THE BUILDER AS WELL AS
THE FOUNDATION,
as He Himself said in words doubtless present to Peter’s
mind, “Upon this rock I
will build my Church” (Matthew
16:18). That Church
is the antitype of the ancient temple — a building not material,
but spiritual,
consisting, not of dead stones, but of sanctified souls, resting on no
earthly foundation,
but on THAT ROCK WHICH IS CHRIST! (compare Ephesians
2:20-22;
I Corinthians 3:16-17; II Corinthians 6:16) - “an holy priesthood,”
- rather,
for
(literally, into) a holy priesthood. The figure again changes; the thought of the temple
leads to that of the priesthood. The stones in the
spiritual temple are living
stones; they are also priests. According to the original
ideal of the Hebrew
theocracy, all Israelites were
to be priests: “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests, a holy
nation” (Exodus 19:6). This ideal is
fulfilled in the Christian
Church; it is a holy priesthood. Here and in v. 9 the
Church collectively is called
a priesthood; in the Book of the Revelation (1:6; 5:10;
20:6) Christians individually
are called priests, Bishop Lightfoot says, at the opening
of his dissertation on the
Christian ministry, “The
sanctuaries, because every time and every place alike are
holy. Above all, it has no
sacerdotal system.
It interposes no sacrificial tribe or class between God and man.”
He continues, “This conception is strictly an ideal, which
we must ever hold
before our eyes… but which nevertheless cannot supersede
the necessary
wants of human society, and, if crudely and hastily
applied, will lead only
to signal failure. As appointed days and set places are
indispensable to her
efficiency, so also the Church could not fulfill the
purposes for which she
exists without rulers and teachers, without a ministry of reconciliation, in
short, without an order of men who may in some sense be
designated a
priesthood.” The whole Jewish Church was a kingdom of
priests; yet there
was an Aaronic priesthood. The
Christian Church is a holy priesthood; yet
there is an order of men who are appointed to exercise the
functions of the
ministry, and who, as representing the collective
priesthood of the whole
Church, may be truly called priests - “to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” The priest must have somewhat to
offer (Hebrews
8:3). The sacrifices of the ancient Law had found their
fulfillment in the one all-sufficient Sacrifice, offered
once for all by the
great High Priest upon the altar of the cross. But there is
still sacrifice in
the Christian Church. That one Sacrifice is ever present in
its atoning virtue
and cleansing power; and through that one Sacrifice the
priests of the
spiritual temple offer up daily spiritual sacrifices — the sacrifice of prayer
and praise
(Hebrews 13:15), the sacrifice of alms and oblations
(Ibid. v.16), and that sacrifice without which prayer and
praise and alms are
vain oblations, the sacrifice of self (Romans 12:1). These
spiritual sacrifices are
offered up through Jesus Christ the great High Priest
(Ibid. v.15); they derive
their value only from faith in His
sacrifice of Himself; they are
efficacious
through HIS PERPETUAL MEDIATION AND INTERCESSION;
through Him alone
they are acceptable to God. They are offered through
Him, and they are acceptable through Him. The Greek words admit of
either
connection; and perhaps are intended to cover both relations.
The chief sacrifice that we can offer is the sacrifice of ourselves. “My son, give
Me thy heart”
(Proverbs 23:26), is the Lord’s requirement. If we give Him that,
we give Him all: it is a poor gift, worthless in itself, but yet precious in
His sight
because He first loved
us, made more precious still by the precious
blood of
Christ which was shed that
these hearts of ours might be cleansed and
purified for a holy offering.
It is all He asks, and all we have to give; if we give
it, we shall be all the richer, for He giveth
in return THE UNSPEAKABLE
GIFT! — the gift of
Himself, to abide
forever in the heart that is given
to Him. (It does not get
any better than God’s promise to Abraham,
“Fear
not Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” – Genesis
15:1
– For God to be our Reward is overcoming – CY – 2012) “We offer
and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and
bodies, to be a
reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee.” We offer these our
offerings through Jesus
Christ, (Hebrews 13:15), pleading His
merits,
His atonement; and through Him they are acceptable unto
God. In
themselves they are very mean and imperfect; not without
blemish, defiled with
lingering taints of selfishness and earthliness; but if
they are offered through Him,
in the faith of Him, they are acceptable. For the priests of the spiritual temple
are also living stones in that temple, incorporated into
the mystical body of Christ,
and thus their spiritual sacrifices are consecrated by His one prevailing Sacrifice,
and through that
Sacrifice are acceptable unto God.
God is a Spirit; His temple in the
highest sense must be a spiritual house!
We are to constitute in concert the “spiritual house,” which is the glory of the
“new
dispensation;” the idea of which is in the
MIND OF THE DIVINE
ARCHITECT and which is gradually being brought to realization and
perfection under His superintendence, and through the concurrence of those
who can only very partially comprehend the bearing of their life upon the
glorious whole which is in due time to be consummated. The whole edifice
is based by faith upon Christ; the several stones are cemented by mutual love.
(Ephesians 1:10)
Jesus Christ is the
Christ is the true temple and we become a temple through Him! The temple
is the dwelling-place of Deity. The need for it arises from man’s weakness, which
cannot grasp THE TRUE SPIRITUALITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE but
has to aid its conceptions by localizing God, and still
more FROM
MAN’S SIN,
WHICH TO HIS OWN CONSCIOUSNESS HAS PROFANED THE
WORLD and cannot bear the thought of God’s dwelling among the foulness
of everyday abodes. Christ is all which temples shadowed. The temple was
the
dwelling-place of Deity, and in Him dwells all
the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9). It was the place of meeting between God
and
man, and in Him we draw near to the God who in Him
has drawn
near to us (James 4:8). It was the place of sacrifice, and in His flesh the one
propitiation has been offered for sin forever (Hebrews 9:26). It was the
place of Divine manifestation, and in Him the whole glory of the Divine nature
has been flashed upon the world with a brightness (Hebrews 1:3) before which the
light that shone between the cherubim pales its fires. The burden of the context here
is
that by coming to Christ we become partakers of His life, and
are therefore
assimilated to Him. So
the whole aggregate of the scattered strangers to whom
Peter writes, and all the solitary souls who, one by one,
draw near to Jesus,
are built up into
redeemed humanity, in which God dwells. All Churches are but chapels in its side
aisles. Its ample roof covers them all, and will shelter new forms of Christian
fellowship as yet undreamed of. Through the ages it is being slowly builT, like
some great cathedral unfinished for centuries, each of which has added
something to the pile. And as the Church as a whole is the temple, so its
members
in detail are temples of God. By a real though
mysterious
indwelling, more real if one may say so, and less
mysterious than that by
which he inhabits eternity or dwells in the material universe,
God comes
and makes his abode in every believing soul (John
14:23). THE
DIVINE
SPIRIT can fill and
penetrate the human spirit, as the sunshine
drenches
and saturates some poor film of mist, till every particle
is suffused with
the fiery brightness. We are
too apt to water down that most solemn and
blessed truth of God’s indwelling into the mere presence of an influence on
our spirits. We need to rise to the height of the wonderful, awful, gladsome thought
that GOD HIMSELF DWELLS IN EVERY SOUL THAT COMES TO
JESUS CHRIST! He, and none but He, brings
God to men, and none but
God. He alone is,
(“Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express
image of His person, and upholding all things by the word
of His power,
when HE HAD BY HIMSELF PURGED
OUR SINS, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high” -
Hebrews 1:3) - in
real essential unity,
man’s
Representative and Intercessor. He alone offers
the sacrifice for the
world. He stands THE SOLE PRIEST, His office unique, His Person sole
and supreme, having and tolerating no companions in His solemn entrance
within the veil, and having neither beginning of days nor end of life. There
is but one Priest in the Church. There are no priests in the Church. All are
priests in the Church.
Our true sacrifice is the surrender of our wills to the
Divine will
and, losing
ourselves in utter surrender, may have our poor sacrifice
accepted THROUGH HIM WHO ALONE HAS OFFERED THE
ONE PERFECT SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOR EVERMORE!
6 “Wherefore
also it is contained in the scripture,” - literally,
because it contains in Scripture. There is no article according to the best
manuscripts; and the verb (περιέχει – periechei – it is contained; it is
being included)
is impersonal; it is similarly used in Josephus, ‘
Compare the use of the substantive περιοχή – periochae – place - in
Acts 8:32. Peter proceeds to quote the prophecy (Isaiah
28:16) to which he
has already referred. “Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect,
precious:” - The passage is
taken from the Septuagint, with the omission of
some words not important for the present purpose. Paul
quotes the same prophecy
still more freely (Romans 9:33). The rabbinical writers
understand it of Hezekiah,
but the earlier Jewish interpreters regarded it as
Messianic - “and he that
believeth
on Him shall not be confounded.” The Hebrew words literally mean “shall not be
in haste;” the Septuagint appears to give the general meaning. He that believeth (the
Hebrew word ˆymia’h,, means “to lean upon,
to build upon,” and so “to trust, to
confide”) shall not be flurried and excited with vain fears and trepidation; his mind is
stayed on the Lord.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is
stayed on thee.” (Isaiah 26:3)
Christ is the Corner-Stone
of God’s Creation! He is the Foundation
of the
highest and
purest form of social life, in which ultimately all others shall
merge, and men
be one in Him. He is the Basis of all true thoughts of God,
man,
immortality, and duty. He is the Motive and Inspiration of the purest
life. His
Person, work, and teaching underlie all being, all peace, and all
nobleness. He is
the “living Stone,” inasmuch as in
Him is essential life,
and He ever
lives to be the Source of life to all who build on Him. Peter’s
thought, then, is that all in Christ which makes Him precious belongs or passes on
to us by faith. That is a profound thought put in very simple and homely words.
Faith makes us owners of all CHRIST’S INFINITE WORTH! The living
Stone is said to make those who come to Him also living stones, and Christians are
represented as being like their Lord, living temples, consecrated priests, and
acceptable sacrifices. The idea that vital union with Christ brings about a
communication of qualities from Him to His followers, as if the virtue of the
Foundation
rose through all the building, is surely taught in a
hundred places in
Scripture, and IS
THE VERY CLIMAX OF THE GOSPEL! THE
SECURITY OF THAT
BUILDING IS ON THAT FOUNDATION!
We
need not fear to pile upon it all the pressure of our
cares and
sorrows, or to
rear on it a fabric of our hopes and security, it will stand.
Those who have reared their lives on other foundations will stand aghast
when they feel them crumbling away in some hour of supreme need. (I remember
my paternal grandmother telling me about it when she quoted the Sermon on the
Mount which included Matthew 7:26-27 – CY – 2012). They will have to flee
with the haste (just the opposite of the teaching of Isaiah 28:16) of despair from
the falling ruins. But if we have built on Christ, we shall have no need for haste,
and no pale confusion need ever blanch our cheeks. The steadfastness of the
Foundation will avail to make us who are built upon it steadfast too, and, if we
believe,
all its preciousness will be ours and for us.
The way this “preciousness” becomes ours is to believe on Him whom God
sent
for just this purpose, our salvation!
(John 6:29) The order of the sentence
in the original puts emphasis on “who believe.” The purpose of
the
clause is to mark the persons to whom alone the preciousness
belongs,
in sharp and solemn contrast with another class, to whom none of the
saving, but only the destructive, powers which lie in the Foundation pass
over. The worth of Christ is ours on one condition, but that condition is
inexorable;
faith, simple trust, WHICH
TAKES HIM FOR WHAT HE IS
AND RESTS THE WHOLE BEING ON JESUS AS INCARNATE
SON OF GOD!
How can Christ’s sacrifice benefit me if I do not believe in
it? What
possible connection can be established between Him and me,
except
through my trust in Him? Faith is but stretching out the hard
to grasp His
extended hand. (I remember in the mid 1970’s, at a Bill Glass Crusade in
that occasion still is in my memory and if you or I will faithfully witness for our
God, through the Holy Spirit’s help, others too will come to know and remember
the
goodness of our God! - CY – 2012) How can he hold me up, or give me
the blessings of which his hands
are full, if mine hang listless by my side,
or are resolutely clenched
behind my back? Faith is the opening of the heart
for the inflow of
His gifts. How can the sunshine enter the house if
doors
are
barred and windows shuttered? Faith is but the channel through which
His grace pours. How can it enter if
there be no channel? Faith is the sole
condition. Let us learn, then, how
much and HOW LITTLE IT TAKES TO
PUT US IN POSSESSION OF THE
PRECIOUSNESS OF JESUS CHRIST!
How much? Nothing less
than the surrender of our hearts to Him in entire
self-distrust and
abasement, and in absolute reliance on His
all-sufficiency
for our every need.
7 “Unto
you therefore which believe He is precious:” - rather,
unto
you therefore which believe is the honor. The apostle applies the last
clause of the prophecy to his readers: they believe, they
are built up by faith
upon the chief Cornerstone; therefore the honor implied in
the words of the
prophet, “He that
believeth on Him shall not be confounded” is theirs.
There may also be in the word τιμή - timae - honor, an echo of the ἔντιμος –
entimos – precious iterally, “held in
honor”) of v. 6; and thus the further
meaning may be implied, “The worth which the stone has it
has for you
who believe.” But the first explanation is nearer to the
Greek -“but unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the
builders disallowed, the
same is made the head of the corner,” - rather, as in the Revised Version,
for such as disbelieve.
Peter repeats the words of the hundred and eighteenth
psalm, quoted by our Lord in Matthew 21:42, and by himself in
Acts 4:11. The
builders, the priests and teachers of the Jewish Church, rejected the living Stone;
but it became,
and indeed through that rejection, THE HEAD OF THE
CORNER. “He became obedient unto death ...
therefore God also highly
exalted him” (Philippians 2:8-9). If this psalm is post-Exilic, as most modern
critics think, the cornerstone, in its first
application, may be
whole. The great builders, the rulers of Assyria,
stone; but it was chosen of God, and now it was set in
building of the second temple may have recalled to the
mind of the psalmist Isaiah’s
prophecy of the Chief
Cornerstone.
an appeal to the prophets: “It is contained in the Scriptures”
(v.6),
he says.
