1 Peter 5:10 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The God of all grace Of all mercy, compassion, and free, unmerited goodness; and the source of all those influences of the Holy Spirit, by which alone true spiritual light and life, peace, purity, and consolation, can be attained; who hath called Invited; us unto his eternal glory And not merely to behold, but to possess it; and hath sent us the invitation by Christ Jesus His Word made flesh; that is, not only through him, as Mediator, who hath procured the inestimable blessing for us by his obedience unto death, but by him as a Divine Messenger, the greatest that ever appeared among men, confirming and enforcing his message by a most holy life, by extreme sufferings, by mighty miracles, by an ignominious, painful death, and a most glorious resurrection. After that ye have suffered a while Such trials as his infinite wisdom shall see fit to appoint. Observe, reader, sufferings must precede glory! See 1 Peter 2:19; 1 Peter 2:23; 1Pe 3:14; 1 Peter 4:12; Romans 8:17; Rom 8:35; 2 Timothy 2:12. But it is only a while the disciples of Christ are called to suffer; a very short while compared with eternity. Or St. Peter may use the word ολιγον, here rendered a while, and which means a little, in respect of the degree as well as of the duration of suffering; for, compared with the joys of heaven, the sufferings of this life are light as well as momentary, 2 Corinthians 4:17. Make you perfect That no defect may remain in your Christian knowledge, experience, or practice. See on Hebrews 13:21. Stablish That nothing may overthrow your faith or hope, damp the flame of your love, or interrupt the constancy of your obedience; strengthen That ye may conquer all your enemies, and may do, be conformed to, and suffer the will of God to the end; and settle you As a house upon a rock. Or, inverting the order of the words, and taking the last particular first, as preparatory to the others, (which the sense of the several expressions seems to require, according to the usual progress of the work of grace in the hearts of believers,) the meaning will be, 1st, May he place you on your foundation, (so the word θεμελιωσαι, here rendered settle you, properly signifies,) even on the foundation which God hath laid in Zion, (1 Corinthians 3:11,) Christ Jesus, or on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, (Ephesians 2:20,) namely, the fundamental doctrines attested by them. 2d, May he strengthen you, that no power of earth or hell may move you from that foundation. In consequence of this, 3d, May he establish you in his truth and grace, in faith, hope, love, and new obedience, that you may be steadfast and immoveable in your adherence to the doctrines, your possession of the graces and privileges, and your performance of the duties of your holy calling. And in this way, 4th, May he make you perfect, or complete Christians, lacking nothing, destitute of no grace or virtue, and possessing every one in a mature state, a state of meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. Thus the apostle, being converted, does now strengthen his brethren.