Likewise [ye] younger, be subject to [the] elder, and all of you bind on humility towards one another; for God sets himself against [the] proud, but to [the] humble gives grace.
Peter has just charged the elders who shepherd the flock. Now he turns to the younger, and then to everyone. It ties two things together: an order of respect among believers, and a warning that pride sets God against a person.
Peter sets "elder" directly against "younger," and that contrast shapes the word. He is not describing men appointed to an office:
This seems to be confirmed by the way the elders are in one place contrasted with the "younger" (1 Peter 5:1, 5). What is in question is experience, and moral weight to guide.
The command rules out two opposite errors at once:
Here we have a rule far removed from letting everyone do as they please on the one hand, and with no reference to office on the other. It calls for that godly subjection to age and seriousness which nature itself requires and the Word of God always teaches.
Older English versions add "be subject one to another" before the call to humility. Commentators see a problem in that reading:
As read in the Authorised Version, the second command here seems to make the first one pointless. If everyone is to be subject to everyone else, there is no reason to urge the younger to submit to the elder. So it matters that the words "be subject" in the second sentence should be left out... It is morally fitting that the younger submit to the elder. It is also the duty of all believers, young or old, to cherish the spirit of humility and to seek in love to serve one another.
The word translated "clothe yourselves" hides a sharper picture:
"Clothed" is too vague here. The word is found nowhere else in the New Testament, and is rare anywhere else. The picture comes from the apron a slave tied on to do his work in earnest without soiling his clothes. The Lord, from a far different motive, stooped lower still when He tied a linen towel around Himself to wipe the feet of His own, which He washed clean from what defiled them.
Peter gives this command out of his own failure:
Peter had suffered for his self-confidence, and the root of it was pride of heart. He wanted to save the believers he wrote to, and us, from this folly... God looks for the features of His Son to be reproduced in us. If the love of the Lord touches our hearts, we will gladly serve one another with humility of heart.
Pride never stays private. It works its way into the life of a whole company:
Pride works in us to exalt ourselves and to seek a place of prominence among the people of God. That destroys true fellowship among Christians. The allowance of pride leads to strife and division, but humility binds the saints together. Humility would keep the elder saints from lording it over God's flock, and hold the younger in subjection to the elder.
Peter backs the command with a warning about God's own attitude:
What a solemn thing for the saint of God to get into a position in which God has to resist him! What a dreadful thing to have the Lord set against us because of pride allowed in the heart! God resists a proud person: but where is there room for pride in us who are the vilest of the vile?
Peter is quoting a line that runs through the Bible, and the danger it names is close at hand:
He also strengthens the call with the solemn warning that God sets Himself against haughty men, and gives grace to the humble — word for word the same quotation as in James 4:6. See Proverbs 3:34 and Romans 12:16. So this is a moral principle that runs both ways through Scripture. It is a lesson for every soul in the church, day by day, and no one can afford to overlook it. It is needed all the more because there is a ready danger of becoming haughty through a misapplied idea of position and duty, and of losing the grace God is so willing to give by failing to cherish that lowliness which is found perfectly only in Christ.
The verse ends with a promise, and lowliness is the condition attached to it:
Pride is most offensive to God... If we want to draw on the vast resources of divine grace, there must be the humility that was seen in Christ and in those who follow His steps. We cannot come into God's presence in a spirit of pride. But we can come before Him to humble ourselves, and so be sure of true exaltation, in due time.
- Place — "Elder" here means older in years and experience, not a title. The younger owe them respect. That rules out both self-will and officialism.
- Dress — The word for "clothe" pictures a slave's apron tied on for work. Behind it stands the Lord, towel in hand, washing feet.
- Bond — Pride pushes for prominence and splits fellowship. Humility holds believers together, and it restrains elder and younger alike.
- Peril — Pride allowed in the heart sets God Himself against a believer. The danger is nearest where position and duty are misread.
- Supply — Grace flows to the lowly. Humble yourself now, and God will lift you up in His time.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in [the due] time;
The word "therefore" ties this command to what comes just before it: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Two questions press on anyone under pressure: what is this "mighty hand," and how long is "due time"?
Peter has just told younger believers to submit to older ones, and all to each other. One writer sets the command inside God's way of governing His people.
All were to clothe themselves with humility, for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. These are still the principles of His government. So they were to humble themselves under His hand, and He would exalt them in due time. This was to commit themselves to God. He knew what was needful. He who loved them would exalt them at the right time.
One writer refuses to soften the word "mighty," and finds comfort inside its roughness.
We can't tell in what form that "mighty hand" may humble. He may remove prop after prop. He may disappoint one hope of the heart after another... He may seem so set against your circumstances and your present joys that the heart begins to fear God is against us. It is a "mighty hand;" but let that comfort you instead of frightening you... It is not a "soothing hand;" it is a "mighty hand," that seems set on bruising. Well, what does the Spirit of God say? "Humble yourselves" under it, for "He will exalt you." Oh how beautiful! See how roughly Joseph spoke to his brothers. He put them in prison — told the keepers to take charge of them — but in secret he wept; and, in due time, he "exalted" them.
Others describe the same hand as the pressure of training, felt keenly by believers facing persecution.
The mighty hand of God is upon His people in the way of training, and often in very painful dealings, as was the case in the persecutions of these early Christians, yet under it we are to bow and in due time we shall be exalted.
One writer sets the two directions side by side in two men.
What a much more blessed thing to humble ourselves under His mighty hand, and for Him to exalt us, than to exalt ourselves, and for Him to have to put us down! "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled." That is the first man. "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted." That is the second Man. The first man sought to make himself God, and fell into companionship with Satan. The second Man, who was God, made Himself nothing, and God has exalted Him to the very highest glory.
One writer ties our humility to what that hand has already done for us.
That mighty hand has worked and given us everlasting redemption. God calls us to be humbled under it. Sad to say, we fail to keep a steady sense of this marvellous light into which God called us. But it is our privilege to walk there... and it is our own fault if we do not walk there with open eyes. That is what secures the humility urged here.
Jonah lived this verse out from inside the fish, centuries before Peter wrote it. He stopped blaming the sailors who threw him overboard.
Jonah 1:15 says of the sailors, "they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea." But in Jonah 2:3, Jonah says to God, "You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas." So he owned the hand of God, and humbled himself under it. He put 1 Peter 5:6-7 into practice several centuries before Peter wrote the words. That put him on the way to recovery. Deliverance comes to souls in distress only when they acknowledge the hand of God.
That covers even the sufferer who has no one to blame but himself.
If some who are suffering have to own that it is the result of their own folly and self-will, what then? Ah, there is only one way. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Let lowly submission mark you before Him. Be honest and without pretence in His presence. Then in His own good time — the due time when it will be good for you — He will make a way of deliverance and raise you up.
The timing belongs to God, and trying to hurry it costs us something.
If we try to deliver ourselves and get out of this path of trial, we have to take some side path, and we lose blessing. Remember, the verse adds that in due time God will exalt us — not a minute after the time. When He has worked out the whole purpose of His love, then He will exalt us.
- The hand — The verse calls it "mighty," not soothing. It may strip away prop after prop and even seem set against you. That word should comfort you, not frighten you.
- The bowing — Two directions only: humble yourself and God lifts you, or exalt yourself and God puts you down.
- The ground — The same hand has already given us everlasting redemption. Walking in that light is what produces humility.
- The owning — Jonah named God, not the sailors, as the one who cast him into the sea. Deliverance starts where we own God's hand — even when the trouble is our own fault.
- The timing — God exalts in due time, not a minute late. Escaping by a side path only loses the blessing.