1 Peter 5:10, commentary and pictures

The God of all grace has called believers through Christ Jesus to share His eternal glory. After they have suffered only a little while, God Himself will make them complete, establish them, strengthen them, and settle them on a firm and secure foundation. This comes in a call to humble themselves under God's mighty hand, to cast all care on Him because He cares for them, to be sober and watchful against the devil who walks as a roaring lion, and to resist him steadfast in faith. His grace is greater than Satan's power to distress, and He uses trials and suffering to humble, purify, correct, and deepen trust for present and eternal good. Believers become established, strengthened, and settled in truth by putting God-given ability to use in loving service, by being grounded on Christ the Rock with sound principle, and by growing through following Christ, studying Scripture, and praying.

Verse Wording and Context

The God of all grace has called believers through Christ Jesus to share in His eternal glory. That calling to eternal glory comes by Christ Jesus, and it belongs to those who are His. After believers have suffered only a little while, God Himself will make them complete. He will establish them, strengthen them, and settle them on a secure, firm foundation. The suffering lasts only for a time, and afterward comes this completing and confirming work.

To establish and to settle mean to strengthen, to ground, and to give a firm, secure foundation. The steadying effect that strengthens, establishes, and settles is the mark of genuine divine power. Its immediate setting calls believers to humble themselves under God's mighty hand so that He will exalt them in due time. They are to cast all their care upon Him because He cares for them. They are to be sober and watchful because the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

They are to resist him steadfast in faith while knowing that the same afflictions are shared by brethren everywhere in the world. This resistance and shared suffering form the context in which the promise of brief suffering followed by completing, confirming, and settling is given. The surrounding counsel calls to humility and mutual submission and presents the promise as encouragement to remain steadfast in faith. Its setting includes Peter's charge to elders to feed the flock of God with willing oversight, not by constraint. That oversight is to be not for base gain and not as lords over God's heritage but as examples to the flock.

Faithful shepherding by example carries the promise of an unfading crown of glory when the chief Shepherd appears. The younger are called to submit to the elder, and all are to be subject to one another and clothed with humility, because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Those who oversee the flock, including conference presidents, must therefore be examples and not lords, and no one mind is to be a controlling power. The presidency does not give infallibility but leaves a fallible man needing counsel, whose sharp traits are more dangerous because responsibility is greater. Workers given a special work must have room to act on judgment under God, who leads, guides, blesses, and gives light on what people need, with no hand hindering or deciding their course, and if a worker is thought in error nothing is to be done on others' reports but the president must see or speak with him personally before condemnation and avoid unjustly censuring ministers who in trying emergencies used their best judgment.

God's Work After Suffering

Suffering lasts only a little while, and afterward the Lord himself brings believers to triumph. The call to eternal glory through Christ Jesus encourages those facing present trials and coming persecution to look beyond what they suffer now to their lasting inheritance and future glory. That glory is complete, established, strengthened, and set on a secure foundation after the time of suffering.

Grace is stronger than Satan's power to distress and trouble, so those who trust in Christ are upheld and strengthened by it. Sustained by grace they keep faith, hope, and courage and act in cooperation with God rather than surrendering to darkness or working with Satan, who seeks to put into minds thoughts that Christ rejects. The God of all grace is present with His people in need to guide, sustain, strengthen, encourage, comfort, and establish them, and His grace received cleanses heart and mind and develops trust, self-denial, and more perfect service instead of leaving room for selfishness or murmuring.

Tests and trials are God's means to humble and purify, to deepen trust, to correct mistakes, and to build up, strengthen, establish, and settle rather than leave unstable. By them He purifies His church and brings deeper piety and strength for present and eternal good. As that work advances it keeps enlarging and moving onward and upward, carrying the triumphs of the cross from city to city, country to country, and nation to nation until established, strengthened, and settled.

Peter's repentance after denying Jesus made him humble and able to sympathize with the weak and erring and to strengthen his brethren. In the same way affliction removes what is spiritually harmful and fits a person to serve God and to strengthen others.

