Chapter 5

 

            There are a few things we should know about the Church. First of all we have a problem of nomenclature in the scripture. The Church is described in a number of ways. The most common and the most important way of describing the Church are two words found in the New Testament — “in Christ.” This represents positional truth or union with Christ through being in the top circle and it actually describes every believer. Therefore, the concept of the Church as a universal body, the body of Christ on earth. It has nothing to do with the local church. We have passages like 1 Corinthians 1:2, 30 which are very significant because they indicate that no matter how carnal you are you are still in Christ. The same thing is found in Romans 8:1, 38-39; 2 Corinthians 5:17. The old things that are passed away have to do with being dead in Adam — “in Adam all die.” “All things are become new” — you are a new creature in Christ. Church is every believer.

            The Greek word for “church” is e)kklhsia which is an old Attic Greek word which simply means “assembly.” In Acts 7:38 we have e)kklhsia used for the assembly of Jews in the Old Testament, which has nothing to do with the Church. In Matthew 18:17 you don’t have the Church either, there you have a synagogue called an e)kklhsia. Many of the Greek states followed the Athenian principle and had political assemblies which they called e)kklhsia and this is illustrated by Acts 19:25.

            Then we have what is known as the “local church.” That is a group of believers in one geographical location. In the ancient world the believers met in many places, open fields, catacombs, and generally they met in homes. We do have, for example, in 1 Corinthians 1:2 — the church at Corinth, the local church, also 1 Thessalonians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Revelation chapters 2 and 3 where we have seven of these. There is such a thing as the local church but it must be distinguished from the Church universal — all believers, as illustrated by Ephesians 1:22, 23.

            Structure: The best dissertation on structure is found in Philippians 1:1 — a church is composed of three categories. First of all, the “saints” of Philippians 1:1 are the congregation in general. Then we have also the word “bishop” and that is the pastor. A bishop is not one in charge of a number of churches, he is in charge of one church. “Bishop” is simply another word for pastor.

            There are at least four different words in the New Testament for pastor. Firstly, bishop — e)piskopoj; secondly, presbuteroj; thirdly, poimhn; and finally, diakonia. E)piskopoj [bishop] takes care of the pastor from the standpoint of using his authority; presbuteroj [elder] is the principle of his authority; poimhn [shepherd] is the function; and diakonia [minister] is the concept of service, also used for deacons, as illustrated by Philippians 1:1 where there is a third category in a local church called deacons.

            The Church only exists in the Church Age. The Church Age began on the day of Pentecost in 30 AD, and will terminate sometime in the near future — tomorrow, the next day, or a hundred years from now, or even a thousand years from now, the Rapture could occur at any time.

            The function of the Church. The existence of pastors and deacons, and the fact that every believer is a saint and in union with Christ, indwelt by Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that every believer is a priest and an ambassador, these are all peculiar to the Church Age. They did not exist in any previous dispensation. The treatment of these things doctrinally is only found in the New Testament. So the Church has always been called “the mystery,” the doctrine pertaining to the Church is a mystery and a mystery is defined as information which was not presented to believers until the Church Age began, or just prior to the Church Age when Christ prophesied with regard to it. “Mystery” is a body of doctrine which was never revealed to the Old Testament writers but is now revealed to the writers of the New Testament, and which is only really pertinent to the Church Age.

             There are a number of synonyms for the Church Age. The Church is also called the last Adam and the new creation. The Church is the new creation and Christ as the head of the Church is the last Adam. This is developed primarily in 1 Corinthians 15:45-47. Another synonym is the head and the body. Christ is the head; believers are members of the body. There is the shepherd and the sheep — the Church is called the sheep and Jesus Christ the Shepherd — 1 Peter 5:4; Revelation 13:20, as well as Revelation 5:6. John chapter 10 anticipates this when Jesus says, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. “Other sheep” refer to the Church Age. John 15 gives us another analogy — the vine and the branches. Christ is the vine; believers are the branches - emphasising positional truth. Then we have the chief corner stone found in Ephesians 2:20. Another is the high priesthood and the royal priesthood — 1 Peter 2 and Hebrews 7 and 10. The future analogy is the bridegroom and the bride, after the Church receives its resurrection body — Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:6-8.

             Verse 1 — “elders.” Peter has addressed this particular epistle to a number of geographical areas — 1:1. A number of geographical areas means a number of churches and each church has its own pastor, called “elders” .An elder is not a church officer as we have today in Presbyterian government. The word “elder” is the Greek word presbuteroj, a title for rank. It means senior rank. It has a comparative suffix on it — the terosij a suffix and so it actually means the most senior. Presbuj means “old man,” which meant high rank. But with the suffix on it it means the highest rank, and it is use for the authority of the pastor. A presbuteroj is a pastor, and there is only one for a congregation — one right elder for one assembly of believers. It is in the plural because Peter is addressing this to the pastors who are in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, etc.

            There were a large number of congregations in what we now call Turkey. Nero is about ready to hit that area for the persecution of Christians. This epistle is addressed at this point to those who are pastors in that area and they are called elders. Why? It is imperative in time of disaster that the authority of the pastor be recognised by all so he begins by addressing them by their title of authority.

            “I exhort” — the present active indicative of parakalew, which means to encourage and it also means to exhort. It has two almost antithetical meanings because to comfort or to encourage indicates one approach, to exhort means the antithesis. At this time Peter is undoubtedly providing encouragement and comfort rather than exhortation. Reason: Peter is anticipating the coming of Roman persecution to those areas. Therefore, he wants to encourage the pastors of those areas to intensify their efforts in the communication of doctrine.

            “who am also an elder” — not what the Greek says at all. Actually there is no verb here, therefore the translation is wrong because “am” is a verb. The word “elder” is not even correct, it is a compound noun, sumpresbuteroj. The preposition sum is sometimes sug and sometimes sun depending on the next letter. It means fellow, along with or fellow, and it should be translated “To the elders which are among you I encourage as a fellow elder.” Notice that Peter does not claim primacy! He does not attempt to assume authority over these pastors other than to encourage them through the Word, as a fellow elder, a fellow presbuteroj.

            “witness — martuj. Witness here means a judicial witness, and that makes it quite different. Peter, as a judicial witness, is not telling people about Christ in the sense of evangelism. Peter saw Christ die; he is a judicial witness, a courtroom witness to the fact that Christ died. So it is just the antithesis of our modern word “witnessing” which has been picked up and used technical for personal evangelism. Peter does evangelise but that isn’t the issue here. So he is an expert on suffering from the standpoint of observation. A “witness of the sufferings of Christ” indicates a judicial observer.

            “partaker” — koinwnoj, which generally means partner. Peter in his relationship to Christ is a partner in the glory. This is a reference to phase three. Peter is going to share with Christ His eternal future and so is every believer. So to this extent we are included at this point, not as a partaker but a partner. The extent to which we are partners is determined at the judgement seat of Christ but all of are partners in the glory in that we all have eternal life, we all are going to have a resurrection body exactly like His. The reason Peter brings it in at this point is because the glories of eternity cannot be compared with the sufferings of the present. And in this phrase therefore he meets the same concept that Paul presents in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Our future glory cannot be compared with the little drop-in-the bucket suffering that we have in time.

            “that shall be” — a present active participle of mellw, and this anticipates the fact that many of the believers to whom Peter writes are going to suffer death very shortly in one form or another because mellw means “about to be. The glory is about to be revealed to them because they are going to be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. Therefore, there is a need for an intensification of Bible study because many of them will die within a year or so.

            Peter is really pushing for a principle here: We cannot get enough of Bible doctrine is what he is saying. It is imperative that we understand and take in doctrine because as we as we get close to when the glory is about to be revealed, then we are going to have the best time of our life.

