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1 PETER CHAPTER 5 KJV WEB See previous page 1Pet 5,1-3 (12b) Servant >> Examples of God’s people >> Leaders are examples of the Church – Some people in pastoral positions don’t belong there because they don’t have the faith it takes to lead others into a spiritual relationship with Christ (Rom 12-3), for many have ulterior motives for becoming pastors in the first place, evidenced by the decline of people entering the ministry when church attendance declined. Biblically, leaders are servants more than they are leaders, as Jesus said, “The greatest among you shall be your servant” (Mat 20-26). Peter’s exhortation was to lead by example, and Jesus taught them this more than anyone. See also: Problems of the Church; 101k (76a) Thy kingdom come >> Hidden motives >> Based on selfish ambition – Peter, the main apostle of the Catholic Church, bears witness against Catholicism. The Catholics mutilated the passage where Jesus called him Peter (literally translated ‘stone’) saying, “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Mat 16-17,18). If the Catholic interpretation of this verse were true, Jesus would have advocated worshipping Peter, which He most certainly did not. Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Jesus was saying to Peter that flesh and blood did not reveal to him that Jesus was the Son of God; rather it was the Holy Spirit who revealed it to Him, and upon this foundation of spiritual revelation of God’s word Christ would build His Church, not on Peter. Nevertheless, they picked Peter from the twelve apostles and figuratively built their church around him, and literally built Saint Peter’s Basilica directly over his alleged bones. Peter now testifies against the Catholic Church saying, “Shepherd the flock of God.” He was speaking to the leaders and elders, commanding them to exercise oversight over the people. However, this is not the way the Catholic Church does business, nor is it how the protestant church operates. Clergy of the today's religious establishment carry the vast majority of the ministry, which is not overseeing the ministry; rather, they are the ministry! Pastors are about the only ones who minister in the Church, and the rest of us are expected to sit down and shut up. See also: Spirit and the Word (Spirit reveals God's word); 1Jn 1-1,2; 112j / Catholic Church is not sanctified; Act 22,24-30; 192f (101f) Thy kingdom come >> Zeal >> Fulfill your calling with zeal – The concept of voluntarily leading the Church is in reference to zeal. When we think of Paul and Christ (Ps 69-9), their zeal was voluntary; all zeal is voluntary. No one can force anybody to become zealous. To be zealous is to be obsessed, which is how the world describes religious fanatics, and because of this, “zeal” has a negative connotation, yet this was Peter’s message. If we intend to fulfill our ministry according to the will of God, we will have to do it with enthusiasm. These are the ways of God, who wants His people to be zealous for Him and for the good works that He has prepared for us (Tit 2-14). (101k) Thy kingdom come >> Ambitious to promote the Kingdom of God >> Building up the body of Christ – Peter said to exercise oversight; that is, spiritual leaders are overseers of the flock, also known as shepherds. Note that the shepherd is a completely different animal than the sheep. The pastor is in charge of evangelism and the sheep are in charge of unity in the body of Christ. The only effective evangelism is done through unity, hence the ministry is with the sheep. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep” (Jn 10-1,2). Jesus declared every sincere Christian to be a shepherd and leader of God's Church. The people who attend church are the ones who perform the ministry, and the shepherd is merely an overseer of their ministry, but in the Church today people have no ministry, and as a result the Church attempts to reach a lost world apart from unity. The most common perception of the people’s ministry is that of dragging people to church so the pastor can preach to them, but according to Jesus’ high priestly prayer (John chapter 17), unity was His top priority. His prayer was not that His church would grow numerically but spiritually. God wants His Church to grow numerically too, but He knows that if there is genuine unity among the sheep, people will come. With unity we won’t even have to seek the lost; they will come to us, and the prerequisite for unity is the truth. See also: Problems of the Church; 138j (138j) Temple >> Building the temple (with hands) >> Exhortation >> Exhorting the people to remain true to the Lord -- These verses go with verse 12. It is very likely that the first century leaders of the Church knew that they had a daunting task of writing the New Testament, converting sinners to saints and giving the Church a good send-off before they died, since Christ may tarry at His second coming for a few hundred years or possibly longer. They evangelized cities and risked their lives to preach the gospel with the boldness of Christ for the sake of those who would be saved, and for the sake of the future Church. Their goal was to save as many souls as possible, so by the end of the first century the Church would be well established in many regions of the known world, or else who knows what would have been the fate of the Church? They succeeded, and by the third century the Church had become an entity of the Roman Empire, but was that the will of God? What about us in the last century? We were not called to write the New Testament, only to read it, and most of us can’t even do that. Although we are called to preach the gospel, yet we are not called to create the Church from scratch like the first century did, nor are we called to give the Church a good send-off for the future, because there is no future. We are merely called to maintain the Church in the world, yet it is faltering. See also: Problems of the Church; 169j / History of the Church (First