1Pe 4:13-14 | KingComments | STEP | . The Lord has given something to each one to serve the other. With your gift you can serve those, who are the most important people on earth to God: the companionship of believers. What is given to you to be able to do that, is called “a [special] gift” as a grace of God. Grace plays a major role in this letter. The Lord wants to use His own to pass on His grace to His own. You are able to pass on the grace that you have received to other believers. The Lord has distributed the gifts in such a way that you are able to serve all believers and that you can be served by all believers. Therefore you are not supposed to keep the gift that you have received, for yourself, but to pass it on. Your gift is not given to you for your own pleasure or for your own honor or importance, but it ought to be useful and for the joy of the other. In that way there is an interaction between the believers. Each of the believers is a gift to all others ( ). If you do with the gift you have received from the Lord what the Lord wants you to do with it, you are a ‘good steward’. A steward is someone who manages something that belongs to another person. What you have received belongs to the Lord and He expects you to be faithful in making use of it ( ). He will once ask you to account for your use of it (cf. ). What God has given of His grace is “manifold”. Hereby you should think of a multitude of proofs of grace. Haven’t you already experienced in your life how much grace you have received? Has the Lord not often used brothers and sisters for that too? Just think about all you owe to your brothers and sisters and thank God for arranging it this way. Have you not often been richly blessed at the gatherings and have the meetings in the homes not often been encouraging for you? The fact the God has arranged things like that at the same time makes clear that a ‘one-man-ministry’ in the church is not according to His will. God did not concentrate all gifts in one person, but He gave a great diversity of gifts. Thereby He for instance gives to one the word of wisdom and to another the word of knowledge ( ). . The gifts are divided in two main categories by Peter. The one category is ‘speaking’, the other category is ‘serving’ (cf. ). First he deals with ‘speaking’. What an encouraging and edifying effect can words have on you! Speaking to edify especially happens in the meeting. Of course it should be speaking “the utterances of God” and not giving one’s own opinion on certain things. It should undoubtedly be in accordance with God’s Word, but it should also be according to God’s will that it is said at the right time. If it happens like that in the meeting it will be a great blessing of all attendants. Each attendant will feel himself personally addressed. That may imply that you are edified or exhorted or consoled by what is said ( ). It is just what you need, and God, Who guides the speaker by His Spirit in speaking ‘the oracles of God’, knows that. That, however, doesn’t elevate the speaker above criticism, for he remains in himself a fallible person. Therefore, everything that has been said must be tested whether it is according to God’s Word ( ). ‘Serving’ is distinguished from ‘speaking’. ‘Serving’ regards to the sharing with others of the material goods. We can all serve others with the means we have. That must happen with sincere motives and not for attaining a good reputation. It should not be to one’s own honor, but to God’s honor. Therefore God has to give the power to do it, He has to work it in your heart. If you are open to the will of God in both your speaking and your serving, He will make clear to you what you should say or do. He gives the gifts and also the power to use those gifts. He first gives you an order to do something and then He gives you everything you need to execute that order. It is a service that in no way can happen in one’s own power, in the power of the flesh. Only then it can happen to the glory of God. The Lord Jesus is the One through Whom you are capable to do everything to God’s glory. He will give the power for that forever and ever. . Peter comes back to suffering. By addressing his readers as “beloved”, he makes them feel his warm love. With this word “beloved” he certainly does not only indicate his own love, but he also means by that, that they are beloved of God. They may have been doubting about that because of the persecution they have to endure. There is another warmth besides the warmth of love. That warmth is more of a heat. It is the “fiery ordeal” of the persecution that they are experiencing in their midst. The enemy wants to intimidate them and wants to bring them to deny the Lord Jesus as the glorified Lord. That persecution can cause them to start doubting the love of God. However, the suffering that comes in their midst, they should not see as something that accidentally happens to them and less as something that God sends to make their life miserable. If people light a fire, it destroys everything that it comes into contact with. If God lights a fire, He also controls it so that it comes into contact only with what He allows to burn. The fire in which the three friends of Daniel found themselves, chose, under the guiding hand of God, only the ropes of the three friends, while it did not affect the other parts of their body; not one hair of their head was singed ( ). The fire is used by God to test the believer. The test of your faith is necessary because it purifies your faith from the elements that may cloud the faith in one way or another. Faith is clouded by, for instance, still trusting in your own power or by thinking that you need to fulfil certain conditions to gain God’s favor. That all has to be removed, for you must learn to unconditionally trust in God alone. The idea that as soon as a person comes to faith, all difficulties and worries belong to the past, is a serious misconception. The gospel is not a success formula for a life without problems. False evangelists may want you to believe that by accepting the gospel you will be healthy and wealthy and that you will gain prosperity and a good reputation. Those are liars, who bring a message that they themselves invented. If you believe such foolishness you will surely find it strange that you as a believer still have to face suffering. The reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is different. If you believe in it and you desire to live in that faith, you will on the contrary have to do with sufferings. Such a life identifies you with Christ. And what was His part on earth? It was nothing more than suffering, was it? . Peter is encouraging you. Instead of being discouraged by suffering that is your portion because of your relationship with Christ, you may rejoice in it. You may “share the sufferings of Christ”, which of course refers only to the sufferings inflicted on Him by human beings and not to the sufferings for the atonement of sins. Sharing the sufferings of Christ, meaning going through something of which you know He also went through, gives a deeply inward joy ( ; ). Paul very much wanted to share the sufferings of Christ ( ) because he wanted to be like Christ as much as he possibly could. The more you share the sufferings of Christ the deeper you can rejoice in the joy of it now already. This joy will extend to “rejoice with exultation” when the Lord Jesus comes in His glory. Then He will reveal Himself and will be seen by all ( ). They will be present at that time and accompany Him with exceeding joy. The situation will be completely changed. From suffering Christians they will be changed to glorified Christians. The joy of the sufferings has not been changed, but it has been expanded to an expression of a joy tempered by nothing. It’s an exuberant expression of joy. The time of suffering is over. The time of singing has arrived ( ). The glory has come in the Person of Jesus Christ Who reveals Himself to the world as the Victor. Now read 1 Peter 4:10-13 again. Reflection: How could you serve to others and be served by others?

