NOTES for Pe1 5:1-14

Addressing the Church's pastors, the apostle reminds them of something the Saviour Himself said more than once: in the Kingdom there are no superiors and subordinates, masters and slaves, shepherds and flocks in the form familiar to us in our fallen world. It is not merely that a pastor leads the flock not by issuing orders as a superior does to subordinates, but by offering a personal example and inviting others to follow it. All genuine teachers and spiritual guides of every time and nation have been like that.

The point is that in the Church a pastor does not govern anyone at all. In any way: neither through commands and instructions nor through personal example. Simply because only the One who brought the Kingdom into the world and became its King can give orders in the Church. The Church is merely the continuation of the Kingdom on earth, its earthly representation, neither more nor less. There is only one Shepherd in the Church; all the others are merely His helpers. Yet it is not only a matter of this obvious fact.

It is also a matter of the Kingdom's very nature—if and insofar as we can speak of its nature. In the Kingdom, all the distinctions so significant in this world are levelled out. Of course, people remain themselves in the Kingdom and differ from one another just as they do in our world. But here those differences determine a great deal, both about a person's possibilities and about their place in the world. In the Kingdom everything is different: differences between people determine not the extent of their possibilities, still less the fullness of their life, but only the form and manner of their existence.

Their way, so to speak, of being in the Kingdom. And the only thing one learns there is existence: being, abiding. Everything else consists merely of means and ways of learning what matters most. But if you are a Christian, you must begin learning here and now, during the earthly stage of your journey. Of course, in a sense this stage is only a preparatory class, but even here much can be achieved with willingness and appropriate effort. The pastor's principal task, then, is to teach those in their care the life of the Kingdom.

Naturally, only through personal example: there is no other way. Yet not by an example of this or that activity, but by the example of one's own spiritual life. On the principle not of ‘do as I do’ but of ‘be as I am’. Then rivalry and protest against ‘the authorities’ disappear of themselves. The question is not who will occupy a particular position, or even who will do a particular job, but how to live and how to be. Here rivalry is impossible by definition: each person's being and life are their own. In the Kingdom too.

Today’s reading from the epistle of the holy apostle Peter says: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.” These words do not mean at all that a Christian must, or has the right to, sit with folded hands and wait for the Lord Himself to solve every problem. They are rather a reminder that He takes part in our life and cares for us even at those times when it seems that He is doing nothing. The Lord does not forget His children, but His action is by no means always visible. The result of His actions can often be seen only many years later, and sometimes we never learn where and what He has done. What matters is to believe, to trust Him, and to do everything we ought to do: not to shift responsibility for our life from ourselves onto God, but always to remember that He is near and helps us.

Today's reading from the epistle of the holy Apostle Peter says: "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you." These words certainly do not mean that a Christian should, or has the right to, sit with folded hands and wait for the Lord Himself to solve every problem. Rather, they remind us that He takes part in our lives and cares for us, even at those moments when it seems that He is doing nothing. The Lord does not forget His children, but His action is by no means always visible. The result of what He does can often be seen only after many years—and sometimes we never know where or what He has done. It is important to believe, to trust Him, and to do everything we must do: not to shift responsibility for our lives from ourselves onto God, but always to remember that He is near and helps us.

It is very rare to encounter an adequate reaction to the apostolic call to obedience. Usually one observes one of two extremes: either sharp protest in the name of "personal freedom," or an immediate search for some spiritual authority for unconditional submission to his every decision.

But the apostle Peter gives two clues for the correct understanding of his words. First, the matter is mutual obedience, that is, each person placing the interests of another above his own, in other words, mutual love. Second, he uses the remarkable word "humble-mindedness," in which humility and wisdom are joined together. This means that our wisdom is called to be humble, that is, not proud, not exalting itself over others. But it is also important that humility be wise, and not that self-abasement which is "worse than pride." Our obedience to others does not remove our personal responsibility before God for our life.

The Jewish traditional greeting sounds in English as “peace be to you”. The Same expression is used when saying "goodbye". Of course, in the daily use of the word, it is rather often used and are using without thinking about the sense, approximately as we say in English "hello", without remembering that by doing so we wish the one we greet health, or "thank you", without thinking that this expression comes from "mercy, grace". But what then, if we think, means the wish of peace?

The Jewish corresponding word can mean not only peace, but also health and the prosperity, and then this greeting can be also considered, as the wish of health and prosperity. But "peace in Christ Jesus", as we see, implies in the first place exactly peace. And not only peace in the sense of the absence of enmity or quarrels, but also this peace, about which Jesus Himself said: blessed those who make peace ("peacemakers"). Of course it is here not only about peacemakers in its general or political sense. It is about this peace, which only God can give.

In fact, the fallen human nature is foreign to the state of peace; the fallen man aspires for superiority, priority, competition, victory over an opponent. Such an aspiration, certainly, does not still overflow in an open hostility or, especially, in a war, but can always become the source of either. And only God by His influence is capable of changing the human nature, so that the aspiration for superiority stops being the driving force of its existence. The absence of enmities and wars in that case is only a consequence, the first cause, the transformation of the human nature.

Jesus, leaving with His disciples and followers His peace, the peace of the Kingdom, thus introduced them to the life of the Kingdom. Here the transformation arrives at the logical completion, and it is only here that peace becomes not a temporary spiritual state, but a norm of life. And that is why the wish of peace means in this case nothing else than the wish to remain from now on the inhabitants of the Kingdom. Wish, which to invent better for a Christian is difficult.