1 Peter week 16

August 3, 2011 Pray
Read 1 Peter 5

v.1 - Peter is closing out his letter to the churches in Asia Minor, making sure to hit on a few things first. He puts himself in the same position, as elder, letting those whom he is writing to know that he doesn’t hold himself up above any of them, though he very easily could being that he was one of the 12 disciples that Jesus chose which meant he was an eyewitness of Christ and what he said was to be respected. Peter was humble, which he calls us too later in this chapter. Peter is asserting that he is in the same boat as these men who are leading the church.

v.2-3 - He calls these older men to be shepherds of the people of God. We get our English word ‘pastor’ from the Greek word for shepherd. To shepherd a flock means to watch them and protect them, guide them and help them to grow. Peter is basically telling these men that they are to be the leaders of the church, to exercise oversight within the group. Elders are to shepherd the flock willingly not having to be forced to do so as God would have it. Peter is encouraging us to shepherd others with the right attitude. Another encouragement that Peter gives those who are leaders in God’s house is that they are not to do it with money in mind. Money should not be the sole motivating factor in why you shepherd others. Jesus did not have a church that wrote Him checks every week. But still someone had to support Him and He relied on God’s provision as He walked this earth. He did not walk into a place and say ‘as long as you pay me I will teach you about God’. No He trusted God to provide for Him and he ministered everywhere He went. The third way a shepherd is supposed to serve is that they are to lead by example. They are not supposed to hold to the saying of ‘do as I say not as I do.’ Actually they are supposed to do ministry the exact opposite. As shepherds we are to say to those who we are in charge of, ‘follow me as I follow Christ.’

v.4 - when Christ returns, we who have been faithful to shepherd His flock like we should, will be given a crown of glory, but we must remain faithful and live our lives shepherding those with whom we are entrusted.

v.5-7 - Peter now switches gears to speak to those who may need to learn to be humble, he is speaking to those who are being shepherded. Those who are younger are subject to the elders. There is always someone who we can learn from and be guided by so this is an exhortation for all of us. We need to understand that we will never have all the knowledge or wisdom that this world has to offer. We will never know all there is to know about our God. We are all in some way ‘younger’ in our faith to others and we need to clothe ourselves with humility and accept that we may need to be taught some things about our faith. When we have humility we can learn better, we treat others better. If we really understand grace and all that God has done for us we will not be proud, but we will be humble. When we humble ourselves before God it is easy to rely on Him for all that we need. In verse 7 it says to cast all cares on Him because He cares for us. We can only do that when we are humble, not when we think we can fix it all by ourselves.

v.8-11 - Peter tells us here that we need to be watchful and vigilant, looking out for the devil. He encourages us in that we CAN resist the devil and that we are not alone in our suffering in this world. Peter also encourages us that God himself walks with us and in the end will restore us and help us through all of our suffering.

v. 12-14 - Here is Peter’s final greeting, stand firm in the true grace of God.

**This is not an exhaustive study on these verses. these are just my notes for the talk that I gave this past Wednesday night to the students in my ministry. If you have questions or comments or would like to discuss what I have posted feel free, in fact I encourage it. thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog!!**