‏ 1 Peter 4:13-14

Serve One Another as Good Stewards

1Pet 4:10. The Lord has given something to each one to serve the other. With your gift you can serve those, who are the most important people on earth to God: the companionship of believers. What is given to you to be able to do that, is called “a [special] gift” as a grace of God. Grace plays a major role in this letter. The Lord wants to use His own to pass on His grace to His own.

You are able to pass on the grace that you have received to other believers. The Lord has distributed the gifts in such a way that you are able to serve all believers and that you can be served by all believers. Therefore you are not supposed to keep the gift that you have received, for yourself, but to pass it on. Your gift is not given to you for your own pleasure or for your own honor or importance, but it ought to be useful and for the joy of the other. In that way there is an interaction between the believers. Each of the believers is a gift to all others (Eph 4:7).

If you do with the gift you have received from the Lord what the Lord wants you to do with it, you are a ‘good steward’. A steward is someone who manages something that belongs to another person. What you have received belongs to the Lord and He expects you to be faithful in making use of it (1Cor 4:1-5). He will once ask you to account for your use of it (cf. Lk 16:1-13).

What God has given of His grace is “manifold”. Hereby you should think of a multitude of proofs of grace. Haven’t you already experienced in your life how much grace you have received? Has the Lord not often used brothers and sisters for that too?

Just think about all you owe to your brothers and sisters and thank God for arranging it this way. Have you not often been richly blessed at the gatherings and have the meetings in the homes not often been encouraging for you?

