Love and Service

1 Peter 4:8-11

Immanuel – 9/12/21

When we were last in 1 Peter together, we staring into the end of all things. That whole sermon was focused on 1 Peter 4:7 where we read:

The end of all things is at hand: therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

But Peter wasn’t referring to the end of the world. According to His Lord’s prophecies, and observing those same prophecies being fulfilled with increasing rapidity, Peter knew that the end of the Mosaic System was very soon. Because the Jews had rejected and murdered their Messiah, judgement was coming.

Great tribulations were about to begin at the time of Peter’s writing; which is one reason he is so urgently preparing the churches for suffering. It was only going to get worse, much worse. Though Peter could see the clouds gathering on the horizon, the judgements had not yet arrived. But soon they would.

Tens of thousands would die. Pestilence and famine and war was coming. Jerusalem would be invaded and the Temple would be reduced to ashes and rubble. For the Jew, of which Peter was one, it was indeed the end of all things.

If Peter wrote around 63 AD, and the Temple fell in 70 AD, then Peter’s letter went out at the very front end of a seven-year period of tribulation. Suffering was coming, and he knew it. In the same way the Lord prepared him, he wanted to prepare his flock. The end was most certainly at hand.

It is important to remember this context when we come to our passage today because it reveals an urgency, an immediacy, that undergirds Peter’s words. In light of the impending judgements and coming sufferings, it is absolutely critical for the elect exiles of the Church to love each other, serve one another, and exercise their gifts.

And we will see, that it is also critical for us today, for we are ministers of a new covenant.

Purpose

Why is love above all?

How are love, gifts, and service all tied together?

Read 1 Peter 4:7-11

Verse 7 informs us that God uses suffering to drive His elect urgently towards prayer, towards self-control, and towards a sober mind. It was true in Peter’s day; it is true in our day. Suffering refines our faith. Suffering drives us to prayer, self-control, and sober-mindedness.

God also uses suffering to drive a person to greater heights of love: which is where Peter directs our attention next.

Read vs 8a

Above All

Above all. Above your self-control and sober mind, above your devotion to prayer, above your endurance in suffering, above your awareness of the times: LOVE! Love stands above all other pursuits.

All 613 commands of the Mosaic law are summed up by two: love God and love your neighbor. Love is at the center of the law. And love is at the center of the Kingdom of God. Above all: love.

Remember, Peter wrote this letter to the elect exiles, to faithful followers of Jesus. The “one another” in this verse are people within the church. Most certainly, the Bible teaches us to love all people; but there is a special love that we have for fellow saints. So when we read verse 8, the very first place that we should seek to love one another, is right here, with the people found in these walls.

And this is the second time that Peter writes these words to us – his readers.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. -1 Peter 1:22

Twice now Peter has exhorted us to love one another earnestly. Earnestly means sincerely, truly, deeply. Our love for one another is so earnest that our emotions are stirred and engaged. Can anyone fake this kind of genuine emotion? Can anyone make themselves love like this?

This kind of love weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who rejoice. This kind of love is eager to help in a time of need and quick to overlook faults and failings. Who can make themselves love like this? Not even one.

And this is not some ethereal impersonal love. It is not some flaccid kumbaya type of love. This love is powerful and deeply personal – so personal that this love is a person; a person that wept and sweat and bled for those He loved, a person that knows you by name and has called you His own, a person that is the Lion and the Lamb, the person that sits upon the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is God and He is love.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

-1 John 4:8

Love has a name: Jesus of Nazareth, the First and the Last. So when we read Peter’s words, above all love, that’s not just a practical command to go out and love people. This command requires that we know the person who is love. This command requires that we know the Son of God.

That is why the pursuit of love stands above all other pursuits. For when pursuing Jesus stands above all other pursuits, then all the other pursuits will be rightly ordered, rightly accomplished, and saturated in love. Indeed, when in love we are united with Christ, then His works are our works and our works are His works. In other words, only when we know Him who is the source of love, can we truly love others.

