1 Peter - Following Jesus Sample

Above all, believers must love one another deeply. Everything else about  Christian relationships flows from loving like this. Now Peter tells us more about how this works out in practice.

He begins with hospitality (v. 9). Welcoming others into our homes can be a great joy, but it can be costly too. It is easy to grumble about it. Being hospitable can be thoroughly inconvenient at times. As a joker once put it, ‘The art of hospitality is making people feel at home when you wish they were!’ But God has generously and ungrudgingly welcomed us. God has been hospitable to us. We are to mirror this in the way we treat each other.

God has been so generous to us. Every believer has received God’s grace. We are freely forgiven through Christ’s death. But that is not the end of God’s generosity. He gives every believer other gifts too.

• How should Christians use ‘whatever gift’ they have received (v. 10)?

God gives his people many different free gifts, but all of them are to be used for serving others, not our own egos. We are to be ‘faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms’. A steward looks after something which is owned by someone else. These gifts from God continue to belong to him, so we must use them as God wants.

Peter’s concern is that ‘in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ’ (v. 11). Believers must use their gifts for God’s glory and Peter shows them how.

How should those gifted at speaking and serving use their gifts? Speakers, remember that it is God’s word that you are relaying as you preach. You are passing on ‘the very words of God’. Any power you have comes entirely from passing on God’s word in scripture, not your own ideas. Be dependent. Be humble.

If you are gifted at serving, you will need God’s strength to serve well. Again, be dependent. Be humble. So, if you are feeling proud or self-sufficient, you need a reality check! But if you are feeling inadequate, be encouraged! God doesn’t just give us gifts and walk away. He gives us strength to use them.

In love God has welcomed us and served us. The way we relate to each other should reflect how God has treated us. And in all we do, we are to seek his glory.

Pray

Pray all this would be true in the life of your church family.