Men may be so situated that a foible will be less excusable in them than a vice in others. I cannot but feel that, if we would minister the gift as the Lord would have us minister it, we require greater delicacy of touch, keener discernment of human character, and a fuller appreciation of God's different methods of dealing with different souls than are commonly to be met with.(W. So far as the gifts themselves are regarded, they are, as the apostle reminds us, the gifts of God. The lily in the field is one of a million, but it makes the summer air a little sweeter for all that; the star of the sky is one of a million, but it is not less a thing of glory for that; the dewdrop of the morning is one of a million, yet it leaves a spot of fresh beauty as it exhales into the light. And now let each exchange his capacities and endowments and possessions against those of the other; now let every one apply the particular talent entrusted to him, as often as he has the proper motive and opportunity for it; what a blessing would the prodigiously various commutation of kind offices, of assistance and support, of benevolence and beneficence, be to all in general and to each in particular!IV. She was well dressed. The living spring spontaneously leaps up into the sunlight, while standing water must be pumped up. This is eminently true of sin, which by being allowed an habitual motion becomes so powerful that few overcome it. L. Now the apostle asserts, in the text, that we are all sharers in God's manifold grace. The prism, which shows the exquisite tints that hide in sunbeams, glorifies the sun and its Maker. For instance, we are to be sober in the use of God's providential gifts. It was given us for influence over ourselves; that our whole body, soul, and spirit might be sanctified wholly — that it might fill us to our utmost capacity with the fulness of God, and render us efficient for promoting His glory. It is called "manifold," because God's gifts are so various in kind and in degree. Nothing can be clearer than the duty of turning our means and opportunities to good account. One obstacle of our own making to the useful exercise of our talents is a reluctance to cooperate with those who possess that quality which is wanting in ourselves, but which needs to be combined with ours in order to its efficiency. II. Trapp. The glory of God, as alone it can be affected by His creatures, consists in the homage and service which they render Him, and in the manifestation of His glorious perfections and the accomplishment of the great ends of His moral administration — the virtue and happiness of His intelligent offspring.II. All persons and all things shall pay this tribute, even they that most wickedly seek to withhold it; but this is the happiness of the saints, that they move willingly thus, are not forced or driven. Here are corporeal sufferings — weakness, debility, mutilation, decrepitude, pain, sickness, lingering death; there are sufferings of the soul — vexation, trouble, anxiety, grief, dejection, doubt, remorse, pangs of conscience, melancholy, despondency, peril of despair. We will first speak, as the most obvious case, of the bestowal of God's grace in the position and opportunities afforded by rank, wealth, and influence among men. One has understanding; and how various the species of it are! THE APPLICATION.1. "Through Jesus Christ." )Reflected gloryA. For thus we are brought to admire and rejoice in not only God Himself as the primal source of all good, but in our fellow men through whose "manifold" concurrence this "manifold grace" has been diffused around us. It was her hand that touched the chords and awakened the first music of his spiritual life." But further, that word "as" seems to teach us more than this. But if that work be a duty, then you cannot escape the responsibility which lies upon you to engage in it.(J. Fervent charity of all other things is most beneficial to society, nay, it is absolutely necessary to the good order, peace, and happiness of every society. Give what you have got, and do not distress yourself because you cannot give something else which you do not have. But the lancing is done with exquisite tenderness. It was to be continuous in its exercise, and its exercise was manifold. II. it is this spirit which our Christian society lacks, and which we shall never get till we begin each one with his own heart. We are to minister one to another up to the extent to which we have received the gift, that is, to the full extent of our ability. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another." As we receive, so we are to give. The gospel vastly expands our field of duty. It must be lanced or it cannot be cured. Not only have we received the gift freely, but we have received it wisely; that is to say, God, in bestowing the gift upon us, exercised a wisdom which belongs to His own nature, preparing us for its reception, and bestowing upon us just the gift appropriate to our state. If our life and conduct say what is true about Christ, and nothing but what is true, representing His yoke as easy, His burden as light, His service as love, His reign as righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, then it does not matter how humble our work may be in its outward form, it will still be work for God, work for Christ, and for truth, and the souls of men. Every one may therefore in various methods give "rod receive, administer relief and accept relief, comfort and be comforted, serve and submit to be served, communicate benefit and satisfaction and enjoy benefit and satisfaction. The end of all things earthly is at hand, so far as we are concerned with them, or take an interest in them, because we shall soon leave them all behind. The exercise of charity is agreeable to our natures. 2. 1:22; 3:8). One has ingenuity, an extensive, strong turn for invention; the other has judgment and dexterity in execution. Here are corporeal sufferings — weakness, debility, mutilation, decrepitude, pain, sickness, lingering death; there are sufferings of the soul — vexation, trouble, anxiety, grief, dejection, doubt, remorse, pangs of conscience, melancholy, despondency, peril of despair. In other words, we have assumed for the gospel of Christ too exclusively theological a character. So, though in an infinitely superior sense, as the Son has been the medium through which the Father has shone forth, and has attracted the admiration and homage of all intelligent creatures, we may rightly say that in Him He has been glorified. 1 Peter 4:8-9. Here is strength of mind, there strength of body; here the power of beauty, there the power of eloquence; here the command of oneself and the passions, there the authority of the ruler and the commander over his subjects; here impetuous, overwhelming, there mild, insinuating, yet more irresistible force. )That God in all things may be glorifiedThe import and application of glorifying God through Jesus ChristJ. The strong must help the weak. For this, in truth, is God's own love, the will and the power to give. )"As" and "so" -- the method of ministryW. 3. These are gifts which are common to all, and within the reach of all. Then there is another matter belonging to this part of our subject; the stewardship of administration of charity, or of any money laid out for the general good. The first characteristic of man's sinful disposition, requiring watchfulness upon the part of a Christian, is its SPONTANEITY. We shall be ministering "as we have received the gift." Let him ask what that mysterious longing means which we call love, whether to man or God, when he has stripped from it all that is outside and accidental, when he has taken from it all that is mixed with it and perverts it. 7. So a Christian heart may be enshrined in such meagre and unworthy human qualities that they detract from the recognition the grace of Christ ought to receive, the impression it should make. Spiritual gifts are such as we receive through our membership with the mystical body of Christ. It urges upon us that we are all brethren. She was a simple-hearted, loving, Christian woman, faithful in her duties to her earthly master, and faithful in her higher duties to her heavenly Master. No effort to do good is ever lost. The wrong-doer is reproved, rebuked, and exhorted, hut with all long-suffering (1 Timothy 4:2). All these gifts we have received in promise, and our responsibility lies in seeking and claiming them for our own. The wish is uttered with all earnestness, but it is the convulsive effort of a moment, not sustained, nor followed up. The perfection of gifts consists not only in the having of it, but in the use thereof.3. Peter also wants his readers to understand the *gra… To his eye the early Church presented one great idea, almost only one. It is a mirror, because it does not drink them up, but flings them back. (1) This satisfaction doth not only just accompany a charitable action, but it is permanent, and endures as long as our lives. Take an instance. These gifts are: (a)spiritual, and(b)natural.1. We don’t love to be accepted by God.  Our love is never enough to overcome the penalty of our sins.  But thanks be to God he provided a way for our debt to be taken away.  Our love is not a covering of our sins before God.  Our love is used as an instrument of healing in God’s work of bringing healing to the world.  Our love can truly be a covering for sin.  It can cover and contain the obnoxious and repulsive nature of the striving we engage in for self-importance.  Our love can be a gift of fresh air.  Our love can be a suave to the wounded.  Our love can bind the broken hearted.  