Depositing our Souls with Commitment
“Therefore, those who are ill-treated and suffer in accordance with the will of God must [continue to] do right and commit their souls [for safe-keeping] to the faithful Creator.” (1 Peter 4:19, AMP)
When Sam and I were dating or newly married, whenever we went somewhere– be it a park, a concert, or an amusement park– Sam would without fail ask me to put his car keys in my purse. And then he’d ask me to hold his phone… and his wallet. It would always annoy me, because my bag would be brimming with someone else’s stuff.
And Sam wasn’t the only person to do it. I’d have friends who would do it too. I guess it’s prone to happen when you’re the one in the group that always carries a bag. That bag was a safe place to keep those items people didn’t want to lose. And they would have been correct, because nothing was ever misplaced when it was in my bag.
It might seem like a simple or a silly object illustration, but it’s a good one. In today’s verse, when we see the word “commit,” we’re taking that meaning from the Greek phrase, “paratithesthōsan, which is similar to the word we see in Luke 23:46: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” This of course, is the moment where Jesus dies on the cross having completed the will of the Lord, at the pinnacle of human suffering and pain, and yet an instant so full of grace and love for us. The word used there, “paratithemai,” still contains that root word “tithemi,” which can also be translated to words like “entrust” or “commend.”
So when Peter tells us to remain committed to God, even in those moments where we are ill-treated and suffer because of God’s will, he reminds us that we can be strengthened to do so because we have already committed our souls to the safest place they could be: with the Lord. When we commit our lives to Jesus, we should do so without fear of having to take them back. We should be able to give Him our very souls and trust that He is going to be faithful in keeping them.
In the culture Peter writes to the Church, when someone entrusted money or belongings to someone else, it was a sacred transaction. They did it the way we would deposit money into a bank, or even more trivially, your friend's bag. When you make a cash deposit, is there ever any doubt that when you come back for it, the bank won’t have the means to let you withdraw what you left with them? When you ask your friend to hold onto your phone in their bag, do you ever doubt that friend will withhold your phone when you ask for it back? Back in Peter’s day, you didn’t deposit money or belongings with someone that you didn’t trust. Why? Because you couldn’t be assured that they would produce what you entrusted to them upon your return.
That person you would leave such a precious deposit with has your confidence. You know that whatever you’re giving is going to be kept safe.
Do we trust God enough to truly deposit our souls to Him for safe keeping?
It’s easy to do that in the beginning of your Christian walk, when the stakes are low and you haven’t felt persecution for your faith yet. But what about when people treat you differently just for believing in God? What about when your faith starts to be tested and you go through hard stuff simply because it is God’s will for you to?
Do you still feel confident enough to keep your soul committed to Him? Do you still have certainty that your very self is safe in His hands when the stakes are slightly higher?
Jesus is our best example. He faced the cross. He faced beatings. He faced torture and humiliation, and public persecution for us. He walked through it knowing that it was God’s will for Him. He endured because He knew that God the Father was still present and able to commit and commend His Spirit to, even unto the point of death. Jesus knew God the Father’s hands were still safe to entrust His Spirit to.
It should be the same for us. When we face the darkest days we’ve ever faced, we should be able to expel our doubt by remembering that Jesus still entrusted the deepest and most sacred parts of Himself to the Lord to His dying breath. And God held Him. God never stopped holding Him.
He’ll never stop holding His children, friends. He’ll never turn His back on us, even when we think He has or He should. I have news for you: when we feel He’s forgotten us, it’s because we know in our weakness and flesh, we could never come through the way God can.
He is a faithful Creator. We could never hope to be as faithful as He is and always has been. He is sovereign and could dispel us with a word, but instead, He safeguards our souls. He sacredly holds them in His hands and protects them. He will never squander or drop them.
We can trust Him, friends. We SHOULD trust Him with everything possible. We should confidently deposit every last treasure we have and every thing we hold dear, committing them to a God who is mightier and more kind to us than we deserve. This world is dark and growing darker all the time. We would get swept away without the hope we have in the Lord. When things happen outside of our control, we should lean on the fact that even in death, there is no way that God could ever misplace any one of us.
Our souls are being well-kept with Him. And we shouldn’t worry that our trust has been misplaced with the Lord, when we trust worldly institutions and other people to keep much less safe. Our souls are no flimsy currency with which God takes so small a care as to let any one of us slip through the cracks.
So if you commit yourself to Him, do so without contingency. When you’re being ill-treated or going through hard times, don’t doubt that the investment in your soul is being mishandled by a God that doesn’t care. He does, more than you’ll ever know or realize. Let Him hold your heart and entrust Him to do it as only He can.
