1 Peter 5:9

ᾧ�, whom withstand, cf. James 4:7 and Ephesians 4:11; Ephesians 4:13.

στερεοί. The adjective means firm, solid, compact, so in Hebrews 5:12; Hebrews 5:14 it is used of “solid food” and in 2 Timothy 2:19 of a “firm foundation.” The verb is used in Acts 16:5 of the churches being “consolidated in the faith,” and in Colossians 2:5 St Paul rejoices to see τὴν τάξιν καὶ τὸ στερέωμα τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν πίστεως on the part of his readers, where Lightfoot explains στερέωμα in a military sense “solid front” or “close phalanx” and compares 1Ma 9:14. So here St Peter urges his readers to face the foe with a solid front, shoulder to shoulder not merely with their fellow-Christians in Asia Minor but as part of one great brotherhood who are all engaged in the same conflict in the world.

τῇ πίστει may mean your faith as the R.V. or the faith R.V. marg. In the former case the meaning would be do not allow the bulwark of your faith and trust in God to be broken through, or standing firm in virtue of your faith. In the latter case the meaning is standing firm for the Faith, the cause of Christ. So Philippians 1:27 συναθλοῦντες τῇ πίστει τοῦ εὐαγγελίου = joining in the contest in which the Faith of the Gospel is engaged, cf. 1 Timothy 4:1 ἀποστήσονταί τινες τῆς πίστεως = some will desert from the Faith; 2 Timothy 4:7 τὸν καλὸν� … τὴν πίστιν τετήρηκα, cf. 1 Corinthians 13:6; 2 Timothy 1:8; 3 John 1:8.

εἰδότες. The thought that they are not alone, that their sufferings are not exceptional but are shared by the whole Christian brotherhood, is, on the one hand, a message of encouragement reminding them that, despite the insignificance of each detachment, they are part of one glorious army. On the other hand, it is a reminder of their responsibility not to weaken the cause of others by any cowardly surrender in their part of the field of battle.

τὰ αὐτὰ τῶν παθημάτων is an unusual and irregular construction, τὰ αὐτὰ being practically treated as a substantive, the same kinds of sufferings, the same “trial by fire.”

ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ might possibly mean in other parts of the world as contrasted with Asia Minor, but probably it means in the same worldly surroundings as yourselves, cf. John 16:33; John 17:11. The world is the battle-ground of the Church Militant.

ἐπιτελεῖσθαι, are being accomplished. In their case, as in your own, their sufferings are no chance but the working out to its completion of God’s loving purpose.

Usually εἰδέναι followed by an infinitive means to know how to do something (Luke 12:56; Philippians 4:12) and ὅτι or a participle is used of knowing that something is the case, but the accusative and infinitive are used in that sense in Luke 4:41 and so here.

Another rendering suggested (Hofman, see Bigg’s note) is knowing how to pay the same tax of suffering as your brethren in the world (cf. Xen. Mem. iv. 8, 8) but this meaning is improbable, as elsewhere (30 times in LXX., 10 in N.T.) ἐπιτελεῖν = to finish or accomplish. E. F. Brown (Journ. Theol. Stud. VIII. 450) quotes Lightfoot on Galatians 3:3 for taking ἐπιτελεῖσθε in that passage as a middle voice, possibly in a sacrificial sense (cf. Hdt. II. 63, IV. 186). So here he renders knowing how to bring to (sacrificial) perfection, for (the benefit of) your (whole) brotherhood which is in the world, the same things in the way of sufferings (as they bear). For a share in Christ’s sufferings regarded as a contribution on behalf of the church cf. Colossians 1:24.