Our love can be a covering to the sin weary world where we travel. III. It is equally certain that charity towards men cannot atone for our sins against God; for though the love of our neighbour be a characteristic badge of our Christian profession, though it is vain to pretend our love towards our Heavenly Father, whilst we hate our fellow creatures; though the second commandment necessarily springs from the first, and is like unto it in its nature, still it cannot be made in any degree to supersede it. The strong must help the weak. 6. Not thus do fellow mortals of like passions. Whatever we have, we have received; whatever we have, we must restore.II. Therefore, whatever gift we possess is meant for the general welfare. This charity was to be kept "fervent." The gifts acquired are thus as various as the cast of the acquiring minds. Darkness would be dissipated, sin would be jostled off the earth, and misery would spread its sable wings and fly away. There was in the household a faithful old servant, Maria Millis, who had been maid to young Ashley's mother when she was a girl at Blenheim, and who was now retained as housekeeper. Love covers sins; it hides those that exist, prevents those that in its absence might make their appearance, and secures by intercession the pardon of those which have been committed. A. 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,. The communion of saints, which we believe, requires it.4. 1 Peter 4:8 Context. "According as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another." When the famous General and Conqueror Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, was old they used to beguile the tedious hours by reading aloud the history of his own campaigns. Here is a profound, collected, there a comprehensive and excursive; here a quick but volatile, there a slow but solid understanding. Hence it becomes his duty to be ever vigilant over his own spirit, to examine candidly the actual habit of his mind; to watch diligently lest he act inconsistently with his professed principles; lest the world exert an undue influence over his heart; lest self-delusion put him off his guard. It naturally follows from the former argument that the exercise of charity is the most delightful exercise we can choose for ourselves. But the diversity of gifts of which our text speaks is not only a difference of degree, but of kind. This procures credit while we live, as a good name and memory when we die.6. How many classes and descriptions of persons fill up the interval between the monarch or the prince and the meanest of his subjects! They incapacitate for sympathy with distress and need. "Am I occupying with it, that at my Master's coming He may find it increased and fructified?" The necessities of the one are not the necessities of the other; the sufferings of the one are not the sufferings of the other. 1 Peter 4:8. It strikes me that we have not only there a law of proportion, we have also a law of quality, qualifying the bestowal of the gift. The power once hidden in electricity is now in exercise in every village, carrying on swift and silent wing the thoughts of men across the continents, "and their words to the world's end." Let each man go deep into his own heart. The question in every case for them is not an absolute, but a relative one; not "what?" As the sun shines not for itself, nor the earth bears for itself; so have not we a gift for ourselves, but for the common good. Now there are some men who see all the evil, and never trace, never give themselves the trouble of suspecting the root of goodness out of which it sprung. Leighton.I. But it is far otherwise with the human species; we are essential to each other; one man in Leeds, one man in Europe, would hardly prosper; it is only in mutuality that the individual can live and come to the fulness of his glory and fruitfulness, that the race can reach its ideal life. "Stewards." It offers reflection and commentary drawing upon the wealth of wisdom found in the Judeo-Christian tradition. His grace is manifold. THE IMPORT. 6. Severity exercised without pity tends to provoke rather than reform the transgressor. So must we have the glory sink into us before it can be reflected from us.(A. Qualifies man to please his Maker, bless humanity, serve the universe, and inherit all things. It was the exercise of a grace, and not merely good temper, upon which he insisted. The labour of love is essential not only to good stewardship, but to the Christian character itself; and every man may make — and ought to make if there be any difficulty in the way — leisure and opportunity for such labour of love. 1 Peter 4:10 Parallel Verses [⇓ See commentary ⇓] 1 Peter 4:10, NIV: "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." Another has authority and strength, and how various are these in their kinds! Genuine social benevolence.