1 peter 4:9-16
We should all show hospitality to one another without grumbling. We should all love one another, be sober minded and self-controlled. This is a tall order indeed and without grumbling we are to do these things. Without grumbling is the hardest part. Hospitality can be exhausting and stir feelings of resentment and frustration. How do we do this? I knew a woman years ago, her name was Nicole , she said to me, “I don’t do anything for my kids unless I can do it with joy.” That would get me out of a lot of tasks in life. I think the challenge is to do it, whatever it is that someone needs us to do. Serve them, house them, feed them, love them, forgive them…that is the command and then the next command is not do it with joy, but do it without grumbling. I find that If I simply refrain myself from speaking ill, this is enough. I can feel so much happier after the fact if during the fact I can keep from complaining and bad mouthing and fault finding. What does that even accomplish? I feel guilt after and often times the people you are hosting are so incredibly thankful and happy that you hosted, it will heap coals of burning fire on your head if you complain. But you will feel proud, gracious and proficient if you bite your lip. It’s really for those ones being hospital that Peter implores us not to grumble. It just goes better. And everyone can feel good, it’s a win win.
Verse 10 begins a new idea “as each has received a gift” and there are many. Use the gift your given. I am to serve another with the gift I have. In the Old Testament Elisha was sent to a widow’s house during a famine. And her kneading bowl and jar of oil did not run empty during the entire famine. That was a supernatural gift that she used to serve Elisha. God gave it to her to keep him alive. Because of this when her son was sick and died, Elisha revived him from the dead! The gift Elisha had of life and resurrection power or healing or raising someone from the dead, was not for him it was for the dead boy. The gifts we have been given are not for us and they are not generated by us. They are supernatural abilities to give to others, so that they might know God.
What do I feel my gifts are? Are these spiritual or physical or personal talents like painting and cooking? Peter doesn’t specify. If art is one of my gifts, how am I using it to serve others? If cooking is a gift, am I using it to feed people? If teaching or writing or evangelism – am I using these things to minister to and help others draw closer to God? I used to think our gifts are for us to serve God, but this passage in Peter’s letter seems to say we use our gifts to serve God’s children. Serving others with what we have, brings glory to the Lord and proves our selflessness. Selflessness is an attribute of Christ. When we are selfless, we are being like Christ.
Peter ends his thought with “the strength the Lord supplies” God gives us gifts we are weak in, gifts that we need God’s supply of strength for. Gifts that we cannot muster on our own. Is art truly a gift if it comes naturally to you and you do not have to tap into the strength of God to do it? The gifts are the things we do not do well naturally on our own. Which is why we need God’s strength and its not for us. We only have to learn to rely on God and give it away. God is glorified most when we do something we can’t do, in his strength and then he gets the credit like Gideons’ 300. We need God to work through us to keep from grumbling when we are using the gifts he has given to us.
my faith place 