1 Peter 5

1 Peter 5:1-11

THE TRAITS OF THE TRUE SERVANT 1 Peter 4:12 to 1 Peter 5:11. OUR tenth study in this Epistle begins as did our second, “Beloved”. It is a word of which the Apostle Peter is fond. And a beautiful word it is, expressing endearment without adulation, fraternity without flattery, fellowship without fawning, and a sense of brotherhood without blandishment.There are few words in that vocabulary, which is particularly Christian, that expresses so well the relationship that is felt between believers, and yet retains perfect dignity, as does this term, “Beloved”. Peter makes it the medium of communicating his own spirit, and commanding the attention of his readers.The sentences with which he follows it, reminds his brothers of at least three things, namely, that they are to be Partakers of Christ’s Sufferings, Participants in Christ’s Service, and Opponents of Christ’s Adversary. IN CHRIST’S “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12). How much is involved in that sentence! The Christian is not called to a soft life, to flowery beds of ease. The fires fall upon him to prove, or refine him, and they fall not by chance; it is no mere happening. God marks his steps and appoints all his experiences. In this fact there is more than consolation; there is a call to courage—the only call to which men care to make response. The one mistake that is constantly made by the Church of God is that of attempting to smooth the way before the feet of converts.

Sometimes the minister says to the man under conviction for sin, yet unwilling to surrender all and take up his cross: “The cross is not heavy; the Christian life is not characterized by sacrifices; its way is prosperous, and all its paths are peace.”Such speech is the proclamation of a falsehood; and defeats its own intent. Men do not care to respond to calls that require no courage; nor to serve causes that demand no sacrifices.Jesus said to the rich young ruler,“Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, * * and come and follow Me”. To those who found it difficult to break from the pagan faith of the family, Jesus said,“I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me”. To all men Jesus says,“He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:35-39). When Garibaldi wanted an army he promised them privation, hardship, possible starvation and death. Yet the true patriots of his land rallied at once to that call. When Napoleon had a forlorn hope to be led, and asked for a hundred men to volunteer to undertake the same, the entire regiment rang their muskets at his feet. Jesus Christ showed Himself a master in psychology when He associated with His call for followers the plain promise of privation, suffering and death.Peter had a right then to say to believers,“Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you”. And I dare not preach this morning any other gospel than that proclaimed by Christ and His Apostles, namely, that:Saints are appointed to suffer! You cannot make a church of cowards; nor a conquering host of pain-fearing souls. Lieut. Commander Gilmore describes a battle with Filipinos, in which a young man by the name of Venville attempted to fix the disabled lock of a rifle. While about it a bullet went through the flesh of his neck. “I am hit, Mr. Gilmore,” he said.

But not stopping to stanch the blood, he wrought away at the rifle. Shortly a second bullet pierced his breast, coming out at the arm pit. “I am hit again,” he remarked, as his face writhed with the pain; but he ceased not from his endeavor to revamp the injured gun. The third bullet cut a furrow in the left side of his forehead. “Mr. Gilmore, they hit me again,” as he wiped the blood from his brow. Three minutes later a bullet crashed into his ankle, the most painful of the wounds. Leaping up from his position, he said, “They have hit me the fourth time; but I have fixed the gun!”That lad of seventeen was an ensample to Christians.

