In 1 Peter 5 Christ is presented as the Chief Shepherd.
1 Peter 5:1 says, “The elders among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory to be revealed.” Today we should be witnesses and partakers of Christ’s sufferings so that we will be partakers of His glory to be revealed.
Peter and the early apostles were witnesses of Christ (Acts 1:8), not only as eyewitnesses testifying of what they had seen of Christ’s suffering (5:32; 10:39) but also as martyrs vindicating their testimony by suffering martyrdom for Him (22:20; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:10-11; 11:23; 1 Cor. 15:31). This is to share in the sufferings of Christ (1 Pet. 4:13), to participate in the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).
Peter also says in 1 Peter 5:1 that he is a partaker of the glory to be revealed. Peter was first a witness, a martyr, and a partaker of the sufferings of Christ. Then he was a partaker of His glory (Rom. 8:17). Christ Himself had gone the same way (1 Pet. 1:11; Luke 24:26). In Greek, witness and martyr are the same word. This indicates that we need to bear testimony as a witness even at the risk of being a martyr, of sacrificing our lives.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter gave a strong testimony, witnessing of the sufferings of Christ. He boldly told the Jews that they had crucified the Lord Jesus. Before the day of Pentecost, however, Peter was not bold but timid. The night the Lord Jesus was betrayed Peter denied that he was one of His followers. In the presence of the Lord, Peter denied Him. But on the day of Pentecost Peter had the boldness to rebuke the Jews for crucifying the Lord Jesus. After that, Peter began to suffer persecution. He was arrested and put into prison. He was willing to risk his life to be a witness for the Lord Jesus.
Peter, no doubt, remembered the Lord’s word in Acts 1 about witnesses. When the disciples asked the Lord about the restoring of the kingdom to Israel, He replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set by His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (vv. 7-8). Peter was the first to become such a witness. He was a leading witness, a martyr, one who was willing to sacrifice his life to testify of the sufferings of Christ. Eventually, Peter himself was martyred. He sacrificed his life as part of his witness for Christ. This was the fulfillment of the Lord’s word to him in John 21:18, a word concerning “by what kind of death he would glorify God” (v. 19). When Peter wrote his second Epistle, he knew that the time of his martyrdom was near: “Knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle is imminent, even as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me” (1:14).
We need to be witnesses of the sufferings of Christ. This means that we should be ready to sacrifice our lives as part of our testimony. Being a partaker of Christ’s glory depends on being such a martyr. If we are willing to be martyred, if we are willing to risk our lives, then surely we will be partakers of the glory to be revealed. But if we are not willing to sacrifice our lives, then instead of partaking of glory at the Lord’s coming, we will probably be rebuked by Him.
In 1 Peter 4:19 Peter says, “So then let those also who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing to a faithful Creator.” Here, well-doing refers to doing right, good, and noble deeds. Committing our souls to a faithful Creator is effective only if we are engaged in well-doing, that is, if we are doing noble deeds. Nothing is more noble than dying as a martyr for the Lord.
When we act in such a noble way, we have the ground to commit our souls to a faithful Creator. He is altogether faithful. When the Lord Jesus was being tried before His crucifixion, Peter was not at all noble. But later, in the book of Acts, Peter witnessed for Christ before his persecutors in a noble way. For example, Peter and John said to the persecutors, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you judge; for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20). Peter and the other apostles committed their souls in well-doing to a faithful Creator. Surely Peter was able to say, “Lord, You are faithful to me. Now I would be faithful to You. I would be faithful to You at the cost of my life.” Certainly the Lord would honor such a noble commitment.
Because Peter was a noble witness, a noble martyr, he had the assurance that he would be a partaker of the coming glory. Whether we will be partakers of the glory to come depends upon how noble and faithful we are as witnesses. We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves. We should always have the willingness to sacrifice ourselves. We need to sacrifice our time, our energy, and our life. If we are willing to sacrifice in this way, then we will be witnesses of the sufferings of Christ and partakers of the coming glory. First, we must participate in Christ’s suffering; only then can we share in Christ’s glory.