1 Peter 5 Discussion

Anxiety, spiritual warfare, church leadership, and a command that makes most modern Christians squirm, all packed into 1 Peter 5. We sit down with the text and ask what Peter is really doing in this final chapter: calling elders to shepherd instead of dominate, calling younger believers to humility and submission, and calling the whole church to stay awake because the devil is not imaginary. 

We also tackle a common theological trap: reading “the roaring lion” language and sliding into dualism, as if Jesus and Satan are equal powers trading punches. We don’t buy that. Christ is the chief Shepherd and the sovereign King, and resisting the devil only makes sense inside that hierarchy. The fight isn’t fair, Jesus already wins, but we still have to be sober-minded, watchful, and rooted in faith instead of drifting into fear or spiritual laziness. 

Then we get painfully practical: Peter links humility with mental burden. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God” sits right next to “cast all your anxieties on Him,” and that connection exposes how often anxiety grows when we cling to control. We also explore “Babylon” as a symbolic name for Rome and a broader picture of the world’s proud rebellion against God. And yes, we end with the “kiss of love” and what faithful obedience might look like when a command collides with comfort. 

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Transcript

First Peter 5 Overview

Pastor Plek 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. Pastor Plaque, that's Pastor Holland. We're talking First Peter chapter five. We're going to outline it, observe it, interpret, and apply it so that you can be equipped to take on the darkness wherever you live, work, or play, in all the words that you say, wherever you might find yourself today. So in 1 Peter 5, verses 1 through 4, we have shepherding the flock of God, guidance for elders. Then you got uh verses 5 through 11, guidance to younger believers, humility, submission, and watchfulness. Then verses 12 and 14, final greetings and the benediction.

The Kiss Of Love Command

Pastor Plek 0:46

All right, what are you seeing here, Pastor Holland?

Pastor Holland 0:49

All right, we got the final kiss of love. A lot of uh holy kiss from Paul and his letters, and here you go with Peter. He calls it the kiss of love.

Pastor Plek 1:01

I think it's the last one in the New Testament. There it is. Yep. Stick can't you can't miss it. It is definitely an imperative command to greet one another with the kiss of love. There you go. All right.

Mark As Peter’s Spiritual Son

Pastor Plek 1:14

Did you observe anything else? Yeah, uh, I observed that he calls Mark his son. Yeah. Does he meaning like he and his wife talked about in the Gospels? Uh, is this their son?

Pastor Holland 1:26

Yeah, maybe. I think, or is he saying, like Titus and Timothy and Onesimus are Paul's sons in the spiritual sense?

Pastor Plek 1:35

Mark.

Pastor Holland 1:35

Yeah.

Pastor Plek 1:35

And Paul does not get Mark. Yeah. There was a definite claim. He was valued of Paul in ministry, but he was his Peter's son. And so most people think that Mark wrote the gospel of Mark based upon the uh account of Peter, his preaching, his sermons. And most people think that Mark is John Mark, the guy who ran away from conflict and from the missionary with Paul and Silas, or sorry, Paul and Barnabas. Uh, but also that Mark writes about himself running away naked in the um the scene where the the the battle of conflict that breaks out after Judas like Mark 10 or something? Yeah, like when you know Judas kisses Jesus on the cheek and then out comes Peter, chops off an ear, and then they it's an awkward moment for everybody, and Mark runs away. Yeah. Naked. All right. Mark 14, Mark. Mark 14. Yeah, it's close to the end. Yeah, yeah.

Apostles Elders And Pastors Explained

Pastor Plek 2:32

All right. All right. So let's get into uh what about the fact that he's a fellow elder? Yeah. So he's an apostle and an elder.

Pastor Holland 2:40

Yeah. And elder, apostle is like you're starting a bunch of churches. You were just going out as a preacher and helping establish churches in all the different nations and new areas. An elder, also synonymous with overseer in First Timothy three and Titus one, um, is like the role of the pastor. The the word pastor is the same Greek word. It's also translated shepherd in verse two, shepherd the flock. You could also translate that pastor the flock. Right. Um, and so an elder, an overseer, a pastor, it's kind of those are used interchangeably to describe this one office, which is, you know, an uh a church leadership role at a local church. So Peter was not only an apostle, he was also pastor of a local church.

Resisting The Devil Without Dualism

Pastor Plek 3:31

Yeah. How about be sober-minded, be watchful, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking seeking someone to devour. That's kind of wild. This kind of gets into a little bit of dualism if you're not careful. What do you mean? Well, dualism is like it's Jesus first God. Or sorry, Jesus, not Jesus, Jesus first the devil. And Jesus is, you know, kind of equal in power, and the devil is, you know, they're always kind of going back and forth to see who can win. We all know that Satan lost uh and whatever power he has, he's allowed to have by God. So I that but it's weird to kind of like read about this. Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. How do we how do we prevent people from going to dualism at the same time? Keep them, you follow the scripture, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around, prowling around like a roaring lion.

