Description
In 1 Peter 4:11, the writer is asking us to take seriously the gifts God entrusts to us.
1 Peter 4:11
whoever speaks, a… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Today’s verse we have to place in context. We’re in the book of 1 Peter and Peter has just been saying, all the gifts that you’ve been given, use them to serve one another. And then he goes on to say, 1 Peter chapter four, verse 11: Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
This is a bit of a wake up call for the church about the gifts that we’ve been given. Firstly, obviously we need to use these gifts. But secondly, we need to use them in all seriousness and earnestness.
If we’re speaking, that’s for the speaker, to take it seriously and reverently, and that’s for the hearers to treat it the same. This isn’t to say that we switch off our brains, that we don’t use our discernment when we’re speaking and when we’re hearing.
But it is to say that when the gift of God in speech, whatever it is that’s being said from a gift that God has given, that must be done faithfully, diligently, and with an appropriate sense of reverence towards the One who gives the gift.
And then in acts of service that we perform for one another we do them in God’s strength. We do it for his name and with his attention and for his purposes. Why? So that God may be glorified and that’s only appropriate because he’s a glorious God.
Peter says, to him belong the glory and dominion, the control, the rule, the authority, always. So, let us be sensible, and earnest, and steadfast, and loving, and loyal in the acts that we perform for one another, for the church, for God, and towards the world.
