The Way Up is Down

While listening to a sermon on 1 Peter 5 tonight, I was pleased to have a "light bulb" moment.  I had loaned someone my English Bible, so I was using the Interlinear. Being able to see the Greek made something that had previously escaped my notice become quite clear.  Read the following two verses...

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you."  [I Pet.5:6-7]

Paying attention to the main verb(s) in a passage helps you determine the main point. The supporting verb(s) expand on the main idea, giving you additional insight.  If you temporarily weed out the prepositional phrases, you can see the main thought.  So read the above verses again and determine the Main Verb of the sentence.

It helps that the Main Verb here is "front loaded" for stress. It's "humble yourselves," one word in the Greek.  Since it's an Imperative of Command, the English doesn't translate the subject "you".  So the main idea of this sentence is "You humble yourselves".  And who are you commanded to humble yourself under?

There's a modifying Participle in (7) that sheds much light onto the meaning of the passage.  We are accustomed to seeing "casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" as a stand alone verse, completely out of its context.  But it's not a stand-alone verse!  It's a modifying clause reflecting back on the main thought in (6). "Casting" is an adverbial Participle modifying the Main Verb, "humble yourselves". (7) tells HOW we accomplish (6)!  When we cast all our anxieties on Him ... we are humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God.  Now we might consider ourselves as being humble before God, but if we're not casting all our anxieties on Him, then, according to this passage, we're really not humbling ourselves at all. In fact, we're deceiving ourselves.

Think about that for a minute.  What fears and anxieties are you holding onto?  What are you not entrusting to God?  If your desire is to humble yourself under God, and believers are commanded to do so in this passage, then in order to do that it is necessary to cast ALL your anxieties upon Him. You, as a believer, one who has trusted in Christ's substitutionary atonement on your behalf, are able to cast all your anxieties on Him because you can confidently rest in the fact that God cares for you.  "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?"  [Rom.8:31]

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  [Romans 8:35-39]

Where are you really placing your faith & trust ... in yourself?  your spouse?  your friends?  your job?  your portfolio? ... or in God?  Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.