(Homilist. We have not, I think, been good stewards of this manifold grace. "Ye that are strong must bear the infirmity of the weak." And how various their destination; how various the sphere of action assigned them; how manifold the good and useful that each may contrive, adopt, and do therein! So, though in an infinitely superior sense, as the Son has been the medium through which the Father has shone forth, and has attracted the admiration and homage of all intelligent creatures, we may rightly say that in Him He has been glorified. THE GRAND WORK OF HUMAN LIFE. Just, as "God is just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." "Ye that are strong must bear the infirmity of the weak." But be sure sacrifice in some shape or other is the impulse of love, and its restlessness is only satisfied and only gets relief in giving. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another." The first bill purporting to be a true indignation at evil has the plainest marks of a clumsy counterfeit. It was especially so in the life and words and death of the Redeemer. I. Everybody knows of Livingstone, of Bishop Hannington, of Paten, of Calvert; but the sublime enterprise conducted by these heroes would be impossible if it were not for the self-denying work of labouring men, farm servants, domestic servants, little children who give and collect coppers through the land and through the year. The youth who is first at the bat or the oar; the student who leads his college class; the man who has made a reputation or a fortune in his profession or business, the woman whose grace and accomplishments are the delight of her friends; these, having the grace of Christ in their hearts, are not by these attainments detracting from its power, they are enshrining that grace more worthily; even as a diamond is more fittingly set in a ring of gold than in one of pinchbeck.Links1 Peter 4:8 NIV1 Peter 4:8 NLT1 Peter 4:8 ESV1 Peter 4:8 NASB1 Peter 4:8 KJV1 Peter 4:8 Bible Apps1 Peter 4:8 Parallel1 Peter 4:8 Biblia Paralela1 Peter 4:8 Chinese Bible1 Peter 4:8 French Bible1 Peter 4:8 German Bible1 Peter 4:8 CommentariesBible Hub, (b)natural.1. For though the will to resist sin may die out of a man, the conscience to condemn it never can. 1 Peter 4:8. But there is another side to all this; the poor, the illiterate, the weak, the obscure may also truly minister in many ways to the world's enrichment and blessing. )God glorified by ChristF. Lastly, I would regard our text as an exhortation to watch against Unbelief in prayer; against any allowed misgivings of Christ's love to pity or of His infinite ability to save. 1. The glory of God, as alone it can be affected by His creatures, consists in the homage and service which they render Him, and in the manifestation of His glorious perfections and the accomplishment of the great ends of His moral administration — the virtue and happiness of His intelligent offspring.II. philanthropy may exist in the sphere of nature, but love, in this higher sense, can only exist in the sphere of grace. It is therefore languidly, because little. There was in the household a faithful old servant, Maria Millis, who had been maid to young Ashley's mother when she was a girl at Blenheim, and who was now retained as housekeeper. And that we may be useful and not hurtful, it is our duty to ascertain what our gift is; and not to attempt what lies beyond our province, and so mar instead of making or mending. 2. The heathen oracles were accessible too, but only under circumstances that forbid universal approach. Barrett. )The idea and duty of human lifeW. A blessing to his own relatives, to his dependants, among whom he is ever moving and speaking; a blessing to his equals, with whom he communes in the intercourse of social life; a blessing to general society in checking all that is evil and encouraging all that is good. The wise must help the ignorant. The navigation of a ship will be bad with children at the ropes, and a landsman at the helm. The end of all things is at hand, because all the objects of time and sense are frail and fluctuating; human society, in all its relations and interests, is full of change; and the world itself, with everything fair and excellent that it contains, is constantly fading and dying around us. The purpose for which He has ordained various ranks in human society, is that He may thereby be glorified in the Christian use of influence over others, the Christian bestowal of worldly means. are not those same seducers at work in your bosom? We read of our most famous heroes, conquerors, statesmen, and all we can see of them is a tomb in our calm cathedral. The universe cannot bend itself to your will, therefore look not for too great results. 4:8,9, and 10). Each clamours because all the rest do. The wise must help the ignorant. But in themselves they bring no real honour to those who possess them. Qualifies man to please his Maker, bless humanity, serve the universe, and inherit all things.2. 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