Pastor Holland 4:25

Yeah. Uh well, it says resist him in verse nine. And so confirm in your faith. I think the idea is that, you know, like you said, he's been he's been uh disarmed, Colossians says. So he's suffered a somewhat of a defeat already when Jesus disarmed him through the cross, taking away our condemnation. Um, but he's still around trying to devour people, but it's like he's um he's been weakened, hindered. Um, and so it's not a dualism in the sense of like it's a fair fight between Jesus and the devil, but between us and the devil, um, we're not as powerful as the devil. Um, and the way we resist him is by faith in Christ, who's more powerful than the devil. Right. So that's the hierarchy of power.

Pastor Plek 5:14

Satan, or rather, God uses Satan for us to deepen our fear our spirit our spiritual strength by battling against the spiritual forces of darkness.

Pastor Holland 5:24

Yeah. So it's not a fair fight between Jesus and Satan. Jesus wins, it's not even hard. Um, but between us and Satan, if we are not paying attention and watchful, we can um suffer uh, you know, a loss um of a battle, you know, get devoured in a sense, get taken down by the devil. And so we've got to actually actively resist him by faith in Christ.

Pastor Plek 5:44

All

Babylon As Rome And World Symbol

Pastor Plek 5:45

right. What about Babylon? Is this Babylon, as in like Persia Babylon, like Iraq? Or what is this?

Pastor Holland 5:57

Yeah, it's interesting. It says she who is at Babylon, the she could be an individual, or it could be referring to a church. You know, the church is referred to in feminine terms in the New Testament, like the bride of Christ, um, is feminine. Um, I believe in uh second John or Third John talks about the elder lady. Which one is I always get second and third John mixed up. Um the elder lady greets you. Oh, I'll just look. It's like three pages later. I think that is 2nd John. Yeah, 2nd John. Okay. Um and a lot of people, you know, take that to mean he's referring to um another church, uh kind of speaking in code.

Pastor Plek 6:41

Wait, are you saying he's referring to so Babylon would be a church?

Pastor Holland 6:45

No, she who is at Babylon, meaning a church in another city.

Pastor Plek 6:49

Well, which city is it?

Pastor Holland 6:50

Do you think where do you go? Um some people think he's he's referring to Rome as kind of like the new Babylon. Yeah, the New Babylon symbolically. Um, or it could be, like you said, the actual like physical geographical location of the original Babylon.

Pastor Plek 7:07

Yeah, I think pretty much everyone the the most common view among Christian scholars that Babylon is symbolic name for Rome. It also comes up in Revelation, where Babylon is um is brought up as like the enemy, and that's where the city is. And I don't think that's Babylon, Mesopotamia or Persia Babylon. I think that is um Rome or whatever the capital of the world is at that time.

Pastor Holland 7:41

Okay. Yeah, I mean it could it could also be just symbolic of the world in general, in that you know, the Tower of Babel, that which is where the city of Babylon eventually emerges. Right. Um so Zion would be the city of God, whereas Babylon would be the city of the Bible. Babylon represents essentially rebellion against God and human effort. Yeah, the Tower of Babel was all about, hey, we don't need God, we can do this thing on our own. And um, and so you have yeah, Zion and the city of God representing those who trust God, and you have Babylon representing the world. All right. That's basically what revelation is about, is this battle between the God's people and the world and the devil. All right.

Anxiety Humility And God’s Hand

Pastor Holland 8:22

What do you see here for uh nature of man?

Pastor Plek 8:25

Um I see that I see a lot of anxiety being being uh cast away. There's a lot of anxiety, but it's interesting that casting anxieties on him is seems connected to humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God. And so I think what happens for some Christians is that we don't want to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and so we're carrying all the burdens that we were never meant to carry, and that's what creates the anxiety.

Pastor Holland 8:52

Yeah. Yeah, you also see um just the fact, you know, this whole section on elders, um, you see the need for leadership again, um, and the need for godly, humble leadership, and also the temptations that come with leadership. He says, you know, um, not under compulsion, not for shameful gain, not domineering. Some of these, these are the temptations of uh when you have power, um, you can you know be tempted to use your power for your own good rather than to serve others. It's good.

Pastor Plek 9:27

Um maybe men need physical affection. The kiss of love? There it is. Yep, so weird. All right, um, but very holy, apparently. Yeah, and loving. And loving. It's the kiss of love. Wow. All right.

Leadership Temptations And True Shepherding

Pastor Plek 9:45

Uh okay, what let's get into some uh character of God? Okay. Uh I feel like here you've got the God of all grace. He has all grace, and then there is a reward. God loves to reward those who suffer for him.

