1 Peter 5:8-10 (roaring lion devouring and suffering)

[darinhouston]

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Steve's tapes on 1 Peter (both on Digital Ministries and on his site) stop teaching at 1 Peter 5:6. Have you seen any good teaching on the rest of chapter 5?

I'd love to hear Steve's exposition of this section, but I'm curious especially as to v. 10 and whether that's a comfort to people now as to their suffering or an eschatological promise.

[Suzana]

Darin, this is so weird - I came to this passage just yesterday, in my latest reading through the bible, and actually had similar questions, so I too would love to hear Steve's exposition.

Re verse 10 - '"after you have suffered for a little while....will Himself perfect.." seems to point to the resurrection, and the "suffering for a little while" makes me think it is contrasting our short life span with eternity.
But will we need to be "confirmed, strengthened and established" at that time?

So I was thinking that perhaps the passage refers to the present time, with "perfect" perhaps meaning "complete", as in James 1:

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.(NIV)

(NKJV says "perfect and complete" rather than mature and complete).

[Suzana]

Steve,

When you have a chance, could we have your thoughts on 1 Peter 5 v 10, please?

thanks!

[steve]

1 Peter 5:10
But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.


I have always taken these words to be a promise more associated with sanctification than with resurrection. I will tell you my thoughts, as I usually present them, on this verse:

But may the God of all grace...

In this case, I believe the grace of God is intended in the enabling sense, rather than the sense of generosity or magnanimity. Peter seems to use the word this way in other places—including 4:10 and 5:12. This also agrees with other writers' use of grace in certain contexts (e.g. 1 Cor.3:10; 15:10/ 2 Cor.1:12; 12:9/ Eph.3:7/ Heb.4:16; 12:28). Since he is about to make a promise of benefit through sufferings, Peter wants to remind us that it is the grace of God that will enable us and give us the benefits he lists, through the suffering...

...who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus...

In preparing to mention God's making good use of our sufferings, Peter reminds us that the whole purpose of our afflictions is in conformity with God's plan to bring many sons to glory—a process that has always required suffering, both for Christ Himself (1 Pet.1:11/ Heb.2:10/ Luke 24:26) and for those who follow Him in this privilege (1 Peter 1:7; 4:13/ 2 Cor.4:17/ Rom.8:18).

...after you have suffered a while...

While this modest description could refer to a lifetime of sufferings (as in 2 Cor.4:17), yet, in the context, I think Peter is thinking here about shorter seasons of affliction which, through the grace of God, work into us the character of Christ—which I take to be the functional meaning of the word "glory." The latter he refers to in the following words:

...perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

These are all the results of spiritual growth through the right use of sufferings. The word "perfect" is translated "restore" in almost all the new translations, though it is not clear why this should be—unless the sufferers are seen as having been spiritually damaged by their afflictions (it goes without saying that they have suffered physical damage, but it is not likely to be a promise that their physical losses would necessarily be restored).

The Greek word has a variety of possible meanings, including restore, repair, complete, frame, adjust...and more. The idea of "perfected" or "completed" seem to be its meaning in Matt.21:16 and 1 Thess.3:10. The idea is also found in Hebrews 13:21, similar to here. I think Peter's list of verbs "perfect, establish, strengthen and settle" describe the benefits in this life that the grace of God can accomplish through the exploitation of our trials, and speak of the process of being changed "from glory to glory" (2 Cor.3:18), to which Peter says we have been called.

[Suzana]

Steve,

Thank you for your thorough exposition.
It's also interesting to see your comment - 'the character of Christ—which I take to be the functional meaning of the word "glory."'; I think I've usually tended to think of "glory" as something that is to be realized at the resurrection.

p.s. I'm glad you noticed this thread, I was thinking of trying to dob in Darin to call you up & ask about it on the radio.

[steve]

I see "the character of Christ" as essentially identical to "the image of Christ," and view both as the meaning of "glory," whenever that term is said to be our destiny.

The relationship of the word "image" to the word "glory" in scriptural usage is worthy of notice. Consider this relationship in the following instances:

"For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man." (1 Cor.11:7)

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor.3:18)

" the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." (2 Cor.4:4)

"who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person" (Heb.1:3)

Then consider that this likeness of Christ (this "glory") is everywhere said to be the Christian's hope:

"through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:2)

"the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (Eph.1:18)

"which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col.1:27)

"looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing [literally: "the appearing of the glory"] of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13)

"when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (1 John 3:2-3)

Notice that, where Paul always says our "hope" is the "glory," John says that the "hope" is that of being "like Him." The glory of God is the image of Christ. Our hope is that this image (His character) will be "revealed in us" (Rom.8:18).

Since Paul tells us that our present sufferings "work for us an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor.4:17), we have reason to "rejoice also in tribulations" (Rom.5:3ff / cf. James 1:2-4)

[Suzana]

Very interesting, thanks again. I can see the relationship of the words 'image' and 'glory' as you've shown it regarding Christ; I'm now just trying to get my head around its' application when referring to "woman is the glory of man". I'll have to think on that.

[steve]

I think it is because the woman was made in the image of man (that is, made to correspond to man, whereas man was made originally to correspond to God). If this is Paul's meaning, then he seems to be using the word glory as a synonym for "image," as seems to be the case in the previous clause.

(by the way, I made some additions to my above post—possibly while you were posting)

[Suzana]

OK, that works. I was complicating things & had started to think of a wife imitating her husband & thus showing God's glory to the extent that her husband was also... (thinking of Paul saying "imitate me...")...never mind.

(by the way, I made some additions to my above post—possibly while you were posting)

Yes, I noticed your new reply looked a bit different than what I was responding to! I keep forgetting you tend to edit your posts as you write...

[TK]

I peter 5:8 (NKJV): Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

funny- i too just recently finished listening to steve's 1 peter lectures and was bummed there was no discussion of the roaring lion in v 8.

the underlined section in this version seems to suggest that we can put ourselves on Satan's menu by NOT being sober and vigilant; in other words Satan cant just devour anybody, but only those who "give him permission" by opening themselves up to his attack.

of course, if that it is the case, then what all goes into being sober and vigilant?

what do you think?

TK