century Christians); 1Pet 5-13,14; 123g / Second century Christians; Act 5,17-20; 152d (169j) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Seeking the glory of man >> Loving the approval of men rather than the approval of God >> Fearing their religion – We come to church to sing songs, listen to sermons and tithe our money, but growing and maturing in the faith is not a built-in facet of the religious establishment. Pastors and elders don’t know what to do with those who are serious about their faith and are growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is an eye-opening problem. It is not set up to nurture people maturing in the faith but is set up for immature Christians to remain immature. The Bible teaches how churches should be structured, that everyone should be able to both partake and participate in the administration of God’s word, so that anyone with a remnant of the Spirit has a right to minister the word of God, but that all ended after Catholicism took over the Church in the third century, and this architecture had remained intact in both Catholic and Protestant churches to this day. This single observation is only the tip of the iceberg of the massive problems that plague churches, keeping them ineffective in reaching their communities for Jesus. People who are truly seeking the truth and spiritual maturity when the go to church are frustrated, because maturity is not the goal of religious institutions; rather, self-preservation is their goal, analogous to governments of nations, suggesting that the Church has conformed to the world more than it has conformed to Christ. Church elders don’t want people to actually mature, because they wouldn't know what to do with them, but God knows what to do with them; He would use them to perfect unity in the body of Christ (Eph 4,1-16). Church leadership supposedly kept lay people from ministering the word of God to protect the doctrines of the Church, but their doctrines have been maligned by the very people who claimed to be protecting them for the last 2000 years. See also: Problems of the Church; 240b / Sign of a healthy church; Rom 1,13-16; 123a (198g) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Ordained by man >> Having evil motives for seeking leadership positions >> In the ministry for personal gain (240b) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Pursuing the knowledge of the kingdom >> Pastor (Shepherd) >> Pastor has a shepherd’s heart – Leaders are shepherds; their job is to oversee the ministry, not to be the ministry. At the workplace there is a foreman; he is considered the overseer of production; he might do a little work, but his main job is to ensure all the workers are correctly doing their jobs, who make the product. It is the employees who do the work in a business environment, so why are parishioners not allowed to do the work of the ministry at church? The current format of the Church is conducive for false shepherds, making them appear indispensable to the ministry, since they are the ministry; and the current format of the Church is also conducive for false sheep, helping them hide undetected. The bigger question is how does the Church today glorify God? It does very little of that, and since this is the purpose of the Church, it has all but failed in its objective. It’s goal is to simply exist. Do you see how the Church has gone astray? It has had nearly 2000 years to perfect its wandering spirit. See also: Problems of the Church; 1Pet 5-2; 118f KJV WEB / Navigation Bar 1Pet 5-1,2 (247k) Priorities >> God’s priorities >> The will of God >> We play our part in the will of God >> Doing the will of God (249f) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Wealth >> True perception of wealth >> Do not trust the carnal perception of wealth >> Wealth influences your motives – Shepherds must have a willing attitude about serving the Church if they are going to lead the people into the will of God. If a shepherd feels trapped in his position, he should step down and let someone else take his place who has a heart for ministry. Pastors should feel driven to be leaders, and if he doesn’t have that drive, then he shouldn’t be in the ministry. It’s one thing to lose the drive to get it back later, but it is another thing to never have it in the first place, who are seeking positions of ministry for all the wrong reasons. Peter is saying that if we shepherd the flock of God for reasons other than to bless the people, and if there is not a fire burning in our heart for God, then our motive is wrong for wanting to be a pastor. People have seen that there is money to be made as a pastor even in Peter’s day, but if money is our motive for ministry, we will never mature, hence never mature God’s people. Many churches across the country and throughout the world exist for the pastor's sake, for his career and for his financial success. Peter says not to shepherd the flock of God for these reasons but for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the people allotted to their charge. Look at the Catholic Church throughout their intemperate history, having exhibited the motive of money and prestige. The Catholic Church owns more property than any other single institution in the world. So is the Catholic Church about money? Yes it is! Has the protestant Church, a spin- off of Catholicism, adopted their attitudes and values regarding money? Yes it has! See also: Catholicism; 1Pet 5,1-3; 169j / Problems of the Church; 1Pet 5,1-3 12b 1Pet 5-1 (108k) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelation of Jesus Christ >> Revelation of the glory of God -- This verse goes with verse 4. Peter was a direct witness of the sufferings of Christ. The Scriptures are a gift from God in that we have the thoughts of men who actually walked with Jesus for 3 years, saw the Roman soldiers nail His feet and hands to a cross and witnessed Him alive 3½ days later. Peter said about His suffering that it is not all he witnessed; he is also