Use Your Gifts to Serve

by Edwin Crozier

Text: I Peter 4

Let’s get back to what it looks like to keep our conduct honorable among the Gentiles. Peter provides a handful of instructions. We are to be sober-minded and self-controlled. I know this is part of honorable conduct because it mirrors what he told husbands about living with their wives in an understanding way. As husbands need to live honorably so their prayers won’t be hindered, we must all live with sober minds and self-control for the sake of our prayers. Further, we are to love one another earnestly, just as he had earlier said; we are to have unity of mind, sympathy, and brotherly love (see I Peter 3:8). We are to show hospitality without grumbling. The emphasis here is likely on the “without grumbling.” Yes, we can show hospitality, but if we do it with resentment and complaint, that is not living honorably.

All of this leads to the main point:

"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace..." (I Peter 4:10 ESV).

Whatever gifts we have, whether abilities, resources, or opportunities, we need to recognize they are just that–gifts. They come from God’s grace to us. We aren’t able to use these gifts however we want, as if they are things we own outright and developed by our own personal strength. They are gifts from God. We merely steward them. As stewards, our first duty is to use these gifts as the actual owner and master wants them used. God wants us to serve one another.

If we can speak, then do so as God’s oracles. That is, say the things God wants said in order to build others up and serve them. If we can serve, then serve as by the strength God supplies. That is, serve, but serve so God gets the credit. Whatever other gifts and abilities we can add to this list (you might look at Romans 12:6-8 to expand it), we are to use them to serve others. But not only to serve others, but also to serve them in such a way that they will give God the credit and glorify Him.

In other words, honorable conduct is about pointing others to our great God, not making everyone think we are somehow great all on our own. We don’t serve to receive accolades and honors from people. We serve to get people to glorify God on the day of visitation. We serve to get others to realize how great our God is, so they will have the same hope and put their hope in Him.

Our God is amazing. Let us live in a way that the people around us learn how amazing He is and decide to glorify Him, not us.