The like of him conquers on battle fields. The Church of God was never called to defeat!Saints should rejoice to suffer for Christ’s sake.“Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. “If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you”. There is no good cause that does not involve suffering. Men are not accustomed to draw back on that account; but rather to rejoice in it. A mother suffers to bring her child to birth, sacrifices for its breeding; a father suffers in the maintenance of his family, and yet delights in it none the less. Not a high political office, in which a man really serves his constituents, but he does it by fatigue of body, much worriment of mind, and often anguish of spirit as well. Good men delight to pay these prices in the service of a noble cause.Demosthenes affirmed concerning Philip of Macedon, that he had seen him covered with wounds, his collar-bone broken, maimed both in his hands and his feet, face the most imminent danger, ready to deliver up to Fortune any other part of his body that she might desire, provided he might live honorably and gloriously with the rest of it.Shall the Christian be willing to undertake less for his Lord than warriors have undertaken in the interests of conquest or in the Service of State? Shall he rejoice less in .the privilege of sacrifice for the noblest Name, than sinners have rejoiced in making a name for themselves? Over the bier of a sleeping saint I heard Arthur Pierson say, “‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord”. ‘Blessed’, that word can seldom be employed in description of our state while living.”And yet, Peter employs it here to express the privileges of those who are partakers in Christ’s sufferings, and are reproached for Christ’s sake.Saints should guard against suffering for unrighteousness. “Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the House of God”. There is no more sore reproach to the Church of God than to have one who has taken its vows fall into such sins as are here described. Mark you, Peter couples with the “murderer” and the “thief”, the “evildoer” and “busybody in other men’s matters”,There is no joy for those who suffer on account of their own sins. When self adds its tongue to that of the public criticism, painful indeed is his condition, and if that one be professedly a Christian, the cause of God suffers reproach. The need of the world, as surely as the interests of the Church, are embodied in a blameless life, in a consecration that justifies every profession.A converted Indian said to a visitor, “The white men used to come and tell us about Christianity, about the Great Spirit and Heaven, and about Jesus Christ. But we looked at the white men and they drank like us Indians, and they cheated us, and we did not believe their doctrine. But one day Henry Ranch came among us, and after telling us about the Great Spirit, and Jesus Christ, he lay down among us with my bow and tomahawk beside him, and without a fear slept, knowing that I could kill him.

He wakened and lived among us like ourselves, shared our hardships, did everything good. We saw as we looked at him that his doctrine was true, and that is why we became Christian Indians.”Phillips Brooks once referred to the custom oI Christian pilgrims going to the Jordan to be baptized there, in a pure white robe, which was then laid aside to be used again for the purpose of their burial. They were to be robed in it again when dead. After all the sins and miseries and vicissitudes of life were over, they would come back at last and meet that symbol of purity with which they started in the new life. Then he remarks, “Often with that robe laid up at home they must stop in the midst of some evil passage of their lives and remember how white it is, and be humiliated.” You may have been baptized in the black robe, and you may be buried in the same; but your baptism was the symbol of professed death to the old life and of resurrection to walk worthy before the world. How does your conduct compare with that profession?“Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. * * “Let them that suffer * * commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” IN CHRIST’S SERVICE In the opening of the fifth chapter Peter says:“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight”, etc. The superior exhorts to service as if he were only an equal.“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder”. Peter could have reminded them of his authority; yea, even of his infallibility. He could have said, “I, who am over you in authority, have a right to exhort, yea, even to command you.” He did say nothing of the sort, “I exhort, who am also an elder”. That was as high an honor as Peter ever held; and doubtless as high an honor as he ever desired. The crown of his exaltation was in the fact that he had been “a witness of the sufferings of Christ”. That was a delicate reference to his appointment as an Apostle, but involves no claim of lordship over his brethren. The Apostle here refers to his own vision of the crucifixion.

If any of you have ever looked upon that great panorama, “Jerusalem on the Day of Crucifixion,” which was once on exhibition in Chicago, you remember that Peter is pictured as in a cleft of the rock beyond the brow of the hill, weeping out his soul, yet looking through his tears on his dying Lord. In the memory of that vision he exhorts these brethren to loyalty in service; and, in the same speech, takes his place on a level with the elders of the Church.One of the greatest preachers in this country, a man famed the world over for what he has accomplished, said awhile since, “God give us humility. I think it is the prayer I covet most that God will keep my spirit low and broken.” “Them that honour Me I will honour”, and he that exalteth Me shall be exalted.Superiors are set as ensamples; not as masters.“Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; “Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock”. One cannot think of conceit as manifested in the folk who have most of it, without marveling as much at its experience as at its expression. What is the ground of this great opinion of one’s self? Undoubtedly ignorance, as well as pride! We never listen to a man prate about the voices of the latest scholarship, about being abreast of the age, and in the same breath discredit God’s Word, despising God’s Prophets, taking issue with the Apostles of Jesus, if not with the Son of Man Himself; we never meet a little man who believes himself to be some great one, but we are reminded of what Phillips Brooks once said, “The White Mountains have never seen the Alps; and Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson looking down on their lower peaks must think they are the summits of the world. It is surprising how small men can make their world, so that the petty supremacy of the school-room, or a shop counter (he might have added, the little knoll of pulpit eminence) is enough to kill out humility.”Then he goes on to show how the smallest man will keep his egoism by picking out some weakness of his superior, and comparing it with his best point of natural strength. But says Brooks, “See God; lift your eyes to Him; at once all is changed.

