We’ve been reading the first letter of Peter, and he had spent the first part of chapter 4 speaking about transformation. He said that the readers should arm themselves with the attitude of Christ. He described the attitude of Christ as obedience to God, not just when it was convenient, but no matter what. Obedience to God in the face of potential suffering, despite potentially being left out or being an outcast from a group of people who don’t care about God. Peter was saying that we’ve all spent enough time in the patterns of sin that we came from. But the attitude of Christ puts unwavering obedience above comfort or gratifying desires of flesh. The attitude of Christ means we are done with sin, and are intent on obeying God even if it means discomfort or temporary hardship, because, like Christ, we have prioritized the promises of God and the eternal reward over the temporary things that happen when we obey God instead of the crowd. The attitude of Christ is that we don’t belong to ourselves, but belong to God. Peter says we should remain alert and sober so we can pray to God, so we are mentally prepared to study God’s will for our lives, to seek his counsel. So we can know what that obedience looks like, and so we can be prepared to reflect the Love of God which covers sins. When we demonstrate our love for one another, we point people towards the Love of God, and the Cross of Christ. Then Peter writes chapter 10 and 11
10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Peter is talking about stewardship. We should take the gifts we receive from God and use them to serve one another. We are stewards of God’s Grace in it’s various forms. A steward is someone who is entrusted with somebody else’s things to take care of them, to make sure those things are not misused or wasted. To make sure those things are properly managed and serving their purpose. When I was younger I kind of thought a custodian was just a fancy word for the cleaning staff. But if I am given the job as a caretaker or steward or custodian of a building, my charge my passion my effort and energy are used to make sure that the building is not just clean, but functional and in it’s peak efficient working order. I monitor the plumbing and make sure clean water isn’t leaking, pressure is correct, or the hot water heater is working and venting exhaust out of the building.
The waste water needs to enter into the sewer stack which needs to be properly flowing. The HVAC should be maintained regularly, filters changed or cleaned, the freon or refrigerant gas needs to get to the condenser outside which should be clean and free of debris. I need to monitor the electricity usage, and make sure appliances are not wasting energy use, and make sure there isn’t any old electrical wiring that could cause shorts or electrical fires. The building should be insulated. The floors should be waxed so the tiling doesn’t wear quicker than necessary. Walls should be patched and plastered, paint coats should be reapplied every few years not just for cosmetic purposes but to seal and protect the wallboard. There are a lot of systems that need to be monitored, and sometimes that custodial maintenance is just the tip of the iceberg, because a steward of that property might need to make sure all the space is being used, and rented out at appropriate market rates; or if the building is neglected or unneeded, should be sold and that money should be spent on a different building or investment. Stewards or custodians don’t own the building, but they are hired as managers to care for that building. Now we are recipients of God’s grace in what Peter describes as various forms. We have received God’s grace in many forms. There are so many forms of God’s grace and gifting. Each and every one of us are recipients of God’s grace in many of its various forms. People at this point like to kind of give up and say, “I am not great at XYZ so I don’t have to step up here or serve others in a certain way. I am not a singer so I can’t help the worship team, I am not a public speaker so I can’t do anything there.” When you hear a command to serve one another with the Gifts God has given, it tends to make people hyper aware of the gifts they don’t have! But each and every one of us has been a recipient of God’s Grace in some form and we should be a steward of that grace in order to serve others. First, we have all been given a certain number of days on Earth, so we are to be a steward, or caretaker of the time we spend here on Earth. That’s why 7 verses ago in 1 Peter 4:3, Peter said we’ve spent enough time in our past following the patterns of pagan’s sinful ways. When we are slaves to our flesh, we are stuck in a pattern of wasting precious time and we end up being a bad steward of that form of God’s grace. We have given a physical body, so we are to be a steward of our physical selves. Our bodies. They are not our own. They belong to us more than anyone else on the earth, but we need to take care of our bodies because we were entrusted to be a steward of this flesh. That means we should get enough rest, physical exercise, hygene, we should fuel our bodies with healthy food. We shouldn’t use our bodies selfishly, but we should acknowledge they are a tool to use to serve others for the advancement of God’s Kingdom. If our bodies are treated with reverent fear as God’s property, we make decisions to keep them in good functional working order to the best of our ability, kind of like example of the custodian of the building. We are so much more than our physical bodies as well, In God’s grace, he has given each of us a mind that is capable of learning and growing and solving problems. We are stewards of this big computational device in our skull, and can use our thoughts and mental energies for good or evil. We can dwell on negative things, harbor resentment, allow our brains to tell us to fear each other, or we can use our brains to study scripture which tells us “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”. Our minds can hold grudges, or we can forgive seventy times seven times, like Jesus taught. We can dream up scenarios of vengeance or we could ask God to forgive our persecutors, because they don’t know what they’re doing. Our persecutors are just being bad stewards, and don’t know any better. So we might as well do what Jesus said and ask God to change their hearts, and forgive them. We shouldn’t mentally overwork ourselves; as good stewards of our minds, we should allow ourselves time to rest, but we should also not let our minds idle either.
