1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect… Through "suffering," and alter the "suffering" will come four things: "Make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." 1. By the first, I understand theft God will knit you together, one part with another. So that, as we say of anything which is entire and unbroken, "It is perfect," so it will be with you. Your mind, your affections, and your soul, and your body one — living for the same end, living the same life, by the same Christ. Yourself one man, a whole, "perfect." 2. Then, made one with yourself, His one Spirit animating the whole being, He will "stablish" you, give you firmness and stability. Now is not it exactly what you want? Not feelings, principles — "stability." You shall feel your foundation under you deeper than the everlasting hills! 3. He will fulfil His beautiful promise. "Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He will put strength into me." You will become — that which in such a world as this you need — that which is the secret of all peace, of all decision, of all usefulness in life — a strong character. 4. And so we travel to the highest, the last, and the best — "He will settle you." He will give you rest. Heaven has been beautifully defined "the rest of desire." But how is "settling," rest? To "settle," is to repose upon your foundation; to "settle," is to have an attraction, and to that attraction always to point. The ship "settles" to her anchor; the mountains "settle" to their base; the magnet "settles" to its pole. So God will "settle" you on Christ. And not only that. Every brick put into the wall, every storey added to a well-built house, "settles" the whole structure. In like manner God, enabling you to add work to work and usefulness to usefulness, will so "settle" you, by your increase, while He "builds you up in your own most holy faith"; and then "settled" on Christ, in Christ, to Christ, for Christ, with Christ, you will not be the restless creature you once were; you will not need to go about here and there for satisfaction, for you have a resting place, and in that place of your rest you will understand the wisdom and the order of the arrangement and the exquisite completeness of the Divine plan. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. |
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