Dressing oneself with humility is of no use if you stay on a relational island. The sense of smallness before God that is caught in the word “humility” is to receive expression in how you relate to those around you. So Jesus, when he dressed himself with the towel (John 13:4), did not retreat into a corner but deliberately related to those around him, by washing their feet. In a similar manner, the humility that is to characterize each of Peter’s born-again readers is to look like service to the other, as opposed to expecting the other to serve me. It should be noted that this notion of humility toward another has received repeated emphasis in Peter’s letter thus far (1 Peter 1:22; 1 Peter 2:13, 1 Peter 2:17–18; 1 Peter 3:1, 1 Peter 3:7; 1 Peter 4:8–11).
5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”