«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　1 Pet. 5:5 In like manner, younger men, be subject to elders; and all of you gird yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

　　10 But the God of all grace, He who has called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you.

　　In 1 Peter 5:5 Peter says that all of us should gird ourselves with humility toward one another. Everyone in the church, including the elders, should gird himself with humility. In 1:13 Peter charges us to gird up the loins of our mind, but here he indicates that our entire being needs to be girded …This figure comes evidently from Peter’s impression of how the Lord girded Himself with a towel when He humbled Himself to wash the disciples’ feet, especially Peter’s (John 13:4-7).

　　To be proud is to show ourselves above others. God resists the one who lifts himself above others and regards himself as better than others. Instead of being proud and showing ourselves above others, we should gird ourselves with the apron of humility.

　　Peter says that God not only resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Strictly speaking, this grace refers to the Triune God Himself as the life supply being multiplied in the humble believer…We must be willing to be made humble, lowly, under the mighty hand of God. (Life-study of 1 Peter, pp. 297-299)

　　In 1 Peter 5:7 Peter goes on to say, “Casting all your anxiety on Him because it matters to Him concerning you.” The word casting here means throwing upon, that is, committing to, giving up to. The verb denotes a once-for-all act. The words all your anxiety indicate that the whole lot of our anxiety throughout our entire life, our whole life with all its anxiety, should be cast on the Lord.

　　In persecution the believers’ sufferings cause worry and anxiety to them. They need not only to be humbled, to be brought low from their pride, their haughtiness, but also to throw their life with its care upon God; for He is not only mighty and just, but also loving and faithful concerning them.

　　Those who are involved with people will usually have more anxiety than those who live alone … Likewise, the property or possessions we have may cause anxiety… From experience I can testify that the more things I have, the more anxiety I have, the more the “airplanes” of anxiety circle above my head. The reason we may cast all our anxiety on the Lord is that “it matters to Him” concerning us. The words “it matters to Him concerning you” may also be rendered, “He cares for you.” The disciplining and judging God has a loving concern for the believers, especially the persecuted ones. He cares for them faithfully. They can cast their care upon Him, especially in their persecution. (Life-study of 1 Peter, pp. 301-302)

　　Peter speaks of the all grace by which God, who has called the believers into His eternal glory, perfects, establishes, strengthens, and grounds them through their sufferings (1 Pet. 5:10). The all grace is the perfecting grace, establishing grace, strengthening grace, and grounding grace. God perfects, establishes, strengthens, and grounds us by grace through the channel of sufferings. Because of my weakness, nearly every day is a suffering day for me. But God has perfected, established, strengthened, and grounded me through sufferings.

　　Some kinds of so-called grace are untrue; they are false. In 1 Peter 5:12 there is the true grace of God that is the all grace of God in verse 10, into which the believers should enter and in which they should stand. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” p. 405)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Peter, msgs. 33-34; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “How to Be a Co-worker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations,” chs. 3-4