Search the Scriptures; they testify of Christ (John 5:39); we shall
find treasures there, if only we search. The evangelical prophet testified
of Christ long before He came in
the flesh; he spoke of Him as the chief
Cornerstone; he speaks in the Name of God, “Thus saith the
Lord God,
Behold I lay in
Cornerstone, a sure Foundation.” God the Father is the Master-builder;
it was He who ]aid the Cornerstone: “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous
in our eyes” (Psalm
118:23). It is laid in
Foundation, the Rock on which it is built, which gives it strength and solidity;
its chief Corner-stone, which gives it unity, without which it would fall to pieces.
And that
chief Cornerstone is elect, chosen of God from all eternity,
chosen in the
eternal purpose of God the Father to be the Foundation
of the Church. And it is precious exceedingly, held in high honor of God,
worthy of His love, for it is faultless in
beauty and in strength — a polished
Cornerstone without flaw and without
blemish. He
that resteth on that
Cornerstone, built up in faith upon it, shall not be put to shame.
God hath laid
this precious Stone in
weary souls may rest
upon it and he that so resteth need not make haste;
he need not run hither and thither
for help, for his soul is established, his mind
is stayed upon God. Nothing
can shake him from that sure Foundation, while
he rests on it in faith, “neither death, nor life… nor things
present, nor
things to come,… shall be able to separate us from the love of
God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
“Such honor have
all his saints.” This honor is for
them that believe; they have the honor, high
above all other honor, Of indissoluble union with Christ; they rest on Him, they
are His and HE IS THEIRS! “My beloved is mine, and I am his”
(Song of Solomon 2:16). They know the exceeding
preciousness of that
living Stone, for they feel its strong support beneath them; its preciousness
is for them; for their sakes,
for their salvation, God laid that elect, that
precious
Stone in
to that precious Cornerstone.
Version); for unbelief itself is THE GRAND
DISOBEDIENCE!
“This is the work
of God, that ye believe on him whom He hath sent”
(John 6:29). Unbelief lies at
the root of all disobedience; all disobedience
flows from it; he cannot be
disobedient who realizes by faith the power, the
love, the presence, of God. The
builders were disobedient; the priests and
scribes disallowed the stones
which God had chosen. So, alas! now too often
the great men of the world, the
builders of its policy, “leave out Christ in
their building;” (within the last 24 hours, the Democratic Party had left
out God from their platform at
the 2012 convention and had to pull some
strings to get the word back
in! - CY – 2012) and not only they, but
sometimes
“the pretended builders of the
Christ, and serve their turn
with that, yet reject Himself, and oppose the
power of His spiritual kingdom.
There may be wit and learning, and much
knowledge of the Scriptures
amongst those that are haters of the Lord
Christ and of the power of
godliness, and corrupters of the worship of
God. It is the spirit of
humility and obedience and saving faith that teaches
men to esteem Christ, and to
build upon him. But the unbelief and
disobedience of men
cannot turn aside the purpose of God; (one
of my favorite scriptures is “If
we believe not, yet He abideth
faithful: He cannot deny Himself” (II
Timothy 2:13). The
living
Stone that was once disallowed
is become the Head of the corner. He is
exalted high above all the power
of the enemy. “The kings of the earth may
set themselves,
and the rulers may take counsel together against the
Lord, and against
His Anointed.… But He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh,… He shall speak unto them in His
wrath,… Yet have I
set my King upon
my holy hill of Zion” (Psalm
2:2-6). He is the Head
of the corner now, “Head over all things to His Church” (Ephesians 1:22).
“He must reign
till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (I Corinthians
15:25), then shall the King sit
upon the throne of His glory, and they who
have rejected Him shall to their
confusion see him raised “far above all
principality,
and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that
is named, not only in this world, but ALSO IN THAT WHICH IS TO
COME!” (Ephesians
1:21) But He is to
the disobedient not only the Head
of the corner to
their confusion, but also A STONE OF STUMBLING
AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE TO THEIR DESTRUCTION! It is
no light thing to reject the Son
of God, to set the cross at naught, to
despise the love of Him who died
upon the cross for us (Hebrews 10:29).
Such sinners against their own
souls must fall. He tasted death for every man;
and to every man the death of
the Son of God is full of momentous results —
everlasting life to
the believer, but to the willful and impenitent
sinner
what can it be
save UTTER DEATH? The living Stone is
the Foundation,
the Head of the corner; “this is the
Lord’s doing,” and who can stand against
the Lord? The Stone becomes a
Stumbling-block to the disobedient; they fall
upon it.
One day it must fall on them, as in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar
it fell
on the great image which
represented all the empires of the world.
“Whosoever shall
fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it
will grind him to powder” (Matthew
21:44). For THIS
IS
THE LORD’S
APPOINTMENT! That Stone must become a great mountain
and fill the whole earth; and resistance to
the decree of the Most High can only
end in ruin and destruction;
The Grim Alternative (v. 7)
If
the condition of possession of salvation be as the apostle declares it, then the
absence of the condition means non-possession of salvation. The freeness
and. simplicity of the gospel of salvation by faith has necessarily a dark under side,
and the more clearly and joyfully the one is preached the more clearly and solemnly
should the other be. Therefore Peter’s message would not be complete without the
awful “but” which follows. Christ is something to every man to whom He is preached,
and does something to him. Mark how
significantly the following clause varies
the statement of the condition, substituting “disobedient” as the antithesis
of “believing,”
thereby teaching us that unbelief is
disobedience, being an
act of the rebel will, and that disobedience is unbelief. But observe, too,
that while faith is the condition of all reception of Christ’s blessings,
unbelief
does not so isolate from Him as that He is nothing to
the man.
Unbelief, like some malignant cancer, perverts all Christ’s preciousness to
harm and loss, as some plants elaborate poison in their tissues from
sunshine and sweet dews. One thing or other that great Savior must be to
us all. We cannot stand wholly unaffected by him. We cannot make
ourselves as if we had never heard of Him. There is a solemn alternative
offered
to each of us — “either…
or.” Either life is being received
or
life is being rejected – OUR DEATH! There will come to us from Him
either
the gracious influences which save, or the terrible ones which
destroy. He is either the merciful Fire which cleanses and transforms,
or the awful Fire which consumes. Faith builds on Him as the Foundation,
AND IS SECURE! Unbelief pulls down that Rock of offence on
its own
head, AND IS GROUND TO POWDER BY THE FALL! (Matthew 21:44)
8 “And a
stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,” -
Peter combines Isaiah
8:14 with his first quotations, as Paul also does (Romans
9:33), both apostles quoting
from the Hebrew, not from the Septuagint, which is quite
different, inserting two
negatives. The living Stone
is not only made the Head of the corner
to the
confusion of the
disobedient, but becomes also to their
destruction a Stone
of stumbling; they fall on that Stone, and are broken (Matthew 21:44). That Stone
is a Rock (πέτρα), THE ROCK OF AGES,
the Rock on which the Church is
built; but to the disobedient it is A
ROCK OF OFFENSE (πέτρα σκανδάλου –
skandalaethron - is properly the catch or spring of a trap, which
makes animals fall
into the trap; then a stumbling-block) — anything
which causes men to fall. We
cannot fail to notice how Peter echoes the well-remembered
words of our Lord,
recorded in Matthew 16:18, 23. Peter was himself then a πέτρα σκανδάλου –
a rock of offense
- “even to themwhich stumble at the word, being disobedient:” –
literally, who being disobedient stumble at the Word — the relative referring back
to “them which be disobedient” in v. 7. This seems better than to take τῷ λόγῳ -
to logo – the
Word - with ἀπειθοῦντες – apeithountes – ones
being disobedient;
ones
being stubborn; -“who stumble, being disobedient to the Word.” Ἀπειθοῦντες,
literally,“unbelieving,” contains
here, as frequently, the idea of disobedience,
WILLFUL OPPOSITION. Peter seems to come very
near to John’s use of Λόγος –
Logos – Word - for the personal Word, the
Lord Jesus Christ -
“whereunto also
they were appointed.” “Whereunto” (εἰς ὄ - eis o) cannot refer back
to v. 5; God
had appointed them to be built up in His spiritual house, BUT THEY
WERE DISOBEDIENT! It
must refer either to ἀπειθοῦντες — sin is punished
by sin; for sin in God’s awful judgment hardens the
heart; the disobedient
are in danger of ETERNAL SIN (Mark 3:29, according to the two oldest
manuscripts) — or, more probably, to προσκόπουσιν – proskopousin –
are stumbling – IT IS GOD’S ORDINANCE THAT DISOBEDIENCE
SHOULD END IN STUMBLING, SHOULD,
but that stumbling
does not necessarily imply condemnation (see Romans 11:11).
The
word, the preaching of Christ crucified, was to the Jews a
stumbling-block
(I Corinthians 1:23). But not all stumbled that they might
fall. Nevertheless,
PERSEVERANCE IN DISOBEDIENCE MUST END IN
EVERLASTING DEATH!
9 “But ye
are a chosen generation,” - The pronoun “ye” is emphatic. Peter is
drawing a contrast between the disobedient and unbelieving
Jews and Christian
people whether Jews or Gentiles; he ascribes to Christians,
in a series of phrases
quoted from the Old Testament, the various privileges which
had belonged to the
children of
generation), are from Isaiah 43:20, Γένος μου τὸ ἐκλεκτόν – Genos mou to
eklekton – to my
people, my chosen. . The
Cornerstone is elect, precious;
the living stones
built thereupon are elect likewise. The
whole
Christian Church is addressed as an elect race, one race,
because all its
members are BEGOTTEN
AGAIN BY THE ONE FATHER - “a royal
priesthood,” – Instead
of “holy,” as in v. 5, Peter has here the epithet “royal.”
He follows the Septuagint Version of Exodus 19:6; the
Hebrew has “a
kingdom of priests.” The word “royal” may mean
that God’s elect shall sit
with Christ in His throne, and reign with Him (Revelation
3:21; 5:10),
and that in some sense they reign with Him now over their
lower nature,
their desires and appetites; or, more probably, the
priesthood of Christians
is called “royal” because it belongs to the King — “a priesthood
serving
Jehovah the King, just
as we speak of ‘the royal
household. - “ an holy
nation,” - Also
from Exodus 19:6. The Israelites were a holy nation as separated
from the heathen and consecrated to God’s service by
circumcision. Christians
of all nations, and kindreds, and
people, and tongues, are one nation under
ONE KING, separated
to His service,
dedicated to Him in holy baptism -
“a peculiar people;” - The Greek words. λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν –
peripoiaesin – a
people for His own possession; represent the words, עַם סְגֻלָּה,
of Deuteronomy 7:6, translated by the Septuagint. λαὸν περιούσιον – laon periousion –
a special people - (Authorized Version).
Paul also has this translation in Titus
2:14.
The Hebrew word סְגֻלָּה
in Malachi 3:17 is rendered by the Septuagint, εἰς
περιποίησιν – eis peripoiaesin
- my
jewels - Authorized Version. The children
of
possession of God. God says
of them, in Isaiah 43:21, “This people have I
formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise;” rendered by the Septuagint.
Λαόν μου
ο}ν περιεποιησάμην
τὰς ἀρετάς
μου διηγεῖσθαι – Laon mou on
periepoiaesamaen tas aretas
mou diaegeisthai – My
people have I preserved
to
tell of my righteous acts.God hath now
chosen us Christians to be the
Israel of God; the Christian Church is his peculium, His treasure, “a people
for God’s own
possession” (Revised Version). The literal
meaning of the
Greek words used by Peter is “a
people for acquisition,” or “for
keeping safe,” the verb having the sense of “gaining, acquiring,” and also
that of “preserving,
keeping for one’s self” (compare I Thessalonians 5:9;
also Acts 20:28, “The
– haen periepoinaesato – which
He procures; which He hath purchased ) with
His own blood”) -
“that ye should shew forth the praises of Him” - That ye
should tell out, publish abroad. The verb is found nowhere else
in the New Testament.
The word translated “praises” (ἀρετάς – aretas - literally, virtues),
so very common
in classical writers, occurs in the New Testament only here, II Peter 1:3, 5, and
Philippians 4:8.
Here Peter is quoting from the Septuagint Version of Isaiah 43:21
(the word is similarly used in Isaiah 42:12 and 63:7).
Perhaps the best rendering is
that of the Revised Version, “excellencies”
- “who hath called
you out of
darkness into His marvelous light;” He had chosen them
before the foundation
of the world; He called them when they received the gospel:
“Whom he did
predestinate, them he also called” (Romans 8:30). He
called them out of the
darkness of ignorance and sin. The Gentiles walked in utter
darkness, in less
measure the Jews also. The
light of His presence is marvelous, wonderful;
those who walk in that light feel something of its
irradiating glory.
The benefit that a man receives when he allows Jesus Christ into his heart, is that
he is made a king! The true Christian has a royal heart; he reigns with Christ the
King over the passions, affections, and desires of his lower nature. High and holy
dignities are his! The estate of the Christian is very lofty; they are the children of
the Most High, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ! (Romans 8:17) They
should maintain a greatness of mind, a holiness of life suitable to their exalted station;
they “should show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of
darkness into His marvelous light.” Christians never cease to wonder at the glory
and blessedness of that light which in times of near communion with God streams into
their hearts. If they walk in that light, it must kindle a holy flame in their own souls; they
must become a light also (“Ye are the light of the world,” the Savior said to His
chosen
– Matthew 5:14); they must let their light
shine before men, that men
may see their good
works, and glorify their Father which is in heaven.
(Ibid. v. 16)
The remarkable word rendered “praise” in the Authorized Version makes
the quotation from Isaiah unmistakable, as it is found in the Septuagint
rendering of the verse, from which the apostle is quoting. It literally means
“virtues,” or, if that word is felt to be inappropriate to the Divine nature,
the translation of the Revised Version, “excellencies,” may be adopted. In
either
case the meaning is that the great end of the Church’s existence is to
manifest the glories of the Divine character, and so to praise Him. We
praise
God best when we set forth what He is. For this end
creation came
into being, that it might be a mirror of God, and eyes were made that in the
mirror
they might behold Him and rejoice in the vision.
We have received Christ
that we may impart Christ. “God hath shined in our hearts, that we
might
give to others the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6). Every creature has this for its highest
end,
to glorify God, because
that was God’s end in its creation. Of creatures
man
is the highest revelation
of the Divine character; and among men, man redeemed
is the highest.
