Challenge

And one of the most disorienting events for believers is when we suffer for God's name. How are we to process such suffering? What are we to think when insulted or slandered or marginalized for Jesus?

It reminds me of my second night as a parent. It was a disorienting experience. Everyone had told me to expect some sleepless nights due to the crying emanating from my newborn daughter, but nothing could have prepared me for the piercing, supernaturally loud sounds of that second night. I knew parenting would be good but with difficult moments, but during the darkness of that night I wondered if I had been wrong. Perhaps parenting was going to be a long string of miseries, and this initiation was designed to prepare me for the agony to come. Perhaps the God who gave me this child, the one I had thought was good, was, in reality, out to get me. I was disoriented.

In a similar way, it can be disorienting to suffer for Jesus. I mean, think of the way Peter has tried to prepare us for exilic Christianity. He has already told us we will sometimes suffer according to God's will for doing good (3:17). He has tried to tell us that suffering for Christ should not surprise us because it is not a strange event (4:12). And he has even told us that these events are sometimes God's hand of judgment on our lives -- God is purifying and growing us through the insults, slander, and marginalization (4:17). He even said:

1 Peter 4:19 (ESV) — 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

But this "entrusting" is difficult. We often don't understand. The suffering for Jesus can be disorienting. We ask: how is any of this good for us? How could it be okay that these things are happening to me (or to us)? How could this be beneficial? If I were God, I would do things differently. How can God be good?

Questions like these sometimes reveal a subtle form of pride: we think we know better than God. If we were in charge, the world would look radically different than it does. Christians would be a favored people. Our values would be the norm. How could anything otherwise be good? For this, Peter gives us an important exhortation. Let's read:

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

1. The Exhortation

So what is the exhortation Peter gave us? It is found at the beginning of our brief passage:

6a Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God...

The Meaning

To understand Peter's meaning, we have to understand the phrase "the mighty hand of God" (6). It's a biblical phrase that was introduced when God delivered Israel from the Egyptians in the book of Exodus. When God recruited a leader for his people, he spoke to Moses at a bush that burned but was not consumed. There, God said:

Exodus 3:19 (ESV) — 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

A mighty hand -- God's hand. And over and over again in the Old Testament, the mighty hand of God was used to describe the time when God delivered Israel from their Egyptian captors (see Exodus 6:1,13:3, 9, 14, 16, Deuteronomy 3:24; 4:34; 5:15; 6:21; 7:8, 19; 9:26, 29; 11:2; 26:8; 29:3; 34:12).

So God's mighty hand is meant to remind us of God's power to intervene in human affairs to deliver his people. The God of the first Exodus is the God of the second Exodus. He rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, and he rescues us from the slavery to sin. He delivered them through the blood of the Passover lamb, and he delivers his church by the blood of Jesus. He called Israel out of bondage, and he calls us out of bondage as well. To Pharaoh, God said, “Let my people go, that they may serve me (Exodus 8:1). And he still wants his people to be set free, so they can become his servants.

So what does it mean to submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God? What did Peter mean? He means that when suffering for Jesus, we are to know God is still a deliverer. He still sets the prisoner free. He still looses the bonds of captivity. So when our social status suffers because of Jesus, we should accept those difficult circumstances as part of God's deliverance. He is still releasing us from bondage -- the bondage of self-centeredness, the bondage of ease, the bondage of human approval, the bondage of greed, the bondage of distraction, the bondage of sin. This is part of what Peter meant when he said it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God (4:17). God's mighty hand will allow for the marginalization of his church, sometimes as a way to set us free from the bondage of sin.

The Temptation

I will admit it is sometimes hard to humble ourselves under God's might hand. It is only natural to rage against those causing our difficulties. But Peter advises a marginalized church to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God.

Part of the reason this is hard is because the gospel is a message of deliverance. It is the second (and true) exodus. So when suppressed or oppressed, believers might be tempted to retaliate: God set us free! Who are you to treat us otherwise! But Peter has built the case that God is involved. He is using the pains to deliver us from our slavery to sin, and one day he will exalt us.

Christians have always struggled to know how to do this. I read recently of the Christians in France near the end of the 17th century. For decades, they had lived in peace because of a law that allowed for their reformed beliefs and practices. But eventually, those laws were repealed by a new king who wanted to force their conversion to Roman Catholicism. Governmental persecution was unleashed. For a time, their pastors preached 1 Peter to them as a way to encourage them to endure their suffering without fighting, to endure as Jesus did. But, after a while, those pastors were arrested or killed, and a new wave of leaders arose. They weren't pastors but more like mystical prophets. Many of them compared the French government to the beast of Revelation and encouraged them to fight. The result was great bloodshed on both sides.

