The Greatest Sin (1 Peter 5:5-7)

Mutual Submission and Humility in the Community

1 Peter 5:5-7

Introduction

· Living Upwardly as Pilgrims in our responsibilities to the Christian Community (4:7-5:14)

o Responsibilities to the Community: Pray (4:7); Love (4:8); Be Hospitable (4:9); Serve (4:10-11)

o Assurances for the Suffering Community (4:12-19)

o Exhortation for the Shepherds of the Community (5:1-4)

o Mutual Submission and Humility in the Community (5:5-7) [Click to BOLD]

o Recognize the Satanic Dimension of Suffering (5:8-11)

o Final Exhortation & Benediction (5:12-14)

In this section where Peter is exhorting believers to live upwardly as pilgrims in our responsibilities to the Christian community, after exhorting his fellow elders, Peter now moves to those who are younger. By using the word “likewise,” Peter is referring to the manner of his communication. Just as he exhorted the elders rather than using his position as an apostle to domineer over them, so now he is exhorting the younger people in v. 5 and everybody in v. 6.

So the two areas in which Peter will exhort them are regarding Mutual Submission and Humility in the Community.

Appeal to the Younger to be Submissive (5:5a)

A. Submission in 1 Peter

The word “submit” appears 38x in the NT, 6x in 1 Pet (9x in 1 Cor because of the division and problems in the church).

· Regarding Governmental Institutions: 1 Pet. 2:13 "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;"

· Regarding Employers: 1 Pet. 2:18 "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward."

· Wives to Husbands: 1 Pet. 3:1 "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;" 1 Pet. 3:5 "For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:"

· Angelic beings to Jesus: 1 Pet. 3:22 "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him."

· Younger to the Elder: 1 Pet. 5:5 "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."

This word has a sense of getting out of line and is used in the military where soldiers are supposed to get in line, following the marching orders and where a soldier subjects himself to his superior.

B. Submission to Elders

This shift in addressing the younger may cause us to think that the “elders” in the previous passage are those advanced in age, but the content of the exhortation in vv. 1-4 makes it clear that Peter is referring to church leaders.

But note that Peter addresses the elders first and exhorts them to not lord it over their flock. And now, the younger ones are called to submit to the leadership of these elders.

A cross reference is Heb. 13:17 "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."

In this case, the author of Heb gives the imperative for the flock to obey these leaders and submit themselves. This is because of the duty of the leaders to watch for their souls. What a solemn responsibility that is. You need to allow them to do their job. Many pastors found it a challenge to watch over the souls of their flock in 2020 with the pandemic. By God’s grace we started the Lifegroups so that we could decentralize care for souls under different Lifegroup leaders. I am very thankful for them. There will always be challenges in watching for souls, but I have heard of many blessings also.

Submission doesn’t mean you blindly obey. I am very glad to listen to feedback and to give consideration to your sharing. We may not be able to implement everything, but I don’t make the decisions alone; we have a collective decision-making mechanism, and ultimately it goes up to the congregation for a vote. So everybody has a voice and everybody is involved.

C. Why This Exhortation to Younger Ones

Peter is probably addressing something commonly known as generation gap. This will always be a potential problem when you have a church that has a range of ages. This is why we have our own peer groups, but it is good to also have inter-generational ministries. Paul wrote to Titus that the older women should train the younger women. Older people have gleaned wisdom that they can share with younger ones. They can warn younger people against potential pitfalls and mistakes. This is part of what is called mentoring or coaching, and the corporate world increasingly sees the need for consultants and coaches for their executives. This idea is from Scripture.

Young people have the energy and you are generally very comfortable with the technologies you grow up with. But increasingly I have seen flexibility in older people in adapting to technology etc.

D. How to Submit

1. Do Not Despise Older People

It is tempting for younger people to look down on older folks. Nicknames like dinosaurs, antiques, expired are derogatory terms describing older folks. The sad thing is that even older people use those terms on themselves and feel discouraged that they really have nothing to contribute, that they should step aside to make way for younger blood.

I just spoke to Pastor Ott this week and he was very excited to tell me about his plans for expanding to Sarawak, how he wants to travel again. Don’t think that old people have no aspirations and that they should retire. If you are a human being made in God’s image, you have aspirations, regardless of how old or young you are. That is what gets you up in the morning. So don’t despise older people.

2. Be Teachable and Tap on the Wisdom of the Older People

Once again, older people have gained experience and some have gone through it the hard way. Listen to their stories and learn from their successes and failures. Many of them grew up in an era in which the way they learned how to swim was to be kicked into the pool to struggle on their own. They learned to swim by struggling and they don’t have a coach or mentor to help them avoid the pitfalls. Now, they are burdened to help the next generation gain a firmer footing as they embark on their career, or parenting, or ministry.

3. Respectfully Give Your Feedback

I think many older people are open to listening and taking feedback, but it is always easier to receive when given in a respectful way. There will always be some disagreement but it is good to talk things through. Both sides should be willing to listen to each other.

(Trans: There is another big hinderance that Peter will bring up in what he addresses)

C. S. Lewis in his classic work Mere Christianity, has a chapter entitled, “The Great Sin”. He says, “There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. . . . There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit. . . . It was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” (121).

II. Appeal to All for Humility (5:5b-7)

Note this injunction is for everybody: “all of you.” So this is not just for young people, but all people, old and young.

The first person that should come to your mind ought to be the Lord Jesus Christ because Peter describes humility as something to be put on, like clothing, perhaps a servant’s apron, taking a lowly position to serve others, like our Lord Jesus who girded a towel around himself and washed the disciples’ feet.