Thus we may and should become means of making God visible and lovely to dim
eyes which could not bear to look on His brightness except as reflected in the
mirror of our characters. All the beauty of self-sacrifice which has ever irradiated
a saint, all the heroism of the martyr, all the wisdom and eloquence of the teachers,
all the prudence of the leaders, all the charity and benevolence, are but the reflex
of His excellences. All these, which gleam so brightly in the dark world, are but
diamond
dust, microscopic fragments, as it were, from the
solid rock of His
infinite perfection.
We should proclaim God’s
excellences by direct works, as occasion
serves. Every Christian is bound both to witness for God by a life made fair
by communion with Him, and by speech, when ‘speech may be used. It is
not enough to show forth His Name in our lives, for sometimes life needs a
commentary, and a Christian will often have to avow the principles which
guide his actions, in plain words, if the actions are to be intelligible or he to
be faithful. Common honesty requires it. Loyalty to our Lord requires it.
Ordinary
humanity requires it. God has
entrusted all Christian men with the
treasure of His love in Christ, not that they may
themselves be enriched
only, but also that by them it may be ministered to others; and the dumb
Christian who has never opened his mouth to press the gospel on others
incurs
a worse “curse” than that which falls
on him who “withholdeth
bread” from starving lips. (Proverbs 11:26)
10 “Which
in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God:”
Peter quotes the prophecy of Hosea 2:23, as Paul also does
in Romans 9:25-26.
And as Paul applies the prophet’s words (said originally of the
Jews) to the Christian
Church, to those called “not of
the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles,” so
apparently does Peter here. They were not a people; it is the calling of God which
gives a unity to the Church gathered out of all races and
all lands, and makes
it the people of God - “which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained
mercy.”
The aorist participle, ἐλεηθέντες– eleaethentes - have
obtained mercy;
being shown mercy - implies that that mercy had been obtained at a definite time,
at their conversion.
11 “Dearly
beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,” - Peter returns
to practical topics: he begins his exhortation in the
affectionate manner common in
Holy Scripture. He calls his readers “strangers and pilgrims.”
The word here
Rendered “strangers” (πάροικοι – paroikoi - sojourners) is equivalent to the
classical μέτοικοι – metoikoi - foreign settlers,
dwellers in a strange land.
The second word (παρεοίδημοι – pareoidaemoi - translated
“strangers” in 1 Peter 1:1) means “visitors” who tarry for
a time in a foreign
country, not permanently settling in it. It does not
contain the ideas
associated with the modern use of “pilgrim;” though
that word, derived
from the Latin peregrinus, originally
meant no more than “sojourner.”
Peter is plainly using the words metaphorically - his
readers were citizens of
the heavenly country; on earth they were sojourners. Both
words occur in
the Septuagint Version of Psalm 39:12 with the same
metaphorical meaning –
“abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against the soul;”
Strangers and
pilgrims should remember their distant home, and not follow
the practices of the
strange land in which they sojourn. The lusts of the flesh
are all those desires
which issue out of our corrupt nature (compare Galatians
5:16-21). They
“war against
the soul” (compare Romans 7:23). Peter uses the word “soul”
here for the whole spiritual nature of man, as in ch.1:9,
22.
The
influence these disorderly passions is hostile to our own inward life! “Which
war against the soul;” war against all the garrison and inmates of the soul —
against
reason, defying
and dishonoring it; against memory, burdening and crushing it;
against hope, darkening it and turning it into terror; against imagination, polluting and
degrading it; against conscience, cutting and maiming, though they cannot kill it; against
the
affections, ravaging and spoiling them; in a word, against
“the
soul.”
12 “Having
your conversation honest among the Gentiles:” – If
we read
ἀπέχεσθαι – apechesthai – abstain - in ver. 11 (some ancient manuscripts have
ἀπέχεσθε), there is a slight irregularity in the
construction, as the participle ἔνοντες –
echontes – having
- is nominative; it gives more force and vividness to the
sentence (compare in the Greek, Ephesians 4:2; Colossians
3:16). The conversation
(ἀναστροφή - anastrophae – conversation;
mode of life or behavior) of the
unconverted is described as “vain” in ch.1:18; the
conversation of Christians must
be seemly (καλή - kalae - ideal), exhibiting the beauty of holiness. The Churches
to which Peter wrote were in Gentile countries; they must
be careful, for the honor of
their religion, to set a good
example among the heathen — a warning,
alas! too
often neglected in modern as well as in ancient times - “that, whereas they speak
against you as evildoers,” - literally, wherein,
in the matter in which they speak,
i.e. in
reference to manner of life. Christians
were commonly accused of “turning
the world upside
down;” of doing “contrary to the
decrees of Caesar,” as at
Thessalonica (Acts 17:6-7); of being atheists and
blasphemers of the popular idolatry,
as at
behold, glorify God in the day of
visitation.”
The word rendered, “which they
shall behold” (ἐποπτεύσαντες – epopteusantes) or,
according to some of the
older manuscripts, ἐποπτεύοντες – epopteuontes
- beholding), occurs only here
and in ch.3:2. It implies
close attention; the Gentiles
watched the conduct of the
Christians, narrowly scrutinizing it to discover faults and
inconsistencies. The use of
the corresponding substantive, ἐπόπτης - epoptaes – eye
witnesses; spectators – in
II Peter 1:16 is a coincidence to be noticed. Peter hopes that this
close observation
of the lives of Christian people would lead the Gentiles TO GLORIFY GOD!
He was thinking, perhaps, of our Lord’s words in the Sermon
on the Mount: “Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good
works, and glorify your
Father which is in
heaven’ (Matthew 5:16). Perhaps in the following clause also
we may trace an echo of the Savior’s words in Luke 19:44, “Because thou
knewest
not the time of thy visitation” (ἐπισκοπῆς – episkopaes - visitation).
Peter hopes
that the holy lives of Christians may be made the means of saving many Gentile
souls
in the time of visitation; that is, when
God should visit the heathen with His
converting grace, seeking
to draw them to Himself, whether by gracious
chastisement or by the preaching of His servants. This
seems more natural
than to understand the words of God’s visitation of the
Christians in the
persecutions which were impending; though it is true that
many Gentiles
were won to Christ by the calm and holy bearing of
suffering Christians.
The Demand for a Life Becoming the
Christian Name (vs. 11-12)
The doctrinal part of the Epistle is now followed by a
series of practical exhortations
on the working out of the redemption of which it has
spoken. And the apostle here
begins these as close as can be to the man’s own self; he
has to speak abort right
citizenship, and neighborliness, etc.; but before he comes
to these he
starts with
the man’s own self. “Fleshly
lusts;” not to be understood of desires for
physical
gratification only. “Fleshly”
is, in Scripture, the opposite of “spiritual.” “Works
of the flesh” are the antithesis of “works of the Spirit.” “Now the works of
the
flesh are manifest,
which are these; Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness,
lasciviousness” - the
list includes “idolatry,
hatred, wrath, strife, envyings” —
not physical qualities at all. So the expression refers to
all desires that are
wrong. (See Galatians 5:19-21). (Remember the teaching of Romans 8:6 –
“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace.” – CY – 2012) “Having your conversation honest” —
“Having your behavior seemly” (Revised Version). “The day of
visitation.”
Any crisis in which God draws near to a man with a view to
his redemption,
and which results in grace or judgment — the apostle thinks
here of that. So
the idea of the paragraph is, “You Christians, so regulate your desires
that
your life will be becoming, and thus the heathen around you, prejudiced
against Christ,
will be prepared to receive the gospel when it is
urged upon
them.”
This is a timely subject when the Church wonders at the little power of
the gospel, and seeks new means to “evangelize the masses.”
Gospel-preaching
must be supported by gospel-living. Next to the inborn ungodliness of the
natural heart, the great hindrance to Christ’s kingdom is
the Church’s own
ungodliness.
CHURCH. There is a
certain behavior which becomes God’s people, if
only because they are closely
observed by the ungodly; the world has a
standard of
character it expects the Church to reach. We may discourage
ourselves by overestimating that
standard (probably they do not look for
perfection), but we must beware
lest we underrate it. What is this
character? (Let us remember that
it is character; that they care nothing for
creed, nor for habits of
devotion, nor for our statements as to religious
experience, but demand a certain
life from the people of God, and watch
for it as with an eagle’s glance.)
Ø
It must be an exemplification of righteousness. Straightforward,
aboveboard, strictly
upright action, come what may — nothing less
becomes the children of the
Holy One. Social and commercial morality
are not enough. Christian morality, which the world has a
right to
expect in us, is action
from right principle at any cost.
Ø
It must be an exhibition of peace. The Christian says, “God
loves
And cares for me; He is
my Father; for me He laid down His life; to
me He has given all blessing
in His Son; and I trust Him.” Then the
world looks in him for that rest of soul
which writes itself on
the face, silences impatient utterance, and restrains the hasty deed.
Nothing less becomes such profession.
Ø
It must be animated by kind consideration for others. Even
righteousness will not satisfy the world; there must be
also love.
Less cannot become those
who have His Spirit of whom it is said,
“And GOD IS
LOVE!” On the top of the pillars of
uprightness
there must be the lily work of love; yea,
those pillars, hard and cold,
must be wreathed from base
to capital
with love’s sweet flowers
and fruit, or onlookers will
refuse to believe they are pillars
of
God’s temple.
suggested here.
Ø
The Christian is essentially different from the world. “Strangers
[in another place
translated ‘foreigners’] and pilgrims.” “Ye are not
of the world” (John 15:19); “Ye
are come to the heavenly
of another King, passing
through this world to that to which the
Heaven-born nature
aspires. We are more than
others (we are
born again); we have more than others (the all-sufficient grace
of the Holy
Spirit); we owe more than others
(redeemed with the
precious blood of
Christ); THEN
WE OUGHT TO BE MORE
THAN OTHERS!
Ø
The world regards the Christian with some prejudice. “They
speak against you as evil-doers.’ The history of the period confirms
that; Christian writings of the second century constantly refute false
charges of the immorality of Christianity. (Is it not characteristic
of the secularist media today to do the same? – CY –
2012) These
false
charges are likely to be
perpetual; for “if they
have called the Master
of the house
Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them
of His household?” (Matthew
10:25) -
then so much the more reason
for becoming conduct on our
part. We cannot
reason, but we can live
down, this prejudice. Each
line of life is credited with certain evils;
by
living above those evils the Christian must roll this prejudice
against
Christianity away.
Ø
The influence of Christian character on the world is
incalculable.
“By your good works which they shall behold, they may
glorify God
in the day of
visitation.” An unspeakably solemn word.
It implies that,
when they are visited by God’s mercy, their
acceptance of that mercy
depends largely on the previous influence of the lives of
God’s people.
Before Lazarus could come forth from his grave at Christ’s
word, men
must roll away the stone. So the stone of prejudice against
Christ. By
unbecoming conduct
we may harden men in sin and unbelief;
by becoming
conduct we may prepare the way of the Lord.
“But sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready to
give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that is in you with meekness and
fear: Having a good
conscience;
that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers,
they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your
good
conversation in Christ.” (ch.
3:15-16).
fleshly lusts,
which war against the soul.”
Ø
Becoming character begins with the heart. “Out of the heart
are the issues of
life” (Proverbs 4:23). Only that can come from us
which is first put in us.
Christian lives
are not produced by laying aside
this blemish or taking up
that excellence,
but by prolonged and secret
heart-work. “As a man’s heart is, so is he.” (Ibid. 23:7)
Ø This
heart-work requires ABSTINENCE from
whatever wars
against the soul!. Not necessarily bad things, but anything that
militates against spiritual life. Every wish must be
crucified which may
be a hindrance to me or to others - “bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (II Corinthians 10:5)
Ø This
abstinence comes from a remembrance of our obligation
to God. Some
trees only lose their leaves when new ones come
and push them off; thus only by the incoming
of new desires and
affections do we
lose the old ones. The eleventh verse follows
the ninth and tenth verses.
Abstinence from evil
desires follows as
a matter of course A REMEMBRANCE OF WHAT GOD HAS
DONE FOR US and an appropriation
of the sublime blessings it
gives.
13 “Submit
yourselves to every ordinance of man” - The aorist passive
(ὑποτάγητε – hupotagaete – submit yourselves) is used, as often, in a middle
sense. The word for “ordinance”
is κτίσις – ktisis - which in classical Greek
means “foundation,” as of a city; but in the New Testament
is used elsewhere only
of the works of God, in the sense of “creation,” or “a creature” (see Mark 16:15;
Colossians 1:23.). ἀνθρωπίνη κτίσις – anthropinae ktisis – ordinance of
Man - is a strange
and awkward periphrasis for ἄνθρωπος – anthropos – man.
It is better to understand it as meaning a human creation or
foundation. Certainly
“there is no power but of God” (Romans 13:1); but the form which that power
assumes is a human institution. Peter bids his readers to
submit themselves to the de
facto form of
government -“for the Lord’s
sake:” - Not from human motives,
as fear of punishment; but
for the Lord’s sake, because “the powers that be
are ordained of God,” and in obeying them we obey the ordinance of God.
Christians were commonly accused of insubordination, of
doing “contrary
to the decrees of
Caesar” (Acts 17:7); they must show by
their conduct
that these accusations are false, that the progress of the
gospel be not hindered -
“whether it be to the king, as supreme;” - By “the king” is
meant
the Roman emperor, who was frequently so described in the
Greek writers.
Nero was emperor when Peter wrote. Christians were to obey
even
him, wicked tyrant as he was; for his power was given him
from above, as
the Lord himself had said of Pilate (John 19:11).
14 “Or
unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him” - literally,
through Him. Some
commentators, following Calvin, understand the pronoun
of the Lord. Certainly, governors are sent through Him; He “ordereth all
things,
both in heaven and earth.” (Colossians 1:16).
But it seems more natural
in this place to refer the pronoun to the nearer
substantive, the king; it was
through the Roman emperor that the various governors,
legates, etc., were
sent from time to time (as the Greek present participle
implies) to
administer the provinces. -“for the punishment of evildoers, and for
the praise of them that do well.” Observe the
close resemblance to
Romans 13:3-4. Peter recognizes the Roman sense of justice
which
we see in men like Festus and Gallio.