Even reading of the accounts of those believers stirs mixed emotions. Who was right? The original pastors or the prophets who replaced them? I'm not suggesting the answer is easy to come by. I'm not suggesting I always know how to respond. All I can hold up is the words of Peter and the rest of the New Testament: "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God." May God give us wisdom on how to do so.

2. The Motivation

But Peter gives us a motivation after his exhortation. He gives us a reason to trust God and come under his mighty hand:

6b so that at the proper time he may exalt you...

Exaltation

The same hand that allows suffering for Jesus will also exalt us with Jesus. The same Shepherd who leads us through the valley of the shadow of death is taking us to mountainous pastures he has prepared for us. The same God who brings us low will raise us up. At the proper time, Peter said, God will exalt us (6).

But what is this exaltation Peter speaks about? We don't know for certain because he doesn't say. I mean, we can imagine him thinking of our future resurrection, the glories of heaven. They killed Jesus, and he rose. If you suffer, you will rise. But we cannot know specifically what exaltation Peter has in mind. Perhaps he is only thinking of the next life. Perhaps he is confident it will happen in this life. Maybe he's thinking of increased spiritual blessing or deeper fellowship with God. Maybe he's thinking of the increased impact we can make for Jesus because of our suffering. Someway, somehow, Peter knows God will exalt all who suffer for Jesus.

My mind goes to Apostle John. In his old age, he was ruthlessly persecuted. Some think his persecutors tried to kill him by boiling him in oil, only for God to miraculously preserve him. But we do know that he was eventually delivered to a prison island called Patmos. Imprisoned for preaching the word of God and testifying of Jesus, John was brought about as low as one can go. He humbled himself under the mighty hand of God. He couldn't fight if he wanted to (Revelation 1:9-11).

But, there, on Patmos, God began to speak to him. God showed him the future in the form of the book of Revelation. He showed John, a man who had walked and talked with Jesus, a glorified vision of Jesus. He saw Christ in his exalted and glorified state. The last living apostle, he received the final apostolic word, the last edition of the Bible.

There must be some chance that John's Revelation is an example of the exaltation Peter thought was coming. John was brought low, but God exalted him. He showed him things he had never previously known.

The Proper Time

And Peter wants us to know that at the proper time God will exalt everyone who suffers even a little bit for Jesus. You won't write a new book of the Bible like John did, but maybe you will see and relate to Jesus in a refreshed and revitalized way.

We just don't know when this exaltation will come. For example, think of the suffering of disease. It feels tragic when it comes. And when it claims the life of a solid believer, someone making a difference in God's kingdom, it can be a struggle for us: Why would God allow this person to be brought low? Why would they die? Though we don't know the answer, we do know God has now exalted them. After death, they became partakers of the resurrection. God exalted them.

But God does this at the proper time, and only he, in his infinite wisdom and discernment, knows when that is. We must trust him to bring physical healing, political victory, and the exaltation of the church when he chooses. His ways are not our ways, so we must submit to his definition of the proper time.

Hannah: Representative Of God's Way

But this exaltation will come. Do you remember the life of Hannah? In the Old Testament, she was a godly woman who was living a terrible life. Her husband was a polygamist. In that society, she had little power and recourse to change her situation. And, worse, she could not have children, so she was totally alone with this man and his other wife and all her children. Misery.

Year after year, she prayed to God for a child. Finally, one year, she told God she would dedicate her child to God's service if he would open her womb. And God did. She had baby Samuel, dedicated him to God's service as a priest for Israel, and then God gave her many more children. She sang:

1 Samuel 2:7–8 (ESV) — 7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. 8 He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.

Hers was a prayer regarding God's sovereignty. She had humbled herself under God's mighty hand, and he had exalted her at the proper time.

3. The Application

But even after being motivated by Peter to wait for God to exalt us, how do we apply Peter's exhortation to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand? Is there a process we should follow? How do we apply this in our lives today?

7a casting all your anxieties on him...

What Anxieties?

So Peter tells us to accept what God's hand gives us by taking every one of our anxieties, especially those connected to suffering for Jesus, and casting them on God -- the same God whose mighty hand we have come under.

Other translations call these anxieties "cares," "worries," and "burdens." And we certainly live in a time where feelings of anxiety are on the rise. Many of us don't know what to do with those anxieties. But what are they?

Well, what aren't they? I mean, thousands of pressures could qualify. I don't mean to stress you out today, but we have anxieties related to our personal lives, our physical health, our relationships, our circumstances, our workplaces, our children, our churches, our country, and our spiritual condition. All these concerns compound and multiply, oftentimes creating a disabling effect.