A. Reasons for Humility (5:5c-6)

1. Because God Opposes the Proud but Gives Grace to the Humble (5:5c)

Peter quotes from the Septuagint version of Pro 3:34, which James also quotes in James 4:6. Prov. 3:34 "Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly." In the book of Proverbs, this scorner is commonly described as a “fool.” A fool scorns God’s help because of his pride in himself.

Nothing is more devastating than for the omnipotent God to oppose you. If you think about it, the proud are too proud to ask God for help. They are filled with attitudes of self-sufficiency and independence. And God opposes them. You can see the evidences of God’s opposition when they are frustrated that life isn’t working out the way they want to. You can see the anger when things are out of their control. When you try to live life without God, you are miserable and frustrated.

Have you ever told a proud person that you are praying for him? He shows you a scowl because he doesn’t need you to pray for him. He is doing fine without God’s help—thank you very much!

Lewis observes that pride is by nature competitive. He says, “it is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.” That is why God is such an enemy. “In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself…. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

On the other hand, humility is marked by an attitude of dependence. If you don’t ask God, then you don’t get. If you are self-sufficient, you don’t think you need God. As believers, God puts us in one situation after another to show us that we need to depend on Him. These are lessons in humility. Regardless of how capable you are, you need to depend on God.

In fact, everyone who would come to God for salvation enters through the door of humility by acknowledging that he has no ability to save himself and that he is a sinner, and that is why he needs Jesus to do this for him. It takes humility to acknowledge these things.

Jobes: “True humility, as opposed to a contrived, self-degrading humiliation, flows from recognizing one’s complete dependence on God and is expressed by the acceptance of one’s role and position in God’s economy. With such humility one is freed from attempts to gain more power or prestige. Instead, humility expresses itself in the willingness to serve others even beyond one’s self-interest.”

2. Because It Allows God to Exalt You (5:6)

“Under the mighty hand of God”: The mighty hand signifies the power of God. This phrase has particular association with God delivering Israel out of Egypt.

· Exod. 32:11 "And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?”

· Deut. 5:15 "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day."

· Deut. 6:21 "Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand:"

· Dan. 9:15 "And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly."

So just as the Lord rescued His people in Egypt, so shall he rescue the suffering Christians to whom Peter is writing. But you have to be humble in order to come under God’s mighty hand.

God in due time will exalt the humble. The exaltation of the humble was often taught by Jesus (Matt. 23:12 "Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted,” Lu 14:11; 18:14). The humble are often despised and viewed as weak. God will exalt them in due time. It is not that they will necessarily be vindicated and exalted in this life. That is important to note. We may never experience justice in this life. We need to bear that in mind. Peter is referring to the day of judgment in the last time. While on earth, Christian may lose out, but they will certainly be exalted in the last time. Once again, Peter is drawing the attention of suffering believers to what they can expect at the end times. Things will be tremendously glorious for the believer.

This truth is powerfully displayed in Phil 2:8-11 when He raised His Son from the dead, highly exalted him and gave him a name above every name, at which every knee shall bow. On the other hand, those who are not humble will not be exalted; rather, they will be crushed by the mighty hand of God.

B. How We Can Humble Ourselves (5:7)

1. By casting all our cares and anxieties upon Him.

It is so important to put this familiar verse into its context. We know this so well, but have we ever related this verse to its greater context of humbling ourselves? The word “casting” is a participle and it subordinates to the main verb of “humble yourselves” in v. 6. How does it relate to the main verb? As instrumental. In other words, v. 7 explains how believers can humble themselves under God’s mighty hand. Believers humble themselves by casting their anxieties on God.

And this relationship between casting our cares on him to humbling ourselves shows that worry is evidence of pride. If the way you humble yourselves is to cast your cares on Jesus, then not casting your cares on him (worry) is a form of pride. It is pride that your shoulders are strong enough to carry your own burdens. It is pride to convince yourself that you have the ability and strength to solve your own problems. Rather than trusting God to take care of your problems, you trust yourself instead. There is unbelief, lack of faith.

(Ill: Remember the account of the disciple who were not able to cast out the demon out of a boy in Mark 9:18? Jesus responded, “O faithless generation” (Mark 9:19). That means the disciples were trying to cast out the demon in their own strength. They were not relying on the Lord.)

Peter is writing to a group of suffering people, and suffering people are often filled with anxiety. Jesus taught that anxiety about life can choke out God’s Word (Mark 4:19). When Christians cast their anxieties on the Lord, they are expressing their trust in His mighty hand, acknowledging that He is Lord and Sovereign over all of life. But casting your cares on God wouldn’t do any good if He were not able to help in any way, or if he were cruel or indifferent, or hateful or unconcerned. Goppelt: “Affliction either drives one into the arms of God or severs one from God.”

Affliction should drive us into the arms of God because God cares for us.

The fact is that God is not cruel or indifferent, or hateful or unconcerned. He does care for us. He is compassionate towards His children and will sustain them in every distress. Jesus taught his followers in Matt 6:25-34 to take no thought for our lives, to trust God to provide because our heavenly Father knows that we have need of all these things. We also see allusions to Ps 55:22.

Are you filled with anxiety, worry, and care? If you want peace in your life, the first thing you need to do is to confess the pride in your life, the pride of not trusting God to carry your burden.

Discussion Questions

1. Why does C. S. Lewis call pride “the great sin”?

2. Read Matthew 20:20-28. How does humility factor into serving God’s kingdom?

3. Read Prov. 3:28-35. How does God define humility, and how does He feel about pride? Ultimately, where does a prideful attitude lead us?

Conclusion

A big part of the Christian life is God dealing with our pride. He often deals with our pride through hardships and mistakes. The hard knocks of life can have a humbling effect if only we are humble enough to allow that effect to take place and to learn from our mistakes! Some are too proud to learn, so they miss the precious lessons God is teaching them and they don’t change. Sanctification involves change, and change requires humility. May God give us the grace to be humble.