At first the Jews were the persecutors
of the Christians; the Roman magistrates were their
protectors. Peter
wrote before the great outbreaks of Roman persecution; he was himself to
suffer under that emperor whose authority he upheld.
15 “For so
is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence
the ignorance of foolish men:” The
Gentiles speak against the Christians as
evil-doers; they are to put their accusers to silence by well-doing; (We
should live in a way that, if someone was to slander us, no one would believe it –
CY –
2012) - this is to be their answer rather than indignant self-vindication
(which
is so tempting – CY – 2012). The Greek word rendered “put to silence”
(φιμοῦν – phimoun) means
literally “to muzzle” (compare Matthew 22:12;
Mark 4:39; I Corinthians 9:9).
The word for “ignorance” (ἀγνωσία – agnosia)
occurs, besides this passage, only in I Corinthians 15:34, where it evidently means
“culpable, self-caused ignorance.” The word for “foolish” (ἄφρων – aphron)
is a strong one — it means “senseless” (compare Ibid. v.36). Here it has the article,
“the foolish men,”
i.e. those “who speak
against you as evil-doers.”
The Christian Citizen (vs. 13-15)
Ø
Regarded in itself, it
is a human institution, but it is nevertheless
ordained by God. In this
respect it is in the same case as the family. To
believe in a Divine Ruler
and a divinely appointed order, is to accept the
state and its ordinances as appointed by the wisdom of God Himself.
Ø
The Christian
recognizes the Divine principle of government as
personified in civil
rulers. These are supreme-as kings; or persons
commissioned, and
exercising delegated power, as governors.
Ø
The Christian perceives
the necessity of those functions which rulers are
bound to discharge. There is no government worthy of the name
which does not
punish evil-doers, and protect, favor, and
praise
those who do
well.
Ø Generally speaking, that duty is submission, loyalty,
and cheerful
obedience. When laws are promulgated, the
Christian respects and
observes them;
when taxes are levied, the Christian pays them;
when service is required, the Christian
renders it.
Ø
He acknowledges that
this course of conduct is supported alike by the
example and by
the teaching of Christ.
Ø
Yet this obedience is
within certain limits, and is subject to certain
reservations. No man is under obligation to obey an ordinance of the civil
power which is contradictory
to the express and unmistakable law of God.
And when the ruler himself
is disloyal, and violates the constitution to
which ruler and subject
alike are subject, there are cases in which even
resistance is allowable, if
not binding.
GOVERNMENT. He does
not act simply in his own interest, to avoid
penalties, to secure place.
Ø
He obeys for the Lord’s sake, i.e.
with a Christian aim before him.
Ø
He obeys because such
is the will of God Himself.
Ø
He obeys in order to
remove hindrances from the way of the progress of
Christianity among men.
Scandals are avoided, prejudices are overcome,
good will is conciliated;
and the path is made clear for the progress of the
gospel. Loyalty to the
state and to the sovereign is loyalty to Christ, to God!
16 “As
free,” - This verse is not to be taken with what
follows, for it
does not well cohere with the contents of v. 17; but either
with v. 14
(v. 15 being regarded as parenthetical) or with v. 15,
notwithstanding
the change of case in the original, which presents no real
difficulty; the
meaning being that Christian
freedom must show itself, not in license, but
in willing obedience to constituted authorities: “Not only for wrath, but for
conscience’
sake” (Romans 13:5). Those whom the truth
makes free are free
indeed, but true freedom implies submission to legitimate
authority - “and not
using your liberty for a cloak of
maliciousness,” - literally, not having your
liberty as a cloak. The word rendered “cloak”
(ἐπικάλυμμα – epikalumma)
is used in the Septuagint (Exodus 26:14) for the covering of the tabernacle. The
pretence of
Christian liberty must not be made a
covering, a concealment,
of wickedness - “but as the servants of God.” The
truest liberty is that of the
servants of God; His
service is perfect freedom (compare
Romans 6:16-23).
The Scriptures everywhere represent the service of sin as serfdom, not as
honorable and worthy of such a being as man. And experience shows that
this view is just, that the servant of sin is the slave of sin. It is possible for
men to be Christian in name and to be in bondage to things from which they
ought to be free. Often men exercise freedom in things to which they ought
to show RESTRAINT! Now, from this bondage Christ liberates His people.
Sin
has not dominion over them. True service and true liberty are united in the
life of Christ alone! No created power could effect this great enfranchisement;
it is the work of the Divine Savior clothed with the omnipotence of Heaven.
17 “Honor
all men.” - Peter illustrates the well-doing
which he
enjoins in v. 15, drawing out his general exhortation into
four rules of
conduct. First, he bids
us give honor to all men. The
Christians of
Minor saw heathenism and vice all around them; they heard
of the
abominable life of Nero and his courtiers at
a great and elevating change which had passed over
themselves; Peter
has just been enumerating the dignities and privileges of
the Christian life.
But they must not be lifted up; they
must despise no one, but honor in all
men the handiwork of God, created after God’s own image, THOUGH
SADLY MARRED AND DEFACED BY SIN! Respect is due to all men,
of course in varying degrees and to be shown in different
ways; but in some sense
it is due to all, to the humblest and even to the worst.
The aorist imperative
(τιμήσατε – timaesate – honor ye)
seems to lay down this principle as a sharp,
definite rule, to be accepted at once, and to be applied
as need arises,
according to the circumstances of each case. The three following imperatives
are present; the duties which they prescribe are viewed as continuous,
recognized
elements in well-doing. There was something new and strange
in the command to
honor all men; it is expressed forcibly, once for all, by
the aorist imperative.
“Love the brotherhood.” - The word ἀδελφότης – adelphotata -
brotherhood, is peculiar to Peter; it stands for the aggregate of Christian
brethren regarded as one body in Christ. The Lord bids us “love our
enemies” (Matthew 5:44).
Peter’s rule does not weaken the force of the
Savior’s precept. But love must vary in depth and degree according
to the
varying relations of life; and the love which true Christians feel
for the like-minded
must be one of its strongest forms. “Fear God. Honor the king.” The holy
fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. (Psalm
111:10). The fear of God as the
King of kings will lead us to give due honor to earthly
princes, who rule by His
controlling providence. It was especially necessary to urge
the fear of God
as a motive, when the king to be honored was such as Nero.
The Christian’s Duty to the State (vs.
13-17)
We might regard vs.11-12 as the text of which the rest of
the Epistle is the sermon.
The apostle first writes at length on their possession of personal redemption, and
then says, “Now for the
life that becomes it.” And he begins with that citizenship
which becomes the Christian. Very striking is it
that the heavenly and the earthly
citizenship should be brought here into such close connection; it is when the apostle
has the highest conception of our relation to the spiritual kingdom (as in
vs. 9-10.)
that he proceeds to speak of the lofty position we are to take
as citizens of earth.
Probably there was special reason for emphasis on this; he
was writing
to Jews,
who had rather lax ideas of their obligations to human institutions in
the Gentile world,
and were charged by the empire with being “bad
subjects;” that, for example, was the
ostensible reason for the persecution by Nero. The subject is timely. Christians are
often in doubt as to the part they should take in public affairs. Here we have Divine
teaching respecting this.
every human institution… whether it be to the king, as
supreme; or unto
governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the
punishment of evildoers,
and for the praise of them that do well “ — that includes all human institutions
for the well-being of the nation
at large, whether in the wider circle of imperial,
or the narrower circle of local,
matters, and, says the apostle, “Submit
yourselves
to that.”
Ø What is the
submission which the Christian owes to the state?
The only submission
possible to those to whom Peter wrote was that of
tribute and obedience;
under the despotic policy of the empire they could
do no more; they had no power
to ameliorate the laws nor to choose their
rulers. With us it is not
so. If we only pay the taxes and obey the
authorities, we do not
submit ourselves. “Submit
yourselves unto God”
means “give yourselves.” So
read the word “submit” here. The Christian is
bound to give not only his
substance and doings to these, but himself. As
Christians, nothing ought
to be alien to us which concerns the world our
Lord loved and died for.
Ø
What are the limits of this submission? We must read this
with the
limitation everywhere
implied. “Fearing God” comes before “honoring
the king.” Peter was
himself an illustration of that, when he told the rulers
“We must obey God
rather than man” (Acts 5:29). But the text refers
to submission of ourselves; we must do that as far as we
are to do all else
that is right — that is, as far as our opportunities
and talents permit.
claims, natural aptitude, etc., these show us where and
how far we may
go. God’s barriers are always plain to him who fears God.
Ø
What, then, is the objection to this submission? We are told that
Christians are citizens of
another world, and should have no part in this.
But it is mean to get all
the good out of the world we can, and refuse
to do it all the good we
can. We are told that Christ lived in the midst
of political corruption,
and did not raise His voice against it. But He
was ever propagating those
principles which undermine corruption,
and His healing miracles show
that His heart was set on ameliorating
physical woe. We are told
that we should come out of the world,
and be separate (II
Corinthians 6:17). But that cannot mean
that the
Christian — the Christian
physician, say — is to refuse to help the
world. If the world chooses
to help me to do a good work, I know
no command which, because
of their co-operation, bids me
stand aloof.
FULFILLED. What is
wanted is, not so much that Christians should take
these things up, as that they
should do so from sacred conviction, and “as
becomes the
gospel of Christ.”
Ø
This must be done “for
the Lord’s sake.” “The earth is the
Lord’s… the world and they that dwell therein” (Psalm
24:1).
How much does He care
for men, who for them became
incarnate, and
endured the death of the cross! Then
everything that tends to
their development and enfranchisement
is dear to Him.
Ø This must be done that “with well-doing ye may put to silence the
ignorance of foolish men.” If
the world come to regard Christianity
as having to do mostly with
beliefs and emotions, they will look upon it
as unreal and worthless. It
is not by fighting “more or less extinct Satans”
that we secure the world’s
respect for Christ, but by earnestly
grappling, for His sake, with the real evils of the day.
Ø
This must be done
“as
servants of God.” This duty is not without
Peril to personal spiritual
life; it often calls the Christian to associate
with those who have no fear
of God, and work accordingly, and
exposes him to the danger of falling to their level. The political
atmosphere is often
morally deadening Our safety is in
going into
this deliberately as God’s
servants, to do His will, and that at any
cost, wearing heaven’s livery,
and making heavenly influences tell
upon our fellowman.
FULFILLMENT OF THIS DUTY. “As free, and not
using your liberty
For a cloak of evil [kaki>a – kakia - equivalent to ‘evil of any kind’].”
The Christian public man needs anxiously to look
beneath his activity, and
see if any evil thing is concealed and fostered there.
Ø
There is the evil of self-seeking. Of doing this
unconsciously,
not for Christ, but for
personal ends.
Ø
And there is the evil of love of the world. Public life has a
terrible tendency to foster a spirit
of worldliness, and to
counteract this we need
plenty of heart and closet work. There
is no peril in this if we
put “fear of God ‘ before the “honor of
the king” — if, whilst we “render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar’s,” we “render to God the things that are God’s”
(Mark 12:17); if, whilst submitting ourselves “to every human
institution” (v.13),
we maintain the lofty feeling and
character of
“the chosen
generation, the royal priesthood, the people
peculiarly God’s
own.” (v.9).
Honor All Men (v. 17)
The common tendency of mankind is towards rendering honor
to the great, those
possessing political power, those endowed with signal gifts
of body or mind, those
possessed of vast wealth. Much of baseness in human
character, of meanness in
human conduct, may be attributed to this tendency.
Christianity sets itself to oppose
this current of opinion and action, as is most remarkably
proved by this inspired
admonition, “Honor all men.”
Ø
Natural grounds. All men are
creatures of God’s almighty power.
Not only so; all are made in the image of God, however that image has
been defiled and partially
effaced by sin. Hence the capacity for great
things, for a holy and
self-denying life, for fellowship with God.
Ø
Supernatural
grounds. The revelation of God’s love
and pity is for the
benefit of mankind at
large. God is “the Savior of all men, specially of
those that
believe” (I Timothy
4:10). Christ
died for all, and, as the
Son of man, partook the
common nature, lived the common life, died the
death which is the common
lot, that He might “draw
all men unto
Himself” (John 12:32). The provision of
the gospel, the grace of the
Holy Spirit, are for all,
irrespective of nation, of rank, of any
adventitious distinction. How, then, can the Christian do other than
honor those for whom GOD HIMSELF, THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL
HONOR, has done so great
things?
Ø
By a watchful
cherishing of a spirit respectful and considerate, and by
the avoidance of
a contemptuous disposition.
Ø
By a sympathetic demeanor towards fellow-Christians, whatever
Their position in society.
Ø
By efforts for the enlightenment and evangelization of men of every
nation and every
condition in life
Various Exhortations (vs. 11-17)
TO PURITY OF
LIFE.
dignities and privileges of the
Christian life. They who are living
stones in
God’s spiritual temple must remember their close union with Christ, the
chief
Corner-stone; they who belong to the
holy, the royal priesthood must
remember that
“Holiness to the Lord” is the badge
of those who are
consecrated to his service (Exodus 28:36). The living stones in the spiritual
temple are to become pillars in
the heavenly temple (Revelation 3:12), the
priests in that spiritual temple
are to be priests of God and of His Christ in
the glory of the Resurrection
(Ibid. ch.20:6). They must remember their
high destiny. Here they are sojourners and
strangers; they must not follow
the example of those
among whom their lot is cast during the time of
their sojourning. Fleshly lusts are of the earth, earthy. “The lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride
of life, are not of the
Father, but are of the world” (I John 2:15-17).
And God’s people are
not of the world; they are sojourners and strangers in it for a
little time; they
must not imitate its modes of
thought and life; they must live as citizens of
the heavenly country.
Ø
For the
Salvation of the Soul. Fleshly lusts are not only beneath the
dignity of God’s peculiar
people; they are full of danger, for they war
against the soul; they are, as it were, the dark hosts of the evil one
sent to wage a deadly warfare against the souls of men. IT IS
THE SOUL AGAINST
WHICH THEY FIGHT — the soul which
was first breathed into man
by God; the soul for which the Lord Jesus
died. TO LOSE ONE’S SOUL IS TO LOSE ONE’S ALL! No
apparent gain can
compensate for that tremendous loss.