The fact the God has arranged things like that at the same time makes clear that a ‘one-man-ministry’ in the church is not according to His will. God did not concentrate all gifts in one person, but He gave a great diversity of gifts. Thereby He for instance gives to one the word of wisdom and to another the word of knowledge (1Cor 12:8-10).

1Pet 4:11. The gifts are divided in two main categories by Peter. The one category is ‘speaking’, the other category is ‘serving’ (cf. Acts 6:2-4). First he deals with ‘speaking’. What an encouraging and edifying effect can words have on you! Speaking to edify especially happens in the meeting. Of course it should be speaking “the utterances of God” and not giving one’s own opinion on certain things. It should undoubtedly be in accordance with God’s Word, but it should also be according to God’s will that it is said at the right time.

If it happens like that in the meeting it will be a great blessing of all attendants. Each attendant will feel himself personally addressed. That may imply that you are edified or exhorted or consoled by what is said (1Cor 14:3). It is just what you need, and God, Who guides the speaker by His Spirit in speaking ‘the oracles of God’, knows that. That, however, doesn’t elevate the speaker above criticism, for he remains in himself a fallible person. Therefore, everything that has been said must be tested whether it is according to God’s Word (1Cor 14:29).

‘Serving’ is distinguished from ‘speaking’. ‘Serving’ regards to the sharing with others of the material goods. We can all serve others with the means we have. That must happen with sincere motives and not for attaining a good reputation. It should not be to one’s own honor, but to God’s honor. Therefore God has to give the power to do it, He has to work it in your heart.

If you are open to the will of God in both your speaking and your serving, He will make clear to you what you should say or do. He gives the gifts and also the power to use those gifts. He first gives you an order to do something and then He gives you everything you need to execute that order. It is a service that in no way can happen in one’s own power, in the power of the flesh. Only then it can happen to the glory of God. The Lord Jesus is the One through Whom you are capable to do everything to God’s glory. He will give the power for that forever and ever.

1Pet 4:12. Peter comes back to suffering. By addressing his readers as “beloved”, he makes them feel his warm love. With this word “beloved” he certainly does not only indicate his own love, but he also means by that, that they are beloved of God. They may have been doubting about that because of the persecution they have to endure.

There is another warmth besides the warmth of love. That warmth is more of a heat. It is the “fiery ordeal” of the persecution that they are experiencing in their midst. The enemy wants to intimidate them and wants to bring them to deny the Lord Jesus as the glorified Lord. That persecution can cause them to start doubting the love of God. However, the suffering that comes in their midst, they should not see as something that accidentally happens to them and less as something that God sends to make their life miserable.

If people light a fire, it destroys everything that it comes into contact with. If God lights a fire, He also controls it so that it comes into contact only with what He allows to burn. The fire in which the three friends of Daniel found themselves, chose, under the guiding hand of God, only the ropes of the three friends, while it did not affect the other parts of their body; not one hair of their head was singed (Dan 3:24-27).

The fire is used by God to test the believer. The test of your faith is necessary because it purifies your faith from the elements that may cloud the faith in one way or another. Faith is clouded by, for instance, still trusting in your own power or by thinking that you need to fulfil certain conditions to gain God’s favor. That all has to be removed, for you must learn to unconditionally trust in God alone.

The idea that as soon as a person comes to faith, all difficulties and worries belong to the past, is a serious misconception. The gospel is not a success formula for a life without problems. False evangelists may want you to believe that by accepting the gospel you will be healthy and wealthy and that you will gain prosperity and a good reputation. Those are liars, who bring a message that they themselves invented. If you believe such foolishness you will surely find it strange that you as a believer still have to face suffering.

The reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is different. If you believe in it and you desire to live in that faith, you will on the contrary have to do with sufferings. Such a life identifies you with Christ. And what was His part on earth? It was nothing more than suffering, was it?

