Emerging Peter: Emerging Humility

1 Peter 5:5b-7 contains a thought that Peter found very useful for his pastoral exhortations: be humble. But, Peter is not a pragmatist about it. So much of ethics today is pragmatic, and lots of preaching gets so pragmatic: do this, and you’ll find yourself more happy! Hooey!

Peter’s exhortation is theocentric through and through. We need more God-centered ethics and less pragmatic ethical soft-pedaling. Notice this: Why be humble? Peter quotes Proverbs 11:31: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” We are back once again to 1 Peter 2: God is over all; God sees; God will makes things right some day. So, live in light of God.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” Here’s a slightly different point. Some could take the first point to be reward-oriented: do things so you’ll get jewels in your crown. Not so with Peter: it is not quite that simple. Peter’s focus is not so much humbling before others, but humbling in God. God cares; God knows; live in God.