It is as if you took the brown-rugged hill, and towered up into the sky beyond it the white, starry, topless Alpine mountains. All question of feet and inches departs, and in the consciousness of its loftiness that which had counted itself great does homage to the truly great.”The one reason, beloved, why Peter was solicitous that men should not be puffed up; that elders should not be self-constituted bosses, nor yet grow great through their own greed, rested in the fact that he had once been in the presence of Christ, and as he stood there, he saw himself as he was, and on his face cried, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man”.If any of us have been tempted to be lords, at the feet of the Lord of lords we will find out our true office, namely, servants. And if we would attain to more, then, “ensamples to the flock”. That is the highest eminence possible. It is also the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon a human life.Humility is the mark of all true servants.“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you”. Michelet, speaking of Joan of Arc, says, “In the space of a few years before and after the Pucelle every Province had its saint, either a Pierette, a Breton peasant girl, who holds converse with Jesus Christ, or a Marie of Avignon, a Catherine Rochelle, or a poor shepherd such as Saiutrailles, brings up from his own country, who had stigmata on feet and hands, and who sweats blood on the holy days.”Aye; but those are not the distinguishing marks of the true saint. “Humility” is that mark. Peter wants it to characterize “all” since “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble”. And if one remembers that he is regenerated by the grace of God, and is kept by the Divine care, what place is left for pride?Paul reminds us that he might have been proud of his birth, his family, his tribe, his sect, his education, his office, but these he “counted loss for Christ”. OF CHRIST’S “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: “Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal Glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. “To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever”. The saints, in soberness, must watch against the adversary. Peter never debated the doctrine of a personal devil. No other inspired man ever did. That poor business was left to the speculators of the twentieth century; the false prophets and prophetesses of “the latter times.” Peter knew nothing of the sentence, “The devil is not. A lie is all the Satan there is.” The Adversary was the “devil” who “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”.Saints do well to watch against him in all soberness. The lion roars not while in search of prey, but stalks the land with stealthy, yea even noiseless step. Shall the frontier settler “gather in the calves and fold the sheep at night, lock his own door while he sleeps, and warn his children to be careful at broad-day because there are wild beasts abroad,” and yet men take no interest in guarding their souls against the adversary who once struck down the Son of God, and who seeks now to destroy every subject of His grace in death and hell?“Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, who after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him”. The saints, in faith, must withstand the adversary.“Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world”. The longer I live the more am I convinced not only of the personality of the devil, but of his influence upon the character of those who fellowship with him. Men become like their comrades; and you must have taken note of the character of the children of the devil. The one person in all the world most stealthy in his movements, most conscienceless in his covered conduct, most treacherous in his character, is the man who has once named the Name of Christ, but afterward become the victim of the adversary. The only way to meet this man is to withstand him steadfastly. Along with the traits before mentioned there goes, always and everywhere, the additional one of cowardice. If you flee before his face, he will follow, assault, and destroy; if you meet him with unflinching courage he will cower, retract, and retreat.