1Pet 4:13. Peter is encouraging you. Instead of being discouraged by suffering that is your portion because of your relationship with Christ, you may rejoice in it. You may “share the sufferings of Christ”, which of course refers only to the sufferings inflicted on Him by human beings and not to the sufferings for the atonement of sins. Sharing the sufferings of Christ, meaning going through something of which you know He also went through, gives a deeply inward joy (Acts 5:41; Lk 6:22-23). Paul very much wanted to share the sufferings of Christ (Phil 3:10) because he wanted to be like Christ as much as he possibly could. The more you share the sufferings of Christ the deeper you can rejoice in the joy of it now already.

This joy will extend to “rejoice with exultation” when the Lord Jesus comes in His glory. Then He will reveal Himself and will be seen by all (Rev 1:7). They will be present at that time and accompany Him with exceeding joy. The situation will be completely changed. From suffering Christians they will be changed to glorified Christians. The joy of the sufferings has not been changed, but it has been expanded to an expression of a joy tempered by nothing. It’s an exuberant expression of joy. The time of suffering is over. The time of singing has arrived (Song 2:11-12). The glory has come in the Person of Jesus Christ Who reveals Himself to the world as the Victor.

Now read 1 Peter 4:10-13 again.

Reflection: How could you serve to others and be served by others?

Judgment Begins With the House of God

1Pet 4:14. The glory that is spoken about in 1Pet 4:13 has not yet come. At present you may still be reviled “for the name of Christ”. It is the same suffering as the suffering that is called ‘Christ’s sufferings’ in the previous verse, but with another emphasis. There the emphasis is more on the suffering itself; it is a suffering that also Christ has endured for doing the will of God. It is the portion of each who follows Him. With the suffering ‘for the name of Christ’ the emphasis is more on the relationship with Himself.

To be reviled for His Name is a suffering that is a direct consequence of coming out for His Name in word and in deed. The world sees in the believer the representative of Christ, Who Himself, when He was here, was the great Representative of God. Due to that He experienced: “The reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me” (Psa 69:9). To Him it was no disgrace and that goes also for you if you are reproached for His Name. Peter even says “you are blessed” if that happens.

The suffering of Christ and the suffering for the Name of Christ are an exceptional way of the revelation of “the Spirit of glory and of God”. In the suffering you experience that the Spirit brings you in your inner being into contact with ‘the glory’ that is His home. He is also the Spirit ‘of God’, the Spirit Who gives you the awareness of God’s full interest and support in the suffering you find yourself in.

That is without a doubt a wonderful encouragement to endure this suffering with joy. You go through an unprecedented experience of God’s presence that others will also notice, for that Spirit “rests on you” (cf. Acts 6:15). While you’re enduring suffering on earth, you possess something that comes from the glory which connects you to it. You not only have a promise of a coming glory, but you have Him Who belongs there.

I have read the biography of a Chinese church leader who had spent twenty years in detention barracks, because of his faith in the Lord Jesus. In that book he speaks all the time about God as ‘the Present One’. To him the presence of God and His Spirit was an almost tangible reality in the midst of the suffering. They were ‘present’, he knew he was in Their presence. That gave him the strength to do the hard forced labor and to testify of his Lord and Savior toward his fellow prisoners.

1Pet 4:15. After presenting the privileges of suffering because of the relationship with Christ, Peter warns of a form of suffering that should not happen to you. That form of suffering is the suffering because of the sins you committed. Peter mentions some of them. The “murderer, or thief, or evildoer” are people who take or damage the life or possessions of other people (materially or spiritually).

The “troublesome meddler” doesn’t seem to fit in this list, but Peter still puts him next to these other crystal clear sins. The troublesome meddler is someone who meddles unasked in other people’s affairs. Meddling limits the room for others, it takes away the freedom of others to act according to what the Lord makes clear. The busybody is doing a work of which the devastating effects often become visible in the longer term. The world has no appreciation for it, like it has not for the other three sins. It is shameful if a person, who calls himself a Christian, has to endure such suffering.

