Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Peter 5:6

1 Peter 5:6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Once more is the question of affliction touched, and the duty of submission urged. This time, however, the matter is pressed in connection with the statement of the general principle on which God acts in giving grace to the humble. The phrase ‘mighty hand' of God occurs nowhere else in the N. T. In the O. T. it is a figure both of man's power (Exodus 3:19) and of God's (Deuteronomy 3:24; Job 30:21, etc.). It is not limited in the O. T. to God's power in afflicting or punishing. Neither is it so limited here. The Hand that lays low also exalts. The reason why the irresistible power of that Hand is exerted in chastening is that it may be seasonably exerted in exalting.

in order that he may exalt you in due time. God has His purpose in laying His Hand heavily upon us. That purpose can be given effect to only on condition that we be to Him what He is to us. Self-exaltation will frustrate His purpose. But if we humble ourselves as He humbles us, we shall reap the ‘interest of tears' and be glorified through sorrow. God has His own time, nevertheless, for fulfilling the purpose of His chastenings. That time, whether it come late or early, not our own hour, for which, like Mary at the marriage in Cana, we are so apt impatiently to plead, is the ‘due time,' the fit season.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Peter 5:6

Old Testament

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