Ø
For the Glory of
God. If the inward life be pure, the
outward life will be
blameless. If fleshly lusts
are indulged in the heart, they will appear
somewhere or other in the
life. The outward life cannot be uniformly fair
and seemly unless the heart
is pure. But the Christian must for the glory
of God let his light shine before men. Unbelievers will narrowly scan
the lives of Christians;
they will watch for any little inconsistencies, and
magnify them, and turn
them to the dishonor of their religion. The Gentiles
spoke against the
Christians of the ancient Church; they caricatured their
sacraments, their worship;
they accused them of atheism, of exciting
seditions. Still the lives
of Christians are watched. Therefore they should
have their “conversation honest among the Gentiles” (v.12), that is,
their life should be fair
and beautiful; and as the “beauty of a Christian’s
life consists in symmetry and conformity to the Word of God as its
rule, he ought diligently to study that rule, and to square his
ways
by it;
not to walk at random, but to apply this rule to every step at home
and abroad, and to be as
careful to keep the beauty of his ways unspotted,
as those women are of their
faces and attire who are most studious of
comeliness. And their object in all this should be the greater glory
of God.
We are bidden not to seek the praise of men;
we might take
no heed to their blame, to
calumny and misrepresentation, were it not
that we must care for the
souls of the slanderers, and for the glory of
God. For those ends
Christians must try to exhibit the beauty of holiness
in their outward lives, that men may see their good works, and glorify
their Father
which is in heaven (Matthew
5:16). It is from Him that
all holiness comes; all
spiritual beauty is His gift. Men will see it in the lives
of true Christians; they
will feel its reality, its true loveliness; they know
that such beauty is not of
the earth; they may by God’s grace be led to
recognize it as coming from
God, and to glorify Him by seeking
themselves to imitate the
holy lives of Christians, that they too, in
the
day of visitation, may be
ready to attend the heavenly Bridegroom
in the wedding
garments of holiness.
TO OBEDIENCE TO
CIVIL AUTHORITIES.
of God” (Romans 13:1);
“The
Most High giveth the kingdoms of the
earth to whom He will”
(Daniel 4:17,25, 32); “By Him kings
reign,
and princes decree justice” (Proverbs 8:15).
Therefore the Christian
must be loyal to the
government under which God’s providence has
placed him. One form of
government may be better than another; but any
regular government is
better than anarchy. Paul bids us pray “for kings,
and for all that are
in authority; that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life” (I Timothy 2:1-2).
Government is from God; the form
of it is determined, under God’s overruling providence, by man. Peter
bids us obey every ordinance of man, every human creation — all rulers,
whether the sovereign or those who are set in authority under him; and
that because orderly government is necessary for the well-being
and
the very existence of society, “for the
punishment of evil-doers,
and for the
praise of them that do well”
(v.14). On the whole,
the strong rule of
the peace and order of that
vast empire. Roman governors and officers,
like Festus and Gallio and Claudius Lysias, had been on the
side of right
against the violence of
Jewish mobs; even Felix and Pilate showed some
traces of the Roman sense
of justice. Nero, the reigning emperor, indeed,
was a monster of vice; he
had treated the Christians of Rome with atrocious
cruelty; the persecution
would soon spread into the provinces. But hitherto
the Roman authorities had
generally protected the infant Church. The
institutions of civil
government work for the good of society; Christians
must be loyal
and peaceable citizens.
sake” (v. 13). His
providence has set us where we are; we must not rebel
against His will. He ruleth all things both in heaven and in earth, and he will
make all things work together
for the eternal good of His chosen (Romans
8:28). It is enough for us; our duty, like Christ,
is to say, “Thy will be done”
(Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke
22:42), and for His sake, in the
consciousness that, in obeying
those who are set over us, we are obeying
the King of kings, to submit
ourselves to every human ordinance. But that
obedience is for His sake; therefore it cannot extend to unlawful
commands. Peter himself had
once said to the high priest, “We ought to
obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29; comp. also Ibid.4:19); and the
time was coming when brave Christian men and women would have to
choose between renouncing
Christ and the death of martyrdom. (It is not
without question that Christians
today might have to face the same choice!
CY – 2012). The disobedience would be “for the Lord’s
sake.” The
higher duty would overrule the
lower. To “fear God and to keep His
commandments is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13);
this highest rule will guide the
Christian under ordinary circumstances to
obey human law and government,
sometimes under exceptional
circumstances to obey God rather
than man. As a rule, Christians must be
subject to the higher powers.
Indeed, they are free; Christ hath made
them
free from the
yoke of bondage. But they are the
servants of God; His will
should be the law of their
lives; and His will is that Christian liberty should
be orderly and sober. The soul is free from the bondage of sin; the
outward life
should be regulated by obedience to
authority and law;
and that for the
glory of God, that the well-ordered lives of Christian
people may put
to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
Ø
“Honor all men.” The apostle has just enjoined a dutiful submission
to kings and magistrates.
He extends his precept; all men are to be
treated with honor. Paul had said, “Render therefore to all their
dues;… honor to whom honor is due” (Romans 13:7). Though we
owe not the same measure of honor to every one, yet in
some sense
honor is due to all men; for
all men are God’s creatures, made
originally in THE LIKENESS OF GOD!
The Jews would not
tread on any chance piece
of paper,
lest, they said, the name of God
might be written on it. So
the Christian
may not despise any one,
however base in his outward
condition, in
body, or in mind, or even
however much fallen from
God and goodness. The
name of God may
be written on that soul;
low in all earthly things, it maybe
high in grace;
the Lord Jesus
died for that poor fallen soul; it may
be restored
and won back and forgiven
like the sinful woman who washed the
Lord’s feet with her tears,
and wiped them with the hair of her head
(Luke 7:38-50). Therefore the Christian must treat all men with
consideration and
respect; scorn and contempt are utterly out
of
place in the disciples of the lowly Savior.
Ø
“Love the
brotherhood.” Christians are not only
brethren, but a
brotherhood, one body in
Christ; they are knit together by the one
Spirit into one
communion and fellowship; they must
regard
one another with fraternal
affection. The nearer they draw to Christ,
who loved them
and gave Himself for them, the more fully will they
learn of Him this high
and
holy lesson of Christian love.
Ø
“Fear God.” This great principle must guide the Christian in ALL
THE RELATIONS OF
LIFE! “Behold, the fear of the Lord,
that is wisdom;
and to depart from evil is understanding.”
(Job 28:28). He who has the fear of God before his eyes
will do his
duty towards his neighbor;
for to fear and to obey God, the preacher
says, is “the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13) — it covers
the whole sphere
of his life and conduct. Other rules
are
subordinate to this central
rule. We must honor all men, because all
men are the creatures of
God; we must honor most those in whom the
image of God is best
reflected. We must love the brotherhood,
but
so that we love God first above all. We must honor the king,
because all power is of
God.
Ø
“Honor the king.” That king was Nero. It was hard to honor such a
one, a monster stained with
every infamy. But Christians were to see
in him the representative
of law and order, and they were to respect his
authority while
they could not but loathe his crimes.
The Christian must ever STRIVE
TO ADORN THE DOCTRINE OF GOD OUR
SAVIOUR IN ALL THINGS (Titus 2:10), seeking always THE GLORY OF
GOD!
18 “Servants,”
- The word is not δοῦλοι – douloi - slaves - but οἰκέται –
oiketai - household servants, domestics. Peter may have used
it as a less
harsh term, in Christian kindliness and courtesy; or he may have
chosen it
purposely to include the large class of freedmen and other
dependents who
were to be found in the houses of the great. The frequent
mention of slaves
in the Epistles shows that many of the first Christians must have been
in a
condition of
servitude (compare I Corinthians 7:21-23;
Ephesians 6:5-8;
Colossians 3:22; I Timothy 6:1-2). It was only natural that
men should feel
uneasy and irritable under the yoke of slavery as they came
to learn
the equality
of all men in
the sight of God, and to understand the blessed privileges and
the high hopes of
Christians. The apostles counseled
submission and
resignation to the will of God. Slavery was an unnatural
institution; it must in
time disappear under the softening influences of the
gospel. But Christian slaves
were to wait in faith and patience. The sacred writers use
language of studied
moderation, carefully avoiding any expressions which might
be regarded as exciting
to violence or revolutionary outbreaks - “be subject to your masters with all
fear;” –
The participle ὑποτασσόμενοι – hupotassomenoi – be subject - seems to look
back to the imperative ὑποτάγητε – hupotagaete – submit yourselves) in v. 13;
the relation of slaves to their lords being one of the
ordinances of man alluded to
there (compare Ephesians 6:5, where Paul bids slaves to be
obedient to their masters
“with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as
unto Christ”). The
holy fear of God, by whose providence
they were set in that lowly station, would
involve the fear of failing
in their duty to their masters. All fear; not only fear of
punishment, but also fear of
neglecting duty -“not only to the good and gentle,
but also to the froward.” Servants must not make the character of their masters
an excuse for disobedience; if their masters are froward (σκολιοί - skolioi –
literally, “crooked,
perverse”), still they must be submissive to the wilt of God.
19 “For
this is thankworthy,” - literally, this is grace (compare Luke 6:32,
Ποία ὑμῖν χάρις ἐστί - Poia humin charis estin - What thank have ye? –
where the parallel passage in Matthew 5:46 is Τίνα μισθὸν
ἔχετε – Tina misthon
echete - What
reward have ye? A comparison of these passages seems to show
that χάρις – charis – grace;
thank - and μισθός – misthos – reward - are used
in a similar sense as expressive of God’s condescending
love. In His gracious
tenderness He speaks of reward, though we deserve only
punishment; He even speaks
of thanks, though we deserve only condemnation. Other possible
explanations are,
“This is the work
of God’s grace;” or, “This is lovely;” or, “This
is favor;” or
“This implies” or “This causes favor with God.” - “if a man for conscience
toward God” - literally, for conscience of God; that is,
consciousness of God’s
presence, of His will, of our duties to Him. This is better
than to take the genitive
as subjective, and to interpret, “because of the
consciousness of God,” because
He sees and knows all that we do and say and think (compare I Corinthians 8:7,
where “conscience of
the idol” seems to mean a belief or half-belief in the real
existence of the god supposed to be represented by the
idol) - “endure grief,
suffering wrongfully.” Literally, griefs, λύπας – lupas – grief; pain of body
or mind - (compare
λυπηθέντες – lupaethentes – heaviness;
being sorrowed –
ch.1:6).
Peter echoes our Lord’s teaching in the sermon on the mount (Matthew
20 “For
what glory is it,” - The word translated “glory”
(kle>ov – kleos –
rumor, report; then fame, renown hence reputation), common in Greek poetry,
occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. - “if, when ye be buffeted for your
faults, ye shall take it patiently?” - literally, if sinning and being buffeted. The
word translated “buffeted”
(κολαφιζόμενοι – kolaphizomenoi – to strike
with clenched hands or fists), used in Matthew 26:67 and Mark 14:65 in
describing our Savior’s sufferings, has a figurative
meaning in I Corinthians 4:11;
II Corinthians 12:7.
It is probably used literally here; blows were a common
occurrence in the
life of slaves. To be patient when
suffering deserved punishment
is often difficult, but it is no more than a simple duty;
it would not be for the glory
of religion. Christian slaves ought to do their duty to their masters,
and not
deserve
punishment - “but if, when ye
do well, and suffer for it, ye take it
patiently,” - literally,
but if doing well, and suffering. The words “for it” are
not in the Greek. “this is acceptable with
God.” If
we read “for” (τοῦτο γὰρ –
touto gar – this
for), with some of the best manuscripts, we must
supply
“there is glory” after the last clause. “If, doing well and
suffering, ye take it
patiently, There is glory (κλέος – kleos – glory;
credit; renown), for this is
thankworthy (χάρις – charis – grace; thanks; gratitude;
acceptable) with God.”
Such conduct will bring honor to Christianity, for it is
thankworthy even in
the sight of God.
When Christian men and women took cruel sufferings
patiently and joyfully, as the apostles did (Acts 5:41;
16:25), that was
more than a mere recognized duty — that showed the power of
Christian
motives, that brought glory to Christianity, and was held
to be thankworthy
(such is God’s gracious condescension) even in the sight of
God. The word
for “acceptable”
here is that translated “thankworthy”
in v. 19, where see
note.
21 “For
even hereunto were ye called:”- that is, to do
good and to
suffer patiently (compare I Thessalonians 3:3). Omit “even,” for which
there is no authority.
Peter is speaking of slaves, but what he says of
slaves is true in some sense of all Christians (compare
Acts 14:22) –
“because Christ also suffered for us,” - rather, for you, with the oldest
manuscripts. You do not suffer alone; Christ also suffered,
and that for you
slaves, on your behalf. Christ Himself, was treated as a
slave; He deigns to
exhibit His own conduct as an example to slaves -“leaving us an example,
that ye should follow His steps:” The oldest
manuscripts have the second
person here in both places. Leaving (ὑολιμπάνων – huolimpanon – leaving
behind
). The Greek for “example” is ὑπογραμμός – hupogrammos - a word
which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means a
copy set by a writing
or drawing master, which was to be exactly reproduced by
his pupils. The life of
Christ is our model. In particular Peter urges us to imitate the Lord’s patience in
suffering undeserved afflictions. In the last clause the figure is changed to that
of a guide along a difficult route, so difficult that those
who follow must put their
feet in his footprints. We should follow His steps, one by
one, closely following
Him, as the word ἐπακολουθήσητε - epakolouthaesaete
– ye should
follow - means (compare Mark 16:20; I Timothy 5:10, 24). The word employed
has the force of “follow closely.” We are to take Christ for our Guide, as men
walking across a glacier might do by their guide, stepping in the prints of his
footsteps,
and keeping very near him. UNLESS THE SUFFERINGS OF
CHRIST ARE TO US A PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS, THEY
WILL NEVER BE TO US THE PATTERN FOR OUR LIVES!
22 “Who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:” Peter is
quoting
the Septuagint Version of Isaiah 53:9, almost exactly, the word ἁμαρτίαν –
hamartian - sin, being substituted for ἀνομίαν – anomian - lawlessness
(“violence” in our version). We should notice that the Messiah, whose
example is here set before Christian slaves, is called by
the prophet “the
Servant of Jehovah” (Isaiah 52:13). Slaves were often
tempted to deceit
and guile; they must look
to the Lord Jesus, and strive to copy His
innocence and His truth.