            So the word for “revealed” comes next. It is a present passive infinitive following a present active participle. The present tense here is generally linear aktionsart but it is dramatic. It is a dramatic moment in the life of these believers because many of them are very close to dying. The active voice means that they will die and the participle is used to strengthen linear aktionsart. The word “revealed” is a)pokaluptw. It means to reveal or disclose from the ultimate source, from the ultimate source of self. So the pastors are going to die soon and, therefore, they should redouble their efforts to present information, especially the glory which is about to be revealed to them.

            When national disaster is approaching, as it is for these people living in Anatolea, what should a pastor do? He should intensify his efforts in one field — Feed the flock of God.

            Peter addresses the first four verses of this chapter to those who are pastors. In verse two we continue with the responsibility of the pastor. The whole principle of the function of the pastorate is bound up in one aorist active imperative which in the Greek is poimainw. Poimainw with its cognate noun poimhn covers the whole concept of pastor. Poimhn is the word that is translated “pastor, and a pastor is a shepherd. Poimainw the verb means to shepherd and the word “deed” is only one part of the function of the shepherd. So it is literally “Shepherd the flock of God. This is a good translation in the sense that it is the responsibility of the shepherd to provide food, to provide green pastures whereby the sheep can take in their spiritual food and their souls can develop according to God’s plan, according to the specifications of the ECS.

            The aorist tense gathers into one ball of wax every time that a pastor teaches. This is what we call a constative aorist. It stresses the primary function of the pastor. The active voice: the pastor must initiate the action of the verb, and this requires constant Bible study and constant communication of the Word. The imperative mood is a command to pastors only; this is not a command to believers other than those who have the gift of pastor-teacher. The first four verses of this chapter are limited to those who are pastors. They are recorded, not just for the sake of pastors, but so that you will know what to expect and so that you will have some understanding of the responsibility.

            When it says “feed the flock,” Poimainw means not only to feed but to exercise authority over. The two connotations of the verb are authority and communication. A shepherd is in charge of the flock. It is impossible to get the flock into green pastures without handling rather roughly some members of the flock as they stray off. So the primary mission of teaching is teaching with authority.

            Now the question arises: Where, and under what conditions did Peter pick up this verb and develop this concept of the pastorate? He has already declared himself as a fellow pastor or fellow elder. For the answer to this we turn to John chapter 21:15 where we have a dialogue between Peter and the resurrected Christ.

            We begin with the phrase, “So when they had dined.” The aorist active indicative of a)ristaw is a reference to breakfast or the first meal of the day. By analogy, Bible doctrine absorbed under GAP should be first in importance in the daily life of the believer, according to Matthew 4:4. The verb a)ristaw is where we get the word “aristocrat.”

            Now Jesus, after they had dined, turns to Peter and begins a series of questions that actually cause the development of our passage. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?” The question is in a present active indicative of a)gapaw. A)gapaw is a mental attitude love, soul love which can be directed toward anyone because it does not depend upon the object, it depends entirely upon the subject. The subject must have a relaxed mental attitude. It is possible to have this type of love toward all members of the human race because it means freedom from mental attitude sins. It is not the highest and it is not the strongest type of love. In effect it is the most common type of love in that it can be exercised in more directions. Filew, the other form of love in the Greek of the New Testament, is a much more specific and limited type of love. It is limited to three areas: category one — toward God; category two - right man, right woman; category three — friendship. But it is limited in every case. It is limited to members of the Godhead, to one person in category two, and to very few people in category three who qualify under the concept of true friendship. But a)gapaw is a mental attitude which you can have toward people who are not your friends. The command to love your enemies is a)gapaw — don’t be bitter or antagonistic toward them. This is the relaxed mental attitude which can be held toward the entire human race, and this is accomplished for the believer through the filling of the Spirit, as per Romans 5:5 and Galatians 5:22. It is also the fourth floor of the ECS — 1 John 2:5.

            Now When Jesus asks Simon Peter, “lovest thou me more than these?” He is referring to the other six disciples who are also present. They are friends of Peter and they are disciples of the Lord. The issue of the question is twofold: first of all, What is more important to you Peter, category three friendship with these, or with me? But the second issue is: Jesus introduces he word a)gapaw to indicate that Peter has not advanced in his category one love relationship. This is quite obvious because Peter takes this as a personal insult. For when he gives his first answer, “Ye Lord [nai kurei]” — Peter recognises Him as Lord; “thou knowest,” the perfect o)ida, used as a present indicates Peter’s recognition of the omniscience of Jesus Christ. And in His omniscience He has known for billions of years that at this stage Peter’s love has advanced beyond a)gapaw to filew. “Thou knowest that I love thee” — Peter uses the word filew rather than a)gapaw, showing that he sees the greatest issue. The greatest issue is not the love of disciples versus the love of the Lord. The real issue is, Has Peter’s love advanced in those days since the resurrection. And Peter now has a total rapport love for the Lord Jesus Christ. His ECS has reached at least the fourth floor. So in his answer to the Lord he changes the verb to be compatible with the situation. He makes it very clear that he has a maximum and total love for the Lord.  

            There are quite a few words in the Greek language for love. There is a word which is strictly a relationship love and never used in the New Testament, it isn’t high enough — storgh, a relationship of parents and family, love of parents, love of children, and so on. Then there is another relationship type of love, e)roj which is sex, sensual, and so on. Neither of these two are used. Then there are the other two which are found throughout the New Testament, the first of which is a)gapaw the verb, and a)gaph is its cognate noun. Then filew the verb, and filoj which is the cognate noun. We are only using the two verbs here so we will stay with them — a)gapaw and filew. A)gapaw is a general love and it has everyone as its object; filew is specific and only has one or two as its object. In the case of category one it is three persons in the Trinity; category two, there is one person involved; category three, very limited. Filew is the highest type of love and it is a total soul love. For example it says in John 3:16, “God so loved the world” — that is a)gapaw. God can love the whole world of sinful man with mental attitude love. But He does not have a highly specialised love toward the world; this is reserved for the believer who has passed the point of propitiation.

            The two words have been distinguished in Latin literature, which is equivalent to Koine Greek, and the word filew is equivalent to the Latin amo, which is the highest word in the Latin language for love. There is also the word dilegw which is equivalent to a)gapaw. Dilegw, like a)gapaw, is a restricted word to the mental attitude but has as its object anyone toward whom you have a relaxed mental attitude.

             A)gapaw is a general and inferior type of love as far as quality. To say a)gapaw would be an insult; it was an insult to Peter when Jesus said, “Do you love me?” and used a)gapaw. And when Peter answered he registered his protest by saying “I love you” and he used filew, which indicates that his love has advanced and that filew is by far the greatest of the two. This led to the first of three commands: “Feed my lambs,” present active imperative of boskw. The object of boskw is a)rnion, which are lambs, little sheep. As a shepherd he has to be faithful and true and have a sense of responsibility with regard to a)rnion. These are new believers who need simple and basic doctrine. Boskw plus a)rnion emphasises the importance of teaching the new believers, the importance of exposing them to Bible doctrine so they can function daily under GAP.

            Then the second dialogue begins in verse 16 — “Lovest thou me,” present active indicative of a)gapaw. Again this is an insult to Peter. By repeating the first question Jesus warns all believers that the words, I love you, formed in the mind are not sufficient and that right now you may have a relaxed mental attitude toward God and that is not sufficient; you need to come to the place of filew which is a total soul love that accompanies the ECS. Many believers do not advance very far before they develop a very relaxed attitude toward God — a)gapaw. That will not cut it. You have not developed spiritually, you have not matured spiritually until this becomes filew. So by repeating this word Jesus has warned Peter, and has warned all believers, that you can have a relaxed mental attitude toward people but your love does not have essence. Your character is not involved, your person is not involved, except to the point that you are indifferent or that you have no mental attitude sins going toward some person. Peter has previously declared his love in words but the words are no stronger than the character of the person who utters them.