Cast: An Energetic Word

So Peter told us to take our anxieties and cast them upon God (7). It is an energetic word. He did not tell us to lay or set or bring our anxieties to God but to cast them upon God. We are to throw our pressures on him. He can handle it.

My family likes to tease me about my reaction to emergencies. When chaos hits, Christina's heartbeat slows and her response time is steady, even delayed. But I go the opposite direction. One time, I was trying to fix something on our refrigerator when the water line became disconnected. I reached for the shut-off valve on the wall, but it was corroded and broke in my hand. Water was spraying everywhere. The pressure on that little hose made it whip around like an out-of-control helicopter blade. It was a real Blackhawk Down situation. In my mind, the kitchen was about to suffer irreparable water damage. But everyone else just stood there. I was panicked! I started yelling at them to get towels. Run! Do something! Stop watching!

But my shouting and panic didn't produce anything. What I needed to do was go outside to shut off the main water valve supplying the house. I did that. We cleaned up. I reconnected the water line. And we were good. Once I turned my stress into a specific action, the crisis stopped.

Peter is turn our stresses into a specific action. He wants us to cast our cares on God. Think of a canoe that is slowly taking on water. How does one bale the water? Slowly, patiently, as if there is nothing at stake? Or energetically? Energetically!

And that's how we are to cast our cares upon God. Through prayer, confession, and trust, we must transfer our anxieties to him.

On Him

He is the One who can handle our anxieties. We often think we can handle them. Or sometimes, we try to transfer our anxieties to others. But only God can handle them.

The past couple of years have truly refreshed me in this area of life. Since my earliest years walking with Jesus, my favorite time of day is the time I get with him. But while on sabbatical during the summer of 2019, my time casting my cares on him was refreshed. We stayed for a month in York, England. The old city there is surrounded by Roman walls -- walls that are still standing! In the morning, the gates opened, and every day I walked the circumference of the city while casting my cares on God. And then, when the shutdowns of 2020 came, and we were all sent home to isolate, I again was refreshed in times of walking and talking with God, casting my burdens upon him every day.

And I encourage you to do the same. Find your way of casting your anxieties upon him. Then make it a regular part of your life.

4. The Foundation

There is one last thing I want you to see from this passage. We've heard Peter's exhortation that we submit ourselves to God's mighty hand. We've seen that we are to be motivated by the fact God will exalt us at the proper time. And we've thought about the importance of casting our anxieties on him. But there is a foundational truth to all this: why would I do what Peter says?

7b because he cares for you.

The Cross

God can handle our cares; he wants us to transfer our care to him because he cares for us. And this is most evident when we look to the cross. The cross of Christ shouts loudly of the nature of God. Look at the cross; he must be good! Look at the cross; his ways must be beyond our ways! Look at the cross; he must be wise! Look at the cross; he must be love! Look at the cross; he will exalt us just as he exalted his only begotten Son!

As Paul said:

Romans 8:32 (ESV) — 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

In our house, there are certain family sayings that have special meaning because of past events. One event occurred when my girls were very little. My two oldest were sharing a bedroom at the time, and one night they stayed up past their bedtime playing together with their most favorite dolls. As part of their discipline, we took their dolls and "put them to bed" outside their room at the end of the hallway. Normally both dolls had their own special beds and covers, but not that night.

My middle child is a fact-based person. She knew her Rainbow Brite doll was not a living being. So she just went to sleep -- no big deal. But my oldest daughter is a romantic. To her, a living, breathing, loved one had just been relegated to a night of abject poverty, neglect, and homelessness. And, as I stood at the doorway listening to them talk after I'd left the room, she tried to reason with her sister. She wanted her younger sister to be as distraught as she was. The injustice of it all! And, finally, with tears, she said to her more composed and fact-based sister, "And the worst part is, you don't even care!"

Well, as we endure suffering for Christ, as we humble ourselves under God's hand for our lives, as we experience marginalization or slander or insults for Jesus, we must know that God cares. He cares. He cares for you. With this as our foundation, we should trust him to bring us to and through all the pains of life. He cares for us.

And these steps are some of the most Christlike things you could ever do. Jesus humbled himself under the might hand of God. He lowered himself to the plan of the Triune God, allowing himself to become one of us in order to die for us. Jesus waited for the exaltation the Father would give. He is partially exalted now (he rose, millions have loved him), but his ultimate exaltation is still coming. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess him as Lord. And Jesus cast all his anxieties upon the Father. He prayed daily. He agonized in the garden of Gethsemane. He even cried to God while on the cross. And the Father cared for his Son. That's how Jesus got through it all. He knew of his Father's love. And that's how we'll get through as well.