23 “Who,
when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He
threatened not;” - (compare Isaiah 53:7). The Lord again and again denounced
the hypocrisy and unbelief of the Pharisees; He bade Caiaphas remember the
coming judgment. But
that was the language of prophetic warning, the sternness
of love. He sets before them the impending punishment, that they may
take
heed in time and escape from THE WRATH TO COME! In the midst of
His strongest invective against the sins and hollow
unreality of Pharisaism there
is an OUTBURST OF THE
DEEPEST LOVE, THE TENDEREST
CONCERN (Matthew
23:27) - “but committed Himself to Him that judgeth
righteously:” The verb “committed”- παρεδίδου – paredidou) is
without an
object in the original. Most commentators supply “Himself,”
or “His cause;”
others, “His sufferings;” some, “those who inflicted them.”
Perhaps the last
explanation is the best: he left them to God, to God’s
mercy, if it might be; to
His judgment, if it must be. There may be a reference to
His prayer, “Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke
23:34). Compare
by
contrast the language of Jeremiah, speaking in the spirit
of the Old Testament
(Jeremiah 11:20 and 20:12).
24 “Who
His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” - Peter has
thus far spoken of our Lord as our Example of patient
endurance; but he seems to
feel that, although this is the aspect of the Savior’s
sufferings most suitable to his
present purpose, yet it is scarcely seemly to dwell upon that most momentous of
all events, the death of Christ our Lord upon the cross, without mentioning ITS
MORE SOLEMN AND AWFUL IMPORT. A
martyr may be an example of
patient suffering; he cannot bear our sins. The apostle
proceeds to unfold the contents
of the ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν – huper humon
– for us - in v. 21. The Lord died for us: but
what is the meaning of the preposition? Was it that His
example might stimulate us
to imitate His patience and His holy courage? This is a true
view, but, taken alone, it
would be utterly inadequate. The death of the Son of God
had a far deeper
significance. The ὑπέρ used here and elsewhere is explained by the more
precise ἀντί - anti - of Matthew
20:28 -“for many”; ; Mark 10:45 – for many;
I Timothy 2:6 – for a ransom - , in which last passage
both propositions are
combined – ἀντίλυτρον
ὑπέρ – antilutron huper – a ransom for. The Lord
died, not only in our
behalf, BUT IN
OUR STEAD! He gave “His life a
ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28; Mark
10:45); “He
is the Propitiation for
our sins” (Romans 3:25; I John 2:2; 4:10). Peter exhibits here, with all
possible emphasis, this vicarious aspect of the Savior’s
death. “He bore our
sins Himself.” The pronoun is strongly emphatic; HE BORE THEM, though
they were not His own.
They were our sins, but He bore them — He alone
(Hebrews
1:3); none other could bear that awful burden. He bare
(ἀνήνεγκεν – anaenegken – bare, carried up). The apostle is evidently quoting
Isaiah 53:12, where the Hebrew verb is נָשָׂא and the Septuagint Version is
Καὶ αὐτὸς
ἁμαρτίας πολλῶν ἀνήνεγκε; – Kai autos hamartias pollon anaenegtke-
because He carried the sins of many; compare vs. 4
and 11 (in v.11 there is another
Hebrew verb) of the same chapter. In the Old Testament “to bear sins” or “iniquity”
means to suffer
the punishment of sin, whether one’s own sin or
the sin of others (see
Leviticus 5:1,17, and many similar passages). In the
description of the ceremonial of
the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16:22, it is said that the scapegoat “shall bear
upon him [the Hebrew is וְנָשָׂא
הַשָּׂעִיר
עָלָיו; the Greek is λήψεται ὁ χίμαρος ἐφ ἑαυτῷ]
- laepsetai ho chimaros eph eauto – the goat shall
carry all] all their
iniquities unto a
land not inhabited,” where the scapegoat
is represented as
bearing the sins of the people and taking them away.
Compare also the great saying
of the John the Baptist, “Behold
the LAMB OF GOD which taketh away the
SIN OF THE WORLD” (John
1:29) where
the Greek (ὁ αἴρων - ho airon –
Taketh away; one
lifting; bear) may be rendered with equal exactness, “who
beareth,” or “who taketh away.” The Lord
took our sins away by BY
TAKING THEM UPON HIMSELF!
(compare Matthew 8:17). As
Aaron
put the sins of the people upon the head of the scapegoat
(Leviticus 16:21), and
the goat was to bear them upon him unto a land not
inhabited, so the Lord laid
on the blessed Savior THE INIQUITY OF US ALL and He bare our
sins in His own body on to the tree, and, there dying in our stead, TOOK
THEM AWAY! He bare them on
Himself, as the scapegoat bare upon him the
iniquities of
sweat great drops of blood in his awful agony (Luke
22:44). He bare them on
to the tree (ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον – epi to xulon – on the
tree; wood; pole); He carried
them thither, and there He expiated them (compare Hebrews
9:28, “Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many,” where the same Greek word is used —
ἀνενεγκεῖν – anenegkein – to bear the sins). Another interpretation takes
ἀναφέρειν – anapherein – to offer
up - in its sacrificial sense, as in Hebrews
7:27, and regards the cross as the altar: He bore our sins on to the altar of
the cross. The Lord is both Priest and Victim, and the
verb is used in the
sacred writings both of the priest who offers the sacrifice
and of the
sacrifice which bears or takes away sin. But THE SACRIFICE WHICH
THE LORD OFFERED UP WAS HIMSELF, not our sins; therefore it
seems best to understand ἀναφέρειν – anapherein – to offer
up - here rather
of victim than of priest, as in Hebrews 9:28 and the Greek
Version of Isaiah 53:12.
The thought of sacrifice was doubtless present to the
apostle’s mind, as it certainly
was to the prophet’s (see Isaiah 53:10). The word ξύλον is used for the cross
twice in Peter’s speeches in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts
5:30; 10:39). It is
also so used by Paul (Galatians 3:13). “that we, being dead to sins, should live
unto righteousness:” - The Greek word ἀπογενόμενοι – apogenomenoi –
past
participle of a compound of ajpo> and gi>nomai; absent,
i.e. deceased;
being dead; occurs nowhere else in the
New Testament. The word is several
times used in Herodotus in the sense of “having died;” more literally, “having
ceased to be.” The tense (aorist) seems to point to a definite time, as
the time of
baptism (compare Romans 6:2,11; Galatians 2:19-20). Righteousness here is
simply the opposite of sin — obedience,
submission to the will of God -
“by whose stripes ye were healed.” The apostle is quoting the Septuagint
rendering of Isaiah 53:5. The Greek μώλωψ – molops – a bruise; a wound
from a stripe - means
the mark or weal left on the flesh by a scourge. The slaves,
whom the apostle is addressing, might perhaps not
infrequently be subjected to
the scourge; he bids them remember the more dreadful
flagellation which the
Lord endured (Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15; Luke 23:16; John
19:1). They were
to learn patience of Him, and to remember to their comfort
that those
stripes which He, the
holy Son of God, condescended to suffer are to them
that believe healing and salvation. Faith in the crucified Savior lifts the
Christian out of the sickness of sin into the health of
righteousness.
25 “For ye
were as sheep going astray;” - rather, with the
best manuscripts,
for ye were going astray like sheep. The apostle is probably still thinking of the
great prophecy of Isaiah, and here almost reproduces the
words of the sixth verse,
“All we like sheep have gone astray.” He who had been thrice charged to feed
the sheep and the lambs of Christ would think also of the
parable of the lost sheep,
and of the people of
9:36) - “but
are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”
literally, but ye returned (the verb is aorist);
that is, at the time of their conversion.
The aorist passive, ἐπεστράφην – epestraphaen – returned; ye turned back.
Christ is the
Shepherd of our souls. The quotation from
Isaiah doubtless
brought before Peter’s thoughts
the sweet and holy allegory of the good Shepherd,
which he had heard from the
Savior’s lips (John 10:1-18; compare also Isaiah 40:11;
Ezekiel 34:23; 37:24; also Psalm
22.). The word “bishop” (ἐπίσκοπος – episkopos –
bishop; overseer) is used in a similar connection in Acts 20:28, “Take heed… to
all
the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers” –
(ἐπισκόπους - episkopous – overseers);
compare also Ezekiel 34:11,
“I will both
search my sheep, and seek them out,” where the Greek word for
“seek them out” is ἐπισκέψομαι – episkepsomai. The Lord Jesus Christ
is THE CHIEF
SHEPERD (ch.5:4). He is also THE CHIEF BISHOP OR
OVERSEER of those souls which He
has bought to be His own with
His most precious
blood.
A Special Address to Servants (vs. 18-25)
Ø
Submission to their Masters. Religion touches
every condition of life;
none is left out. And none may make the circumstances of their life
an excuse for NEGLECTING RELIGION. God set
them where
they are; their station, their
circumstances, are such as He was pleased
to appoint. He “will have all
men to be saved, and to come unto
the knowledge of
the truth” (I Timothy 2:4). Therefore we may be
sure all men may be saved, whatever may be
their outward
circumstances. It is for them to
do their duty to God and to man in
that station to
which God has been pleased to call
them. There
are many compensations in
life; riches have their cares; high rank has
its responsibilities. Men
must not fret and chafe against the toils and
privations of their lot;
they must do their duty in it, and they wilt find
peace and inward
satisfaction. “Brethren,” says
Paul, speaking to
slaves (I Corinthians
7:24), “let
every man, wherein he is called,
therein abide with
God.” God has a message for servants.
Their
lot was very hard under the stern rule of slavery, when even men of
wide views like Aristotle regarded slaves as “living tools.” But
Christian slaves were to take comfort; they were THE
LORD’S
FREEDMEN. (Ibid.
v.22); they were, equally with the highest
in
rank, living stones in the Lord’s spiritual temple; they might gain
for themselves a high place
there by the quiet, faithful discharge of the
humblest duties. Then let
them serve their masters with all respect and
reverence; and that, not
simply out of gratitude, if they happened to
have kind and indulgent
masters, but out of submission to the
holy will of God, whatever
might be the character of those under whom
they were placed. There is
a lesson here for all who occupy subordinate
positions of any sort — let
them pay proper reverence and obedience to
their superiors. It is their duty, not only to those superiors, but to God.
Ø
The motive of that submission. Consciousness of
God. This high
motive dignifies the
humblest position in life, and makes the respect and
submission which Christian
servants yield to their masters, or Christians
in any condition to their
superiors, a beautiful and holy thing. They
recognize the great truth
of the presence of God; they try to live in the
habitual consciousness of THAT PRESENCE, they try to think of
God all the day long, in
all the little details of their daily occupations,
and to perform each duty, great or small, as unto the Lord (Colossians
3:23). Thus
Christians in the humblest positions may “adorn the
doctrine of God
our Savior in all things” (Titus
2:10). These
words of Paul were spoken
of Christian slaves. Slaves might
adorn the
of God, the last are often FIRST,
the lowest in this world
HIGHEST IN THE
Ø
The reward of that submission. It is thankworthy; it
is acceptable
with God. The master might
be much beneath his slave; the superior
may be much beneath his
official inferiors in all that constitutes true
greatness; it has often been so, it must be so sometimes still. The
Christian, in whatsoever
state he is, must be content; if he has to suffer
wrong, injustice, cruelty,
he must take it patiently. To submit to deserved
punishment, to own our
fault, and to accept the consequence, is hard to
our proud, selfish nature;
yet it is but a plain duty; it merits no praise
(v.20, ch.5:15). But when Christians submit to undeserved
suffering;
when in the ancient times
they endured stripes and the prison and the
death of martyrdom; when
now Christian men, or women, or children
endure persecution,
sometimes very hard to bear, from those in various
ways above them, or, it may
be, from fellow-servants or school-fellows;
when they take it patiently
in the consciousness of God’s presence, this
is the work of God’s grace;
this is lovely in the sight of God; and the
Scripture saith in God’s great condescension, this is thankworthy
with
God (v.19).
Ø
Christians are called to imitate Christ. Christians are called to
suffering; the cross is the
badge of their profession; without the cross
they cannot be disciples of
the crucified Lord. This was the meaning
of your calling, Peter
says; you knew it when you became Christians;
you must not forget it in
the hour of trial. Christ suffered for you, yes,
for you slaves; He left
behind Him, when He ascended into heaven,
an example for
you to imitate, a sketch for you to fill up in detail.
Try by the grace of God the
Holy Spirit to
renew the likeness of God in
your hearts; look to THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST AS YOUR
MODEL, copy one by one the features of that DIVINE
LOVELINESS, fill up the portrait,
little by little, touch by touch,
looking with fixed
attention on
the great Original. And, to change the
figure, follow Him; He goeth before you (v. 21).
Climb the steep ascent
of heaven, stepping in the very footprints of the Divine Guide,
(The way to do it is to
step in His steps like I remember doing in
my father’s steps, in 1950
– I remember the time and the place –
ours should be, like Enoch – A LIFETIME WALK – Genesis 5:24 –
CY – 2012) - JESUS WILL LEAD
YOU SAFELY! But there
is only one way — the way which
He trod Himself, the royal way of
the most holy cross.
Ø
The innocence of Christ. He did not sin, yet He suffered. We
have sinned, yet we murmur
under our chastisements. We fret and
complain all the louder, if
we think that our afflictions are not the
direct result of sin; all
the more if we think that they are wrongfully
inflicted. We fancy that there are none so hardly dealt with, none so
unjustly treated; we magnify
our distress; we will not be comforted;
we refuse to see any
alleviation, any ray of light, any evidences of
mercy. But we should think
of our sins, our unworthiness, our need
of chastisement for our
profit in holiness. Above all, we should think
of THE INNOCENT SAVIOUR!
“He did no sin, neither was
guile found in
his mouth” (v. 22). We have sinned in thought,
word, and deed; let us not
complain.
Ø
The patience of Christ. He was buffeted and spat
upon and cruelly
mocked, yet He opened not
His mouth; He was scourged, He was nailed
to the cross; He suffered
through all those six hours the intensest agony;
He threatened not, He did
not call for the twelve legions of angels
(Matthew 26:53). He
committed all, Himself, His cause, His torturers,
to Him that judgeth righteously — HE LEFT ALL TO GOD!
