1 Peter 1:12

LIGHT FROM DARKNESS

‘Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister.’

1 Peter 1:12

Those holy men of old, who spake as moved by the Holy Ghost, were sometimes in darkness as to the things they uttered. They understood them only in part, even when they spoke most freely of the grace that should come. So these inspired men walked in the darkness—with angels desiring, but not seeing, the glorious things of the kingdom yet to come. They were as yet in the wilderness, testifying of a heavenly Canaan into which they entered not. Through this darkness a light shone in upon them; it was ‘revealed’ to them that not to themselves did they minister, or to the people of their own time, but to those who should come after them—‘to us!’

I. The subject of this revelation.—It was this—that their ministry was not for themselves. Whatever gifts they had, whatever offices they held—functions discharged, faculties enjoyed—they must bear them all meekly, not for themselves, but for others—like that Son of man of Whom they prophesied, and Whose advent they darkly saw. The eternal law of the one kingdom in all its manifestations comes out clearly here. All the offices and estates of royalty are not for the king, but for his subjects; and the priest’s functions are to mediate, to intercede, to help.

II. ‘No man liveth to himself.’—Where it comes to a good man as a revelation, that not for himself, or for this time or age merely, is he living, but also for generations yet unborn, what a dignity it gives to life, what a sacred unity to the human family!—how it reconciles us to life’s brevity and seeming failures, linking us on to the past as well as the future, and leading us to the music of the grand old pathetic psalm, ‘Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.’ Not to Himself did our Saviour Christ minister in those brief years of life on the earth, but for us, for all humanity, down to the last age of the world; not for themselves, but for us, apostles, prophets, martyrs lived and died. Verily, one soweth, and another reapeth—the seed-time theirs, the harvest ours, and so all down the generations—they all have ministered ‘to us.’ The debt we owe we can never pay to them, but let us transmit to the future the spirit they transmitted to us, and in the very light of life let it come to us as a revelation that not to ourselves do we minister, but have our share, and place, and work in that ‘one increasing purpose that through the ages runs.’

III. The method of the revelation.

(a) It came to them, these holy men, by ‘ searching.’ Searching what, and what manner of time? etc. Revelations in nature, providence, and grace often thus come. ‘Seek, and ye shall find.’

(b) It came to them through sympathy. Sympathy with God—with men—with the future as well as the present. How can an unsympathetic nature be inspired!—or have made to it a revelation of unselfishness? They are holy men whom the Holy Ghost moves (Caiaphas and Balaam exceptions). The pure-hearted see God, and reveal Him to others.

(c) By prayer, as in the case of Daniel. ‘While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel came, and he instructed me.’

(d) Chiefly by the Spirit of Christ that was in them. And this comprehends all.

Illustration

‘Sometimes in worldly things this thought of living for a future generation comes with startling effect upon a worldly man, even when heaping up riches he knows, or is tolerably sure, who will gather them. “What am I toiling and moiling for? I shall soon be dead and gone, and these houses, lands, estates, debentures, shares, what not, will be for others!” Even in this there may be some far-off touch of the Divine; for such men sometimes live in this respect unselfish lives—not for them the enjoyment of those soft luxuries they are gathering about them, not for them the rest and the ease—but for their children and children’s children. Not to themselves they minister—and so far we say there may be some soul of good even in this; only let us all remember that the best heritage we can ever leave to our children is that of a wise, pious, charitable example. “My wife and I,” said one, “have, by the good hand of our God upon us, been able from first to last to contribute to the cause of missions no less than £30,000—and yet I have children unprovided for!” No, not unprovided for—there was the provision of that life-pattern left for them to follow!’