Because we are stewards of all these things, our time, our bodies, our mental capability, that means we are stewards of money too. Anyone who works for a paycheck has effectively traded money for some combination of time, physical effort, mental effort which are all gifts from God, and something God ultimately owns which we are entrusted with. So that means God is the true owner of everything in our bank accounts, our brokerage accounts, our home equity, our paychecks. God is entrusting us to be stewards of wealth. When churches talk about money, a lot of times congregation starts thinking, “oh here they go again, asking for cash, it’s a big money grab”. Pastors have every right to be reasonably paid for their service. It is fair and right to pay pastors. But that’s not what this passage is about. All that being said, the Bible teaches that God owns your finances, and the Bible gives us a good guide to command a tithe, or give 10% of your income, crops, firstfruits, to the church, temple. The church and temple had a Biblical role to take care of orphans and widows and those who are poor. That role has been kind of taken over by the government in modern times, but when you tithe, the understanding is God owns everything and can use it for however he sees fit. Giving to a local church ensures that the church can pay it’s bills, keep facilities up and running, preach the gospel, instruct and edify the body in Scripture, care for orphans and widows, make disciples of nations, outreach the community. We try and do all these things in our church, and most of the biggest constraint to our activities is not imagination, but funding. We are a smaller congregation and there are all sorts of ideas on how to preach the gospel, but piecing together volunteers and getting funding are always an underlying issue. If you have a severe distrust in how the church spends money, you could always tithe and direct that donation by saying, this money is for this purpose and no other. Or you could tithe to some other organization. But I would prefer you tithe to your own church, because you are investing in something tangible that you experience and build in your own life, you see the friends and brothers and sisters in Christ grow. When you donate to an international aid organization, even if it’s Christian, you might not be as encouraged or ever see the fruits of your giving. Seeing fruit is not the goal of giving, it’s really just obedience to God. If I hire a steward to watch over my money, they would charge me maybe .5% or 1%. I would keep 99-99.5% of the thing I own. I would never hire a steward that charges 10%, and leaves me with 90%. A steward that kept 50% of his clients’ money might face criminal charges for robbery. But the way we treat God, even if we do tithe, we are keeping 90% of His good gifts, his grace, his things for ourselves. When we think about how much of God’s gifts and his grace In various forms we don’t give back to Him, we begin to realize that we aren’t great stewards. There’s a really sad story in Acts 5 about a married couple who owns a house, and sells the house and gives some of the money to the church. The author of this letter, Peter was right there and witnessed this firsthand. People were selling their property and putting the proceeds at the apostles feet to distribute. Ananias and Sapphira sold their house and later Ananias put some of the money at the apostles feet. He didn’t put all of the money, and kept some for himself. Peter asked him, didn’t he own the house? Didn’t he own the money? Why was he lying or pretending the proceeds were less than they actually were? And Peter asked him who he thought he was lying to? Just men, or God himself? Ananias fell down dead. His wife was brought in and asked if those were all of the proceeds, and she followed the script and said yes, that’s everything. They were being selfish, but that wasn’t the crime here. God never punished somebody for tithing less than 100%, and has never even punished us for giving <10%. What happened was Ananias and his wife were lying and misrepresenting what God had entrusted them with. Being greedy with God’s things is a bad thing, but lying about God’s things is a horrible thing. If God entrusts you with $50,000, yes the Bible indicates you should give $5,000, and work with the $45,000. Whether you do or you don’t is between you and God. But the Biblical truth is God has made you a steward of that $50,000. But don’t call God a liar and say he only entrusted you with $10,000 when you show up at the church with $1000. Don’t make a big display of your giving and try to make it seem like you are more generous than you really are. Because when you make your generosity look bigger, it makes God’s blessing to you look smaller than it really was.
All of these gifts from God are to be used to serve others and Glorify Him,
If you speak, you need to speak as somebody entrusted by God to take care of and steward your words, your message, your communication. Our message should be in accordance with God’s message. If we serve, we should serve with strength of God, acknowledging that we are serving Him, empowered by his spirit, to do his will. We shouldn’t offer hospitality with Grumbling, or help with strings attached. We shouldn’t give bitterly, we should give without grumbling. In all things, whatever we do, our goal should be to bring people into a place where they Praise God, through Jesus Christ. All the glory and power and praise belong to Him. Peter changes gears a bit and goes over something he’d been talking about earlier in the letter:
12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
Peter urges the believers to prepare themselves for suffering. When we give our lives for God, and sacrifice various things that God had entrusted us to steward for him. These are good things from God that we enjoy any may want to hang onto, but we give them up, then we actually participate in sufferings of Christ. Christ was blessed by God with faith, wisdom, knowledge, powers to teach and heal people, feed thousands, and Jesus took that amazing life and poured it out, he gave it up. The way he faithfully stewarded Godliness in the form of human flesh was by serving others, washing feet, dying on a cross for us. Most people would say, “what a waste of such great gifts. Think of how many people he could have healed, or fed…” but Jesus knew that godliness wasnt something to grasp onto or cling to, so he poured himself out and became nothing. He did that to obey God, to teach us Love. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. This is the Attitude of Christ that Peter was talking about at the beginning of the chapter.
