SurrenderSýnishorn

The Active Posture Of Christian Community 

Verse 6 says (NIV), “Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand.” To humble yourself is to lower yourself in dignity or importance. A humble person is lowly, modest, meek, submissive. The experience is realized when we surrender our will, our ego, to God. In so doing, we allow God to realign our priorities and principles with His priorities and principles. 

The result allows us to echo Paul’s testimony in Galatians 2:20 (NIV): “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

How does that look in Christian community? Peter writes to the leaders that they are meant to model humility to the rest of the disciples, in verse 3: “being examples to the flock.” And it goes on that we are to submit ourselves to the leaders (v5). 

But, even deeper, saturating all of these relationships and interactions, he instructs (v5), “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another.” Mutual submission within the context of surrender to God is the active posture of Christian community. 

Along with our will and ego, Peter exhorts us to cast all our anxieties on God, because He cares for us. He wants not only our ‘power’ but also our ‘weakness’. We can trust Him with it all. 

And it is only once we’ve established these relationships, with God and with Christian community, that we are optimally positioned to confront and resist and defeat the devil.