CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1 Peter 5:12. Silvanus.—See Notes on Verses.
1 Peter 5:13. Babylon.—Precisely, the sentence reads: “the co-elect one” [fem. sing.] “in Babylon.” This makes it the greeting of an individual, not of a Church. It might be the message of St. Peter’s wife. Whether the term “Babylon” is descriptive or symbolic is disputable. A new city had arisen near the old one, and a considerable population dwelt in it. There is no good reason for resisting the conclusion that the letter was sent from this town. There was a military fortress in Egypt named Babylon, but it is not probable that St. Peter was there.
1 Peter 5:14. Kiss of charity.—Or love (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12). “This was an accompaniment of that social worship which marked Christianity, and arose from the tendency of the Christian religion to encourage honour towards all men, as men, and to cherish the softer affections of the heart.” The early custom almost only survives in the use of the Osculatorium, or kissing token, known as the Pax (sometimes a relic, sometimes an ivory or metal tablet, with sacred symbols cut on it), which was passed through the congregation, and kissed by each in turn.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Peter 5:10-14
Soul-Strength out of Life-Strain.—“The God of all grace … shall Himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you.”
I.
God can.—For He is the God of all grace.
II.
God meant to.—For He called you with that very purpose in view.
III.
God does.—For the present stablishing is with a view to future perfecting.
IV.
God is keeping on doing.—Though He may be pleased to put the completion, the perfecting of His work into the future, and make you wait awhile, and make the waiting time a time of sore trial, of this you may be absolutely assured, there is some needs be for the delay; but the work is in steady progress, all through the time of delay, and the issue will be in every way higher and better because of the delay. We have to suffer awhile, and God knows best how long the “while” should be.
The Promise.—“He Himself” is the emphatic language of the apostle here; for from the same fountain of grace as the call to eternal glory came, will come all the gifts essential to its attainment.
I. He will perfect you.—The believer is at first, and for a while, very deficient in many respects—in wisdom, prudence, charity, patience, and all other virtues of the Christian character. Must those defects remain in him? and must he carry them to the grave? No; ere he enters the “eternal glory” he must be blameless, harmless, and without rebuke, and therefore made perfect in every good word and work. He cannot, however, make himself perfect. God must do it; and He will do it, never leaving His servant until He has done for him all that He has promised.
II. He will stablish you, or make you fast.—“He set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings,” said David; and Jesus said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” There are Christians who, when the storm sets in, are like trees which wave to and fro in the wind, and which, having but a slender hold of the soil, are in danger of being blown down; but God can give them such support that they shall be like majestic oaks that defy the fiercest blast, or like a lighthouse on a rock that stands unmoved amid the billows of the raging sea.
III. He will strengthen you.—For ordinary warfare, bodily strength is necessary; for the warfare in which the Christian is engaged, spiritual strength is essential. A feeble, timid Christian will fly before the enemy, but one who is strong in the Lord and in the power of His might will go and meet him with all confidence. And God gives strength to His people. They are strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, and when temptation comes they are able to resist it, and in every conflict they come off victorious.
IV. He will settle you.—The word θεμελιώσαι means He will ground, or fix you, as on a sure foundation, so that, like a mighty fortress, you shall stand unmoved, even though assailed by hosts of foes. A precious promise this; for our enemies sometimes come upon us like an army set in array, threatening to storm a citadel, and to take possession of it by force. But our citadel will prove too strong for them, and they shall be driven back, like the armies of Sennacherib when they threatened to invade the Holy City. In these several words there is a striking rise and development. The believer’s character is first perfected, then he becomes firm in the faith; he is then strengthened to endure the assaults of the foe, and then he becomes settled or made fast, and is as a tower of strength which none of his enemies can shake.—Thornley Smith.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1 Peter 5:10. Stablished, Strengthened, Settled.—The word “settled” is sometimes used in describing a building which comes to rest securely on its foundations. In common phraseology we speak of the “settling” of a house when the structure consolidates and comes to abide surely and immovably in its place. It takes years, in some instances, for that process to complete itself; and, as it goes on, flaws are discovered, and rents are sometimes made, showing clearly where the strength of the house lies—not in the mere walls, but in that firm foundation on which they rest, and on which the several parts settle themselves broadly and wholly. We cannot but remember in this connection the one ultimate foundation of a sinner’s trust, other than which no man can lay—Jesus Christ, and the truth as it is in Him; and that the whole great process of Christian life and education is with a view to solidify the trust, and fix the faith immovably on Him. God’s first work in a man is largely potential. He builds the framework of a new life. He gives enough, when used, to supply all the need. Yet, when the need arises, it is many a time very great. Through hunger, and thirst, and weariness, and storm, and battle, the soul makes way—often apparently with extremest difficulty—“troubled on every side, perplexed, persecuted, cast down”—bearing about in the body the death-pains of the Son of God. But lo! by means of all this searching and conflict and endeavour, there comes by degrees the growing fulness of the better life. Temptation brings increase of strength; assaults of the enemy, repulsed, give new courage; change carries away many a treasure, but, to fill the void, brings ever more and more of the “unsearchable riches.” Castles in the air, built on vain confidence, melt from the sight, and the heart, convinced of its folly, comes to rest, with a child’s simplicity of trust, and yet with a man’s certainty of conviction, on Him who is able to keep that which is committed to Him, and is “stablished, strengthened, settled,” at last. It is literally at last with many a one. The final settlement is often just before the dying. It sometimes takes God a lifetime to teach us to flee from false refuges—to teach us to be humble, and to trust entirely in His Son, and in His own love, as brought near in Him. From many a pale, bloodless face there looks out at length the calmness, almost celestial, of a perfect trust. On many a dying bed you see the features which have been seamed and scarred and almost worn away by earthly care, and by spiritual sorrow and fear, which seemed, never-ending, smoothed at last into a serenity and a beauty caught directly from heaven. And from many a low voice, sinking into the last, murmurs, you might, if you were near, catch the whisper of the departing one: “I am at peace now; ‘settled’ at last!” We may all have “settlement” in Christ; it is intended and promised that we should have it, if we will, before the end of life comes. God grant that, if we have not this good thing earlier, we may all have it then.—A. Raleigh, D.D.