            Now Peter has advanced. He has to advance to be a feeder, a shepherd of the flock. So for the second answer in verse 16, again he says, Ye Lord, Thou knowest — same structure, and again he uses filew, I love you. By using filew instead of a)gapaw he sticks by his guns that he has advanced and that he is occupied with Christ and that he is now qualified to fulfil the second command. Jesus gives him the second command and this time He uses the same verb that we have in 1 Peter 5:2 — poimainw, and the object this time is probaton, not a)rnion. So we are now talking about people who have passed the basic stage, and the pastor-shepherd must communicate doctrine to these people. Probaton, by the way, refers to adult sheep. These adult sheep also have a tendency to go astray and they must feel the rod of exhortation as well as the exegesis and analysis of the passage. Probaton, in itself, means hard-headed sheep, sheep who have learned just enough doctrine to think that they are totally self-sufficient and totally independent of any pastor. Therefore, we have at this time poimainw directed toward the hardheaded sheep.

            In verse 17 we have the third dialogue and it goes exactly like the others except that now Jesus changes His language — “lovest thou me?” This time He changes from a)gapaw to filew. He recognises the true status quo of Peter and so He changes it to filew. Filew is different in that it recognises an advance, but by this time there is a reaction from Peter. For as Jesus says, “Filew thou me?” Peter was grieved because He asked the question a third time. Peter is not so interested in the words now as he is in the impact. Peter was “grieved,” the aorist passive indicative of lupew, which means to be mentally pained, mentally distressed, to be mentally disturbed and to be on the verge of a very strong antagonistic reaction. So for the third time Peter enters his own protest and said, Thou knowest all things. He again appeals to the omniscience of Jesus Christ. Then he changes a word too, and he adds, Thou knowest that I love thee, but he switches from o)ida to ginwskw — you know from experience, you know from standing here, you know that I love you. Jesus knew the soul of Peter in eternity past, that’s o)ida. But Peter has been functioning under GAP, he is positive, since the resurrection there have been some fantastic changes, things that he has always known he has begun to transfer, and he says, You know that I love thee, and again he uses filew. He registers his protest and he says, You know from experience (of standing here right now).

            Then we have the third command. But to review the first command, boskw means to feed simple things to a)rnion (young sheep). The second time Jesus said “Feed my sheep” He used poimainw, and then He used probaton for hardheaded sheep, sheep who go astray after they begin to learn a little bit. But the third time Jesus goes back and uses boskw again, and He goes to probaton again. What does He mean this time? This refers to the communication of doctrine to adult or mature sheep. Boskw means that you can feed some people without ever having to use exhortation, to use the rod, to straighten them out. Probaton, this time, refers to the mature believers and it is in 1 Peter 5:2 that we find Peter again using this same phraseology.

            So we have three categories now. “Feed” — simple ICE teaching for the a)rnion, the young believers. Then you have the hardheaded ones, you have to poimainw, you have to whack them with a stick. Then you go back to boskw again, once you whack them with a stick and they get back in line then you can lead them into green pastures. But there are some people you have to hit awfully hard before you can do anything with them and all of these things are recognised by our Lord in His exhortation to Peter.

            So that takes us back to 1 Peter 5:2 and we will have better understanding of what is actually happening here. Peter says, “Feed the flock of God” but he doesn’t use boskw, which the Lord gave him for straight exegesis, because at the time that Peter wrote the flocks of God were in grave danger. A little knowledge was a dangerous thing and they had a little knowledge. So he uses poimainw which emphasises authority in teaching, and emphasises getting tough in teaching. It is the aorist tense which is constative and gathers into one ball of wax every teaching situation - it must be accompanied by the stimulus of using the rod. The active voice: the pastor must do it; the imperative mood: it is a command of the pastor.

            Then we have the word for “flock” — a contracted noun, poimnion. It is made up of the verb poimainw and a)rnion, so it includes everything — the big sheep, the little sheep, all kinds of sheep. So both here and in Acts 20:28 the word means the entire flock of the local church. Unless the pastor forget and abuse his authority it is also called “the flock of God,” a genitive of source and a genitive of relationship as well. The pastor is the leader or the shepherd of the flock but the flock belongs to God. And the pastor is responsible to God for feeding the sheep and for using the rod on the sheep — using exhortation. The shepherd has authority over the sheep but he does not own the sheep; the sheep belong to God.

            “among you” is a reference to believers in the periphery, in the geographical periphery of one pastor. Obviously then this is the local church and a local church is believers in a specific geographical location. Unbelievers are never regarded as a part of a local church.

            Only a believer can be taught Bible doctrine and this command is to teach believers; it is not a command to evangelise unbelievers. So obviously the concept of the local church must be centred around the communication of Bible doctrine. It must also be set up so as to recognise the universal priesthood of the believer, the privacy of the priesthood in doing your job as unto the Lord, and the objective of the priesthood which is to have an edification complex through the daily function of GAP, and at the same time to become spiritually self-sustaining. So feeding the flock with Bible doctrine results in the individual believer orienting to the grace of God and the plan of God. Bible teaching can only be accomplished where there is teaching with authority.

            “taking the oversight” — a present active participle from e)piskopew. This is the inspector general department; e)pi means over, skopew means to inspect. It was used for the overseer of a plantation and it is often translated by the word “bishop.” Taking the oversight means to take the rulership, authority, the function and communication, and put them all together and do the job. So the one who teaches the doctrine of the Word has the authority over the local congregation, he must take the oversight otherwise his teaching will carry no authority. No one can teach the Word of God without authority — 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7, 17.

            Next, we have four adverbs in this particular sentence. There are four attitudes: a negative and a positive, a negative and a positive.

            The first adverb has a negative with it, the second adverb is positive. The first adverb is “not by constraint” — a negative plus the adverb a)nagkastoj. This adverb means not by compulsion. If the pastor cannot take authority he has no right accept the leadership of a local church. Many a local church has failed because the pastor would not assume authority, would not take the responsibility.

             The second is a positive adverb — e)kousioj, which means spontaneously, voluntarily. It is the other side of the picture from the first adverb. Being a pastor involves teaching the Word of God. By teaching the Word of God the pastor assumes responsibility and authority. There are people who can teach but they have no sense of responsibility, no concept of authority. Authority stimulates the power and the approbation lust of people who do not have the gift, but when a person has the gift authority it is the way in which the Word of God is communicated and must be communicated. The Word of God was never intended to be sweetness and light and to be communicated apart from authority.

            The third adverb is negative. “not for filthy lucre” — an adverb plus a very strong negative, a)isxrokerdwj, which means fondness for dishonest gain. Of course the ministry must never be associated with dishonest gain. The pastor has the right to remuneration but he must not commercialise or sell spiritual benefits of grace. Grace was never meant to be sold; grace does not have a price.

            “of a ready mind” — proqumoj, which does not mean “ready” so much as it means “prepared.” The pastor cannot fulfil poimainw unless he has a prepared mind. A prepared mind requires constant and vigorous and diligent study of the Word of God. No one should enter the ministry unless he is dedicated to the principle of constant study of God’s Word for the rest of his life.

            So these four adverbs qualify the verb poimainw, shepherd the flock. They describe the characteristics of the ministry.   

            In verse three we get to the third negative and positive with regard to the pastor. This has to do with leadership.

            Verse 3 — “Neither” is a Greek negative, mhdh, and it means not so much as.

            “being lords” — katakurieuw, which means to be a bully here. “Not so much as being bullies.”

 

            The principle

            1. The pastor must not use his office or his authority to bully the congregation or to express vindictiveness.

            2. The pastor’s authority over the local church is based upon his spiritual gift from God the Holy Spirit — and therefore he is appointed by the Holy Spirit — plus the utilisation of his gift in teaching the Word.