He is our high
Example. We should learn of Him; we
should pray
for those who despitefully
use us: “Father, forgive them.” Here is
the Christian’s comfort
when he is unjustly treated. God judgeth
righteously; He knoweth them that are His; He knows their
prayers, their self-denials,
their temptations. If the world judge them
harshly, it matters little;
God judgeth righteously; they leave all to
Him. And when men speak
evil of them, when they impute unworthy
motives and accuse them
falsely, they think of Christ mocked, reviled,
blasphemed, and try to
learn of Him meekness and patience.
Ø
How Christians are enabled to follow that example. CHRIST
IS OUR EXAMPLE, but
He is more — He is the Propitiation for
our sins (Romans 3:25; I
John 2:2; 4:10). It would be vain to set
before us miserable sinners
an example of perfect holiness, were
it not that He bare our
sins in His own body on to the tree (BY
HIMSELF –
Hebrews 1:3). None
other than the holy Son
of God could bear
that awful burden. The Lord “laid on
Him the iniquity
of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). He bare that
tremendous load of
human sin in His own body on to the
tree, and there He
took our sins away, dying, as He did,
FOR ALL MEN, IN
OUR STEAD, SUFFERING OUR
PUNISHMENT! Men
think sin a light matter; true
Christians know that it is
a heavy burden, too heavy for them
to bear. It was a heavy
burden to Christ; it made Him sweat
those great drops of blood (Luke 22:44); it made Him cry,
“My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark
15:34) – HE ONLY could bear that
tremendous load.
The Lord laid it
on Him (Isaiah 53:6); He took it on
Himself
in His gracious mercy. He
came to give His life a ransom for
many(Matthew 20:28); He was
made sin for us, though He
was WITHOUT SIN (II Corinthians 5:21)
and “SEPARATE
FROM SINNERS (Hebrews
7:26; the Lord made His soul an
offering for sin (Isaiah
53:10). And the end of that stupendous
sacrifice was that we,
being dead to sin, should be enabled to copy
that Divine Example, and
should live unto righteousness.
Such an event as the death
of the Son of God must involve great
and far-reaching
consequences; it requires of us, for whom He died,
not merely an outward
change, not some slight improvement in our
lives, BUT A DEATH UNTO SIN! When we look upon the
cross, and think who it was
that suffered there for us, we see the
intense guilt of sin, we
see the great love of God; and we draw from
the death of Christ a
hidden source of strength which helps us to crush
sin out of our hearts,
though the effort be like a death-struggle and the
agony like a death-pang;
for by His death He broke the power of Satan,
giving Himself in His deep
holy love to suffer our punishment and to take
away our sins. Therefore we must be unto sin as though we
were not,
as though we had departed,
as though the sinful “I” was gone, and
Christ was there instead: “Not I, but Christ”(Galatians
2:20);
“To me to live
is Christ” (Philippians 1:21);
he who knows the
meaning of those words is
dying unto sin. As he dies unto sin, he lives
unto righteousness; a new
life dawns into his soul, new aspirations, new
emotions. He is full of the
energy of a vigorous life; but it is not the old
life — that is gone; it is
a new life which only they can know who die
with Christ unto sin. It is
His death which gives them life; His stripes
heal their souls (Isaiah
53:5). They tortured and lacerated His
holy
body, but they heal the
sickness of our souls; for it was for our sins
that He submitted to
that dreadful outrage. Each blow shows
us
the guilt and misery of
sin; each drop of blood most precious cleanses
the souls that turn to Him
in faith. He has borne our punishment, and
we are free if we are His
indeed, He abiding in us and we in Him
(John 17:21-23). Let us contemplate His sufferings with awe
and
Reverence and gratitude,
mourning for those sins of ours which added
to His agony, killing them out of our hearts by the power of His death;
thanking Him in adoring love for
His exceeding great love; bearing our
little griefs
patiently and
cheerfully in the remembrance of His bitter cross
and passion.
Ø
What they were; what they are now. “All we like
sheep have gone
astray” (Isaiah 53:6). ALL HAVE WANDERED FROM GOD,
some in one
direction, some in another, each turning to his own
way. Sin is a divider which drives us apart from
God INTO
THE
AWFUL SOLITUDE OF A SELF-ABSORBED LIFE!
We flatter
ourselves, in our folly, that we have not
sinned like
this or that neighbor. It
may be so; his temptation was not
our temptation;
but our sin may be greater
in the sight of God. All without
exception have
gone astray. But the Lord
came in His mercy to seek and to save that
which was lost. Happy those
lost ones
whom He has found, who, drawn
by His grace, have returned
to the
Shepherd and Bishop of their souls!
(v. 25) - For He is the good Shepherd; He knows His sheep, and cares
for them; and those sheep
that have returned to Him shall never
perish,
none can pluck them out of His hand (John
10:28). He is the
Bishop, the Overseer, of our
souls. He thinks of all our spiritual wants,
our temptations, our
distresses. He watches for our souls; He provides
for our present
necessities, for He feeds us with the sincere milk of the
Word, with the bread of
life; for our future welfare, for He is gone to
prepare a place for us in
heaven. (John 14:1-3)
Christ gives us power to die unto sin and to live unto
righteousness. We can
do all things (if we abide in Him) through Him that strengtheneth us.
(Philippians 4:13)
The Purpose of the Savior’s Sufferings (vs.
21-24)
One thing must be observed and admired in the religious
life and the
religious teaching of the inspired apostles — everything
they did and
everything they said led their minds to the Lord Jesus. If
Christ be the Son
of God and the Savior of mankind, this is not to be
wondered at. He is not
only the central figure of human history; he is at the core
of each
Christian’s heart, at the spring of each Christian’s life.
The Christianity
which is apart from men’s thinking and duty and interest
has no likeness to
the Christianity of the apostles. Every subject they
treated was, in their
view, related to the Lord Jesus. Especially did they look
at every
relationship of society, and every duty of man, in the
light of Christ’s
Deity, Christ’s humanity, Christ’s cross! It was natural to
them to think
thus. Their hearts were full of Christ, and whatever path
of inquiry,
instruction, or action they took, it was sure to lead them
to him. And this
was not vain enthusiasm; it was most reasonable and right.
We, too, cannot
see things as they are in God’s sight, we cannot act as he
would have us,
unless we connect all our experience and all our duty with
him who has
brought God to us, who has brought us to God. Peter was a very
practical
man. When he wrote his Epistle, he wrote it to actual
living men and
women. God be praised that we are taught our doctrines, not
in theological
treatises, but in letters which were the outpouring of soul
to soul. Certain
superfine religionists think the real occupations and
relations of life as
something quite beneath their notice. So did not the
apostle. For instance,
he knew that some of the Christian people who would read
his letter were
slaves; and
accordingly he wrote to them as to slaves. There is no doubt
that Christianity introduced among mankind principles which
first
ameliorated, and then abolished, slavery. But Peter had to
deal with facts
as they were. Christianity was to help men, not only to
rise above slavery,
but — whilst slavery still endured as an institution — to
make the best of
it. So Peter told these slaves that there was a work for
them to do, a
witness for them to offer, whilst they were still slaves.
He bade them
remember how their Master Christ, who was at the
same time their
Redeemer, had borne
himself amidst injustice, false accusation, contumely,
and suffering. And he brought to bear the willing sacrifice
of Christ for
them upon their hearts, as a Divine motive to endurance and
patience. They
were not so ill treated as their great Savior had been;
and, whilst he was
perfectly innocent and good, they were not free from human
infirmities. It
was certainly their duty to display the spirit of their
Lord, to do what he
had done, to endure as he had endured. Thus they should
honor him. Thus
they should be in the way of reaping some wholesome fruit
of blessing for
themselves. Thus they should win others to the faith which
none could help
admiring. And thus they should secure for themselves a sure
recompense of
reward.
Founder of our faith should
suffer is itself an astonishing and
instructive fact. Suffering
and shame, submission to violence and cruelty,
these are not usually associated
with power and victory. Yet the Author
of the religion which has
the greatest influence over mankind, and is
molding the history of the
world, was pre-eminently A SUFFERER!
We believe that this was foretold. It cannot
be questioned that the first
Christian preachers and writer’s proclaimed,
without any reserve, the
humiliation and
the woe of their great Lord. They even gloried in the
cross. Peter was, perhaps better
than any man, able to witness to the
sufferings and to the
demeanor of Jesus Christ. He was “with
Him in
the garden;” and
although he fell asleep, yet, on waking, he saw on his
Master’s brow the “bloody sweat,” and read upon his Master’s features
the agony of soul through
which He had passed, with no human sympathy,
with none to share His
awful watch. Peter was there when Judas betrayed
the Lord with a kiss, and
beheld the meekness with which He yielded
Himself into the hands of
His foes. It was Peter who drew the sword in
defense of his Master
(Matthew 26:51-54; John 18:10-11), and who heard
that Master’s rebuke, and
His language of pathetic resignation, “The
cup
which my Father hath given
me, shall I not drink it?” The same
Peter
followed Jesus into the
judgment-hall, and saw the Lord whom he loved
bound and reviled, and
witnessed His meekness under insult and injustice.
Upon Himself Jesus had
turned the glance of affectionate reproach, which
smote him to the heart, and
opened the fountain of his tears (Luke
22:61-62). It was Peter who entered the empty grave of the
risen Immanuel.
It was Peter who, when
forgiven his faithlessness and fear, was assured by
the Lord of a share in the
humiliation and agony of the cross. Who, then, so
fit as Simon Peter — both
by his opportunities of observing the Lord’s
sorrow and anguish, and by
his warm and tender love for Christ — to
speak of the Redeemer’s
woes, and to testify of His bearing and His spirit,
when He “endured the contradiction of sinners against himself”?
(Hebrews 12:3) The witness of this companion and friend of
Christ Jesus
is that He suffered. That
our Lord endured weariness, hunger, and thirst;
that acutest pain was
suffered by Him in the closing hours of His life; —
this the whole record
abundantly proves. And His mental sufferings
were made evident by the
tears He shed, the sighs He heaved, the
groans and cries He uttered
(Hebrews 5:7). His soul was “exceeding
sorrowful, even
unto death” (Mark 14:34); it was
“troubled.” Keenly
susceptible to human emotions,
He was distressed at His rejection by
His countrymen, at His desertion
by His friends, at His betrayal by one
disciple, His denial by another.
A yet further and a more mysterious
woe was that which He endured
when He bare the burden of the sins
and sorrows of mankind, and “tasted death for every man.” (Hebrews
2:9). As the Son of man, the Head and
Representative of the race whose
nature He assumed, Christ Jesus
shared our lot in more than all its grief
and anguish. Great stress is
laid upon the fact that Jesus was reviled. It
was woe enough, so it might be
thought, to suffer in our stead; but
what shall be said of the
endurance of the taunts and mockery of those
for whom He came to die, whom He
came to save? This was the bitterest
earthly ingredient in the bitter
cup which Jesus drank. Now, all these
sufferings were undeserved. The apostle observes upon Christ’s innocence.
He “did no sin.” With a reference to Isaiah’s prediction, he boldly
proclaims
his Master’s
guilelessness. Whatever afflictions befall
us in this life, candor
constrains us to
admit that we deserve all, and more than all, that we
endure. If they are punishment,
the strokes inflicted are lighter than the
guilt they chasten. But nothing
of this kind can be said of our Savior’s
pains. His very enemies could
substantiate no charge against Him, and in
this their testimony supports
the assertions of His friends. And Paul says,
“He knew no sin” (II
Corinthians 5:21). “In Him
is no sin,” says John
(I John 3:5). And Peter’s witness is in the text, “He did no sin.” To
complete the picture, we must
observe the demeanor of our Savior when
enduring these afflictions. Men
too often complain and murmur, whilst some
rebel against the trials
appointed for them. No one here is perfected in
patience. But we are well reminded of THE MEEKNESS AND
PATIENCE OF CHRIST! He endured more than
we are ever called
upon to suffer, yet He uttered
no word of impatience. He endured His
sufferings at the hands of
injustice, and was cruelly and unpardonably
wronged; yet He had only
submission — no resentment — to return to
His injurers, and a prayer to
offer for their forgiveness. “He was reviled,
but He reviled
not again” (v.23). The impenitent
malefactor by His side
joined in the jeers of the rulers
and the people around the cross (Luke 23:39).
But Jesus held His peace. When
His sufferings were acute, He gave way to
no impulse of revenge against
His persecutors. Although He might have
come down from the cross, or
have summoned legions of angels to His
rescue, “He threatened not.” He was
content that the will of God should
be done. Men might judge
unjustly. God is
He who judgeth righteously.
To Him, accordingly, the Lord
Jesus committed all — Himself and His
cause. What a picture is this of
superhuman self-forgetfulness and self-
sacrifice! As we contemplate the
sinless Sufferer, first in the garden, then
before His judges, and finally
upon the cross, we are constrained to
acknowledge with the centurion,
“Certainly this was a righteous man!”
(Luke 23:47) – “Truly this was
the Son of God!” (Matthew
27:54).
The scene surpasses all that man
has invented. The character
exhibited is one beyond the
attainment of human virtue. We cannot
wonder that the name of Jesus
has become, and must ever remain, the
symbol of love and meekness,
patience and long-suffering, submission
and self-restraint and
self-denial.
thus suffered. It was “for us” — for our advantage, on our behalf. It was
certainly not for His own
sake. Jesus
neither deserved to suffer, for He
was faultless and
blameless (ch. 19; Exodus 12:5); nor did He stand in
need, as we do, of the
discipline of affliction, for there was no dross to
purge away, and no gain
could accrue to the pure gold by its being cast into
the furnace. The end for
which our blessed Redeemer consented to
endure the humiliations of His
life and the agonies of His death was no
personal end; He suffered “FOR OUR SAKE!” There were two distinct
and yet closely related purposes
which the Savior had before Him in His
sufferings. Both are stated in this passage very
explicitly. There are some
minds that look only at the one
of these purposes; there are different minds
that regard only the other. But
the sober and attentive student of Scripture
cannot fail to recognize the
necessity of both, and their harmony with each
other. Christ’s endurance
of sufferings, being exemplary, furnishes us with
THE MODEL of our patience and submission;
and the same endurance of
sufferings, being sacrificial
and substitutionary, supply us with our highest
motive. That Christ is an Example for our imitation is not only taught in
Scripture; it is a truth seized
upon by every Christian whose Christianity is
not merely nominal — who is by
the Holy Spirit awakened to spiritual life.