Christ's grace perfects character after the divine likeness and makes people complete in Christ. So completed they are elevated in moral worth to reflect His image instead of the image of Satan. That completing work enlightens the eyes to keep every particle of reason clear from tobacco and liquor, to refuse appetite that would cause loss, to use money with an eye single to God's glory in lines that elevate and ennoble, and to place children where their lives are given to God so they take hold of immortality through Jesus Christ and become partakers of the divine nature. The God of all grace enlightens the understanding to discern eternal things, and by the light of truth reveals errors just as they are, so thorough effort is made to put them away and to bear in place of evil, bitter fruit, fruit precious unto eternal life, since to lose heaven is to lose everything and to gain heaven is to gain everything.

Becoming Established and Settled

The promise to make complete, establish, strengthen and settle is conditional on earnestly and humbly seeking wisdom from the unerring God, with assurance that such seeking will not be in vain. This applies to Gage as he gains experience and learns to serve faithfully, who must seek God earnestly and humbly. In the course of right God is willing by this to bless believers by making them strong, stable and settled in character, curing impulsiveness and being easily affected by circumstances.

Believers become established, strengthened and settled in the truth and in the most holy faith by putting God-given ability to use in loving service to God and others throughout life. Strength comes by exercise and use increases ability for His service, while doing nothing prevents growth in grace and knowledge of the truth and causes loss of strength like unused limbs losing power. The Christian who will not exercise his God-given powers not only fails to grow up into Christ but loses the strength he already had and becomes a spiritual paralytic. Those who with love for God and fellow men strive to help others become established, strengthened and settled in the truth, working for God from principle and not from impulse, not for a day or a month but during the entire period of life, rather than wavering between hope and fear on the evidence of Christ's love and God's promises.

Divine enabling comes as grace for grace in active work in the Lord's vineyard rather than in spending years accumulating knowledge never imparted. Those who go to work learn how to work and recall student instruction received during student life. The Lord is not pleased when precious youth who ought to be laboring are held back to take other studies and additional lines, especially in institutions where truth is denied and error is introduced, until they lose love for Jesus and burden for missionary effort and are less prepared for God's service than at first.

Growth comes through continuing on the path of light by following Christ, learning from Him, and humbly receiving riches of grace. Steadfastly looking to Jesus and keeping Him ever before the mind will strengthen, establish and settle, requiring trusting wholly in the Lord, earnestly cultivating what is approved by God, and in all things giving God praise and glory. The mind is made firm through time spent studying Scripture and praying. This firmness in the truth is supported by opening the Word clearly and repeatedly teaching the pure doctrines of the faith, in which Jesus and salvation are central. God desires His people to reflect His glory by continuing to receive ever-increasing light and never staying satisfied with a little light, until they are established, strengthened and settled, increasing like morning light to full day when the Sun of Righteousness shines in brightness with continually increasing glory.

Being strengthened, established and settled means being grounded on Christ the Rock and on saving truth with sound moral principles, standing firm unmoved by vain, proud and worldly influences. This gives strength to resist temptation and remain firm in saving truth after a time of suffering, so that the weak and exposed to temptation become strong. God helps them see failings and defects and prepares them for His heavenly kingdom. It requires persevering personal effort to obtain righteousness and overcome helpless selfishness and self-centered desire. It means not expecting friends to help step by step to heaven like a cripple helped over a rough pathway, but breaking up customs that keep one a sinner even when the Master's will is known, and being bound up with God through conversion so He can use the person as His helping hand.

This strength is not gained by conforming to the world's standard or trusting too largely to one's own judgment. All who meet God in peace must be strengthened, settled and established in this way. Brother Cornell had not become strengthened, established and settled because he relied on himself, lacked faith and prayer, and failed to link his life with God, needing to settle into God and depend on His strength so his actions would be guided by God's Spirit rather than impulse. Wisdom from above strengthens, establishes and settles believers, helping them move continually forward and upward into greater light in which God reveals His glory to them as He does not to the world, after calling them through Christ to eternal glory and perfecting them after suffering a while.

Ministers and Church Organization

The promise belongs to ministers who must keep growing in grace, becoming strong in faith and in Scripture, and enduring faithfully in their work, with suffering and resistance to the devil as part of the way to the glory to which God has called them. Those called to carry God's message to the world must lift up the message and not self, walk humbly with God day by day, and labor under the Great Shepherd as faithful caretakers, and God will lift them up at the right time. No man in any position is to teach his fellow to look to him for wisdom, to take God's place, to receive the trust due to God, or to become the arm of flesh, for the Lord alone is to be trusted, looked to for guidance, and obeyed when His counsel comes. The same word warns the churches in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley against those who have gone out to carry apostasy, make divisions, and seduce souls to ruin, calling believers to humble themselves under God's mighty hand, to cast all care on Him because He cares for them, to be sober and watchful because the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking to devour, and to resist him firm in faith knowing brethren everywhere share the same sufferings, with glory and rule belonging to God forever.

