1 Peter 5:10

1 Peter 5:10. But the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have Buffered a little while, will himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you. Several changes must be made upon the A. V. here, which have been rightly recognised by the R. V. Weight of documentary evidence displaces ‘us' by ‘you,' turns the tenses into futures, inserts ‘himself' before these verbs, and excludes the final ‘settle.' It is also probable that we should read ‘in Christ' or ‘in the Christ,' instead of ‘in Christ Jesus.' The verse, therefore, is an assurance, not a prayer. It thus conveys far greater encouragement to those who have to face persecution, and resist the devil's roarings and seductions. This assurance is introduced as a contrast with, or qualification of, what has been said of the burdens of believers. Hence the opening ‘but,' or ‘moreover' (not ‘and'). Such things they must expect from the adversary, but what may they not expect from God? They are themselves appointed to the trying duty of strenuous resistance; but, if so, God also will act with them in the perilous situation. As it is God's part that Peter is now urging for the final comfort of his readers, that name is set emphatically first, and the solemn ‘Himself' (which is missed by Tyndale, Cranmer, and the A. V., but caught by Wycliffe and the Versions of Geneva and Rheims) is brought in before the verbs which state the things which He is certain to do (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). The designation of God as the ‘God of all grace,' the God who is so rich in grace that all grace comes from Him, adds to the strength of the assurance. The title is itself a consolation. Still higher, if possible, might these drooping saints be lifted into the rare atmosphere of a gracious confidence, by the thought of what God had done for them in the decisive change which first gave them Christian hope. He had called them in His Son (by uniting them with Him), and that with the very object of bringing them in the end to His eternal glory. So great an act of grace was the pledge of further gifts of grace. Unless so great an object is to be frustrated, it must be that God will carry them through their sufferings, and make these the means of perfecting, stablishing, and strengthening them with a view to that glory. The glory, indeed, into which they were called is to be theirs only after suffering. Yet the space of suffering will be brief. The ‘a while' of the A. V. does not fairly represent the original. Tyndale is better ‘after ye have suffered a little affliction.' What Peter has in mind is not the need of suffering at least for a time, but the shortness of the suffering. The idea conveyed by the ‘perfect' is that of preparing completely, equipping fully, bringing into fault less order, so that nothing shall be wanting. It is the term which is used for ‘perfect' in such passages as Luke 6:10; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; Hebrews 13:21; and it is applied to the mending of broken nets (Matthew 4:21), and the restoring of one in fault (Galatians 6:1), etc. The ‘stablish' means to plant firmly, to make fast, so that there shall be no tossing or overturning. The ‘strengthen' recalls Christ's commission to Peter himself, the commission which he was discharging by this very writing, ‘When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren' (Luke 22:32). Some have supposed the terms in which Peter, with a confidence touched with emotion, rapidly unfolds what God may be trusted to do, to be all figures drawn from the one conception of the Church as a building, the ‘house' already noticed in chap. 1 Peter 2:5. Bengel speaks of them as ‘language worthy of Peter (a rock),' and gives the points briefly thus perfect so that no defect can remain in you; stablish so that nothing shall shake you; strengthen so that ye may overcome every opposing force.