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. ~ 1 Peter 4:10-11
Today, we continue our study of 1 Peter 4 where we are learning certain principles that aid us in navigating in this fallen world which is not our home. In today's passage we learn of the importance of our spiritual gifts in the context of community. Every Christian has a spiritual gift, a spiritual enabling from the Holy Spirit who grants us the capacity to help others through the exercising of our spiritual gift. The goal is that believers in Christ through the exercising of our collective spiritual enablements are strengthened in the faith to navigate in this lost and dying world.
In v.10 of today's passage we read, "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."
When we first believed on Christ as our Savior, we were given spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are enablements from the Spirit of God who has made us alive to Himself and the things of God. These gifts give us the capacity to serve God and others. The fact that God has given us spiritual gifts, highlights the fact that God is a giving God. When I think of giving, I think of grace. Ah, grace, that unique characteristic of God which makes it possible for us to access His love.
Where as our text today uses the phrase "God’s grace in its various forms," some translations use the words "manifold grace of God" in this verse. This particular Greek word is used as an adjective to describe God's grace. This word is the emphasis in this verse. Most desire to emphasize the spiritual gifts, but that is not the case here. If it weren't for the "manifold grace of God" we would have no gifts from the Spirit.
The word translated "manifold" or "various forms" is a word that means "many-colored." Here, God inspired the Apostle Peter to paint a picture for us: He writes about the "many colored grace of God." The Greek word Peter used here was used to describe a garment that had many colors. The grace of God shows up in our lives as multi-colored and it leaves us and others spell bound. God's grace is not monotone. It is multi-faceted. However, if we are not being defined by God through our obedience, we will not experience the blessing that God has in store for us. As is the case with all of God's gifts given to us, the goal of the gifts is not for our benefit but for the benefit of others around us.
Philip Yancey once wrote, "Grace implies a risk, the risk that we might abuse it. Yet as I read the Bible, God seems quite willing to take that risk. Remember that Jesus made the “failures” the heroes of his stories. The question isn’t whether God will forgive us in the future, it’s whether we will repent and ask for forgiveness. God’s grace is there for us to receive, if only we hold out open hands."
Grace is free, not earned. Grace rescues us from our spiritual blindness. Grace changes us like nothing else. When we understand that we can do nothing to earn or maintain God's favor and He still gives it, we are blown away with gratitude.
God's grace can only be accessed through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why God requires us to come to Him through His Son, the Lord Jesus.
You see, Christ is the only perfect one and His perfect life and death procured God's favor for all who would be humble enough to receive the free gift of God's forgiveness. In order to grasp "grace" we must go back to the old Hebrew equivalent to the word grace in the New Testament. It means "to bend" or "to stoop." God chose to stoop in order to help us in our helplessness. The Holy One, the All powerful One stooped in order to be in the position to deliver His grace to us.
The story is told of a man who was in a federal building and he was thirsty. As he walked through the halls of the building, he looked quite anxiously for a water fountain. Just then, he noticed the water fountain down the hallway. As he approached the newly installed water fountain, he looked for a pedal to step on, there was none. He looked for a button to press, there was none. At that point a worker came and fixed a sign to the wall just behind the water fountain which read, "stoop and drink." We can only access God's favor by stooping and drinking.
John Piper once said, "The most precious gifts you can think of are not ends in themselves. They all lead to God. Ultimately, that is what all His gifts are for.” God has gifted us in order to point others back to Him. But, we must be diligent to constantly "stoop and drink."
In v.11 of today's passage we read, "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 uses gifts from one end of the spectrum to the other to hammer home a very important point: No one gift is better than the other. Every gift is given and determined by the Holy Spirit. The moment He came to bring the culture of God to our souls, He delivered gifts which enable us to do His work on this earth in tandem with Him. We did not choose what gifts we end up with, however our gifts will reveal our passions to serve others. So, if we have a speaking gift like teaching or preaching, we most enjoy doing such. If our gift is more behind the scenes we will enjoy doing the behind the scenes things that are essential in ministry.
I close with a true story from 1945. During World War II there was a French village that was bombed. This village had a very important statue; It was a statue of Jesus Christ. The statue was broken to pieces. The townspeople collected the pieces and stored them until after the war was over. When the war was over, they rebuilt the statue. They found all the pieces, glued it back together, and put the statue in the town square. Only one problem, they couldn't find the hands. So it was a statue of Christ without hands. Now, the hands were very important to them, they bore the marks of the crucifixion. They couldn't find the hands. They looked high and low, but they couldn't find the hands. So one day somebody in that town put a plaque underneath. It read, "He has no hands but ours." This is the concept being communicated in this passage. Believers in Christ are equipped by the Holy Spirit with spiritual gifts to be the hands of the Lord Jesus to others. We are the expression of Jesus Christ in this world especially as we exercise our spiritual gifts.
