All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves there under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you…
First I want to understand the context of Peter’s Epistle. He addressed what he called the Diaspora of Christ’s Church in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. He refers to them as “strangers” and “resident aliens.” Though we often spiritualize these terms, they likely refer to the legal status of many of the Christians Peter is writing to. This Epistle was composed in Rome, the imperial city. Silvanus is named as the courier, and he appears also to have been Peter’s secretary/scribe. He sailed from Rome, following a well-established trade route, stopping off at major population centers to deliver the Epistle to the Churches. It is reckoned, conservatively, that about 40,000 Christians were living in Asia Minor in the late 60s. By the turn of the century, when Ignatius of Antioch wrote his Letters and Clement wrote the Corinthians, the Christian population had grown to 80,000.
Now, there was a sobering situation that Peter is addressing. He refers to their “heaviness,” to “ fiery ordeals,” and to their common experience of sharing Christ’s sufferings. Some have thought that a Roman sponsored pogrom was underway. There is not a hint of that in the Epistle and in fact, Peter specifically instructs them to submit to the Emperor and governors who punish evil behavior. There were no Roman persecutions at that time.
But there are serious problems and they are all local – homegrown. These are hometown troubles and conflicts rising from the differences between Christians and their unbelieving neighbors. Christians were not thought to be enemies of the state at this point, but they were objects of slander, suspicion, accusations, and hostility because they were so different from their neighbors. And all these “localized” hostilities are connected on a subterranean level. Peter says they have a common source in “the ruler of this age,” the cosmic slanderer who is behind all the enmity and abuse being heaped upon believers by unbelieving neighbors and what we would call community leaders. Peter says these societies that aim to absorb and neutralize the Church are devil-driven:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; who resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
Behind the campaign to absorb and reduce the effect the Church lurks the Devil himself. The same is the case today. The society, the culture around you, our institutions, our neighbors and even much of the church itself urges us to accommodate standards, values, and behaviors that are alien to the Gospel and the will of God. “Resist” these pressures Peter declares! Remain “stedfast in the faith” and resist those who lean on you to assimilate to this culture. You are called to be the holy children of God, you are called to holy non-conformity, to holy and exclusive solidarity within the Body of Christ formed by the pattern of Christ, not the patterns of this world. This is the way Peter puts it in Chapter 1:14:
Do not allow yourselves to be molded by the craving of your former ignorance, but, in conformity with the Holy One who called you, you too be holy in all your conduct…
Do not be “molded by cravings.” These are cravings are on display in institutions, popular culture, and even neighborhoods: selfish yearnings, uncontrolled passions, and compulsive ambition. These cravings mark the moral condition of the unbeliever. But you are Children of God. All that is “former ignorance” for you. Don’t fall back into that pollution. You have been liberated from that ignorance and contamination through the New Birth. Peter is crystal clear that our break with this way of life must be conscious, intentional and definitive for ourselves individually and in our community. Believers must end allegiances that lure us into assimilating pagan standards. Note this: assimilation occurs when we allow our common life to be molded by selfishness, run-away ambition and unrestrained passions. So how may we resist?
All of you be subject to one another, and be clothed with humility…
is not the best translation of this text. This is better:
Finally, all of you: clothe yourselves with humility in your relations with one another because God opposes the arrogant and gives grace to the humble…
The word used here for “clothe” is a verb that may be used to express the action of a slave tying an apron around his waist as he performs domestic work; which would include washing the feet of guests. That was a common experience in that day. Walking was a dirty business. They were barefoot or they wore open sandals. There were few roads. And those that did exist were either really dusty or really muddy, depending on the weather. All manner of filth was thrown into the streets and it couldn’t be avoided. It was a mark of good hospitality to have a servant greet one’s guest in the atrium and wash and dry their feet. Then they would enter the home without worrying about tracking in rubbish. That servant was the lowest servant. It was degrading work. Humiliating. Punishing, even. The kind of work no one else wanted to do. And it is the very work Peter could recall Jesus himself performing on the night he was betrayed. Jesus, the humble servant of God, took the lowly domestic slave as his exemplar for the ethic of the Household of Faith. This is how we resist the demonic culture. The Greco-Roman world radically opposed Christian humility. A free man, a nobleman would never have the mind of a slave. For these Christian’s neighbors, this servile attitude was debasing and corrupting; a character flaw that indicated self-contempt and for that matter contempt for proper social order. From the point-of-view of their neighbors in the world, this Christian value of humility was downright subversive. These Christians were turning their world upside down. They were promoting a quiet sedition, a rebellion against the ethics and standards of the present age.
Peter declares that the Household of God will not model itself upon pagan households. The Christian Mother’s duty was not to produce sons who would bring honor and if necessary die for the City. The Christian Father would not be a Roman Pater Familias, but rather he would exemplary the strength of the Servant of God, his savior Jesus Christ. God’s offspring will not assimilate the values of a demonic-driven culture: the will to power, the domination of the weak, unbounded ambition that tramples upon the souls of competitors! Absolutely not! Our model is the meek and harmless Lamb of God! Holiness in our life together; holiness amongst our pagan neighbors, holiness when we are all by ourselves, trust in God’s generosity, confidence in his destiny for us, submission to his will, and the mutual humility of all our members –- that will route the Devil and his attempts to absorb us into the violent banality of whatever present darkness we may experience. These little parishes all over Asia Minor, so harassed and disparaged by their pagan neighbors, responded to Peter’s insistence to break clean of alien standards. Their subversion did turn the world upside down. It is easy to see how pagan chatter and derisiveness could and did spill over into brutality and bloodshed. There were occasions and even seasons when anxiety virtually pulsated through these little parishes. How are we to live with such contingencies? Peter has more advice.
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you…
The word for “care” is more exactly rendered “anxiety.” The word we translate “casting” means “to throw something upon something else,” as in throwing a blanket upon a donkey for riding. Or lifting a lamb to the shoulders of a shepherd. This is a natural extension of humility. It is recognition of our limitation and creature hood.
The danger of anxiety is that we might try to solve the problem ourselves and that very action is sin. We try to secure our future without reliance upon God. Worry is deceptive. We even try to make of worry a virtue. “The more I worry over you, the more I show how much I love you! Right?” Wrong! That kind of worry is just what Peter is trying to avoid. It is rooted in a need to dominate and control, which are pagan values. It is arrogant, prideful, willful and stubborn. It is exactly the sort of thing Peter is concerned with when he writes:
Do not allow yourselves to be molded by the craving of your former ignorance…
So how do we avoid this trap? By following Peter’s advice:
Caste all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you…
All who are beleaguered and worn out – fretful for your present wellbeing, fearful of your future fate: give it up! Divest yourself of all those prideful attempts to dominate – and let God be God. Free yourself from anxiety. You are under God’s care and God’s protection. You are the apple of his eye. He cares about you personally and as a community. I hope you see that this little parish, you moms and dads, you grandparents and grandchildren – that the devil has not ceased looking for someone to devour. We face a culture that is just as hostile to the Children of God as the ones Peter and Paul warned about. And anyway, you don’t have the control you think you have. So unload that anxiety! Roll it over onto God’s back! What is sure is that God loves you and you can shed you fear and anxiety and cast it on him.
All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you…