1 Peter 5:6 – Under God – 11.7.11

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”

As Peter winds down his letter, he finishes with these bullet point commands.  Or perhaps “stick point” commands for Peter’s day…

-          Be submissive

-          Clothe yourself in humility

-          Humble yourselves

-          Cast your anxiety on God

-          Be self-controlled and alert

-          Resist the enemy

-          Stand firm in the faith

-          Great one another with a kiss of love (or in today’s parlance, the “handshake of love” or the “side hug of love”.)

I don’t think it’s an accident that Peter begins this final section with a focus on humility.  Humility is one of the most critical attitudes in the Christian life.  If you don’t humble yourself before God, you won’t accept His word as your authority, you won’t acknowledge that you are sinful, you won’t see a need for a savior, you won’t accept His correction and discipline, and you won’t be able to see others as important as you are.  The Christian life flows from a well of humility. 

If you find it hard to humble yourself, consider the mighty hand of God.  Spend some time contemplating His majesty and power.  Consider the vastness of the universe that He spoke into existence and meditate on the intricacy of cellular structures and the mysteries of the subatomic level.  Try to wrap your mind around the fact that God exists outside of time, that He is everywhere, and that He knows everything…and is completely sinless (this paragraph could have been much longer).

And then take a look at yourself.  If you are like me, you’ll find a person who has trouble caring for the needs of others because I am too self-centered to care.  A person who is often too lazy to do the things God has called me to do.  A person who constantly looks to what I can get out of something instead of what I can share.  A person full of pride, anger, bitterness, lust, judgment, mocking, envy, and every other sin you can imagine. 

If we realize our sinful insignificance compared with the galactic greatness of God, we will find it less difficult to humble ourselves before Him (I don’t know that it ever gets easy).  A point of clarification, God calls us to more than simple humility – though that is a good start – the key is to humble yourself before God.  We must place ourselves under God’s authority.  To live the life of joy that God calls us to – we must put God first…and that is a matter of submitting your will to God. 

Last but definitely not least, we get the amazing promise that if we humble ourselves before God, He will lift us up in due time (meaning “in God’s perfect timing”).  One day we will be where He is.  One day we will see Him clearly.  One day we will be like Jesus.  How I look forward to that day!  But that day doesn’t come unless we humble ourselves before God…

“Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.” – RC Sproul, The Holiness of God