You may be certain that the same traits make up the character of the adversary, hence it is written, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”.Canon Farrar, speaking to young men who had already surrendered too often to the adversary, said, “Oh, if any of you have lost the drawbridge, in God’s Name drive back the enemy from the wall; if he has reached the wall, fight for the portcullis; if he has carried the portcullis rally every shattered power and wounded energy, and die rather than admit him at the gate! And don’t have any tears or any parleying; don’t stop even to bury your dead!” But he should have added, “Your victory will depend, after all, not in any power that is natural: but be won by being “stedfast in the faith”. They that trust the Lord shall not be put to shame.By the grace of God shall the saint be established and rewarded.“The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal Glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. “To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever”. These are marvelous words, “perfect”, “stablish”, “strengthen”. It is not enough to make a man “perfect”; the flower is that; but it is not established; it soon passes away. It is not enough to make a man “perfect”, and “stablish” him; I have known characters that were fixed, and yet were without strength. They held to “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” unflinchingly, but they held as an untaught bather, who has waded beyond his depths, hangs to the rope that has been cast him. They have no power to rise against the waves, and propel themselves ashore. We need “perfection”, we need “establishment”, but oh, how we need “strength”!

And, we can have it, for to Christ belongs our victory for ever and ever; and the man in Christ has the right to say with Paul, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”.If you will, permit me to turn back for just a moment, to say that the suffering, serving saints are not only perfected, established, and strengthened, but they are rewarded by the Son of God.For when the “Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away”.Once in his life, Peter became solicitous concerning what he should receive for the sacrifices that he had made for Christ. Peter answers that now. The Lord had told him already, but as he is nearing the end of life, he has had by the Spirit visions of the crown of glory that was to be his portion. Have you never been impressed with the fact that he employs exactly the same words that Paul uses, when in his dungeon prison, he peered through the eternal gates, saying as he looked,“I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His Appearing”. I shall not attempt to-day to tell you what the reward of faithful servants will be; nor to picture the felicity of the final state of the saved. Such description is impossible, hence the great silences of Apostle and Prophet concerning the same. But true believers will abide the hour, knowing that when we come home we “shall be satisfied”.Do you remember how Garibaldi, when the war between Austria and Sardinia broke out, went forth in his country’s interests. He left his plain farm place Caprera. After an absence of two years the bloody tyrant of Naples had been driven from his throne; Sicily had been delivered from oppression; nine millions of subjects had been added to the dominion of Victor Emmanuel. All Italy had been made one nation excepting the dominions of the Pope and the province of Venetia!

And it all came about through the work of Garibaldi. The fire of his patriotism had wrought these marvels!

His biographer says, “The grateful king desired to bestow upon him some splendid reward, which Garibaldi firmly refused. And so the king set about a splendid surprise. November, 1860, Garibaldi was making his way to Caprera to spend the winter in repose at his plain farm place. When he approached it, he saw no object that he could recognize. His rough and tangled farm had been changed as if by enchantment into elegant grounds, with roads, paths, lawns, gardens, shrubbery and avenues. His cottage was gone, and in its place stood a villa, replete with every convenience within and without.

As he walked from room to room, wondering what magician had worked this transformation, he observed a full-length portrait of King Victor Emmanuel, and the mystery was explained.In the days of battle he had never thought of reward. The question big in his breast was, “How can I serve my country?” In that work he forgot himself, and in the demand of the present, despised all problems of the future.

But his king forgot him not. Shall the true servants of our Victor Emmanuel, even Christ, be forgotten? Nay, nay, servants of God; your future home is now taking form under His direction, and at the touch of His own magic hand! And when the battle is finished, and your feet, weary with the long warfare, turn toward it, the sight that shall greet your eyes will ravish your hearts with joy, and intoxicate your minds with the splendor which He hath prepared for them that loved and served Him!Peter sent his message to his readers by the hand of Silvanus—or Silas—“A faithful brother” and included in it salutations from the Church in Babylon, and from John Mark, the Evangelist. May the Spirit of God bear to you what I have spoken, and know ye that with it come the salutations of God—the Father, and of His Son—Jesus, the True Evangel—“Peace be with you all that are in Christ”.