Watchman Nee, the Chinese Christian author of the twentieth century, once wrote a little book on the nature of the Christian life called “Sit, Walk, Stand.” It was based on the book of Ephesians, where our life of faith is described as beginning by sitting with Christ in identification with His finished work of redemption for us; it moves on to our walk as we offer up our redeemed lives thereafter as a thank offering that strives to become fitting because of what has been done for us; finally, we are to stand in opposition to the resistance of Satan and the powers he arrays against us, because we have become Christ’s. The book was life-changing for me, because it portrayed things so simply and clearly. It is still in print, and I highly recommend it.
But in 1 Peter, chapter 5, Peter seems to skew things a little bit, without contradicting Nee’s concept. In verse 8, Peter warns us to “stand” against the devil. Verse 9 carries on the thought, and expands it to all the church all over the world. Then in verse 10 he seems to back up to both of Nee’s other concepts of “sit” and “walk”: what he suggests in this verse is that our struggle against unrighteousness and the author of evil, successfully waged and suffered, will serve to reinforce and confirm those first two steps of our faith. “After” we have “suffered a while” – suffering meaning we have not given in to these temptations and enemy actions – “the God of all grace” will “make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” Don’t you love the vigor of those last three King James’s words? They are like the last three blows of God’s mighty hammer driving the great nail of our faith home: bang, bang, BANG.
the God of all grace will make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you
The exercise of the faith we already have, standing fast against the attacks of the mighty enemy, works to make us “perfect” (fully mature) more and more and more: we begin to become “mighty men of valor” as we work out the strivings of resisting and overcoming Satan. Then we are “stablished”: we are made to be built straight and true, plumb and level, solid and firm, like the house built on the rock, that the winds and the tides could not make falter. Then God “strengthens” us: our spiritual muscles gain not only power, in absolute strength for each task, but tone, for staying power that does not grow weary or distressed in any way by the length of the fight. Finally, that wonderful word “settle”: that is like the absolute and fully-satisfying sleep of the well-exercised soldier, who has faithfully performed his duty. There is no regret, no shame for failures. We have “done what we could” – and perhaps a little more. We are confident of our commander’s “well done” at the end of the day.
Watchman Nee had it right in the order of our Christian life. But so does Peter, in that life itself will set and reset the lessons over and over as, while we walk in obedience, our strength grows and grows right to the end.