            3. Teaching the Word carries with it the highest authority in the local church. Consequently the pastor must beware of power lust as a danger to his ministry.

            4. On the other hand the pastor must avoid the opposite extreme of letting the congregation run over him. He is not a football or a doormat for the congregation.

            5. The pastor must exercise his authority through the application of Bible doctrine and the filling of the Spirit.

            6. He must be fair and just in the use of his authority.

 

            The word “God” is not found here in the original. It is literally “the heritage” and klhroj is really “the allotment.” The concept of the word “allotment” here is that there is a right pastor for a right congregation. If the congregation has the wrong pastor that congregation is going to be miserable and unfed and unfulfilled. And if the pastor has the wrong congregation, likewise he is going to be miserable and out of place. So one of the most important concepts of guidance in the Christian life is right pastor, right congregation. The word klhroj or “allotment” indicates that the sheep belong to God and the pastor cares for the sheep but he is under divine management. God has designed at any particular time a right pastor for a right congregation. The “allotment” here has the concept of the right pastor and the right congregation. And there are all kinds of pastors and all kinds of congregations, and obviously divine guidance is of the utmost importance in bringing together the right pastor with the right congregation.

            “but being.” The word “being” is a present active indicative of ginomai, and ginomai does not mean “to be” it means “to become.” The pastor must become.

            “ensamples” — tupoj, means pattern. It means a pattern or some sort of a delineation or a mould. Being a mould does not have anything to do with personality, this is the thing you have to watch. The pastor is not the mould for the personality of the congregation and it is a mistake for anyone to try to emulate the personality of any believer whom they admire. The mould is in the soul, not in the personality. Tupoj here refers to the inner mould of the soul, and the inner mould of the soul demands that the pastor have an ECS and a maximum amount of doctrine in his right lobe; “flock” refers again to the local church made up of believers pictured as sheep. Sheep always need a shepherd. Sheep are absolutely no good without supervision and God does not intend for believers in phase two to be without supervision. Therefore, every believer must have a pastor. There is no such thing as a sheep to whom God has not allotted a pastor somewhere. The shepherd feeds the flock.

            Verse 4 — The “chief Shepherd” is the Lord Jesus Christ; He is in charge of all the pastors. The word “pastor", by the way, is shepherd. Jesus Christ is the chief Pastor or the chief Shepherd. So there is a line of responsibility here. All pastors are responsible to the chief Shepherd who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

            “shall appear” is an aorist passive participle of fanhrow, which refers to the Rapture. The aorist tense is a point of time when the Rapture occurs. The passive voice: Jesus Christ, the subject, receives the action of the verb. He receives manifestation to the Church at the Rapture. The participle is the aorist participle, and the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, and the main verb is “ye shall receive” — future middle indicative of komizw, which means to provide or obtain as a reward for service. This applies to the pastor only. He will receive a special reward for doing his job as a pastor. The future tense indicates that the judgement seat of Christ is future — after the Rapture. The middle voice indicates that the pastor is benefited by the action of the verb. And the indicative mood is the reality of a future reward of the pastor.

            The exact nature of this future reward is not stated. There is all sorts of speculation. All we know is that it is a crown and we know that crowns are used to indicate rewards.

            “You shall obtain an unfading crown of glory,” literally. The word “unfading” means enduring. There are at least four different crowns which are used to delineate rewards in heaven. Each one of these indicates something about rewards or some new category of people being rewarded.

            The crown of unfading glory — 1 Peter 5:4. This is a reward for pastors only.

            The crown of righteousness — 2 Timothy 4:7,8. This one is for all believers; it is a reward to believers for faithfulness in phase two. It is the faithfulness and consistency of utilising Bible doctrine. This reward seems to be related to the believer who possesses and ECS. He also has a maximum amount of doctrine in his right lobe, and having all of this doctrine in his right lobe means that he is constantly utilising and applying doctrine. This reward is open to all believers of the Church Age.

            The crown of joy — +H. It is found in two different areas of the New Testament — 1 Thessalonians 2:19, where it is used for soul winning, and Philippians 4:1 where it is used for helping other believers. It is a reward based upon relationship with other believers or other members of the human race. And there is an area of reward for all eternity based upon relationship with the human race.

            The crown of life — James 1:12. It has two aspects, and both are related to the edification complex of the soul. One aspect is the endurance of temptation and the other is occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. This is not an exhaustive study of rewards, it merely indicates some aspects. You need not be concerned about rewards but only about the intake and use of doctrine which is the basis for reward. All rewards are based upon grace function and, therefore, rewards never depend upon human merit or human ability. They always depend upon the utilisation of what God has provided — the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the function of Bible doctrine in your life.

 

            The function of the congregation, verses 5-11

            Verse 5 — “Likewise,” o(moioj, which means in a similar manner. The congregation has responsibility just as the pastor has responsibility. The first responsibility outlined, and the most important, is submission to the authority of the pastor, without which you cannot benefit from his ministry. This is taught also in 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17.

            “ye younger” — newteroj, which is used for subordination. Neoj means youth, and with the comparative suffix it means by comparison you do not have the authority that the pastor has. This is also in contrast to verse 1, the word “elder” — presbuteroj, which used to mean in Greek “older person,” but actually means the one with the authority. The pastor is called elder or presbuteroj and the congregation are called newteroj. Neowteroj means those who are younger by comparison or those who are subordinate by comparison with the pastor. This indicates immediately that the local church, which is made up of believer priests, is recognition of the authority of the pastor and to whom you come regularly for your spiritual food. So the word “younger” indicates an assembly of believer priests in one geographical location recognising the authority of the pastor-teacher.

            The pastor-teacher is the authority for policy as well as teaching. There are two kinds of authority in the local church, the absolute authority and the policy authority resides in the pastor. The administrative authority resides in deacons, they have administrative authority only. The pastor acts as a check upon them when they get into policy and their policy is anti-grace or becomes a system of bullying.

            “submit” — aorist middle imperative of u(potassw, the strongest word for subordination to authority found in the New Testament. It means to be submissive to the right authority. It is used here in the aorist tense. It is a constative aorist, an aorist that means that as long as you are in that local church you have to submit to the authority of that pastor. The middle voice: the subject (the congregation) is benefited by the action of the verb. They are benefited by spiritual food, by the daily intake of Bible doctrine, the daily function of GAP. The imperative mood means this is a command to all living believers in the Church Age, and if you cannot submit to the authority of a pastor in one location then you ought to go to a church where you can, because you are not permitted to run footloose and fancy free. Every believer priest has a right pastor.

            “elder” — presbuteroj, the pastor-teacher again. It is to your advantage to have a pastor-teacher.

            “all (believers)” — [“be subject” is not found in the original manuscript]. Believers are not commanded to be subject one to another. It should be translated “all of you be clothed", the aorist middle imperative of e)gkomboomai, which means to roll, to band together. It was used to be clothed, to put garments on, but here it has to do with clothing of the soul. The aorist tense is constative and applies to the entire Christian life at points of time when you are together with believers. The middle voice indicates you are benefited. The imperative mood means it is a command — to all believers; “and all of you be clothed with mental attitude humility toward each other” — which is grace orientation toward each other. The word “humility” here is the key — tapeifronosunh. Fronh means thinking; tapei means humble thinking or grace thinking. This is grace orientation toward one another of the same kind — all other believers.

            “for God” — literally, the God, o( qeoj, God the Father.

            “resisteth the proud” — believers who have scar tissue, emotional revolt, or reversionism.

