Called To His Eternal Glory- 1Peter 5:6-10

As we continue our examination of 1 Peter, we now move on to Peter’s explanation of how and why God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. He begins, in verse 6, by exhorting the mature to “humble themselves under God’s mighty hand”. The context here deals with difficult circumstances, which has been Peter’s primary focus since chapter three. Our example, as always, is Jesus, who “humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). Jesus understood that the difficulty (the cross) was part of God’s plan and would ultimately result in much good (our salvation). Peter here says the same thing applies to the difficulties we face in this life. The difficulty we face is ultimately from God and has a good purpose, it is in God’s “mighty hand”, and He will “lift us up” (the difficulty will end) “in due time” (when the difficulty has served its purpose). Peter then provides instruction for how we are to behave in the midst of the difficulty, how we are to deal with it. We are to first “cast all our anxiety on Him, because He cares for us”. We are not to be anxious or worried in the difficulty, but are to cast it upon the Lord in prayer. We take the situation to the Lord in prayer, presenting our request to Him (Philippians 4:7), letting Him know what we would like to see happen, but leaving it in His hands to do what He knows is best (that’s the “humble yourself” part), and leaving it in His hands basically means not to worry or obsess about it, to leave it to Him and focus on other things. Peter then continues his instruction by telling us to be “self-controlled and alert”, because we have an enemy who is “looking for someone to devour”. So how does the devil fit into all of this if the difficulty comes from God? What Peter tells us here is that the devil does not bring the difficulty, but will try to take advantage of the difficulty and use it to “devour” us. What this means is that the devil will devour those he is able to, he will prey on those who do not understand that the difficulty is ultimately from God and for our good, on those who don’t give the difficulty to God and leave it there, on those who worry about, fear and obsess over the difficulty. These are the ones the devil will devour, using their own fear, stress, worry and anxiety to destroy them, it is those who are not “clear minded and self-controlled” whom the devil “may devour”. Peter then concludes his instruction here with a summary statement, telling us to “resist him” (he has just finished telling us how), “standing firm in the faith”, trusting in God to get us through the difficulty and not handling it ourselves, for that is the very thing which gives the devil the opportunity to devour us. He then concludes by telling us that all true believers will face difficulties and tribulations, that this world is no friend to the faith, and the difficulties are actually a confirmation that one’s faith is genuine. Peter then concludes by reminding us that there is ultimately a purpose to the difficulties, that God has “called us to His eternal glory in Christ”. Peter tells us here that the temporary trials and difficulties we deal with here and now will produce for us a glory which will endure for all eternity. As Paul puts it: “For our light and momentary troubles are producing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17). So both Peter and Paul tell us clearly that difficulties are part of life for the believer in this broken world, but we are not to let these difficulties derail our faith, the faith which they both demonstrated in their lives and display for us here. For what we find is that both of them tell us that the troubles we endure in faith here produce for us an eternal glory, but neither of them tell us exactly what that glory will consist of or what it will look like. They both accepted by faith that it would be worth it because God told them it would, and Peter here calls us to the same faith, to each of us living our lives staying “clear minded and “self-controlled” in the midst of difficulties, “casting our cares upon the Lord” (leaving the situation in His hands), not giving the devil the opportunity to devour us through fear and anxiety, and keeping our eyes focused in the glory we will share in for all eternity.