Pastor Holland 10:01

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And he'll it says he'll you're talking about he'll restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you?

Pastor Plek 10:10

Yeah, he does all that.

Pastor Holland 10:11

Yeah. And it says to him be the dominion forever and ever. Um, just again, his sovereignty. He's in charge, he has all power, he's over all things. And that should give you that should

God’s Grace Reward And Sovereignty

Pastor Holland 10:24

be um a relief to to you in your anxiety. Again, humbling yourself is acknowledging that God's in charge of everything.

Pastor Plek 10:31

How about God opposes the proud? That's just a simple character of God, he is just anti-proud people. Yeah. Sure.

Pastor Holland 10:40

Anti-proud people. James said the same thing.

Pastor Plek 10:42

Yeah. Um it's interesting how like they're bringing up uh really the same. Are they bringing up the same verse here? Both quoting the same verse? Yeah. 1 Peter 5. Where he brings up, yeah, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. He's quoting Proverbs 3.34. So James 4, 6 and Proverbs 3.34 are both connecting. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Um, what other uh uh character of God things do we see here?

Pastor Holland 11:20

It says that uh the chief shepherd talks about um Christ as the chief shepherd, and so that he pastors us. Uh I think important to remember, like we have our um human pastors. Well, Jesus is a human pastor as well, but he's a human God pastor. We have our normal church pastors, but we also have Jesus, who is the shepherd of our souls, and um it's it's encouraging to remember that that uh you know he's he's shepherding our pastors too. Yeah, like your your pastors are being pastored by Christ. Okay.

Practical Commands Submission And Faithfulness

Pastor Plek 11:58

How about let's get into some application? That's gonna be sin to avoid, promise to claim, example to follow, command obey, or knowledge to believe. What do you got?

Pastor Holland 12:05

Verse five, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Nice. There's a direct command about um submitting to your church leadership. Um which again presupposes that you belong to a church, that you know your leaders, and um that they know you. So it in order to be subject to your elders, it implies that already you're in relationship with the local church.

Pastor Plek 12:26

So um, how about this? Uh, through Sylvanus, whom I know to be a faithful brother. Example, if I'll be a faithful brother, does that mean that Sylvanus wrote it or that he was a mess letter carrier?

Pastor Holland 12:39

Uh yeah, I don't know. One or the other. Yeah. By Sylvanus. Um wrote it.

Pastor Plek 12:48

Oh, yeah. So um I'm looking at the New English translations note on this says the phrase through Sylvanus means that either that Sylvanus was a secretary or Manuensis who assisted Peter in writing or composed the letter, or that he carried the letter to the churches. The latter sense is more likely since this is the meaning of the Greek word you when it's used elsewhere. Nice. Okay, so he is a letter carrier and he's the one probably visiting. Um, and I've written to you briefly in order to encourage and testify that this is the true grace of God. All right, how about this? Stand fast in the grace of God. That's the command to obey.

Pastor Holland 13:25

Yeah. Humble yourselves, cast your anxieties on God. If you're carrying some anxiety right now, I think he's quoting Psalm 55, 22.

Pastor Plek 13:34

Cast your cares upon the Lord, he'll restrain you, he'll never let the righteous fall. Um Let's see. How about as for elders, uh rule well. Like when you're exercising oversight, you don't do it as a duty, but willingly as an as something that you enjoy doing, but not for shameful profit, but eagerly, and don't lord it over those who trusted you. Yeah you are there to serve. I think one of the things that we, you know, as as people that are on staff at a church have to remember we're we're not here to have people serve us, we're here to serve them to do God's work. And that can be challenging for church uh staff in general, because you feel like we work here, we're the ones in charge. No, we're the we're the ones that are equipping the saints to do the work of ministry, and that is going to be some imitating and leadership, but uh the elders who rule the church and also have I don't call it real jobs, uh, but like have jobs outside of church that they're they're the ones whom we are serving uh to lead this church and that they're called to rule. There you go.

Pastor Holland 14:37

Um, anything else for

Trying To Obey The Kiss

Pastor Holland 14:39

application? Screet one another with a kiss of love. There it is. All right. I don't do this. Uh you know, every once in a while. I've I've been convicted through our chapter a daytime every time this comes up. Than uh ever before. Yeah. I've I've started getting some and I've started giving some to the brothers in the men's group, but um, it's still a challenge for me. But just convicted every time, I'm like, all right, Lord, help me. Do you feel like a sinner when you don't do it? Yeah. Sometimes I'm like, do it, do it, just do it. And then I don't do it, I'm like, man, I'm the worst. And so I'm growing though. I'm trying. Overcome.

Pastor Plek 15:14

All right. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time. Chapter a day.