The word for “resist” is a)ntitassw, which means to be in line against. God is against the u(perefanoj. U(per is above; fainw means to appear. To appear above means to be proud, haughty, here it means to be arrogant, anti-grace, self-righteous, legalistic. The proud believer is guilty of mental attitude sins related to pride, related to legalism. He is ignorant of doctrine, he is disoriented to the grace of God, he thinks he earns or deserves blessing from God through some course of human good or some system of pseudo-spirituality. “and” is really “but.”

            “he gives grace to the humble” — the grace oriented. God keeps on providing grace [xarij] to the grace oriented. This does not mean self-effacement or connote a superficial facade of hypocrisy.          

            Verse 6 — “Humble yourselves” is an aorist passive imperative of the verb tapeinow. You have to watch a word like this because every person who is in emotional revolt has some system of self-effacement and has some preconceived notion about humbling themselves. Generally it has to do with some system of self-effacement which is not humility. Sometimes it borders on being psychotic and it is sometimes definitely a manifestation of some kind of neurosis — this business of humbling yourself by changing your appearance, becoming sloppy, neglecting grooming or wearing raggedy type clothes. People often take this as humility. But we should remember that God is not in the business of producing kooks out of Christians. You are not a good Christian because once you were a normal person and now you are an idiot.

            It is important to understand just exactly what is meant by this verb. It means to take in the Word of God; it refers to the grace orientation of the soul when Bible doctrine fills every facet of the soul. The viewpoint of life must have doctrine, both to launch into the soul and to launch toward experience in life. True humility has nothing to do with your grooming or your posture or your vocabulary, it has to do with the function of your soul. You cannot humble yourself by some system of self-effacement.

            The aorist tense is a constative aorist. This means at any point where you fulfil the function of GAP you are moving toward the goal of grace orientation and/or humility. The passive voice means that when you take in Bible doctrine you receive humility, it is not something you acquire. Humility is not a personality factor, it is not a personality change. You do not change your personality and become humble. There is no road to humility except through Bible doctrine in the right lobe. It is Bible doctrine or grace orientation that is the fulfilment of the concept of humility.

            Humility is an attitude of the soul which you can only receive. You cannot develop it, you cannot work it up, you cannot set up a mould and then try to squeeze yourself into that mould. It is definitely received from Bible doctrine.

            Then, this is the imperative mood which is a command. In effect this is a command to take in Bible doctrine. The absorption of Bible doctrine is the production of humility, and this is a humility which is pleasing to God rather than the pseudo humility which develops the kook type person in Christian experience.

            In order to achieve humility through the intake of Bible doctrine, which is the whole grace structure of the Christian life, there must be authority. There is no road to humility apart from the recognition of authority. The next word is a recognition of authority — u(po is the preposition of subordination. You cannot achieve true humility in the Christian life without the recognition of authority. And the first authority which is mentioned under u(po is the “mighty hand of God”.

            “mighty” — kratioj. This particular word means a ruling system or a ruling power, and the ruling system or the ruling power is Bible doctrine.

            “hand” is an anthropomorphism. It indicates that God has designed His plan in eternity past. This anthropomorphism is expressed in Proverbs 8:10-36, and the hand of God here is explained as the hand of provision, the hand is extended in the giving of doctrine. Cf. Psalm 19:1, the hand of God in creation; Psalm 22:16, the hand of God in salvation; Psalm 37:24, the hand of God in security; Isaiah 41:10, the hand of God in provision.

            Under this principle of the hand of God, God provides doctrine for the writers of scripture. Then from the launching pad it is written and at this point we have the canon of scripture. Then the next stage is the pastor-teacher who digs out of the canon of scripture exegetically the information and communicates it, so that your second authority is the pastor-teacher. You cannot get into the Word of God for yourself and understand it. That is why we have the gift of pastor-teacher residing in a few men, and the gift plus the preparation means there is authority.

            Then there is a third authority. As the believer priest responds the doctrine which is taught becomes the believer’s authority, he understands it objectively. Then in positive volition he transfers it to his human spirit and cycles it up into his frame of reference — in other words the function of GAP. The believer priest listens to the teaching of doctrine and the function of GAP becomes his authority in taking it in, and in the final analysis doctrine winds up as an ECS and on the launching pad. Then doctrine is the authority. Once you have it in your soul then doctrine is the authority.

            “therefore” — becomes important because to humble yourselves means to take in doctrine but you can’t possibly take in doctrine without recognising the authority of God, the authority of the Word, the authority of the one who communicates the Word, and the authority of the grace principle for perception in your life resulting in the fact that doctrine is in the place where you can utilise it.

            “under the mighty hand of God” — or literally, “under the authority of the ruling hand of God. The ruling hand of God is Bible doctrine.

            Literal translation: “Therefore, receive grace orientation under the authority of the ruling hand of God”.

            “that” introduces a purpose clause. Only through Bible doctrine does God ever promote. This is important to understand.

            “that he may exalt” is the aorist active subjunctive of u(psow. This word means to elevate, to promote, or to exalt. The aorist tense refers to the point of time when the believer through maximum knowledge of the Word matures to the point of being spiritually self-sustaining. This should be translated: “that he may promote you in due time.” The culminative aorist indicates after a certain point in the intake of doctrine. The active voice: God always does the promoting — Joshua 3:7. And He does it on the basis of His omniscience, His ability to read your soul - which He did in eternity past. The subjunctive mood indicates that the promotion is potential, depending upon Bible doctrine. And the key is grace orientation. There is no promotion until you pass the area of grace orientation. God cannot promote a non-grace believer, He can only promote a grace believer. You have to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and that means grace.

            “in due time” — the subjunctive mood of the verb means that promotion is potential, depending upon the intake of doctrine and the orientation to grace. We have here a Greek phrase, e)n plus the locative case (indicating a sphere). The word for “time” is the locative of kairoj, the object of the preposition. It refers to time in phase two, not in phase three. “Due time” is the time when you have acquired through the intake of doctrine and the daily function of GAP, grace orientation to the point where God can promote you and trust you with authority. No one can use authority until he has been under authority and under the mighty hand of God. When you come to the place of grace orientation through the intake of doctrine, then God can promote you to use it, to utilise authority.

            Verse 7 — faith-rest in the congregation. The word “casting” is an aorist active participle from e)pirriptw. In the last verse we had promotion through grace orientation, the intake of doctrine. This time we have doctrine on the launching pad. Grace orientation is one area of promotion, faith-rest is another. Here is “casting” — e)pi means upon, riptw means to hurl or to throw. So it means to cast upon and it is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew batach. It is the faith-rest verb. The principle is that the believer hurls his problems, his troubles, his worries, his problems, his difficulties, his frustrations, his adversities, all on the Lord. This is how David was promoted.

            “all your care” — this is in the accusative singular, not in the plural. The noun is merimna. This word is what is called a blend. It was actually a coined noun. Most Koinh Greek nouns are compounds — a preposition and a verb put together and made into a noun — but here we have a blended phrase, merizein ton [the] noun [the mind]. Merizein is a verb from which we have the noun as well and the whole phrase means to divide the mind. Anything that divides the mind is a pressure, a worry, a fear, a care, an anxiety, and so actually they began to blend this phrase and call it “mind dividers.” So they changed it to merimna. That is where we get the noun. It is not a compound but a blended noun. So, “casting all your mind dividers upon him.” This is accomplished through the faith-rest technique. Why?

            “he careth for you” — that is not what the Greek says. We have a present active indicative of an impersonal verb, and the present active indicative of an impersonal verb is melei. An impersonal verb is never translated by a personal pronoun, it is impersonal. So it is literally, “it keeps on being a care to him.” Melei is a present active indicative, impersonal.

            “Having hurled all of your mind dividers on him, it keeps on being a care to him.” This is an idiom. The impersonal form emphasises that our worries, our cares, keep on being God’s responsibility. It is not that He cares for us, it is that our problems are His responsibility.   