a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed, not a future partaker in heaven but a current one, and in heaven His glory will be revealed in full. (144b) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> The Church Bears Witness of Jesus >> It bears witness of the cross – These two come as a pair: the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow. We cannot have the glory without the suffering. We are not in control of the glory of God, but we do control to some degree the suffering that we patiently endure. Some people are not willing to suffer for Christ, and therefore the glory to follow may not be fully revealed to them in this life or in the life to come. Peter partook of the sufferings of Christ as He was nailed to a cross upside-down, and He died there, and he also partook of the glory that was revealed to him. On the day of our death we will be immediately escorted into heaven and see the glory of God’s kingdom. Being a disembodied spirit dwelling in a spiritual kingdom, we will feel at home there. When we receive our resurrected bodies, then we will begin to fully realize the glory that is to be revealed. We know that after the Millennium, God will create a new heavens and a new earth that will befit our resurrected bodies, made of the same substance (Rom 8,19-23). Being that the resurrected body is a spiritual body, the new heavens and new earth will be a spiritual/physical universe, for God will sow His Spirit into the new creation. See also: Resurrected body will reflect our view of Jesus; 1Jn 3-2; 224d (188e) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Suffering >> Suffering the will of God in your life -- This verse goes with verses 9&10 (233k) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> Seek His glory without wavering >> Seek His glory through hardship -- This verse goes with verse 4. There are many mysteries awaiting us that we will enjoy to the degree that we are willing to suffer for Christ in this life. Conversely, to the degree that we are spectators of the sufferings of Christ in this life, we will be spectators of His glory in heaven. We will see it, but many of the important things that God has in store for us will be out of reach, because of our lagging faithfulness in this life. The next life will be a continuation of this one, meaning we will not suddenly develop a will to serve the Lord just because we are in heaven. There will be spectators in the Kingdom of God who will watch much of the activities that happen without participating in much of it. In many things they will participate, but in the important things they will asked to sit. Living for Jesus and being faithful and obedient in this life will determine our experience in heaven. The more we are willing to suffer in this life, the more glory will be revealed to us in the life to come, and the more often God will call our name and request our services to do the important things that He has prepared for us. See also: Experience of heaven; Rev 14-13; 137j KJV WEB / Navigation Bar 1Pet 5,2-5 (95j) Thy kingdom come >> Attitude >> Obedient attitude >> Positive attitude about authority 1Pet 5-2 (118f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Seeing through the eyes of your spirit >> Eyes of discernment – Peter is talking to pastors everywhere telling them to shepherd the flock of God. Pastors should oversee the ministry, but in churches today the pastor is the ministry. People pick their seats in the assembly, stand on cue to sing songs, return to their seats, stand for prayer, shake hands, give their tithe, hear the sermon, stand for the final song, socialize for a while and go home, and in all of this the people have no ministry, nor are they particularly benefited. If anyone has a ministry, it is probably unrelated to the Church; therefore, we can say that the format of the service is completely unbiblical, for the ministry actually belongs to the people. The shepherd sits on the knoll of the hill and watches the sheep, making sure none of them go astray and he watches for wolves. The problem with the Church these days is that the pastor is afraid to delegate authority; also, they must get over this term Layperson, referring to education, whether a person went to cemetery school and has a theology degree. There is no such thing as a layperson in the Church, anymore than there are lay-sheep. The people are ministers of the Church according to Jn 10-2, “He who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.” Compare that with the current mindset of the Church these days: there is a professional minister and the rest are supposed amateurs. This is not the attitude that should be conveyed. We are all shepherds, but there should be at least one lead shepherd to watch over the flock, giving it direction and watching for wolves. There are some people who would scream about this and recite all the verses in Timothy about preaching and teaching, but Timothy was not a pastor. He was an apostle's assistant; his job was to help Paul establish churches, so yes he preached and taught and helped people get on their feet and trained pastors, which is quite different from being a pastor. Once the church became organized, Paul and Timothy expected the churches to manage themselves, so the people conducted the ministry, making sure everything operated properly. Every person in the Church should contribute, not just folding chairs and tables, participating in pot blesses, cleaning the bathrooms and doing all the grunt work, but actually ministering to people. The format of most Bible studies correlate better with biblical Christianity than the typical church service. See also: Problems of the Church; 1Pet 5-1,2; 249f 1Pet 5-3 (2k) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> Get out of His way >> Do not touch the apple of His eye >> Do not oppose others 1Pet 5-4 (104k) Thy kingdom come >> Pure in heart shall see God >> Shall see Jesus >> Shall see His appearing – The early church revolved around the teachings of the second coming of