1 Peter 5 10-11 <>< The Suffering of the Believer: God’s Provision and Power
This passage concludes Peter’s letter to the
believers. But before he makes his concluding remarks, he has one more
important subject to discuss: the suffering of the believer and God. The
believer suffers greatly in this world. The believer not only bears the natural
sufferings of this world that all men suffer, but he is attacked because of his
faith in Christ. He is attacked by both the devil and unbelievers because he
lives a righteous and godly life and proclaims the hope of salvation for all men.
Most people want nothing to do with pure godliness and holiness: they want to
live in the comfort and enjoyment of their desires and in the pleasures and
possessions of this world. Therefore, they reject and oppose anyone who
stresses pure godliness and holiness.
But the genuine believer has a great promise: God will take care of him
through all the sufferings of this life. God will keep and preserve the
believer and eventually take him on home to heaven. This is the great study of
this passage.
1. God’s
great resources: grace and His eternal call to glory (v. 10).
2. God’s
great provision (v. 10).
3. God’s
great power (v. 11).
God—Grace—Glory
There is God’s Great Resource.
Two
great resources are mentioned: His grace and His call to eternal glory.
Everything that God does for the believer is because of His grace. Note that He
is even called the God of all grace.
Grace means favor, the favor of God. God favors us; therefore, He blesses us.
Every blessing we ever receive comes from the favor of God, even life itself.
All good things come from God and from His grace.
But
note another fact as well: God has called us to eternal glory. He wants us
in heaven with Him, free from all the sin, dirt, filth, evil, corruption,
disease, and death of this world. God wants us perfected and glorified, made
just like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants us living with Him forever
and ever, worshipping and serving Him. He has called the believer to eternal
glory. Therefore, God will do anything—do what is necessary—to save and keep
the believer for glory. God has called the believer to glory; therefore, He is
committed to keep and preserve the believer for glory.
This
is the glorious truth: God’s grace and God’s call to eternal glory will
keep us through all the sufferings of this life. No matter how much Satan
attacks us, no matter how severe the suffering, God will keep us. He will keep
us …
• because
He is gracious to us; He has favored us
• because
He has called us to His eternal glory
“The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Ro. 8:16–17).
“But God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ep.
2:4–8).
“For our
conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Ph. 3:20–21).
“But my God shall
supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Ph.
4:19).
“When Christ, who is
our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col.
3:4).
“For the grace of
God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly,
in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:11–13).
“That being
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life” (Tit. 3:7).
God
There is God’s Great Provision.
How
does God keep and preserve the believer? The temptations and trials of life
are severe and fierce. How does God make sure the believer makes it to
heaven and its eternal glory? God does four wonderful things for the
believer.
Note:
in the Greek the emphasis is upon God Himself doing these things. God, Himself
becomes actively involved in taking care of the believer, in keeping and
preserving and taking the believer to heaven and its glory.
a. God Himself uses the believer’s suffering to perfect the
believer. The word perfect
(katartisei) means to make fit or join together; to restore. The Greek
authority Marvin Vincent says:
“The radical notion of the verb is … adjustment—the putting of all the parts
into right relation and connection. We find it used …
• “of
mending the nets (Mt. 4:21)
• “of
restoring an erring brother (Ga. 6:1)
• “of
framing the body and the worlds (He. 10:5; 11:3)
• “of
the union of members in the church (1 Co. 1:10; 2 Co. 13:11)
“Out of this comes the general sense of perfecting (Mt. 21:16; Lu. 6:40; 1 Th.
3:10).” (Word Studies In The New
Testament, Vol. 1, p. 671.) (Note: the paragraph has been outlined for
simplicity.)
God takes all of the displaced joints and broken limbs of
life and uses them to adjust our character. He uses all the trials and
temptations, difficulties and persecutions—all the sufferings of life—and makes
us more and more like Christ. If we are truly called of God and if we truly
love God, then God will take all that ever happens to us and work it out for
good. He will perfect us, fit all the parts of life together, and lead us to
glory. This is the glorious grace and call of God to eternal glory.
“Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mt.
5:48).
“For the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ” (Ep. 4:12–13).
“Knowing this, that
the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (Js. 1:3–4).
“But whoso keepeth
his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we
are in him” (1 Jn. 2:5).
b. God Himself uses the believer’s sufferings to
stablish the believer. The word stablish
(sterixei) means to make steadfast, firm, and solid. It means to be firmly set,
as firmly as if one was set in reinforced concrete. It means to be immovable.
God is able to attach us to Himself to such a degree that we will be immovable,
no matter how severe the attack of temptation or suffering. But remember our
duty: we must resist the devil and resist him steadfastly (v. 8).
The promise is clear: if we resist the devil and draw near God, He will draw
near us (Js. 4:7–8).
“Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw
nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and
purify your hearts, ye double minded” (Js. 4:7–8).
“To the end he may
stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (1 Th. 3:13).
“Now our Lord Jesus
Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts,
and stablish you in every good word and work” (2 Th. 2:16–17).
“Be ye also patient;
stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (Js. 5:8).
c. God Himself will strengthen (sthenosei) us. This is the only time this word is used
in the New Testament. Most translators say that it means strength. It would,
therefore, mean to be filled with all strength, with all the strength necessary
to overcome all the trials and temptations and sufferings of life. Again,
remember that it is only God Himself who can give us such enormous strength.
And He will if we will only draw near Him.
“That he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might
by his Spirit in the inner man” (Ep. 3:16).
“I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Ph. 4:13).
“Strengthened with
all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering
with joyfulness” (Col. 1:11).
“Notwithstanding the
Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be
fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of
the mouth of the lion” (2 Ti. 4:17).
d. God Himself will settle us. The word settle
(themeliosei) means to secure as in a foundation; to ground with security. God
is able to make us secure through all the sufferings of life, no matter what
they are. He is able to settle and secure our nerves, thoughts, and fears—all
the uneasy and unnerving emotions that disturb us. God can settle us if we will
only do one thing: resist the devil and draw near to Him.
“That Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded [settled]
in love” (Ep. 3:17).
“Therefore whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise
man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was
founded upon a rock” (Mt. 7:24–25).
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Ph. 4:6–7).
God—Power
There is God’s Power.
This
is a doxology, an exclamation of praise. In thinking about all that God
does for us, Peter just breaks forth with praise. God assures our
salvation—despite all our sins, failures, shortcomings, weaknesses, and
frailties—God calls us to eternal glory and secures us forever and ever. He
makes us perfect, stablishes, strengthens, and settles us through all the
temptations and trials and sufferings of life. He is God who possesses all
power—power which no person or thing can defeat. He is God, the glorious and
Sovereign Majesty of the universe; therefore, He is able to secure us. “To Him
be glory and dominion forever.”[2]
LIFE APPLICATION: JUST A LITTLE
WHILE
For believers, suffering will
not last forever. If you’re under stress, if food is scarce, if disease is
spreading, God promises that suffering will last “just a little while more.”
No matter what trouble you face,
hard as it is, God has stamped your life “temporarily out of order,” with
emphasis on “temporarily.” A day is coming when the Great Repairman will wrench
evil from the world and restore your life so that it works as God intended. You
will be in mint condition, guaranteed to function as God designed.
Many times, all we can do is
trust God and look forward to Jesus’ return when God will restore us. Our hope
is in him![3]
[1] The New King James Version. 1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[2] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. 1 Peter–Jude.
The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership
Ministries Worldwide.
[3] Barton, Bruce B. 1995. 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Jude. Life Application Bible Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Pub.
[4] https://www.bible.com/bible/114/1PE.5.10.NKJV
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