1 Pet. 5 1 Pet. 5:1–4 The elders are exhorted to feed the flock of Christ conscientiously, looking to the chief Shepherd for a reward. 1 Pet. 5:5 The younger are required to submit to the elder, and all to practise humility toward each other, 1 Pet. 5:6–7 with resignation to God, 1 Pet.

The elders which are among you I exhort; viz. those that were such, not so much by age as by office, as appears by his exhorting them to feed the flock, 1 Pet. 5:2; he means the ordinary ministers of the churches among the believing Jews.

Feed; teach and rule, Matt. 2:6, John 21:15–17, Acts 20:28. The flock of God; the church. Which is among you; which is with you, or committed to your charge; intimating that the flock not being their own, they were to give an account of it to him that had set them over it.

Neither as being lords; not exercising any such lordship or dominion over the people, as temporal lords and magistrates exercise over their subjects, Matt. 20:25–26;c. Luke 22:25, 2 Cor. 1:24.

And when the chief Shepherd; the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Prince of pastors, called the great Shepherd of the sheep, Heb. 13:20, as here the chief Shepherd, not only for his supereminent dignity over all other pastors, but because of the power he hath over them, they being all subject to his…

Ye younger; either he means those that were inferior to the church officers, and then he here prescribes the people their duty, as he had done the ministers; or rather, those that were younger in years, and then he passeth from the more special to the general.

The mighty hand of God; by this he means God’s omnipotence, which sometimes is called a strong hand, Ex. 3:19, a mighty hand, Ex. 32:11, Deut. 3:24, the right hand of power, Matt.

Casting, as a burden, all your care upon him; your care for all sorts of things, even which concern this life, that care which will otherwise cut and divide your hearts, (as the Greek word in Matthew imports), and be grievous and tormenting to you.

Be sober: see 1 Pet. 1:13, 1 Pet. 4:7; q.d. Ye have to do with a mad enemy, a raging devil; ye had need yourselves be sober; not only in meats and drinks, &c., but as to the cares of this life, and whatsoever it is that is apt to intoxicate your minds, and expose you to him.

Whom resist; by not yielding to his temptations, Eph. 4:27, and by employing your spiritual armour against him, Eph. 6:11–13;c.: see James 4:7. Stedfast in the faith; either: 1.

But the God of all grace; i.e. the author and giver of all grace, from whom ye have received what you have, and expect what you want. Who hath called us unto his eternal glory; that eternal glory whereof believers at the last day shall be made partakers, which is called God’s glory, because it is…

To him; to God. Be glory and dominion; see 1 Pet. 4:11. The verb be in the text is not in the Greek, and so it may be read with a supply of a verb either of the imperative mood, and then it is a doxology, as we render it; or of the indicative, he hath glory and dominion; or, to him belongs glory…

By Silvanus; either Silas, Acts 15—16, whom Peter therefore here calls a faithful brother to them, that they might the more readily receive him, though a minister of the uncircumcision; or else this Silvanus was some other that had preached to them, and is therefore said to be a faithful brother to…

The church that is at Babylon; Babylon in Chaldea, where it is most probable the apostle was at the writing of this Epistle; the Jews being very numerous in those parts, as having settled themselves there ever since the captivity, and Peter being an apostle of the circumcision, his work lay much…

Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity: see Rom. 16:16, 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12. In Christ Jesus; united to him by faith, and members of him.