Christ, investing much time and thought dwelling on it and preparing for it. 2000 years later, Jesus is on the verge of His second coming and what are we doing to prepare? Most churches are not even interested in studying endtimes, they say because there are so many views, and there is no way of knowing which one is correct. It’s mostly individuals who study endtimes on their own, hence individuals will be mostly prepared for Jesus’ second coming and not the Church as a whole. (108k) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelation of Jesus Christ >> Revelation of the glory of God -- This verse goes with verse 1 (226b) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven >> Reserved in heaven >> God crowns us with glory for sharing our rewards >> The reward of a crown – When Jesus comes, those who have prepared will receive the unfading crown of glory. Everything fades with time and some things fade faster than others. Fruit rots on the kitchen table and mountains erode to hills, but the gifts and rewards we receive from God will never fade. (233k) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> Seek His glory without wavering >> Seek His glory through hardship -- This verse goes with verse 1. It says in revelation that the elders threw their crowns before the Lord in worship, indicating that their crowns meant nothing to them, compared to their love and adoration of Christ (Rev 4-10,11). Why do we seek the rewards of heaven; is it for a crown? God promises to crown those who are faithful, who persevere under trial, and the reason we seek a crown is not for the reward itself but for an offering that we may present to Him. We don't enter His presence empty-handed but come bearing gifts. He accepts our gifts, and He rewards us for having wisdom to understand the relevance of bearing gifts when approaching a great King. If the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon bearing caravans of gold, how much more should we come to Christ possessing faith and a life that honored His name? (240a) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Pursuing the knowledge of the kingdom >> Pastor (Shepherd) >> Jesus is the chief shepherd (243g) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> The indestructible kingdom >> The body of Christ is indestructible >> The indestructible kingdom within us KJV WEB / Navigation Bar 1Pet 5,5-7 (8n) Responsibility >> Prevent sin from coming between you and God (99b) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Enduring the will of God >> Enduring the death of your flesh – Enduring the word of God is easier than enduring the consequences of our disobedience. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” We are not to get involved with the world or pursue a career that will later become a hindrance to fulfilling our ministry that He will divulge to us in His time. As a result, our life course and circumstances can be humiliating and arduous. What is worse, when we wait for God, He holds us on reserve. God would rather have us working for a wage that scarcely pays the bills, so we have time and energy for Him and His cause. The word of God and prayer together have the ability to prepare us for His ministry, and they also have the power to pull us through whatever circumstances might befall us. Waiting often causes anxiety, and Peter is telling us to cast “all your cares on Him, because He cares for you.” Peter went through this very thing (v9); He knew what it meant to have a vision. Imagine the twelve apostles before they met Jesus. Peter was a fisherman, and he was called while mending his nets. The Father called His twelve disciples before Jesus entered His ministry, and prepared them for the day Jesus would choose them. We assume their ministry started at Pentecost, and they assumed their ministry started the day they met Jesus, but in fact their ministry started before they exited their mother's womb. See also: Story of the faithful; 1Pet 5-5,6; 77k 1Pet 5-5,6 (2l) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> Get out of His way >> Do not stumble over Him – In many churches today we have pastors who act like charlatans, something less than trustworthy, who are not in submission to God, who are mostly in it for the money, considering their vocation more a career than a calling. Back in the days of the early church they were scarcely paid for their services and for the risks they were taking, receiving from the Church about the same amount as orphans and widows, which was barely enough to survive. Today, pastors make a fairly decent salary, often taking home more than the average parishioner of their churches. "This also is vanity and a great evil" (Ecclesiastes 2-21). (23a) Sin >> Pride closes the windows of heaven – Imagine serving a proud and arrogant God. Thankfully, God is opposed to the proud, and He gives His Spirit to the humble (Jm 4-6), but those who think they don’t need God have a hard time with faith, because in their hearts they are aware of their arrogance. They instinctively know that God shies from human pride, so they have no real reason to hope in Christ. If they tried to believe, where would they put their confidence that God would listen to them? Those who are humble faith falls into their laps, which drives them into the truth and the truth into the righteousness of God, but the arrogant cannot afford a place with Him in their hearts because of arrogance. The proud and arrogant seek to exalt themselves, so God asks, ‘What do you need with me?’ For this reason they never come to know God or believe in His gift of eternal life that He purchased with His own blood that He gives to the humble through His Spirit. (56c) Paradox >> Opposites >> Humble yourself to be chosen of God (77k) Thy kingdom come >> Being Humble Before God >> Having an attitude of humility – God wants us not just to wait for heaven, but to partake of His life here and now. This is the hope of humility: that God would exalt us. There is a time when our lives come to a crescendo through many years of patient endurance, bringing about the reward of faith and love. God will eventually vindicate us who are willing to receive God's blessing and cast their anxiety on Him, but those who exalt themselves have all the more anxiety, because they have no one to carry their load and no remedy for their inner turmoil. They must endure the assault of their flesh against their own person in the weakness of soul that plagues their lives. See also: Story of the faithful; 1Pet 5,6-8; 96h (111a) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit sets you apart by the word >> Set apart through repentance (116m) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Rest in Jesus (Sabbath) >> Rest in His yoke by dying to self >> Dying to self by the Spirit KJV WEB / Navigation Bar 1Pet 5-5 (3k) Responsibility >> To the Family >> God addresses both genders >> Good men – Subject yourselves to good men who are your elders in the Church, for these things are necessary in order to perfect unity in the body of Christ. One of the end results of humility is that we receive grace from God, so we benefit and our lives are enhanced and we become blessed, but the one who exalts himself and seeks to take charge and refuses to submit to authority in the Church, God opposes. “Let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (Jm 1-7,8). We need to beware of those who lack humility, who refuse to submit to authority, but cling to our leaders who practice and understand humility (hopefully). (4l) Responsibility >> Advocate God’s cause >> Being accountable to your brother – The first thing we need before submitting to our elders is humility, for coming short of humility doesn’t take us far with God; plus, how can we submit to Him if we can’t even submit to one another? If we humble ourselves and submit to our elders, then we can do the same with God, but if we don’t have these qualities, then we don’t know Him. In today’s Church we need more discernment than ever to discern who is our true brother in the faith, because some of the proofs are missing, but then maybe the missing proofs are proof they are not the true brethren. (31b) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> He favors you as a servant (57d) Paradox >> Opposites >> God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble – God says that He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, so if someone does not submit to their elders, it is evidence that God opposes them. The word for “oppose” is opponent and a synonym for opponent is enemy, and James said, “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jm 4-4). Those who will not submit to their church elders have befriended the world, which does not feel the need for humility. The world exalts itself to get ahead but thinks humility is a fool’s game. However, without humility we cannot relate to God; without humility God Himself will oppose us, but with humility God will endow us with His grace, and of course it takes grace to have humility (catch-22), and for this reason Jesus said, “whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him” (Mat 13-12). This is one of the principles of God's kingdom; humility begets humility, arrogance begets arrogance, rebellion begets rebellion and submission begets submission. Whatever direction we are headed gains momentum, and it will exponentially hurl us in that direction, making it much harder to stop if we suddenly recognize the error of our ways. Likewise, if we are walking in humility, we will gain momentum in that direction, and in that direction we will receive grace upon grace to continue in that direction. We just have to push ourselves in the right direction to start and let momentum take-over. We must push through a few obstacles to show God our loyalty, show the devil whose boss and show those around us that we mean business about our faith, and things get easier, but if we straddle the fence, it will never get easier and there is no reward. Those who straddle the fence are the most miserable of all. (73b) Authority >> Respect your leaders >> Those in charge of the word – The Church in the days of the apostles and the early Christians prior to 300 AD stressed that the saints should subject themselves to their elders. The elders earned their respect and then warned the people that if they didn’t submit, it was proof they didn't fear God either. What makes this significant is that the elders were utterly trustworthy. They risked their lives to shepherd the flock. They were the first ones to be arrested and thrown in dungeons, often tortured and killed for their faith. Sometimes their persecutors would just arrest the leaders and the flock would scatter, thinking that if they made people afraid of them, the Church would cower and die, minimizing the martyrs, knowing that persecution had the opposite effect of inciting the Church to grow spiritually and numerically. They didn’t want to wipe out an entire church population (though it had been done) because that would make them murderers, and society would frown on them, and Christianity would flourish. Martyrdom opens people’s eyes to the fact that there are those who believe something so strongly, they are willing to die for their faith. This more than incites people’s curiosity; it makes them want to believe in Jesus. (113e) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> The anointing >> Heaven’s clothes >> Garments of the new creation (131k) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> Working together for one cause KJV WEB / Navigation Bar 1Pet 5,6-8 (96h) Thy kingdom come >> Attitude >> Having an attitude of humility – God tells us things in advance, giving us time to endure the word of God for a season before He releases us to fulfill our ministry. He exalts us at certain times and gives us visions and dreams so that we come to know things from the Spirit. We spend our lives waiting for Him to impart these special moments and messages in our lives, that we might share them with others who will