1Pet 4:16. However, a person may suffer because he really behaves as a Christian, after the meaning of the name ‘Christian’. That is because he shows the features of Him to Whom the name ‘Christian’ refers, that is Christ. The name ‘Christian’ appears only here and two times in the book of Acts (Acts 11:26 ; Acts 26:28). In both verses in the book of Acts the name is used by unbelievers who refer to those who testify of their faith in Christ. Therefore it is the world that came up with that name. By what Peter writes here we see that the Spirit acknowledges this name formally.

A Christian is therefore a true follower of Christ. If you suffer “as a Christian”, that is, because you are known as a follower of Christ and act as such, you need not be ashamed of it. On the contrary, you are allowed “to glorify God in this name”. Christ has always suffered for the Name of God and glorified Him therein. You are allowed to imitate Him in this. That is a great privilege.

1Pet 4:17. There is another reason why God uses the suffering of the persecution on behalf of His own. The time for judgment on the world is still to come. Peter speaks about that in his second letter. We will see that when we read and examine that letter together. In this first letter it is about God’s reign over His children. Therefore Peter speaks now about God’s judgment on His house, which is the church, but seen as a whole that consists of all believers who are held responsible for their behavior.

That you are a member of the church is not only a privilege, but also a great responsibility. That is what this is about. This responsibility is greater than that of the world. The church as the people of God and the house of God, as a matter of fact, confesses to know God and to obey Him. Therefore God’s judgment has to begin here before He judges the world (cf. Jer 25:29; Eze 9:6).

God first judges what is the closest to Him, what is most responsible (Lev 10:3; Amos 3:2) to remove what is not according to His will. He wants that the wrong should be confessed and removed. For that reason He uses the world in its persecution of His own. Therefore persecution is besides a test of faith also a speaking of God to the conscience of His people. He wants to bring His own to have the same judgment as He has. That will cause them to judge what He judges, so that they may not be judged with the world (1Cor 11:31-32).

By speaking about “us” Peter puts himself under the judgment that God executes on His house. “For [it is] time” for that judgment while the church is still on earth. To the unbeliever the time has not come yet to be judged, but that will happen in future (Pro 11:31). The execution of God’s judgment on the world contains a serious warning for us not to be absorbed in the world. The judgment on the world is still to come and it will be terrible and definite. There will be no way to escape.

1Pet 4:18. You are a righteous one and look what an effort God is making to bring you saved to the final goal. In the midst of all trials He continues His work in you. He guards you from falling away and from sliding into the world and He purifies your faith, so that you continue to respond to Who He is. Therefore “difficulty” here is with regard to all efforts of God to lead you safely through all dangers to finally give you the inheritance that He reserved for you (1Pet 1:4-5). That is a great encouragement.

To the world it is a great warning. That is embedded in the question “what will become of the godless man and the sinner”, that is, those who live without God and only for themselves. The answer to that question is: they will appear before the great white throne to be judged there according to their deeds (Rev 20:11-15).

1Pet 4:19. If you are aware of the previous you will be able to understand the admonition to, if you are suffering to God’s will, entrust your soul “to a faithful Creator”. You will surely not think of escaping the suffering by adapting yourself to the world and entrust your soul to it. The world, consisting of godless men and sinners, rushes toward judgment. Therefore it is not wise to take refuge in the world to escape suffering. You rush toward the inheritance. Then remember that the degree of suffering is the basis for the joy you will have when you may take possession of the inheritance at the revelation of the glory of Christ (1Pet 4:13).

The “faithful Creator”, your Maker, He Who completely knows you and knows how you feel, leads everything to the goal for which He has created all things. He is faithful and will achieve His goal with the world, with the inheritance and with you. On the way to His goal you are allowed, by doing good, to show that you have entrusted your whole life to Him. You do not seek to adapt yourself to the world, but you neither rejoice in the judgment that will come on the world. As long as you are here you may seek good for the people of the world, so that, in doing what is right many more will get to know Him on behalf of Whom you are working.

Now read 1 Peter 4:14-19 again.

Reflection: What does your suffering as a Christian consist of?