The Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. PeterLumby, J. Rawson (Joseph Rawson)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. Peter
Lumby, J. Rawson (Joseph Rawson)
Bible. Peter -- Commentaries
_Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He careth for you._ When
men do this the due time has come. Till this stage is reached there
can be no true humility. But how slow men are in reaching it! We are
willing to bring to God a little here and there of our sorrow and our
feebleness, but would fain still carry a part of the load ourselves.
Human pride it is which cannot stoop to owe everything to God; want of
faith, too, both in the Divine power and the Divine love, though our
tongues may not confess it. What a powerful homily on this verse is
the conduct of the youthful David when he went forth against the
Philistine! "The Lord," he says to Saul, "that delivered me out of the
paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out
of the hand of this Philistine." And when the king offered his own
coat of mail, though tempted thereby, he put the armour away, saying,
"I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them." He knew that God
had given him skill with the humbler weapons, and it was God's battle
in which he was to engage. So with his stones and his sling he went
forth, telling the defiant challenger, "I come to thee in the name of
the Lord of hosts." The action is a comment on the Psalmist's words,
"Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring
it to pass" (Psalm xxxviii. 5).
But neither the young hero by his example, nor the Apostle in his
exhortation, teaches a spirit of careless indifference and neglect of
means. David chose him five smooth stones out of the brook. These he
could use. With these God had delivered him aforetime. And in every
condition men are bound to use the best means they know to ensure
success, and the Christian will pour out his prayers for guidance and
foresight in temporal concerns. That done, the counsel of Christ, on
which St. Peter's exhortation is grounded, is, "Be not overanxious;
your heavenly Father knoweth your needs." And he who has grown humble
under the mighty hand of God in trials has learnt that the same hand
is mighty to save: "He careth for you." When this perfect trust is
placed in God, the load is lifted. It is, as the Psalmist says
literally, _rolled_ upon the Lord (Psalm xxxviii. 5).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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