receive us. We are like a fine wine in a dank cellar before we are allowed in the light of day to begin our ministry and fulfill our visions from God. We go through trials and learn from them for the sake of faith. Meanwhile, God orchestrates circumstances and events in the world and in the Church among our fellow believers, so when the proper time comes, we will be ready, and those whom God has prepared receive our ministry. It would do no good if we went through years of preparation, trusting God and hoping and waiting for a people who will receive us to never meet those people and no one receive our ministry. By the same token it would be useless for God to prepare a people to receive the word of God but no mouthpiece to tell them. See also: Story of the faithful; 1Pet 5,5-7; 99b 1Pet 5-6 (215c) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> Fulfillment of God’s time >> The moment we have all been waiting for 1Pet 5-7 (24f) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> Anxiety >> Worrying about the things you need – Fear without an object is called anxiety; people become anxious over nothing. With some people anxiety is their normal mental state. We can point at the thing that is the source of our anxiety, but when we look closer, it is unfounded. There is really no need to be anxious about the things that keep us awake at night; Paul said to “be anxious for nothing,” that if we are anxious, we should pray about it (Phi 4-6,7). When we become anxious, the best thing to do is label it, and we will soon find that we cannot actually locate the source of anxiety. As Paul said, we are literally anxious for nothing. God doesn’t want us to live in any kind of fear whether founded or unfounded. Sometimes it is actually less fearful when our fear has an object, because then we can address it and try to resolve the problem, but anxiety is insidious in that it doesn’t have an object and therefore no way to address it. Paul told us to address all our anxiety through prayer, and that the antidote for anxiety is peace, which indicates the nature of anxiety; it is a state of unrest. We may think restlessness is not that big a deal, but it takes away our energy; it weakens us, and usually it is a door into our mind for confusion. Being preoccupied with anxiety makes it harder for us to focus on the real problems. (33j) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> God serves His people who serve Him >> He treats His people with special care – We are to cast our cares on Him, because He cares for us. Though our circumstances be unsolvable, God’s love trumps them all. Anxiety is like a car that gets stuck in the mud; the wheels are spinning and throwing up mud, but we’re not going anywhere. People know those who are afflicted with anxiety; they have worry lines troubling their faces. It is not the will of God that we should worry; He wants us to know His peace and live by it. The voice of anxiety says we can’t solve our problems, and God isn’t willing to help us either, but every bit of that is a lie. We need to understand there is no truth in anxiety; in fact, God and fear are opposites. God fears nothing, and we are the children of God. He wants us to train our mind to fear nothing, because there is no object of our fear that is big enough to overcome us. When we think of the most horrible thing that could happen to us, if we subtracted fear, would minimize the scenario to a manageable level. When the emotional aspect disappears, the problem almost goes away by itself. Faith overcomes fear by the knowledge that God fears nothing and that He cares about us. Fear is a choice; every time we choose to fear, it is always the wrong choice, and we must be careful that it doesn't create our reality. God wants the opportunity to create our reality, and we need to give Him that opportunity by becoming a student of the word and a disciple of prayer. He wants us to know the truth and we cannot know the truth in a mental state of fear. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar 1Pet 5,8-10 (8o) Responsibility >> Prevent backsliding from God (28b) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> God protects us through our faith (45k) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Subjecting your flesh >> Satan VS the saints – We have a spiritual enemy not left to conjecture. People who deny the existence of Satan understand nothing about the spiritual realm. They are especially ignorant of God, and if they don’t understand Him, it explains why they don't understand the bondage of demons, for darkness blinds them both to itself and to God. This is how people end up with a secular worldview, being arrogant and convinced that they are right about everything, but God has given us wisdom that the world does not understand. We only need to open our eyes and see the truth for ourselves. The lying demons roam the earth looking for people to devour who are spiritually naïve and want to suck the life from them, who afterward have no alternative but to make victims of others, as the devil has done to them. Possessing nothing in themselves, they can only steal, kill and destroy. The opposite of spiritual darkness is faith, which is the engine that produces love, and love freely gives of itself to a world devoid of substance. We receive from God what we freely give; we have an endless supply of all good things originating from heaven. When we encounter victims of demonic ravaging, the spirits behind the façade want to suck the life from us too, but we resist them firm in our faith, not firm in our flesh. The devil uses people to spread his death and destruction throughout the world. If we resist their flesh it accomplishes nothing, but if we resist their demons, the people will be exposed as servants of Satan. (46g) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Fall of Satan >> Removing Satan’s obstructions – The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy our vision. He wants to pull it out of our heart, throw it on the