The interception
Be clothed with humility (1 Peter 5:5).
When I was at school I always felt lessons got in the way of cricket in the summer and rugby in the winter. I loved rugby and played in the school teams. We had a lot of success in competitions. My greatest moment was when I was playing in one game and intercepted a pass and ran from the halfway line to score a try under the posts. I was so proud. And I knew that day the sports page of the local newspaper would report on my try. I eagerly awaited the newspaper. And sure enough they reported my try – but devastatingly they credited the try to my friend Keith Bolton who couldn’t run to save his life!
When I think about that incident now I think of Peter’s words, “Be clothed with humility.” Peter, like me and many others, was not a man who was naturally humble. He was full of self-confidence and thought that being self-confident had a place in spiritual things – and we know where that mistake led him.
But in chapter 5 of his first letter we see the transformation in the life of this dear man of God. He does not teach us to be clothed in humility without gently revealing the humility which marked him as a saint of God: “The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed” (verse 1). Peter does not speak of himself as an Apostle called personally by his resurrected Saviour to shepherd the flock of God. No, he speaks of himself in humility as a fellow elder in fellowship with other elders, in caring for the people of God. And he reminds them of our suffering and glorious Lord and Saviour, who is the Chief Shepherd. Fellowship in caring for the flock of God is so important. Paul describes how precious God’s people are to Him when he says to the Ephesian elders, “Shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). They are to be precious to us, too.
Humility is central to shepherding the flock of God. Peter instructs the elders to shepherd the Lord’s people who were local to them, and to do this willingly, selflessly, gently and by example (verses 2-3) – in other words to shepherd as the Lord did. It is an enormous privilege and responsibility to care for God’s people. That care needs to be characterised by humility and to be done in a fellowship which recognises and encourages the service of others. The example of humility in the lives of elders, which Peter first addresses, encourages humility amongst younger people, and then all the people of God: “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility” (verses 5). Humility is something which prospers the people of God. By humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God we are in the place where God can display His power. Peter had held the mighty hand of God when Jesus lifted him out of the sea, in Matthew 14. Later, in John 21, Peter was not afraid to cast himself into the sea to be close to the Saviour who that day called him to be a shepherd.
May the Lord Jesus clothe us with humility, so that He can demonstrate the power of His love and grace in our lives.