            We are now dealing with the congregation. In verses 8 and 9 we have the enemy of the congregation.

            Verse 8 — “Be sober,” the aorist active imperative of the verb nefw. Nefw means to be vigilant, to be well-balanced, to be self-possessed under all circumstances. In other words, to have stability. Here is the believer who is mature, who is constantly feeding on the Word day by day, who is growing and has an ECS, who has doctrine in his frame of reference and as a part of his vocabulary and as his norms and standards, plus doctrine on the launching pad which is viewpoint. This command is fulfilled in that way. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which means this command is fulfilled as we take in the Word of God on a daily basis, one day at a time, feeding on the Word daily. It also means that you have to take in the Word of God under the principle of authority. This is where many people fail, they have no concept of authority.

            Here is the response to feeding the flock — “Be stabilised.” This is the constative aorist indicating that stability is based upon the daily intake of doctrine under the authority of the pastor-teacher. The active voice: the believer must produce the action of the verb based on learning doctrine. The imperative mood:  this command is fulfilled by knowing Bible doctrine.

            “be vigilant” is the result of stability. So instead of “Be sober” the command is really, “Be stabilised.” The next word gregorew [translated “vigilant”] actually means the application. It means to be alert, to be wide awake regarding circumstances, to be oriented. Orientation demands constant application of doctrine to experience. So the corrected translation would read: “Be stabilised, be oriented.” Again we have a constative aorist, the active voice: the believer taking in doctrine produces the action, and this is an order to all believers. So in principle here both stability and orientation demand the daily function of GAP.

            “because” is the reason for the need of doctrine, the reason for stability and orientation.

            “your adversary” — the Greek noun a)ntidikoj, which means an opponent in a law suit, an enemy. It is translated “enemy.”

            “the devil” — the word which is used here for “devil” is diaboloj. It means enemy. So actually this says, “Your enemy the enemy.” A)ntidikoj means an enemy before the law and diaboloj means an enemy in the sense of general opposition through slander. Dia means through, ballw means to throw. It means to throw or to thrust through. It also means to defame or to slander. This also describes the function of Satan during this stage of the angelic conflict. He is in the business of thrusting you through verbally. He cannot destroy you physically apart from God’s permission and it is very rare for God ever to turn anyone over to Satan. Generally speaking, Satan must attack through the verbal concept. This is taught in Revelation 12:9,10; Zechariah 3:1; 1 John 2:1,2. Angelic convocations often find Satan attacking specific believers. He keeps a file on the failures of every believer. Jesus Christ acts as our defense attorney.

            We have an analogy in the middle of this verse: “as.” And Satan in his attack is compared to a roaring lion. The word for “roaring” is a present middle participle, o)ruomai — constantly roaring, indicating that Satan is always on the attack. Lions do not roar unless they are going into an attack. The devil as a roaring lion means that he is constantly on the attack and it is his noise which is designed to frighten you. In this case the lion is not going to try to bite you but he is going to try to frighten you. And here again Bible doctrine offsets his attacks.

            The devil also cannot be in every place at once. He is not God; he does not have divine essence. The devil is a creature like you and me, although very superior to us. He is invisible to us; he is the super angel, the greatest of all angelic creatures.

            “walking about” — present active indicative of peripatew, indicates that the devil can only be in one place at a time. And if the devil has to walk about obviously he is a creature.

            “seeking” — present active participle of zhtew, which means that he is constantly seeking.

            “whom” — a relative pronoun referring to the believer only.

            “he may devour” — the aorist active infinitive of katapeinw, which does not mean to devour, it means to gulp down. Satan is always on the prowl, looking for believers in phase two who have to be neutralised, gulped down — aorist tense, in a point of time. Of course we know how Satan functions. He looks for the believer with pride.

 

            The strategy of Satan — 2 Corinthians 2:11.

            His strategy is directed in three areas of life: toward believers, toward unbelievers, and toward nations.

            His strategy toward believers

            1. To accuse the believer. It is the objective of the devil to accuse believers in heaven — Job 1:6-11. The same principle of doctrine is taught in Zechariah 3:1,2; and in 1 John 2:1,2 where Jesus Christ is our defense attorney or advocate. The accusation of believers is the manner in which Satan seeks to fight in the court of heaven and gain reprieve for himself and the fallen angels. However, his accusations never succeed because the defense is always the same; it goes back to the cross where Christ was judged for our personal sins. In addition, where rebound occurs this is brought in as a part of the defense.

            2. To encourage the believer to ignore the Word of God and, at the same time, to accept false doctrine. This is accomplished when the believer is negative toward doctrine because mataiothj is opened and false doctrine into the soul. 1 Timothy 4:1 states the kind of doctrine he seeks to foist upon us. The principle is found in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15; 1 Chronicles 21 is an illustration.

            3. To frustrate the will of God in the life of the believer. There are three kinds of the will of God in your life: the operational will of God which answers the question: What does God want me to do at any time? — James 4:7,8; the geographical will of God: Where does God want me to be? — 1 Thessalonians 2:18; the mental will of God: What does God want me to think? — Ephesians 4:14. In those passages we see Satan seeking to frustrate the will of God.

            4. As noted in our context — 1 Peter 5:7-9 — the devil encourages the believer to worry. In this way the devil is the roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Worry is rejection of grace provision; worry is ignorance of grace provision; worry is refusal to utilise grace provision. There is no basis for worry in the Christian way of life. It is a mental attitude sin and it is a way of life under the concept of the pathological personality.

            5. To obscure the believer’s focus, do destroy, to interdict, in category one love which is occupation with the person of Christ. This is illustrated in Genesis 3:5. The next strategy of the devil in obscuring the believer’s focus is the principle of getting you to get your eyes on self — 1 Kings 19:10, eyes on people — Jeremiah 17:5, eyes on things — Hebrews 13:5,6.

            6. To involve the believer with temporal solutions to man’s problems so that divine solutions are excluded — Colossians 2:8. This is how believers often get involved in the “social gospel” .We look at life from the divine viewpoint and therefore we look for divine solutions. Remember that the devil is the ruler of this world and panaceas - socialism and the welfare state - are in reality a part of cosmos diabolicus.

            7. Satan attempts to cause believers to fear death. This is taught in Hebrews 2:14,15 where the death of Christ is mentioned and where believers are said to be afraid of death because this is the way Satan tries to work it. God provides the antidote to this fear of death through dying grace, stated in Psalm 23:4 and Job 5:21ff.      

           

            His strategy toward the unbeliever

            1. To blind the mind of the unbeliever toward the gospel — Luke 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; 2 Thessalonians 2:9,10.

            2. To provide the unbeliever with a substitute for divine viewpoint — Colossians 2:8.

            3. To deify man, the unbeliever, through pride — Isaiah 14:14 cf. Genesis 3:5.

           

            His strategy for nations

             There are special demons who are assigned to the courts of rulers of this world — Revelation 12:9; 20:8; the book of Daniel.

 

            Verse 9 — “Whom” is a relative pronoun referring to the devil.

            “resist” — aorist active imperative of a)nqisthmi. a)nti means against, i(sthmi means to stand. So the word meant originally to stand against, to resist, and eventually to oppose. The devil is opposed by the utilisation of Bible doctrine. Your ammunition in resisting the devil is strictly the Word of God. This emphasises again the importance of the daily function of GAP, without which you have no ammunition. The aorist tense refers to the point of time when you take in the Word of God every day. The active voice: you personally, as a believer priest, must be exposed to Bible teaching. The imperative mood: it is a command.

            “steadfast” — the word is in the plural, the nominative plural of stereoj. Stereoj means solid, hard, stiff. It was used in the military sense for a battle line and that is the connotation here. It is a battle line of believers under fire where they are steady, cool, efficient, based upon Bible doctrine.