ground and trample it. One small step at a time he leads us into sin, sin leading to doubt, doubt leads to unbelief, which is the devil's belief system. Our vision becomes a distant memory, appearing immaterial, though we remember it was once the most substantive factor in our lives. We feel fooled into believing a lot of vaporous ideas, but Satan is the vaporous one; all he offers is lies and deception. To the flesh our vision gets in the way of its pleasure-seeking adventures, and to our faith the world gets in the way of obeying Christ, so which will we choose? The world promises everything, but delivers nothing except that we die in the end, while God promises eternal life and asks for our patience to receive it. We need to look past Satan's lies to the truth of God and His vision for us. (98l) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Endurance invites the Holy Spirit into your life >> Endurance invites the glory of God (146h) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Deliverance from demon possession >> Disciples have authority to cast out demons – It is a common scenario to be at war with the devil. We can feel it in our spirit; we can sense the demons, and we know what they want. They want our faith, the engine that produces love that promotes the Kingdom of God in a world of evil. Satan wants to replace our faith with disobedience and unbelief, but if we resist him firm in our faith, his strength will fade, and he will have to submit to our will that we have subjected to Christ. This is also true about casting out demons; sometimes we have to suffer for a little while and persevere, but eventually they must leave. Their resistance is a lie, and the light of God’s authority over spiritual powers of wickedness will expose their deceptive resistance. Their failure to resist the power of God exposes their lies, and by this they are exorcized. There is not a big difference between someone who is demon possessed and someone who implicitly obeys them, willingly spreading death and destruction along his path, because the result is the same. Once the demons are put in their place, God will establish us on a higher plateau of faith that grows at every victory. (192g) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Gain by losing >> Waiting for God to do it His way >> Being patient to receive something better 1Pet 5-8,9 (158a) Works of the devil >> Excerpts of the greatest verses of this chapter 1Pet 5-8 (84a) Thy kingdom come >> Be on the alert >> Remain on duty >> Stay awake KJV WEB / Navigation Bar 1Pet 5-9,10 (32l) Gift of God >> Father will honor your devotion to Him >> He will honor your faith (98a) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Rooted deeply >> Standing firm in the faith >> Be strong (170i) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Outward appearance >> Temporary >> All suffering is temporary (188e) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Suffering >> Suffering the will of God in your life -- These verses go with verse 1 1Pet 5-9 (100f) Thy kingdom come >> Diligence >> Diligence in working the grace of God – We know how to resist telemarketers and so-called charities: we ignore them. They pester us to give them money with no guarantee how that money will be used once it leaves our hand, and they won’t take no for an answer. They remain persistent, hoping we will cave to their pressures just to get rid of them; but if we give them one red cent, it will incite them to call (or mail) us all the more. Telemarketers have the ability to call multiple numbers at once and talk to the first person who picks up the phone, and however many people they interrupted on other lines to talk to that one person is immaterial to them, just like we mean nothing to the devil. They use Satan's tactics because they are his children, who is also persistent in his harassment and temptations. Peter is telling us to resist him and his servants firm in the faith, not surrendering to their lies and deceptions, but knowing they do not have our interests in mind. The best way to get rid of fake-charities is to read the Bible to them (Mat 4,1-11), or else record your voice reading the Bible and play it back to them as a robo-respondent. The gospel of John chapter three is a good choice; it speaks about being born again and the love of God and about judgment to come for those who reject His love. We’re not being mean when we tell them about Jesus, for they need to hear the message of salvation. With the bundles of snail-mail we get badgering us to give, look for their no-postage-necessary envelop and mail their junk back to them. We resist the devil in the same way: read him the Bible. (106l) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Purpose of hearing from God >> To protect your faith (136b) Temple >> Your spirit is the temple of God >> The body of Christ >> Similarity in the body >> The body suffers together 1Pet 5,10-12 (116f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through hardship 1Pet 5-10 (9f) Responsibility >> God strengthens us through our weaknesses – Time is like a knife that cuts, and God uses time to cut through our theories; if we are wrong they will not stand the test of time. This is usually His method of correcting us; it is effective and can also be very painful, because it causes chronic suffering. (43i) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Perfected by God (91k) Thy kingdom come >> The called >> Titles of His calling >> His calling makes you a distinct member of the body (113l) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> The anointing >> Anointing establishes us in His will (155h) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> The Father bears witness of the believer (215e) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> God views time in eternity >> God sees eras as moments (226f) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven >> Reserved in heaven >> Eternal rewards 1Pet 5-11 (213c) Sovereignty >> God is infinite >> God