When we share Christ’s attitude, in the intermediate stage, we share in his suffering either because we give up things we wanted to keep or because we participate in his rejection by the world. But know that when we share or participate in Christian suffering, we demonstrate Love. We point people to the greatest love that we have ever seen and will ever know. That Christ laid his life down for his friends. So even if we share in the suffering f Christ, it means that in the end, we share his Glory.
14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.
If we are insulted because of the Name of Christ, Peter says we are blessed. It’s not a direct cause and effect. If it were, I could go around insulting people for being Christians, and somehow increase their blessing. No, Peter says being insulted for being Christian is a strong indicator that God’s Holy Spirit rests on us. Holy spirit resting on us doesn’t mean it’s asleep, His spirit is alive and is at work and living in us. Being the recipient of God’s Holy Spirit means having His spirit dwell within us, this is the ultimate blessing that we could ever receive. Without the Holy Spirit, we would never believe in God, or treasure the Cross and Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we would never hear the call from God or receive the gospel if not for his Holy Spirit. So if we are willing to endure suffering or insult as a result of having a Christian heart or displaying the fruits of the Holy Spirit, we can see that as evidence that God has blessed us with His Spirit. When we suffer for having a Christian heart or a Moral guidance from God’s word, it’s a different kind of suffering than the kind when people suffer as a result of the sins or disobeying our Godly commands. If you suffer for being a murderer or a thief or a criminal, that’s a fair and just outcome for breaking God’s commandments. We shouldn’t be a people who suffer that way, because we shouldn’t be breaking God’s Commandments! We should be a people who only end up suffering for doing what’s right, that’s the way that Jesus suffered, and that’s who we should follow.
16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Peter says suffering as a Christian should give us no shame, because that suffering is not a result of doing something we should be ashamed of. Verse 17 sounds kind of confusing at first.
Peter is calling for a time of Judgement to begin with God’s Household. So what does this mean? Is he proposing God should judge us for our sins? In the book of Hebrews we learn that God is a Father who disciplines his Children. But this discipline is not punishment for sin. In 1 Peter 3:18 Peter explained that Jesus was our substitute on the Cross, he suffered once for all sins, in order to bring us to God. We are not disciplined and punished to make us worthy of heaven. Judgment for sins has been completed. So what is the Judgement that Peter calls for in 4:17? This judgment that comes to God’s household is for the purpose of purifying our faith. This is something he wrote earlier in 1 Peter 1:6-7 we suffer grief from all kinds of trials in order to prove the genuineness of our faith. When we receive this judgment, or this discipline, it is meant to draw closer to God. Through this judgment and discipline, we are trained trust God more deeply. When we suffer hardships, we abandon our hope of finding satisfaction in anything apart from Him. In chapter 1 Peter said our faith and trust in God are more valuable that gold or silver, and it’s through God’s sovereign plan to allow us to experience His discipline and discomfort that we refine that faith. Peter explains that for those of us who part of God’s household and part of his beloved elect, the judgment that comes from discipline will produce a refined faith. We should also humbly and gratefully consider what God’s judgment looks like for those who don’t obey His Gospel. The judgement that we experience trains us in discipline in order to purify and rescue us. But it is not universal. For those who reject the Gospel, the judgment that comes from God can not purify the sinner, it cannot rescue them. The unrepentant sinner will reject training and discipline, and instead of these hardships purifying and refining their faith, the hardships will reveal their total absence of faith. This Judgment for those who reject the gospel will be eternal because unlike our judgment, theirs has the purpose of punishing sins. Without Christ, God’s judgment will be something unimaginable and worse, but right and just. This is where peter ends this chapter:
18 And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”[a]
19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Peter closes the chapter reminding the reader about the alternative. We may suffer for being Christian, we may experience insult by following the Word of God, or hardship for doing the right thing when the rest of the world tells us to do something else. When we pour out ourselves for God’s Kingdom, it usually doesn’t make our time on Earth easier. But peter is reminding the reader that we should live to serve each other and continue to be stewards of all the good things God has given us. Even when we are tempted to give up, or disheartened when things don’t go the way we’d like, Peter says to consider the alternative. Consider how it will turn out for the ungodly. What will become of the unrepentant sinner when they face God’s righteous Judgment? We have seen God’s righteousness come down to earth, we have seen God’s wrath and judgment punish our sins when his perfect innocent Son became sin and went in our place. We should commit ourselves to our faithful Creator, because we have seen how merciful he has been to us, how faithful He is to his promises when treats his enemies as adopted sons and daughters. Because we offended God, we had deserved that full judgment from an all powerful God. That judgment is a death meant to destroy us, banishing us forever from His Holy presence. But because of His great mercy, Instead of full judgement we received discipline. Instead of the almighty wrath of God, the discipline comes from an all loving Father. Instead of a judgment intended to destroy and banish us, we receive a discipline that is intended to purify our faith and grow us closer to Him.