1 Peter 5:5 - Meaning and Application

After explaining the duty of pastors and spiritual guides, the apostle now turns to the flock. He teaches them how to act toward their ministers and toward one another.

He calls them the younger, partly because they were usually younger than their serious pastors, and partly to remind them of their lower place. Jesus used the word younger in this sense when he spoke of someone being in a lower position (Luke 22:26). So Peter tells those who are younger, and those in lower rank, to submit to the elders. They should show proper respect and honor, and listen to their warnings, corrections, and authority when these follow God’s word (Hebrews 13:17).

Toward one another, the rule is that all should submit to one another in the sense of being willing to receive each other’s advice and correction. They should be ready to help carry one another’s burdens and do every act of friendship and love. Individual believers should also accept the guidance of the whole church when needed (Ephesians 5:21; James 5:16).

Because this kind of submission to older people, church leaders, and other believers goes against human pride and selfishness, Peter tells them to clothe themselves with humility. In other words, let humility shape their minds, behavior, dress, and whole way of life, as the finest garment they can wear. Humility makes obedience and duty easier and more pleasant. But if people stay proud and disobedient, God will set himself against them and bring them down, because he opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Humility is a great guard for peace and order in Christian churches and communities. Pride, on the other hand, is the main cause of conflict and division. There is a direct opposition between God and the proud. They act as enemies against him, and he resists them, because they are like the devil, enemies of both God and his kingdom among people (Proverbs 3:34).

Where God gives grace to humble people, he gives more grace. He gives more wisdom, faith, holiness, and humility. That is why the apostle adds, “Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand, so that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). Since God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, believers should humble themselves before the great God as well as toward one another. His judgments were coming on the world, and they must begin with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). His hand is all-powerful, so he can easily bring down the proud or raise up the humble. And he will surely do it, either in this life, if he sees that it is best, or at the final day of judgment.

The thought of God’s mighty hand should make us humble and willing to submit to whatever he lays on us. Humbling ourselves under his hand is also the surest way to relief and honor. Patient submission under his discipline, along with repentance, prayer, and hope in his mercy, will bring his help and deliverance in due time (James 4:7, James 4:10).

Peter also knew that these Christians were already going through hard times. So he rightly expected that his warning about even greater troubles to come might fill them with worry and fear. They would likely wonder what would happen to them, their families, and the church of God. Since this anxious care would weigh them down and tempt them strongly, he gives them wise counsel and a strong reason to follow it.

His counsel is to cast all their care on God. They are to throw their worries, which cut and trouble the soul, onto God’s wise and gracious care. They should trust him with a steady and settled mind, because he cares for them. He is ready to take their burden of care onto himself. He will either keep the trouble from coming, or he will support them through it. He will order all things in a way that shows his fatherly love and tenderness, and in the end nothing will truly harm them, but only work for their good (Matthew 6:25; Psalm 84:11; Romans 8:28).

Even the best Christians are prone to carry many anxious burdens. Peter’s words, “all your care,” show that Christian worries come in many forms: personal cares, family cares, present cares, future cares, cares for ourselves, for others, and for the church. Even good people’s worries can become heavy, and often sinful. When they come from unbelief and mistrust, when they torment and distract the mind, when they keep us from our duties and spoil our joyful service of God, they are wrong.

The best cure for excessive care is to cast our burden on God and hand every event over to his wise and good will. A firm trust that God’s will and wisdom are right calms the human spirit. Then we can say, “The Lord’s will be done” (Acts 21:14).