Wherein ye exult, for a little while at present, if needed, put to grief by various trials,
Peter writes to believers scattered and under real pressure. In one sentence he sets great rejoicing beside deep grief, and raises three questions: what holds the joy up, why is the grief allowed, and how long will it last?
The joy does not come from circumstances. It rests on what Peter has just described: a salvation kept in reserve, still to be revealed. One writer notes that Peter uses the word "salvation" in more than one sense. Here he means the full and final one:
There is another sense of salvation, and the apostle, as we will soon see, does not ignore it at all; but he qualifies the term. When he refers it to the present, it is the salvation of souls, not of bodies… On the other hand, as here, when salvation is meant plainly and fully, we are pointed forward to the revelation of the last time.
Peter does not tell suffering people that their sorrow is unreal. Both halves of the verse are true at once:
How good to see here that deep sorrow can go together with great joy — a joy that only faith knows, faith in what God has revealed. The sorrow is not made light of, for it is called the grief of many trials of various kinds. But the certainty and blessedness of that salvation, which is near, rises above it.
Older translations say "heaviness" here, which can sound like spiritual flatness. One writer separates the two, and shows Peter lifting his readers' eyes up before bringing them back to earth:
If you are thinking of the scene where Christ is, where you will be with Him; if your hearts rest on that inheritance which He is keeping for you… you will be rejoicing. What else can you do but rejoice with such a prospect? Then he drops down to earth again in this sixth verse, and says, You may be "put to grief" by various trials. But the "heaviness" here is not what we often call heaviness. That means a soul dull and heavy because it is out of communion with the Lord. Here it is the soul under pressure, with the Lord seeing the need for the many trials.
No trial arrives without a reason behind it, and that reason is God's:
It is a fact that we shall never be in heaviness through many trials unless there is a need for it. God does not test us on a whim. He does not delight in our testings and our heaviness, or even in chastening or rebuking or scourging. Hebrews 12 assures us of that. So each of us has to say: if God did not see some spiritual need to meet, I would not be facing this trial and its heavy pressure.
The word "various" shows why comparing sufferings never works, and why God means us to feel the pressure:
Your difficulty is not mine, very likely. You may look at me with an envious eye and say, It is all very well for you. Well, is it? I may have testings you know nothing of. Trials come in many kinds, and we are often weighed down by them. We feel it. The weight of them comes down upon us and we cannot escape the weight, and, let me tell you this, we are not intended to. We are intended to feel these things, so that we are tested by them.
The same phrase marks the world's pleasures too:
Thank God for those words, "for a season." … In Hebrews 11 we find Moses making his immortal choice. He says: Give me the reproach of Christ, with the glory that follows. Let me not walk in the track of the pleasures of sin — they last only for a season. The pleasures of the world and the trials and afflictions of God's people last only for the same short time — "for a season." The heaviness of many trials is only for a season. When the worldly man's pleasures die out inside him, the heaviness of God's people will end too.
- Cause — The joy does not come from circumstances. It rests on a salvation kept for the revelation of the last time.
- Coexistence — The sorrow is real, not denied or made small. Faith does not erase the grief. It outweighs it with the salvation that is near.
- Character — The heaviness is pressure on the soul, not the dullness of a believer out of touch with the Lord.
- Care — "If need be" rules out whim. God takes no pleasure in afflicting; where there is no need, there is no trial.
- Clock — The world's pleasures and the believer's trials both run "for a little while." Only the rejoicing outlasts the season.
that the proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire, be found to praise and glory and honour in [the] revelation of Jesus Christ
Peter has just spoken of grief and many kinds of trials, and here he gives the reason for them: God tests faith the way a refiner tests gold. He values that faith far above gold, and He has fixed a day when its worth will be shown.
Peter says the grief comes only when there is a need for it. One writer finds comfort in that, and turns it into a question each of us should ask.
It is a fact that we will never be weighed down by many kinds of trials unless there is a need for it. God does not test us on a whim. He does not enjoy our testings and our sorrow, or even correcting us, rebuking us or disciplining us. Hebrews 12 assures us of that. So each of us has to say, If God did not see some spiritual need to be met, I would not be facing this trial and feeling its heavy pressure.
Gold lasts, yet Peter calls it "gold that perishes." One writer takes that word seriously and asks what it makes faith worth.
Gold does not perish easily. No. When they dug up poor old Tutankhamen, they found him surrounded by splendid things. There were objects of papyrus and fine linen from Egypt, brown with age, crumbling at a touch. But there were also objects of gold, and they were barely marked compared with everything else in that famous tomb. Gold lasts a long time, yet it perishes. The clear implication is that faith does not. Faith is much more precious than gold that perishes. God treasures your faith, and "precious" is the word He uses for it. In God's sight, faith is something of very, very great price.
Testing is not an accident that may or may not fall on a believer. Another writer states it as a rule with no exceptions.
Faith's place is on earth, and God tests it. He never gives faith without testing it. That testing produces fruit, and the fruit will be seen later, when everything is brought to light at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Fire sounds destructive. A refiner's fire is not. He lights it because the metal is worth saving, and one writer applies that to the believer.
Why does the goldsmith take such trouble and spend so long over the pot where he refines his gold? Because the gold is so valuable. He wants to remove the impurities and leave it at its finest. God allows His people to go into that pot, and He tests them, even by fire. He does it because in His view faith is worth so much... The truth is this: if we Christians suffer no testing, we will never be more than weaklings in spiritual terms. The testing itself is what makes us strong.
Peter's word is "found." That meets a real feeling in long illness or suffering: the sense that the time is wasted.
We tend to think that a time of deep trial is all wasted time, because it may keep us out of active service for the Lord. No, says God, it will be "found to praise" at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Who receives the praise, glory and honor? The verse does not say, and commentators read it in two ways. Some take it as glory brought to Christ. (Both writers below quote an older translation, which reads "praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.")
It says, it "shall be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The thing that seemed to be lost is going to be found. What a finding it will be when that hour comes! It will be found to praise and honour and glory. Whose? That of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the hour when He appears in glory, He will have His own glory, the glory of the Father, and the glory of the holy angels. Even so, He will not be too great to wear a little glory brought to Him by these things we thought were lost.
Others read it as the believer's reward. They rest the point on the word Peter chooses: not the Lord's coming to take His own, but His revelation.
Note again that praise, honour, and glory are connected with Christ's revelation. His coming to receive us and take us to the Father's house is supreme grace. At His revelation He will weigh our faithfulness and reward it. Both will certainly come true, but God's righteous government is quite different from His sovereign grace.
- Needed. Grief never comes on a whim. It comes because God sees a need in you that must be met.
- Valued. The fire falls on faith because God prizes it. Gold survived a pharaoh's tomb, yet gold perishes; faith does not.
- Refined. Untested faith stays weak. The refiner's fire burns off the impurities and makes a believer strong.
- Found. Time that looked wasted, and service you could not give, is not lost. God will find it and turn it to praise.
- Displayed. The finding happens when Jesus Christ is revealed. Some read the praise, glory and honor as brought to Him; others as reward given to the faithful.