1 Peter 5:12. The True Grace of God.—St. Peter affirms that, no matter what disabilities may attach to their Christian profession, it was the true grace of God in which they stood, and in it they must still stand steadfast. “The position they now occupied was one which the favour of God had brought them into.” The expression, the “true grace of God,” may be opened and illustrated in three relations.
1. True grace regarded as Revelation—in the Song of Song of Solomon 2. True grace regarded as Redemption—in the self-sacrifice of the Song of Song of Solomon 3. True grace regarded as Sanctification—in the power of the suffering innocence of the Son.
The Gospel of the Grace of God.—
1. That the economy of the gospel is, throughout its constitution and influences, a grand display of Divine grace.
(1) The announcements of the gospel, as to the methods by which blessings are meritoriously secured.
(2) The influence by which blessings are actually imparted.
(3) The nature of those blessings themselves.
(4) The extent to which these blessings are to be diffused.
2. That the economy of the gospel, as such, impresses important demands on all to whom it is proclaimed.
(1) It should be cordially believed.
(2) It must be steadfastly adhered to.
(3) It must be zealously diffused.—James Parsons.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
1 Peter 5:13. The Church at Babylon.—The rendering of this verse in our Authorised Version probably results from the old ecclesiastical figment that Peter was founder and Bishop of the Roman Church, and that he here says Babylon mystically for Rome. But for the influence of this idea it is improbable that our translators would have supplemented the verse by introducing the word “Church.” Neander renders it, “Syneclecte, who is at Babylon, greets you, and so does my son Marcus.” By Syneclecte he understands Peter’s wife, whom here he mentions by name. That he was married we learn from Matthew 8:14. That his wife accompanied him on his journeys is implied in Paul’s language, 1 Corinthians 9:5, “Have not I a right to take a believing wife (ἀδελφὴν γυναῖκα) with me on my journeys, like … Cephas?” Neander quotes Clem. Alex. Strom., to the effect that Peter, seeing his wife led by to martyrdom, called to her by name, and said, “Oh, remember the Lord.” I can hardly think, however, that Neander is right in his idea that Syneclecte is a proper name. Probably the word should be translated. Its equivalent would be some such phrase as “your sister in the faith.” The verse would then read, “Your sister in the faith, who is at Babylon, salutes you, and so does my son Marcus.” This, of course, would leave Neander’s view of the passage untouched, that it is his wife and son, then with him at Babylon, who send greetings, and not the Church.—Baptist Magazine.
Babylon.—Three places have claimed to be understood under this name:
1. A little place called Babylon in Egypt, which has nothing to plead for itself except the unlikelihood of St. Peter ever being at the Oriental Babylon, coupled with the difficulty of supposing that the name is used quite figuratively. Perhaps, also, we should mention the traditional connection of St. Mark with Egypt. No one now, however, maintains this view.
2. The literal Babylon in the East. This has for itself the simple way in which St. Peter uses the word, without any circumlocution. But it has nothing else for it to set against all the overwhelming arguments in favour of the third claimant; besides which we learn from Josephus of a great expulsion of Jews from the Oriental Babylon a few years before this date. These Jews might, of course, however, have gathered there again, as they did at Rome, in spite of frequent expulsions.
3. It may be called the established interpretation that the place meant Rome. We never hear of St. Peter’s being in the East, and the thing in itself is improbable, whereas nothing but Protestant prejudice can stand against the historical evidence that St. Peter sojourned and died at Rome. Whatever theological consequences may flow from it, it is as certain that St. Peter was at Rome as that St. John was in Ephesus. Everything in the letter also points to such a state of things as was to be found at Rome about the date when we believe the letter to have been written. It is objected that St. Peter would not gravely speak of Rome under a fanciful name when dating a letter; but the symbolism in the name is quite in keeping with the context. St. Peter has just personified the Church of the place from which he writes, which seems quite as unprosaic a use of language as to call Rome “Babylon.” And it seems pretty clear that the name was quite intelligible to Jewish readers, for whom it was intended. The Apocalypse (Revelation 17:18) is not the only place where Rome is found spoken of under this title. One of the first of living Hebraists told the present writer that no Hebrew of St. Peter’s day would have had need to think twice what city was meant, when “Babylon” was mentioned. And on the mention of the name all the prophecies of the vengeance to be taken on the city which had desolated the Holy Land would rush with consolation into the minds of the readers, and they would feel that St. Peter, though supporting St. Paul, was still in full sympathy with themselves. Finally, as M. Renan suggests, there were reasons of prudence for not speaking too plainly about the presence of a large Christian society in Rome. The police were still more vigilant now than when St. Paul wrote in guarded language about the Roman Empire to the Thessalonians. It might provoke hostilities if the epistle fell into the hands of a delator, with names and places too clearly given.—A. J. Mason, M.A.