1 Peter 5:1–4

1 Peter 5:1 — Peter's Self-Identification as Fellow Elder and Witness

Peter opens with "Therefore" (οὖν), linking this exhortation directly to the preceding call for all believers to clothe themselves in humility (4:12–19; 5:5). Rather than invoking his apostolic authority as a trump card, he chooses the term sympresbyteros — "fellow elder" — a remarkable act of solidarity with the very leaders he is instructing. This rhetorical leveling is deliberate: authority in the Church is most persuasive when it is transparently participatory.

Peter's dual self-description as "witness of the sufferings of Christ" (martys tōn tou Christou pathēmatōn) and as one who will "share in the glory that will be revealed" creates a two-horizon framework — the cross and the Parousia — that will govern the entire exhortation. As an eyewitness (cf. Luke 22:54–62; John 18–19), Peter has seen what authentic shepherding costs; as one who awaits the eschatological revelation of glory, he knows what it earns. Elders are asked to inhabit this same tension.

1 Peter 5:2 — The Command to Shepherd: Three Antitheses

The imperative poimanate ("shepherd") is loaded with Old Testament resonance (Ezekiel 34; Psalm 23; Zechariah 11) and with the explicit commission Christ gave Peter at the shore of Tiberias (John 21:15–17). The "flock of God" (to poimnion tou theou) establishes at once that the sheep belong not to the elder but to God — a structural limitation on every form of pastoral power.

Peter elaborates the command through three paired antitheses that together define authentic pastoral ministry:

1. "Not under compulsion, but voluntarily" — The elder must not minister as if conscripted or resentfully obligated. The Greek hekousiōs (willingly) echoes the language of free-will offering in the LXX (Exod 35:29; Lev 7:16), suggesting that pastoral service, like sacrifice, is only spiritually valid when freely rendered.

2. "Not for dishonest gain, but willingly" (mē aischrokerdōs all' prothumōs) — Aischrokerdēs ("shameful gain") is the same word used in the qualifications for overseers in 1 Tim 3:3 and Titus 1:7. The early Church faced the real temptation of leaders exploiting communities for financial or social advantage; Peter forbids this categorically.

3. "Not lording it over" but "making yourselves examples" — The verb katakyrieuo is the same word Jesus uses in Mark 10:42 to describe the domineering leadership style that must characterize pagans, not disciples. Against it, Peter sets typoi — "types" or "models." The elder's life is itself to be a visible pattern, a sacramental sign pointing the flock to Christ.

1 Peter 5:3 — The "Entrusted" Flock

The phrase "those entrusted to you" (tōn klērōn) uses the word from which "clergy" derives — klēros, meaning "lots" or "portions." The flock is, quite literally, the elder's lot or portion, an allotment from God. This is not a grant of ownership but of stewardship; the elder is a foreman in another's vineyard (cf. Matt 20:1–16).

1 Peter 5:4 — The Chief Shepherd and the Unfading Crown

The title Archipoimēn ("Chief Shepherd") appears only here in the New Testament. It establishes a hierarchical relationship: earthly shepherds serve under, and are accountable to, the one Shepherd who is also the eschatological Judge. The "crown of glory that doesn't fade" (ameraninon tēs doxēs stephanon) contrasts with the perishable laurel wreaths of Greco-Roman athletic and civic honor. The word amarantinos evokes the amaranth flower, proverbially unfading — a perpetual glory that no earthly honor can match or corrupt.

Catholic tradition reads 1 Peter 5:1–4 as a foundational charter for the theology of ordained ministry, and specifically for the presbyterate understood as a share in the one priesthood of Christ the Good Shepherd.

The Second Vatican Council's Presbyterorum Ordinis (1965) draws directly on this Petrine imagery when it teaches that priests "exercise the office of Christ the Shepherd and Head" (§2), and that their authority is to be exercised as service, not domination. Lumen Gentium §28 similarly grounds the elder's role in the threefold office of Christ (priest, prophet, king), with shepherding corresponding to the kingly-servant dimension. Crucially, Lumen Gentium insists that this pastoral power "is not to be understood as a power over the laity but as a ministry for them" — an exact echo of Peter's antitheses in verse 2.

The Church Fathers drew richly on this passage. St. Gregory the Great in his Liber Regulae Pastoralis ("Pastoral Rule") — which shaped Western episcopal practice for centuries — expounds the danger of "lording it over" the flock and insists that the pastor must be superior in action, equal in humility. St. John Chrysostom (On the Priesthood, Book II) likewise uses verse 2 to argue that no one should grasp at priestly office for personal advancement.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church §1551 states: "This priesthood is ministerial. 'That office... which the Lord committed to the pastors of his people, is in the strict sense of the term a service.'" The word "service" translates ministerium — consciously echoing Peter's "not lording it over." Peter's eschatological promise (v. 4) is reflected in CCC §1551's reminder that ordained ministry is ordered to the building up of the Church and finds its fulfillment only in the glory of Christ.

These verses speak with urgent directness to the Catholic Church in the twenty-first century. In an era shadowed by the clergy abuse crisis, Peter's three antitheses read not as pious counsel but as prophylactic commands: ministry must be voluntary, not coercive; financially disinterested, not self-enriching; exemplary, not domineering. The word typoi — be a model to the flock — is a sobering call to integrity. The elder cannot credibly point to Christ if his own life contradicts the direction he points.

But the passage also speaks to lay ecclesial ministers, catechists, parents, and anyone entrusted with spiritual leadership in any form. Every "portion" (klēros) of God's people entrusted to a believer's care — a marriage, a classroom, a parish committee — is governed by the same logic: lead freely, serve generously, live exemplarily, and keep your eyes on the Chief Shepherd who is coming. The unfading crown is not offered to those who exercised power most impressively, but to those who gave their service most honestly, even when no one was watching.