Living for One Another

1 Peter 4:7–11 NIV
7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 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.

This morning we shift from dealing with suffering from outside the church family to how we should live AS the church family. This is a beautiful picture of what the church is mean to be.

The end of all things is close at hand, the end is near. Coming from the immediate context of 1 Peter, in 4:5 there is talk of final judgement, in 2:12 there is talk of the day of God’s visitation.

But the end or culmination of all things is also at hand. God’s plan from Gen 3:15 is close to be completed. The culmination of the Jesus covenant will be the ushering in of the new Eden, the new heavens and the new earth with a new king!

SINCE the culmination of God’s great plan is closer now than ever before, since it is “imminent” and could happen at any moment, how then should we live?

1 Peter 4:7 CSB
7 The end of all things is near; therefore, be alert and sober-minded for prayer.

• Sober minded and alert
• Don’t lose your head! Don’t go crazy.

If today was your last day, would you go crazy? Would you drop all responsibility? I read that Martin Luther was asked this question and his response was “I would plant a tree and pay my taxes”. In other words, he would keep doing the things that he did every day – and that is valid if we are living each day for the Kingdom of God and not for the things of this world.

for the purpose of prayer

I find it interesting that the command to be alert and pray is coming from Peter. In Matthew 26 Jesus went into the Garden at Gethsemane to pray before he was arrested. He left the disciples 3 times to pray and each time returned to them he found them asleep. Matthew makes a point to single out one disciples especially:

Matthew 26:40–41 CSB
40 Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour? 41 Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Now, Peter is commanding the church to be alert an pray. I am sure those words from Jesus in the garden were ringing through his thoughts as he penned this part of the letter. Be alert and pray.

• Pray that you will not fall into the temptation of living outside the will of God
• Pray that you will be able to live up to the high calling we have in Christ Jesus our Lord
• Pray that you will be able to love others that way that God loves you
• Pray that you will bring honor to the one who suffered and died for you

Love One Another

1 Peter 4:8 CSB
8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Above all – the greatest priority you and I should have as a church is NOT to have the greatest performance, the most awesome music, the best programs, the most exciting children’s ministry… Those things can be awesome, but NONE of those describes the character of God. The greatest priority you and I can have is to LOVE one another.

THOUGHT: we are not called by God to be Program Directors, we are called to be his Image Bearers.

I am sure that some people might struggle with prioritizing the things the church should be doing. But Jesus even did this. When he was asked what is the most important commandment, what did he say?

Matthew 22:37–40 CSB
37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

He prioritized them. Love God. Love others. And when Jesus told his disciples the one thing that they needed to demonstrate to others that they were followers of Jesus, guess what it was?

John 13:35 “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Notice, we are known as followers of the Messiah by whether or not we love one another. That’s it. How we love each other. I think it is significant that he did not list HOW we show that love because each of us expresses and feels loved in different ways.

As image bearers of God – we need to be reflecting God – who is and and what he does. We previously looked at 4 different words for love, and this one is the “agape” love – the kind of love God has for us. It is unconditional and sacrificial.

1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

And the verse says that we are to:

• maintain a constant love for one another [CSB]
• love each other deeply [NIV]
• keep loving each other actively [CJB]

No matter which translation you use, the idea you should be getting is that the love that we are to show one another is to be continuous, genuine, and active.

You cannot fake genuine love. You cannot truly love people with words only. You don’t love someone for an hour – like they are your favorite flavor of ice cream… this week – that is not agape love. It is easy to love others for an hour… but loving others is meant to be a full time thing. Love needs to be something we work into our way of life, not just a ministry once a week.

THOUGHT: you will not have the same kind of love for everyone in the church! Jesus had the disciples, then he had a few that he took with him in the garden, and at the transfiguration. And then there was “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. It is not that Jesus hated the others, it was that he had a special love for the one. We are to love the church – in these walls and in the church universal. However, we may have people that God gives us a greater love for and a greater ability to show love to.

• Married people: this love begins with your spouse! We love the church by loving our spouses like God loves us. Loving your spouse the way God loves the you is a powerful witness of the love of God and a beautiful act of worship.
• Parents: this love must be modeled in our homes! We teach our children about the love of God by the way we love them.
• EACH of US: we each get to show love in the ways that God has equipped us. For some that might be a note of encouragement, for others, making a meal or changing the oil in a car. Some might show love by being generous. Others by listening.

PERHAPS part of that sober-minded prayer might be, “God, help me to understand how much you love me and help me love others that way.” And maybe part of the alert prayer might be, “God, show me WHO needs to experience that love today.”

Our priority, above all, must be to love one another.

Peter goes on to tell us why loving other is so important – it cover over sins.

1 Peter 4:8 CSB
Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Since loves covers a multitude of sins

This does not mean that our love erases our sins – like it is some kind of accounting procedure where we make a deposit every time we love others and a withdrawal every time we sin. The focus of this entire section is on how we treat others. And when we truly love others, that love sees past, or covers over, many of their fault and sins.

ILLUS: I love premarital counseling because young couples in love are CLUELESS! 😂 Let’s be honest – our love for the person we want to marry or the person we are dating makes us blind to many of their flaws, right? Until when? Until we have been married long enough to annoy each other! However, a love that is like God’s love, sees past the dirty socks on the floor (an unpardonable sin to some!). God knows every bad habit I have, every sin I ever will commit, and every way that I will let him down – and he chose to love me anyway.

Our love for others covers sin not by taking it away. Love covers sin by removing the shame, overlooking the offense, and giving honor instead. This is what happened when God covered Adam and Eve with animal skins in the garden. It is what Noah’s sons did for him when they found him drunk and naked in his tent – they covered him. Love looks past the offenses and seeks to honor others, even if what they did was wrong.