is all powerful >> The creation is subject to Christ – Reader, look out your window and try to see past the changes caused by time, and then imagine the future changes that will transpire as a direct result of Christ’s Kingdom established on the earth. It will be a far different world than it is now. Jesus will take possession of this earth and become king of the entire planet. He will evict Satan, who will be chained for a thousand years, and all the people who will not worship God will be killed during the bowls of God’s fierce wrath, until only a remnant remains prior to His coming, and they will repopulate the earth. Over the centuries millions of people will be born, and they will be worshippers of God, and if anyone disobeys Him, the Lord will know about it, and justice will be swiftly rendered. The rains will not come to his field, and his crops will wither (Amos 4-7). This will be the way of the kingdom in the Millennium; it will be a thousand years of peace and prosperity, and in the ages to come after that, we will be integrated into Christ and interwoven with our fellow saints as one and have the same mind, so there won't be any terms or conditions to our inheritance, except that God has saved us and we live for Him, He raised us from the dead and perfected us so that we are an extension of Himself; we represent Christ; we are His hands and feet. These things are true even now, but they will be truer in the ages to come. Now it is spiritually true that we are the body of Christ, but then it will take on physical qualities, so that the literal with engulf the figurative. See also: Post-millennium theology, trying to force God's hand; 1The 5-15; 46aa (252i) Trinity >> You shall put no other gods before Me >> Worship God >> Worship God for who He is >> Glorifying God KJV WEB / Navigation Bar 1Pet 5-12 (98b) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Rooted deeply >> Plant the word deeply in your heart (102c) Thy kingdom come >> Faithfulness (Loyalty) >> Faithfulness is dependable >> God’s servants are dependable (114e) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Obeying the Holy Spirit >> Obeying the revelation from heaven >> Obeying the revelation by putting away the flesh – The grace of God is the truth, which is simple to understand, written in the Bible; all we need to do is read it. It’s all there, but outside the truth is a world of lies and deception. Any contrivance that man would believe comes from a near infinite array of ideas, none of them upholding the truth; the devil makes sure of it. God’s truth is infinite and eternal, but we don’t see God’s truth as infinite; all we see is what we can read. The Bible has numbered pages that goes so far and then ends. God's perception is the truth. When we get to heaven and God reveals the truth to us, it will take an eternity to process it and fully understand it and comprehend Him, but while we are here He asks us to process the little truth he has given us by standing firm in it. (138j) Temple >> Building the temple (with hands) >> Exhortation >> Exhorting the people to remain true to the Lord -- This verse goes with verses 1-3 1Pet 5-13,14 (123g) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love >> Spiritual affection >> Ministry of the saints >> Emotional benediction toward helpers – In the first century people greeted each other with a “holy kiss”, but that was replaced with a simple handshake or a hug after such a greeting became an opportunity for the flesh; kissing the young girls became abusive. Had the original apostles been alive in the days when the Church replaced the kiss of greeting for a handshake, they would have severely rebuked those who were party to this abuse. It shows that the Church was beginning to slip from its stand of holiness early in its lifetime. These were all signs of apostasy already infiltrating the Church, complacency and lack of sincerity of faith. From the first century to this day, nobody really knows what they had and lost. See also: First century Church; 1Pet 5,1-3; 138j 1Pet 5-13 (61g) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Babylon—Capital city of the abominations of the earth / Home town of the Jezebel spirit – Babylon was in Persia, which is present-day Iraq. In the days of Nebuchadnezzar Babylon flourished, and then like all nations it was toppled by another in its rise to power. Babylon was never rebuilt, nor was any other city built upon its soil since its fall in 539 BC. Much like Sodom and Gomorra, that too is a place that has never been inhabited by another people since its fall in 1852 BC. So when Peter mentions Babylon, he is not talking about the original Babylon but a type of it, and that city is Jerusalem. Babylon conquered Israel and captured Jerusalem because of their disobedience and rebellion against God, and they marched the people to Babylon and held them there as slaves for 70 years. Although the Jews deserved what they got, nobody touches the apple of God’s eye and gets away with it. Although God used Babylon to judge the Israelites, He didn't forgive them for enslaving His people, and along with the Tower of Babble in its resume' (Genesis 11,1-9) it has become a symbol of debauchery and depravity for all time. The book of Revelation illustrates Babylon as an evil woman holding a chalice filled with the blood of the saints, and it says that she will become a smoldering crater upon which no one will ever build another city. In Peter’s time the people of God according to the flesh in Jerusalem, acted the same as Babylon, persecuting Christians, why Peter called the holy city Babylon (1Pet 5-13), “the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her” (Lk 13-34). Peter lived in Jerusalem, which was headquarters of the Church at the time, because that is where it belongs, for it is the city of the great King, and the Jews should be leaders of things pertaining to God. (219c) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> Man is a spectator of his own salvation >> God has chosen us