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In 1 Peter 5 Christ is presented as the Chief Shepherd.
1 Peter 5:1 says, “The elders among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory to be revealed.” Today we should be witnesses and partakers of Christ’s sufferings so that we will be partakers of His glory to be revealed.
Peter and the early apostles were witnesses of Christ (Acts 1:8), not only as eyewitnesses testifying of what they had seen of Christ’s suffering (5:32; 10:39) but also as martyrs vindicating their testimony by suffering martyrdom for Him (22:20; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:10-11; 11:23; 1 Cor. 15:31). This is to share in the sufferings of Christ (1 Pet. 4:13), to participate in the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).
Peter also says in 1 Peter 5:1 that he is a partaker of the glory to be revealed. Peter was first a witness, a martyr, and a partaker of the sufferings of Christ. Then he was a partaker of His glory (Rom. 8:17). Christ Himself had gone the same way (1 Pet. 1:11; Luke 24:26). In Greek, witness and martyr are the same word. This indicates that we need to bear testimony as a witness even at the risk of being a martyr, of sacrificing our lives.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter gave a strong testimony, witnessing of the sufferings of Christ. He boldly told the Jews that they had crucified the Lord Jesus. Before the day of Pentecost, however, Peter was not bold but timid. The night the Lord Jesus was betrayed Peter denied that he was one of His followers. In the presence of the Lord, Peter denied Him. But on the day of Pentecost Peter had the boldness to rebuke the Jews for crucifying the Lord Jesus. After that, Peter began to suffer persecution. He was arrested and put into prison. He was willing to risk his life to be a witness for the Lord Jesus.
Peter, no doubt, remembered the Lord’s word in Acts 1 about witnesses. When the disciples asked the Lord about the restoring of the kingdom to Israel, He replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set by His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (vv. 7-8). Peter was the first to become such a witness. He was a leading witness, a martyr, one who was willing to sacrifice his life to testify of the sufferings of Christ. Eventually, Peter himself was martyred. He sacrificed his life as part of his witness for Christ. This was the fulfillment of the Lord’s word to him in John 21:18, a word concerning “by what kind of death he would glorify God” (v. 19). When Peter wrote his second Epistle, he knew that the time of his martyrdom was near: “Knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle is imminent, even as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me” (1:14).
We need to be witnesses of the sufferings of Christ. This means that we should be ready to sacrifice our lives as part of our testimony. Being a partaker of Christ’s glory depends on being such a martyr. If we are willing to be martyred, if we are willing to risk our lives, then surely we will be partakers of the glory to be revealed. But if we are not willing to sacrifice our lives, then instead of partaking of glory at the Lord’s coming, we will probably be rebuked by Him.
In 1 Peter 4:19 Peter says, “So then let those also who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing to a faithful Creator.” Here, well-doing refers to doing right, good, and noble deeds. Committing our souls to a faithful Creator is effective only if we are engaged in well-doing, that is, if we are doing noble deeds. Nothing is more noble than dying as a martyr for the Lord.
When we act in such a noble way, we have the ground to commit our souls to a faithful Creator. He is altogether faithful. When the Lord Jesus was being tried before His crucifixion, Peter was not at all noble. But later, in the book of Acts, Peter witnessed for Christ before his persecutors in a noble way. For example, Peter and John said to the persecutors, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you judge; for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20). Peter and the other apostles committed their souls in well-doing to a faithful Creator. Surely Peter was able to say, “Lord, You are faithful to me. Now I would be faithful to You. I would be faithful to You at the cost of my life.” Certainly the Lord would honor such a noble commitment.
Because Peter was a noble witness, a noble martyr, he had the assurance that he would be a partaker of the coming glory. Whether we will be partakers of the glory to come depends upon how noble and faithful we are as witnesses. We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves. We should always have the willingness to sacrifice ourselves. We need to sacrifice our time, our energy, and our life. If we are willing to sacrifice in this way, then we will be witnesses of the sufferings of Christ and partakers of the coming glory. First, we must participate in Christ’s suffering; only then can we share in Christ’s glory.
First Peter 5:4 says, “When the Chief Shepherd is manifested, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” Today we are following the steps of Christ as the Chief Shepherd, suffering what He has suffered. Yet when the Chief Shepherd is manifested, we will receive the reward of the unfading crown of glory.
Christ is our Chief Shepherd, and He is the Head of all the shepherds. He leads us to feed, look after, teach, and guide the flock of God according to God’s intention and to become patterns of the flock (vv. 2-3). Christ is the Chief Shepherd, and the believers are shepherds. As the Chief Shepherd, He must have a flock of shepherds under Him. We are not simply flocks of sheep but flocks of shepherds.
Christ is the Chief Shepherd, shepherding His flock through the elders of the churches (vv. 1-4). All the elders are subordinate shepherds. Christ as the Head is the Chief Shepherd. Actually, we are not the ones who are shepherding. When we shepherd, it should be Christ shepherding through us; it should be He who is in us urging us to shepherd others. Unless the Lord is doing the shepherding, how can we be shepherds? When we go to visit a brother and the Lord goes with us, that truly makes a difference. If we shepherd people apart from Christ, such shepherding is not in resurrection but in the old creation. When Christ shepherds through us, our labor is in resurrection. Only Christ is resurrection. Whatever is divine is resurrection. All the elders must learn to shepherd the churches, not by themselves in the old creation but by Christ as the shepherding Chief in resurrection.
The reward to the elders will be the unfading crown of glory, which they will receive at the manifestation of the Chief Shepherd (v. 4). At the apostle’s time crowns were given to victors in athletic games (1 Cor. 9:25; 2 Tim. 4:8). Those were corruptible crowns, whose glory faded. The crown given by the Lord to the faithful elders will be a reward for their loyal service. The glory of this crown will never fade. It will be a portion of the glory for the overcomers’ enjoyment in the manifestation of the kingdom of God and Christ (2 Pet. 1:11). Christ is the Chief Shepherd who will reward the faithful elders, who shepherd God’s flock faithfully, with the unfading crown of glory for their encouragement.
First Peter 5:10 says, “The God of all grace, He who has called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you.” The expression in Christ Jesus indicates that the God of all grace went through all the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to accomplish the complete and full redemption so that He may bring His redeemed people into an organic union with Himself. Thus, they may participate in the riches of the Triune God as their enjoyment. All the steps of the divine operation are in Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God and who became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the bountiful life supply to us. It is in this Christ, through His all-inclusive redemption and based on all His achievements, that God can be the God of all grace to call us into His eternal glory and to perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us in the Triune God (1:1-2) as the solid foundation, thus enabling us to attain to His glorious goal. What a miracle that fallen sinners can be brought into God’s eternal glory! And how excellent is His perfecting, establishing, strengthening, and grounding work in us! This is all accomplished through His “all grace” which is the “true grace” (5:12). According to what Peter says in 5:10, our sufferings are only for a little while, but God’s glory is eternal. After we have suffered a little while, the God of all grace will personally perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us.
First Peter 5:14 says, “Peace to you all who are in Christ.” Peace results from grace and issues from the enjoyment of the Triune God. Such enjoyment of God as the multiplying and multiplied grace (1:2), the varied grace (4:10), the all grace (5:10), and the true grace (v. 12), as the reality of the contents of the Christian life under the government of God, issues and results in a condition of peace with both God and man.
First Peter presents many different aspects of the sweet experience and enjoyment of Christ. We may be limited in our experience and enjoyment of Christ. Yet when we consider all these precious items of Christ revealed in 1 Peter, we can see a view of the rich enjoyment that we may have in Him.