Love one another. This must be our priority, above all else.

ONE ANOTHER’S – there are 3 of them in this group of verses alone. We are not meant to be isolated. If we are, it is not anyone’s fault but our own. Even someone that is confined can dial a phone. The church is a community; a family. All of us, including pastors, need others!

Let’s look at the second “one another”…

1 Peter 4:9 “9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining.”

Be hospitable to one another.

Apparently, staying at an inn during those times was NOT something to look forward to! The best inns had the least number of roaches! So, staying at someone’s house was much preferred.

Since Christians were shunned by much of society, if a Christian traveled from one town to another, finding a place to take them in could have been a challenge. So, it was important for Christians to be hospitable. Additionally, the church also met in homes. They didn’t have their own buildings.

Let’s say NCF decided we were all going to meet in someone’s house next week:

a. Whose house would we meet in? (perhaps someone with a big house, not a tiny apt?)

b. What prep would that person have to do before the church gathered?

c. The church often had meals together after service – what challenges might that present?

d. Looking at NCF with all these kids – what might that house look like after 2-4 hours together?

e. Now, what if I asked it we could meet in your home for the next 6 months? [what thoughts might you have?]

If it was our house, I would be thinking, “That would be fun! We can pack people in here, make more space here, the kids can hang out over there. What a blast!” And Laura might be thinking, “Are you crazy! What kind of food do we need to buy? How long is it going to take to clean up? I am tired of picking bologna out of the heat registers”. Can anyone relate?

EVEN if the owner of the house was glad to do it – I would imagine after some time it would get old. That person might feel taken advantage of or used. They might feel exhausted. It would certainly be a great opportunity to complain!

So, Peter says…

1 Peter 4:9 CSB
9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining.

without complaining

Easy for Peter to write!

• Even if we are taken advantage of, let love cover over that sin.
• Even if we are exhausted, remember that the end of all things is near – this life is temporary.

Philippians 2:14–15 NLT
14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.

Be hospitable. Open your home to others and do it with a glad heart and out of love. Did you notice that Paul mentioned that when we serve others without complaining we reflect God?

Let’s look at the third “one another”:

Serve one another

1 Peter 4:10–11 CSB
10 Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

ILLUS: If I have a bowl of candy and I say, “Each one of you can have one piece” – who in this room does NOT get to have a piece? Who DOES get to have a piece? EVERYONE!

Peter says that EACH ONE of us as received at least 1 gift from God. So who in this room DOES NOT have a gift? Who DOES? EVERYONE who has accepted the Messiah.

You and I have been given gifts by God to use to serve others. That is amazing! God thinks so much of you that he has empowered you to be like him in serving others. He has given each of us the ability to bless and minister to others. Each person that has accept Christ has a unique gifting from God – as unique as they are. That is the “multifaceted grace of God”.

Grace management.

Peter says we are stewards of the grace of God. We are household servants (stewards) to the household of God.

1 Peter: A Commentary on First Peter 4:7–11; Right Conduct among Believers
The word “steward” (οἰκονόμος), originally designating the purely secular position of household manager (as in Luke 16:1*) and then expanded to describe one who undertook broader duties (e.g., city treasurer, as in Rom 16:23*), is here used figuratively86 in the former sense, perhaps influenced by the author’s concept of the Christian community as a household (e.g., 2:5*; 4:17*).88 Being good stewards of God’s grace involves therefore employment of one’s gift for the good of the household of faith, not for one’s own benefit.

The grace of God has chosen us and equipped us to reflect the love of God to others. We are to be good managers of the grace given to us, good stewards of the gifts God has given us. That means we need to USE our gifts to bless others.

Paul connected the dots this way:

Romans 12:6–8 “6 According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; 7 if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; 8 if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.”

God’s grace has given us gifts… use them!

Peter does not attempt to give us a big list of possible gifts. Instead, he focuses on two categories of gifts:

1. Words

2. Actions

These have been woven throughout the entire letter, so it is no surprise to find them here.

1 Peter 4:11 NIV
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.

speaking the words of God

I think one of the things that keeps us from serving at times is the feeling of being tired, exhausted or drained. This verse is an encouragement! If God gifts you with a serving gift, and he burdens you to do something, he will also give you the strength to see it through.

Knowing that the end of all things temporal is near, that the end of God’s great plan is near, the end goal for you and me should be to bring glory to God.

1 Peter 4:11b “… To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

In this verse does it mean that Jesus is to be given glory and power? Some scholars say yes. Does it mean that God the Father should receive the glory and power? Other scholars say yes. What do I think? I think the answer is, “yes”. The son is glorified when we keep his commands, and the father is glorified when we found in the son. And, since Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30) there is no need to wrestle over who is the subject of the glory – as long as it is not you and me.

To God be the glory!

 

As we wrap up this section of Peter’s letter to the church, let’s go back to the beginning:

1 Peter 4:7 CSB
7 The end of all things is near; therefore, be alert and sober-minded for prayer.

The command to be sober-minded was given one other time in this letter. If we were to hyperlink back to it you will see the way that Peter is returning to his original thought as he closes out this section of the letter:

1 Peter 1:13 CSB
13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your affection on the grace that will come when Christ returns. In 1:13 we were encouraged to live with the end in mind. Focus on the grace of God. Be ready for action. Remember how the story will end.

SINCE the coming of Jesus is on the radar, be sober-minded for prayer – and be committed to action that will bring glory to Christ when he returns:

• Love one another unconditionally
• Be happily hospitable to one another
• Serve one another with the gifts of grace God has given you

BE good managers of the grace you have been given while you wait for the ultimate culmination of grace when King Jesus returns for his bride.