When he said, “Learn of me” (Matthew 11:29), “Follow me,” (Ibid.
ch. 9:9). Jesus
sanctioned this view of the religious endeavor and prayerful
aim of His disciples. And the apostles frequently admonish their converts to
imitate the
conduct, to share and display the spirit, of the Divine
Leader and Lord. His obedience to the Father, His holy life, His benevolent
disposition, His self-denying labors,
are all put before us as a model which
we are to study and
to copy. In this passage the especial
point selected for
imitation is the meekness and longsuffering of our Lord. This is represented
as a “copy” which He has left
behind, that we may place it before our eyes,
and try to produce a good,
correct, well-studied imitation of it. We are told to
follow in His steps;
He is the Guide, to whom we entrust
our way, in whose
wisdom we have confidence; where
He treads it is for us to follow, placing
our feet in the footmarks He has
left behind Him. By these two simple and
beautiful figures it is shown
how we should lay to heart THE PERFECT
EXAMPLE OF OUR
LORD and seek to make it ours. Unfortunately,
often in our POP CULTURE (CY – 2012), we follow human examples,
so faulty and human characters so
ignoble, that hero-worship (as it has
been called) is a very PERILOUS PROCEEDING! The young
are more likely to
emulate the questionable side of a great man’s
character, if that side
be dazzling.
Thankful should we be that our Creator,
who has
implanted within us the principle of imitation, has made
provision for calling out that
principle, and giving it full scope. The imitation
of Christ is the lifelong practice
and discipline of every pupil and learner in the
spiritual
and applying the lesson to the scholar’s heart, firing
that heart with a
holy ambition to be conformed to the sacred likeness of
the Lord.
(Romans 12:1-2). But this is no such easy matter. Our gracious God and
Father, who knows our nature
perfectly,
knows that it would be vain to set
before men a perfect example of
holiness
and of patience, and then bid them
and leave them to aspire to
conformity
thereto. Hence
the further purpose
of the Savior’s
sufferings. We are happily familiar with the great and
precious truth, so strikingly
exhibited in v.24, “who His own self bare our
sins in His own body on the tree.” When Christ suffered as He did, it
was not simply as an illustration of
the grace of patience. It was both:
Ø to secure to
us the pardon of our sins, and
Ø to provide us with a motive of holiness, in the experience
of His sacrificial grace.
Without Himself
becoming a sinner, He nevertheless took the
sinner’s
place, entered
into the case of the sinner, and took upon Him the
sinner’s burden, dying the death of the cross — appropriate, indeed,
to the sinner, but only
appropriate to the holy Christ
as the sinner’s
REPRESENTATIVE AND SAVIOUR! By “bearing our sins”
we
are to understand a sacrificial, and
therefore a redemptive, act. Whilst many
popular teachers are insisting
that sin can never be forgiven, and that every
man must bear to the uttermost the
consequences of his sins, the gospel
comes with the good news of the remission of
sins, and
the favor of
God for those who receive the Christ as their Mediator and
Redeemer,
in humility faith, and penitence.
Ø
The apostle traces THE
OPERATION OF THIS DIVINE PRINCIPLE.
It is not enough to tell
that Jesus died, and died for us sinners. We need to show
what is the result of
Christ’s sacrifice — that is, upon the heart and life of
Christians. For whilst it
has a relation to God and His government, it has also
a relation — and one
naturally more comprehensible by us — to our own
moral life and conduct. “That we, being dead to sins, should live unto
righteousness” (v.24). Now, you
need not to be
told that these poor
Galatian and Cappadocian bondmen must
have been,
before their conversion,
in a position very
unfavorable for the formation of a just and pure character, for
living a blameless and benevolent
life. They must have been alive to sin and
dead to righteousness, No power but that of the cross could be “the power
of God unto
salvation” (Romans 1:16) to such men.
And in this they were
representatives of mankind. The gospel of
Christ both kills and makes alive.
It slays the principle of sin; it quickens the principle of obedience to God.
Those who are pardoned and
justified by the grace of God, and through faith in
that Christ who “loved us, and gave Himself for us” (Ephesians
5:2), are
brought under the power of
new and spiritual motives — the motives of gratitude,
devotion, and love.
Righteousness thus becomes the atmosphere the Christian
breathes, the element in which
he lives. It is for Christ’s sake that he
aspires to participation in
Christ’s character. And by fellowship with Christ
he grows into what his Lord
would have him be. The two motives thus
coalesce. Believing in
Jesus, the Christian comes to live, as a ransomed
being, a life of devotion to his Redeemer and Liberator. Honoring Jesus,
pondering His character,
studying His will, he is “changed into
the same
image, from
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II
Corinthians 3:18). Thus is verified the exquisite and figurative
language of
Peter, “By whose stripes ye were healed” (v.24). He walked
in darkness,
that you might walk in the
light. He
was vanquished, that you might conquer.
He suffered and stooped, that you might reign.
He tasted the gall and the
wormwood of the crucified, that you might
drink the wine of the kingdom
and share the banquet of the blessed. He
entered the prison-house, that you
might go forth into glorious liberty. He
died, that you might live. He gave
Himself up to the blows and stripes of the smiter that your wounds might be
healed, that you might come to
spiritual strength and soundness. Christian
people! the practical lesson of the
text is plain for you to read. Whether by
persecution, or by opposition and
enmity, or by misunderstanding or calumny,
you must needs have something
to bear in this world of probation and discipline.
Remember what this Apostle Peter
says, “This is thankworthy, if a man for
conscience toward
God endure grief, suffering wrongfully”
(v.19).
“If when ye do
well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is
acceptable with
God. For even hereunto were ye called”
(v.20). When
distressed by the treatment you receive from
wicked, unjust, or unreasonable
men, forget
not this. Then is the time to prove the reality of your
religious
principles. Flee to the mediation and sympathy of Christ.
Ponder the example,
and cultivate the spirit of Christ.
Act as a friend,
slave, of Christ. Revile not
again. Commit yourselves
to Him that judgeth
righteously (v.23). Fret not yourselves because of evil-doers. (Psalm
37:1,7-8). Trust in the Lord. He shall bring out your righteousness
as the light, and your
judgment as the noonday (Ibid.
v.6). Hearers
of the gospel! The principles of
life now unfolded must appear to you the
noblest, the purest, and the
best in the universe of God. Yet, as sinners,
you have not acted under the
influence of those principles. Understand
that you are in
need of the blessings of THAT REDEMPTION
WHICH JESUS
WROUGHT in order that you may die unto
sin,
and live unto
righteousness. IT IS GOOD NEWS
FOR YOU
THAT CHRIST DIED FOR YOU, that the past of sin
and anger and
hatred may be slain, and that yours
may be THE NEW CREATION,
WHICH IS
THE INCORRUPTIBLE SEED OF THE NEW,
SPIRITUAL, AND ENDLESS LIFE!
The Shepherd and Bishop of Souls (v. 25)
metaphor through the Old
Testament, where it is employed to express the
relation of Jehovah to
single devout soul
appropriating the whole rest and blessedness of the thought
for the nourishment of the
individual life of trust. Isaiah’s great prophecy of
the Servant of the Lord
proclaims the coming of Jehovah to feed His flock
like a Shepherd (Isaiah
40:11). Ezekiel brings out more plainly
still that not
only Jehovah, but Jehovah’s “servant David,” is to be the Shepherd
in a
golden future (Ezekiel
34:23-24). Zechariah’s mysterious words
add dark
shades to the picture, and set
forth Jehovah’s Shepherd as smitten by
Jehovah’s appointment (Zechariah
13:7). And all these foreshadowings
are
interpreted and the scattered
beams focused in the words which were as
vivid in Peter’s memory as when
first spoken, and far better understood
than then: “I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd giveth His
life for His sheep” (John 10:11). It is
remarkable that, with all this
prophecy and teaching
from our Lord Himself, this text and Hebrews
13:20, are the only places
where the name is applied to Him in the New
Testament, especially when we
remember how early and how universally
the figure came to be employed
in the succeeding periods. What aspects
of our Lord’s
relation to us does it present? The
ancient application
of the metaphor, not only in
but we cannot confine the
meaning thus. The twenty-third psalm and the tenth
chapter of John give far deeper
and tenderer thoughts than rule. There are
mainly three ideas expressed:
Ø
The first is GUIDANCE.
The shepherd leads. “When He puts
forth Hs sheep He goeth before
them”
(John 10:4). And under
that thought is included
all the shaping of outward life, for
Christ is
the Lord of providence, and
the hands that were pierced for us
hold the helm of the universe. But our text does not add,
“of souls,” without a deep meaning. It would have us see the
operation of our Shepherd’s
care, not only nor chiefly in outward life.
And therefore we must think
of His guidance as mainly His leading
of our souls in paths of
righteousness, and “showing us that which
is good.” His recorded
example, the touch of His hand on our wills,
the sweet constraint of His
love, the wisdom which directs breathed
into the soul which lives
in fellowship with Him, and has silenced the
loud voice of self that His
voice may be heard, — these are the
Shepherd’s guidance of the
sheep. His scepter is a simple shepherd’s
staff. He says, “COME AND FOLLOW ME” and His sheep
walk not in darkness, but
have the light of life. (John 8:12)
Ø
The second
thought is GUARDIANSHIP. David learned to
trust his Shepherd’s care
over him in dangers by meditating on his
own hazarding his life
against the “lion and the bear” (I
Samuel
17:34-37). Our Shepherd gives His life to drag us from
the mouth
of the lion - “because
your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (ch. 5:8).
Body
and soul are under His care. Himself may
sometimes strike
a straying sheep with His
merciful rod, but He will let no
foe
touch us, and our sorrows are tokens of His care, not of their
power. If we keep within hearing of His voice, sin,
which is our
only real enemy, will not
harm us. Our docile submission is the
correlative of His
guidance, and our trust should answer to His
defense. If He guard, let
us press close to the shelter of His presence,
and ever look for the
benediction of His eye.
Ø
The third thought
is PROVISION. He will not lead where we
must starve, but even in
the most unpromising situations will show
His flock some scattered
blades of grass which they may crop.
“Their pastures shall be in all high places” (Isaiah 49:9), the very
bareness of the
mountain-tops yielding food. He Himself is the Pasture
as well as the Shepherd of
the soul, and ever gives Himself to satisfy
the hunger of the
human heart, which needs a changeless
and
perfect love, a personal
truth, an all-commanding will to feed upon,
else it aches with hunger.
And for outward wants these too He
remembers, and on the
lowliest shore will kindle a fire of coals, and
himself prepare food for
His servants (John 21:1-14). So let us
wait
on the Shepherd of our
souls, assured that His sheep never ‘look
up, and are not
fed.’”
here is to the bishop or elder
of the early Church, with distinct
reference to
the etymological
meaning of the word as well as to the functions of the
officer. Looking
to the later development of these, and to the associations
which they have connected with
the word, the marginal rendering of the
Revised Version (“overseer”) is
perhaps better than “bishop.” How
closely
the two ideas of “shepherd” and
Church “overseer” are connected is clear
from Paul’s address to the
elders at
exhortations in this Epistle
(ch.5:1, 7) to the elders to feed the flock, as
well as from the universal use
of “pastor” as a synonym. What
aspects of
Christ’s relation are thus presented?
Ø We have the great truth that He is Himself the Source from which
All Church officers draw at once their authority and their
faculty.
He gives all gifts to
men, and sets them in His Church. If they forget that,
and use their offices for
themselves, or fancy that they originate the gifts
which they but receive,
they are usurpers. From Him are they
all. To
Him should they all live
and serve. There is but ONE AUTHORITY
AND ONE TEACHER
IN THE CHURCH, the
rest are
delegates. There is but one Fountain; the others are cisterns.
“One is your
Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren”
(Matthew 23:8).
Ø
The original meaning of the word is “OVERSEER” and
that
suggests the vigilant
inspection which He exercises over His Church.
The good Shepherd knows
each sheep by name (John 10:3), and
His watchful eye is on
every one of the flock. The title is the
condensation into one word
of the solemn clause in the apocalyptic
vision of the Christ in the
midst of the golden lamps, which tells how
“His eyes were as
a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14),
and of the
sevenfold “I know thy works,” which heralds each message to the
Churches (Ibid. chapters
2-3). The
thought has many
sides, according
to the spiritual condition
of each:
o
To
o
To
it brings courage and the
assurance of a crown of life
(Ibid. v.10).
o
to
o
To
joy of His approbation,
which is reward indeed. (Ibid.
vs. 7-13)
o
to
monitory, rebuking and
putting to shame, though even in
these the clear eye sees
for the most part something to
commend (Ibid. vs.14-22),
So to us all, the thought
that we walk ever in the light of His
countenance and are
searched by the flame of those eyes may be a
gladness, as bringing the
assurance of His perfect knowledge who
loves as He knows, and is
guided by it in all His care for us and
gifts to us. “Search me, O Lord, and know my heart.”
(Psalm 139:23)
Ø The thought that Christ
discharges for each soul an office
of which the
elders’ in the Church is a shadow, may
also
be suggested. He
teaches and He rules. All authority over and
all illumination in our
souls are his. And that not merely through men,
nor only by the influence
of His past life and death as recorded,
but by a present and
continual operation on our spirits. We have
not only a Christ who lived
and died, and so declared THE
FATHER, but a Christ who lives, and from
HIS THRONE IN
THE HEAVENS IS
STILL DECLARING HIM to all listening
loving hearts. The present activity of Christ is plainly implied
here.
Nor have we to think of Him
as only helping and teaching the
collective body, but single
souls. He is not here spoken of as the
Shepherd of the flock and
the Overseer of the Church, blessed
as that truth is; but HE IS HELD FORTH AS SHEPHERD
AND BISHOP OF
EACH SOUL IN THE CHURCH, for
He sustains these relations
to the individual, and will draw near to
each of us, solitary and
small, if we will only believe that by His
stripes we are healed, and,
conquered by His dying love, turn
from our wanderings and
couch trustful at His feet.
May we never be company to those who are guilty of “bad compliance” of
God’s will, BEING REBELLIOUS
AND DOING WHAT IS WRONG,
JUST BECAUSE THE MASTER REQUIRES IT!
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