            “in the faith” — o( pistij. O( is the definite article, pistij is the noun. When you have the definite article with faith it generally refers to what is believed, to the content of doctrine. It is a technical word for the content of doctrine. We must be steadfast in the content of Bible doctrine.

            “knowing” — indicates the importance of application of doctrine. This is the perfect active participle of o)ida, the perfect used as a present tense for doctrine in the right lobe. The greatest virtue in the Christian life is Bible doctrine in the right lobe, on the launching pad.

            “that these same afflictions” — literally, the same sufferings — paqhma, sufferings which you receive. This means undeserved sufferings.

            “are accomplished” — present middle infinitive of e)pitelew. E)pitelew means to bring to a completion and it means, therefore, eventually to endure. It is not, therefore, “are accomplished", but “are endured.” They are brought into the life in order to mature the believer. The present tense means that undeserved suffering will come into the life periodically in order that maturity might be accomplished. There are certain places where you reach a stage of Christian growth where undeserved suffering plus doctrine is necessary to advance. The middle voice indicates that the believer is benefited by undeserved suffering. The infinitive states a purpose and in this case the purpose of undeserved suffering is to advance in the Christian.

            “in your brethren” — dative of advantage. All believers have sometime in phase two experienced undeserved suffering. It is designed for your advance.

            “in the world” is a reference to the Roman world and indicates a general persecution of Christians throughout the Roman empire.

            Verse 10 — “the God of all grace” is God the Father. It means that He is the author of the grace plan.

           

            The doctrine of grace

            1. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the cross. Therefore, grace is the plan and work of God on behalf of man. Grace is also the policy of God’s plan. Anything in God’s plan must conform to the principle: God does the work.

            2. Grace depends on the essence or the character of God. Therefore, grace depends on who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and still be consistent with His own essence.

            3. The believer must sort out the difference between grace and legalism. Legalism is man’s work or ability and legalism is an intrusion into the plan of God. There is no place in God’s plan for legalism, human merit, human ability or human talent.

            4. The greatest thing that God can do for the saved person is to make him exactly like His Son. This is accomplished in the three stages of sanctification.

            Stage one is positional sanctification in which the believer enters into union with Jesus Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. Every believer in Christ in this dispensation, therefore every believer, is positionally like the Son and therefore positionally higher than the angels. Christ, as a Man, is seated at the right hand of the Father and every believer in union with Christ is positionally higher than the angels.

            Stage two is the erection of the edification complex of the soul. This is the spiritual triumph of the believer in the angelic conflict, and therefore the believer with the ECS has reached that stage of triumph, fulfilling his purpose for remaining in phase two.

            Stage three is the believer in eternity with a resurrection body. This is called ultimate   sanctification, and ultimate sanctification of the believer causes the believer to be physically superior to angels. So eventually in eternity, in a resurrection body, we will be physically superior to angels. Right now every believer in union with Christ is positionally superior to angels. The great objective of phase two in the Christian life is through the erection of the ECS to be a victor in an unseen conflict. The greatest thing you will do in this life is not leading someone to Christ or going to the mission field or hustling around in some way, the greatest thing you will ever do is inside of your own soul - to carry an ECS.

            5. Every believer without exception has tasted the grace of God at least once — 1 Peter 2:3. This refers to the point of salvation when the believer receives forty things which he did not earn or deserve. The believer at salvation passed the point of propitiation — 1 John 2:2, therefore, God in grace can be consistent with His own character and love the believer with a maximum love. This does not compromise is character or essence. Grace found a way.

            6. There is an occupational hazard for the believer and this is disorientation to grace in phase two — Hebrews 12:15, where it refers to the mental attitude sin of bitterness, and in Galatians 5:4, where it refers to reversionism.

            7. The divine attitude in grace is this: Isaiah 30:18,19 — God is constantly waiting to pour out His grace on every believer.

            8. Grace in phase one or salvation: The concept of grace in phase one is taught in Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 3:23,24; 4:4; 5:20, and the principle is found in Psalm 103:8-12.

            9. Grace in phase two is mentioned specifically in the following passages: Hebrews 4:16 — prayer; 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 — suffering; 2 Peter 3:18 — growth; 1 Peter 5:12 — stability; Hebrews 12:28 — the modus vivendi in the Christian life; 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 6:1 — the production of divine good.

            10. Grace in giving is described in 2 Corinthians 8:9. Grace orientation is the bona fide motivation and thought pattern for giving in the Church Age.

            11. Grace and suffering is described in some detail in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Grace is the only sufficiency for suffering in phase two. Through grace God is able to bless the believer in the midst of pressures and adversities in this life.

            12. The implications of grace. a. God is perfect; His plan is perfect; b. A perfect plan can only originate and function from a perfect God; c. If a man can do anything meritorious in the plan of God it is no longer perfect; d. A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. For this reason grace excludes any human being, his merit, his human good, his personality; e. Legalism or human good is the enemy of grace; f. The works of human righteousness therefore have no place in the plan of God; g. All human good is associated with the mental attitude of pride.

            13. Four areas in which pride rejects God’s grace. a. The pride of the believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security. He thinks his sins are greater than the plan of God; b. The pride of the believer who succumbs to pressure and adversity. He thinks that his sufferings are greater than the grace provision of God; c. The pride of pseudo-spirituality in which the believer thinks that his human systems are greater than the filling of the Spirit; d. The pride of the believer in emotional revolt of the soul. He thinks his emotions, his feelings and his experiences are more important than Bible doctrine.

            Verse 10 — “the God” refers to God the Father who is the author of the divine plan, operation grace, and therefore it is not surprising that He is called by this title, the God of all grace. God can only deal with the believer in grace. God has found a way to enter man into His plan, to utilise man in time, and the principle involved is grace.

            “all grace” means every phase of God’s plan is consistent, it is characterised by grace. The grace of God infiltrates into every facet of life: “hath called us” — election; “into his eternal glory” — phase three; “after that ye have suffered awhile” — phase two; “make you perfect, stabilise, strengthen, settle” — all are related to grace. Even discipline is a matter of grace, we never get what we deserve.

            “who” — the relative pronoun refers to God the Father.

            “hath called us” — an aorist active participle of kalew, and it refers to the doctrine of election. Basically election means to be entered into union with Christ. Christ was elected under the doctrine of divine decrees under the Father’s plan, and every believer in union with Christ shares the election of Christ. This is also true of predestination. Predestination doesn’t mean that you are predestined to do something, it means that you share the destiny of Christ. Both election and predestination must never divorced from union with Christ.

            “by Christ Jesus” is literally, “in Christ Jesus” — e)n plus the locative of Xristoj. So both election and predestination are related to positional truth - union with Christ. “eternal glory” refers to phase three and is a description of your eternal future with God. And it is all based upon who and what Christ is.

            “after that” is literally, “when.”

            “ye have suffered” — aorist active participle of pasxw. Suffering is used here not so much for the suffering but for the general condition of phase two. There is stability in grace but you can’t go too long in this life without encountering suffering. The point is that God has provided a way for you to be blessed in the midst of pressures and sufferings and adversities. God intends for us to discover the sufficiency of grace in time. That is why He is called at the end of this epistle “the God of all grace.”

            The suffering here is in the aorist tense, and that is constative. That means that as long as you are in phase two you will have suffering periodically. If you think your life is going to be free from suffering you are wrong. You are caught in the middle of a great conflict, the angelic conflict, and you live in the devil’s world. The devil would like to set up perfect environment but he has never found a way to do it, and it is inevitable that a creature trying to provide what only God can provide is going to cause suffering. And a creature rules the world. God does not rule the world at the present time, and that creature is Satan. It is inevitable that in this world only something from God is going to make things better and, in your personal life, only God’s grace provision and, in national life, only divine establishment. But in the life of the believer this suffering is all linked up with God’s grace and God’s provision, and even though we do suffer we have the basis in God’s grace for meeting these things and seeing His wonderful provision. So inevitably suffering is designed to appreciate who and what God is.

