Now we need to ask why Peter uses the expression “live to righteousness.” This is related to the fulfilling of God’s governmental requirements. Actually, God’s government requires just one thing—righteousness. This is the reason 2 Peter 3:13 says, “But according to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” In 1 Peter 2:23 we see that the Lord Jesus continually committed all to the One who judges righteously. Then in verse 24 Peter indicates that we should live to righteousness. Peter’s concept here is governmental; righteousness is a matter of God’s government. We have been saved by our Savior to live a life that matches the righteous requirements of God’s government.
God is righteous and His government is established upon righteousness. Psalm 89:14 says that righteousness is the foundation of God’s throne. Therefore, as God’s people living under His government, we must have a righteous life. We must live to righteousness. But because in ourselves we are not able to live this kind of life, the Savior saves us to live a life of righteousness, a life that fulfills the righteous requirements of God’s government.
It is important for us to realize that Christ our Savior has carried up all our sins onto the tree and died there for us. Now His death separates us from sins and enlivens us so that we may live to righteousness. Spontaneously, we are under God’s government and have no problem with His government because we live to righteousness.
In verse 25 Peter goes on to say, “For you were as sheep being led astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Christ was our Redeemer in His death on the tree. Now He is our soul’s Shepherd and Overseer in the resurrection life within us. Therefore, He is able to guide us and supply us with life that we may follow His model in His steps of suffering (v. 21). According to verse 25, Christ is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Our soul is our inner being, our real person. Our Lord, as the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul, shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our real person.
Our problem was that we were like sheep being led astray. But now we have returned, turned back, to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. We should not think that in verse 25 Peter uses soul as a synonym of spirit. This is definitely not the case. A shepherd takes care of the physical needs of his flock, and Christ our Shepherd takes care of the needs of our soul. He is not the Shepherd of our body; He is the Shepherd of our soul, our inner being. We all have a spirit, and the spirit is our inward organ. But our being is a soul. Therefore, Christ mainly shepherds us by taking care of our soul. He takes care of our mind, emotion, and will.
We may think that our problems are with the body. No doubt, the body does give us many problems. Nevertheless, our real problem is in our soul. Our mind, emotion, and will all have problems. Unbelievers are wanderers in the soul, and they do not have a shepherd to take care of them. But our situation is different in that we have a Shepherd who takes care of our soul. Not only do we have the Lord’s life within us, but we also have Him as our Shepherd. He is now shepherding us in our soul.
I would ask you to consider this matter of the Lord’s shepherding according to your experience. Do you experience the Lord’s comfort and sense His comfort in your spirit or in your soul? In other words, where is the Lord’s comfort, in our spirit or in our soul? If you say that His comfort is in the spirit, your answer is not according to the Bible. Before you came into the Lord’s recovery, you may not have known that you had a human spirit. But since you have been in the church life, you have seen the revelation concerning the human spirit. But this revelation may have now become to you a new kind of tradition. To say that Christ’s comfort is in our spirit is to speak according to a new tradition concerning the spirit. Many times we speak of turning to the spirit, perhaps expecting that when we turn to the spirit everything will be all right. Actually, even after we turn to the spirit, many things may not be all right. From experience Peter knew to say that Christ is the Shepherd of our souls. Therefore, Peter does not tell us in verse 25 that Christ is the Shepherd of our spirit or of our body; He clearly says that He is the Shepherd of our souls.
This Epistle was written to Jewish Christians who were suffering much persecution. Apparently persecution is related to our body outwardly. Actually, persecution is aimed at the soul. Because it is our soul that suffers, it is our soul that needs the Lord’s shepherding. It is not our body that needs this kind of care, nor is it mainly our spirit. It is our soul—our mind, our emotion, and our will—that needs the Lord as the Shepherd.
In our experience sometimes we just do not know what to think about. We do not know where to direct our thoughts. This is an indication that our mind needs the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd. I can testify that many times in this kind of situation the Lord Jesus has been a Shepherd to me. As a result of His shepherding our mind is directed and set in the right way.
