The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 32

Ver. 5.-The heirs kept for the inheritance. The power of God works on both sides of the veil-preserving the inheritance for the heirs, and here keeping the heirs for the inheritance. Both forms of the Divine energy are needful if either is to be effectual. It were little joy to know how secure the riches of the future lay in God's treasure- chambers unless we know that he will also help our weakness and bring us to possess them. So every source of fear is dried up by this double assurance of the one mighty hand preserving us for our heritage and it for us. There is another double truth here in the brief words," by the power of God through faith." On the one hand, the Divine grace which sustains; and on the other hand, the human faith which takes the grace- the one being the condition and the othor the real cause. These two have been wrenched a.part and been regarded as contradictory, and Christendom has been divided into two camps, with these two for their war-cries; and here they lie harmoniously in one sentence, and complete each other. I. WHAT THE HEIRS ARE KEPT BY. The military metaphor in the word "kept n is not to be passed by, We have the same word in its literal use in 2 Cor, xi. 32 (" kept with a. garrison"), and employed figuratively as here in Phil. iv. 7 (" the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds"). Our weak natures are garrisoned as it were by rein- forcements of Divine strength. Not by providences acting on our outward lives only, or by any forces upholding us as with external help, but by pouring power to resist and to overcome into our souls does God keep us in our conflicts with evil. His grace within us is yet more blessed than his hand around us. "I can do all things," said Pan!, "through Christ strengthening me within." An indwelling Lord is our security. The hard-pressed fort is relieved by fresh troops joining the feeble defenders. We have the right to expect an actual communication of Divine strength breathed into our weak- ness, As the prophet laid his hands on the king's hands ere he drew the bow, in token of strength infused, so the touch of Christ's tender and strong hand will teach our" hands to war," so that a" bow of steel will be bent by our arms." We are "kept by [literally, 'in'] the power of God." It may not be fanciful to keep the local meaning of the preposition here, and to think of that power as lying a.round us like some fortress, whose massive walls keep the feeblest in safety. If we keep within our castle, no harm shall befall. The enemy may prowl round the base of the fortress reared high on the cliff, but they cannot climb to it, and their fire cannot shake a stone in its walls. H we dwell in God, we dwell in safety, and whatever storms of war rage without, deep peace abides within. 26 Tirn FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. [en. 1. 1-26,