Those who oversee the flock, including conference presidents, must be examples and not lords over God's heritage, and no one mind and judgment is to be a controlling power. The presidency does not give infallibility but leaves a fallible man in need of his brethren's counsel, whose sharp traits of character are more dangerous because his responsibility is greater. Workers given a special work must have room to act on their own judgment under God, who Himself leads, guides, blesses, and gives them light about what the people need, and no hand is to hinder them or decide their course and portion for them. If a worker is thought to be in error nothing is to be done on the report of others, but the president must see or speak with him personally before condemnation or criticism, and must be careful not to censure unjustly ministers who in trying circumstances or emergencies used the best judgment they had.

Ministers with little interest in or commitment to God's work are easily tempted and moved away from the truth and are not firmly established, strengthened, and settled. A minister who relies on his own strength and wisdom, acts by impulse, and lacks faith and prayer remains unstable, building up and tearing down his work, whereas linking life with God and being guided by His Spirit brings the steadiness needed for faithful service. Brother Cornell had not become strengthened, established, and settled because he relied on himself, lacked faith and prayer, and failed to link his life with God, and needed to settle into God and depend on His strength so his actions would be guided by God's Spirit rather than impulse. Being strengthened, established, and settled is connected with acting in the fear of God and taking responsibility as head of the family, and a man will not reach that condition while he neglects that responsibility and fails to let his wife occupy her proper position.

The church's organization, built under God's direction through prayer, sacrifice, and conflict, is to stand strengthened, established, and settled and must not be torn down, unsettled, or undermined, for God ordained it for the church's success. Heaven is given on God's own terms to those who act as laborers together with God, presenting His Word and using all God-given power to wrench men and women from Satan's grasp so he loses power over them. This is because Christ gave His precious life that they might partake of the divine nature and overcome worldly lust, clothing divinity with humanity so humanity might reach humanity, an example ministers must copy by earnest work for souls so none perish but all come to knowledge of the truth, rather than working with Satan who seeks to put into minds thoughts Christ rejects. God's grace sustains and establishes believers after they have suffered a while, and God as source of all grace is besought in prayer to keep workers' souls in Christ's love, especially among careless or frivolous people, with continual connection through prayer bringing growth in the churches, and the verse is invoked as a blessing that God will be with His workers.

Stability in Christian Living

God is willing, in the course of right, to make believers strong, stable and settled in character, curing impulsiveness and being easily affected by circumstances. This gives practical experience beyond a merely theoretical knowledge of truth and prepares a person to fill a more responsible position where he can best glorify God's name. The promise is conditional on earnestly and humbly seeking wisdom from the unerring God, who has promised that such seeking will not be in vain.

To be established, strengthened and settled is to become thoroughly grounded in the Bible so that, when every position of faith is tested, worldly wisdom will not lead astray. Such stability is rooted in Christ and His atonement, with God's Word guiding the life. It makes believers less vulnerable to deception and false speech, guards against envy and evil speaking, and helps make Christ rather than self the theme of speech.

God establishes, strengthens and settles His people as they seek Him wholeheartedly and stand firm in the truth, with sound moral principles, unmoved by vain, proud and worldly influences. He helps them see their failings and defects and prepares them for His heavenly kingdom. He gives light to correct mistakes so that He may build people up, strengthen them, establish them, and make them settled rather than unstable. His grace is to be received and allowed to cleanse the heart and mind, and He is present with His people in times of need, guiding, sustaining, strengthening and encouraging them. That grace develops trust, self-denial and more perfect service to God, rather than leaving room for selfishness or murmuring.

The words strengthen, establish and settle describe an influence that steadies believers in understanding the operations of the Spirit of God. An influence that leaves them perplexed and unable to distinguish divine power from human influence does not produce this effect. Genuine divine power has this steadying, strengthening and grounding effect, in contrast to influence that confuses and misleads.

The Lord establishes, strengthens and settles those who suffer, comforting and encouraging believers. These gifts were experienced by the brethren and sisters at the Minnesota meeting. They are the blessings sought for the person in need.