Our emotion, being complicated, is easily upset. This is especially true of the sisters’ emotion. Therefore, we need the Lord Jesus to shepherd us in our emotion. His shepherding comforts our emotion.
Our will also needs the Lord’s shepherding. As human beings, we often find it difficult to make the right decision. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to make a decision. Unbelievers have no one to lead them and guide them in making decisions. But we have a Shepherd to lead us and guide us. The Lord’s leading and guiding is primarily related to our will. As the living Shepherd, the Lord continually directs our will. I cannot tell you how many times I have experienced this. The Lord is truly the Shepherd of our soul. He directs our mind, comforts our emotion, and leads and guides our will.
According to my experience, there is a difference between leading and guiding. Leading is related to a destination. Suppose you are driving from your home to a certain city. A road map may lead you to your destination. But once you arrive at that city, you will need a guide, someone to direct you to the exact place where you want to go. In the Bible some verses speak of the Lord’s leading, and others, of His guiding. On the one hand, the Lord will lead His people to the holy land. But once He has led them there, He will guide them to Mount Zion.
As our Shepherd, the Lord leads us first and then guides us. He leads us to the right place, and He guides us to the exact spot. This is Christ, our Shepherd.
In order to be our living Shepherd, it is necessary for Christ to dwell within us. If Christ today were not the life-giving Spirit in us, if He were only the exalted Lord in an objective way in the third heaven, how could He be our Shepherd? For Christ to be our Shepherd, He must be with us, even in us. Many times He goes along with us in order to turn us back. Consider how the Lord was the Shepherd to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. These disciples were going in one direction, but the Lord went with them in order to turn them to go in another direction. Luke 24:15 says, “And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.” Then He asked them what they were talking about. In a sense, these disciples rebuked the Lord when they said, “Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?” (v. 18). Then the Lord asked, “What things?” (v. 19). After walking a while together, they constrained the Lord to stay with them (v. 29). Then, as He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, “their eyes were opened, and they knew Him” (vv. 30-31). This is an example of the Lord’s shepherding.
Sometimes the Lord shepherds us in the same way that He shepherded the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We also may speak to Him in a nonsensical way or ask Him nonsensical questions. We may even rebuke Him, and He may pretend not to know what we are talking about. Many of us can testify of having the Lord Jesus shepherd us in this way. As the life-giving Spirit dwelling within us, He is the Shepherd to us in our experience.
According to Peter’s word in 2:25, Christ is also the Overseer of our souls. I wonder how many Christians have experienced Christ as an Overseer, as an Elder.
The New Testament reveals that an overseer is an elder and that an elder is an overseer. In 5:1-3 Peter gives a word to the elders concerning the shepherding of the flock of God. What is the function of an overseer? The Greek word for overseer means one who oversees a particular condition or situation. This word seems to indicate someone above us who takes oversight concerning us and watches what we are doing. However, according to our experience, the Lord as the Overseer is One who cares for us. For Him to oversee us means that He takes care of us. As the Overseer, the Lord does not govern us or rule over us. Rather, He cares for us as a mother cares for her child. A mother oversees her child with the purpose of caring for the child. She wants to take care of every need. The same is true of Christ as our Overseer.
As we read 2:18-25, we see that Peter was very rich in experience. In this portion he speaks of grace, the writing- copy, the Savior, the Shepherd, and the Overseer. Christ is the life within us, and He is also the model for us to follow. If we live by Christ as our inward life, that is, by the indwelling Christ Himself, we shall undergo the process of spiritual xeroxing to become a reproduction of Christ. At the same time, we shall experience Him as the Savior saving us, as the Shepherd leading and guiding us, and as the Overseer caring for us. Oh, Peter’s experience was rich, and his writing is marvelous! May we all practice to enjoy Christ according to what is revealed in these verses. May we all enjoy Him as grace, as the model, and as the wonderful Savior, Shepherd, and Overseer.