            We have some main verbs here to go with this aorist participle. Remember the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. We have four main verbs in the future tense - the future active indicative. This aorist participle indicates that suffering produces four things.

            “a while” — Suffering when you are in it always seems long, seems to have no end. Human beings have a tendency to get depressed when they see no daylight in the midst of sufferings, especially intense suffering. That is why we have the adverb to remind us we are human — o)ligon. O)ligon actually means “a little while” .Whatever suffering we have in time it is short and it is designed for blessing by God even if we make our own suffering. Suffering in time is short compared to eternity.

            “make you perfect” — future active indicative of katartizw, which actually means six different things. We almost have a choice but not quite. In 1 Corinthians 1:10 it means to tune up a machine. The Corinthians are like a machine where the gears have been stripped and they are causing embarrassment to the cause of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 13:11 it means to equip an army. In 1 Thessalonians 3:10 it also means to supply or equip a fleet. In Galatians 6:1 it means to mend a broken bone — the broken bone being the believer out of fellowship. In 1 Corinthians 1:10 it also has the connotation of adjusting thoroughly. But the meaning is none of these. The word katartizw in 1 Peter 5:10 means to mend a broken net. Peter was a fisherman and katartizw was a common word in Peter’s vocabulary. Broken nets do not catch fish. A broken net is mended by the utilisation of God’s grace, as indicated by this passage. Suffering, as it were, breaks the nets of our life and grace mends them. “Having suffered a while mend the broken nets.” God mends the broken net of extreme suffering.

            “stablish” — a future active indicative from sthrizw. Sthrizw means to have mental stability; it is the antithesis of people who are mentally unstable. It is used in Attic Greek for a woman who couldn’t make up her mind about the men in her life — Which one will I take? It is used about the general who couldn’t decide on which day to fight. It is the antithesis of instability. It means to become mentally established, to make up your mind about things. This mental stability comes from Bible doctrine under the function of GAP.

            As a result of stability in the mind — Bible doctrine in the right lobe — then you have a third word, “strengthen,” the future active indicative of the noun sqenoj. The verb is sqenow, which means to impart strength. There is an order here. Once Bible doctrine mends the broken nets of suffering then you become stabilised in your mind, and when you become stabilised in your mind the doctrine which stabilises you imparts strength.

            Then there is another main verb, “settle.” This is qemeliow in the future active indicative. This word means to establish an unwavering foundation, to set up a way of life.

           

          Summary of verse 10

            1. Blessing in the sufferings of phase two come from the function of GAP — doctrine in the right lobe.

            2. In each case the future tense of the main verb means blessing in the future from the point of adversity - blessing from the point of pasxw. All four main verbs are future to the suffering.   

            3. The active voice in each of the four main verbs means that the believer must use doctrine which he has learned; he must have doctrine in the launching pad.

            4. Once in the storm of suffering the believer must depend on the inner resources of doctrine he possess, not someone else’s.

            5. You do not become spiritually self-sustaining until you use doctrine you have learned.

            6. The indicative mood of each of the main verbs indicates the reality of blessing in the midst of the sufferings of life. Grace has found a way to bless you in suffering.

            7. There is no suffering or disaster too great for the plan of God.

 

            Verse 11 — “To him,” dative of dignity. A reference to God the Father as the author of the divine plan God the Father who in grace turns cursing into blessing and brings great happiness out of suffering. The word “glory” is not found here at all in the Greek.

            “dominion” — to kratoj, which means the ruling power.

            “for ever and ever” — literally, from the ages to the ages [from eternity past to eternity future]. God rules your life in phase two only through doctrine.

            “Amen” means “I believe it.” Here is the faith-rest response to God’s provision for the believer in time of disaster.

            Verse 12 — the mechanics for getting this epistle in writing.

            “By Silvanus” — dia plus the genitive from Silvanus. It means through Silvanus. Peter dictated this epistle, he didn’t write it himself.

            “a faithful brother” — literally, “the faithful brother.” Here is a person who is mentioned only this once. He was faithful in doing a job as unto the Lord and the indication here is that God is aware of those who are doing the apparent little things.

            “unto you” — this is the means of getting the letter in writing.

            “I suppose I have written briefly” .He doesn’t suppose anything of the kind. This is the present active indicative of logizomai. It is a dogmatic word. He knows. “I know I have written briefly.” The word “I have written” is the aorist active indicative of grafw. The aorist tense here covers the entire first Peter.

            “briefly” — dia plus o)ligoj. Dia plus the genitive is through and o)ligoj means a few. In other words, I have written a few words. Peter hasn’t time to write a lengthy epistle. There is a race between getting this epistle to its destination ahead of Nero’s soldiers and in this way God protects the canon of scripture and limits it to those things which every generation of believers must know and understand and orient in phase two.

            “exhorting” — the present active participle of parakalew here means to encourage. The purpose then of Peter first of all an encouragement to believers under pressure or about to go under pressure.

            “and testifying” — another present active participle, e)pimarturew. This doesn’t mean testifying. E)pi means upon, marturew means to testify. It means to carry a witness solemnly, or to carry a solemn witness.

            “that this is the true grace of God” — the whole purpose of this epistle is to carry a solemn witness to believers that “the true grace of God in which you stand.”

            “wherein” is literally “in which.”

            “ye stand” — stand fast. We have an aorist active imperative here — i(stemi. It means to stand fast. Stand fast in the grace of God, in other words, or you’ve had it.

            Verse 13 — The italics indicate words that are not found in the original but are used by the translator to try to clarify things. Literally the verse begins “The in Babylon” .It doesn’t make sense in English but it makes good sense in Greek. It means Peter is in Babylon. But the question is, To what Babylon does he refer? At this time Babylon had been destroyed and Babylon does not rear its ugly head again until the Tribulation where it describes religious ecumenicalism. And then, of course, it isn’t the literal city of Babylon, it is Rome - Revelation 14:8; 16:19; and chapters 17 and 18.

            Peter was writing from Rome but he was writing from Rome at the time of Nero’s persecutions of the Christians. This epistle was written in 65 AD from Rome while Paul was on his fourth missionary journey in Spain. Peter is writing to warn these people. He has discovered while in Rome that Nero is sending troops out to the people to whom this was addressed. But why doesn’t he say he is in Rome? Because if this letter is intercepted the Romans will not know where Peter is. Everyone [of the Christians] understood what Rome was and they called it Babylon. So the believers know where Peter is and they know that the warning is coming from Rome and, therefore, they will take cognisance of it.

            “elected together with you” — in other words, there are a lot of believers born again in Rome and there are still a lot of them alive, and that is grace. And that is to encourage them.

            “saluteth you” — they send their regards.

            “so doth Marcus my son” — this is John Mark of Acts 15:37-39; Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11. Mark is also the writer of the second gospel. Peter dictated the Gospel of Mark [to Mark] just as he dictated 1 Peter through Silvanus.  

            Verse 14 — “Greet,” the aorist active imperative — “one another of the same kind” literally.

            “with a kiss of charity [a)gaph]” — a relaxed mental attitude. The kiss is mental rather than physical. You kiss people by having a relaxed mental attitude toward them — no mental attitude sins.

            “peace” is the mental attitude of peace which results. When you have the kiss of love toward other believers obviously you have mental attitude peace. The same idea is taught in Isaiah 26:3,4.

            “with you” is dative of advantage. Peace belongs to you.

            “and to all that are in Christ Jesus” — that is, all believers. This is their heritage and it comes through the kiss of a)gaph.