Again, from the apostle John:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. -1 John 4:7-8

We love because He first loved us. -1 John 4:19

Because God is love, because Christ so perfectly demonstrated that love on a cross, because the Father has caused you to be born into this love, because the Spirit has opened your eyes to this love, because others need to urgently know this love: Above all, love one another earnestly!

For this love covers a multitude of sins.

Read vs 8b

It is critical that we remember the context of Peter’s writing at this moment. He is talking about loving one another. The context is relationships within the church. When he says that love covers a multitude of sins, he is in no way talking about salvation or divine forgiveness. No amount of our love for one another would lead God to forgive our sins. In fact, before our sins were forgiven, we were unable to truly love one another.

It is only because of His love that any of our sins can be forgiven. As we saw in 1 John 4:19, our ability to love is because He first loved us.

So what Peter is talking about is how love covers a multitude of sins in our relationships with one another. An example: I have said things to people that I love which are insensitive and offensive – stupid things. But because I truly do love those people, my sins against them have been forgiven. It is much easier for them to forgive me when they know that I really do love them.

Isn’t is easier to forgive someone, and overlook their sins, when you know they love you? How much harder it is to love someone that doesn’t care for you at all? Yes, love certainly does cover a multitude of sins.

Peter then does a small pivot. He goes from urgently exhorting us to love one another earnestly to giving us practical ways of loving one another. The first regards hospitality.

Read vs 9

Hospitality

Hospitality is caring for someone else with your resources. It is being generous with your home, welcoming others to your table, giving your time, serving.

And Peter is not writing about a spiritual gift that is only given to a small portion of the church. He is writing this to the Church Universal. Every single Christian that has ever been born into this living hope is to practice hospitality.

Let me say that justifying a gigantic house, so that you are finally able to practice hospitality, is a misguided, Americanized, false version of hospitality. Hospitality has nothing to do with the condition of your house, and everything to do with the condition of your heart.

If you have ever said, hospitality is not my gift, and you fail to practice hospitality: you are wrong. If you have ever said that I don’t have a nice enough house, or enough food in the fridge, you are wrong. Hospitality is yours to practice, whether you think you are ready or not.

Paul writes a similar word.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

-Romans 12:13

Paul said that we should seek ways to show hospitality. Look for opportunities to share your home, to share a meal. On top of that, Peter writes in verse 9 that we are to show hospitality without grumbling.

If a guest is staying in your home and doesn’t clean up after themselves, do not grumble. If you take a meal to someone and they never acknowledge it, do not grumble. Show hospitality with the same sort of “above all” kind of love that we saw earlier.

Again, let us look to Christ, who had no home. He had no wealth to His name. But with incredible love and hospitality, He regularly shared a table with His friends, with sinners, and with the one that betrayed Him.

Earnest love and hospitality must be married; otherwise it is not hospitality and it is not love.

I must be honest, my hospitality has been tested in recent times; and I think I failed the test. I am far too focused on what I think I need, at the cost of what others need. I am far too selfish than I ought to be. And so I pray that my love will cover my many multitudes of sin. And I lift my eyes to the cross and find forgiveness once again. And I will continue to open my home and my wallet, that Christ might increase and I might decrease.

Read vs 10

Spiritual Gifts

Continuing to give practical ways in which we can love one another, Peter instructs us on the use of our gifts. Every one of the elect exiles that have ever lived have received a spiritual gift.

When we were born again to a living hope, when we came to faith in Jesus; at that very moment we were given the Holy Spirit. And with the giving of the Holy Spirit, we were also given some gift – or a set of gifts – that serves to edify the church and glorify Christ.

Spiritual gifts can be supernatural and momentary, like the gift of miracles or the gift of tongues. These kinds of gifts might only happen once in a person’s life. And spiritual gifts can be ordinary abilities that God uses in extraordinary ways, such as serving or leading.

Here, in our passage today, Peter lists two gifts: speaking and serving. Elsewhere we see gifts listed such as mercy, leadership, teaching, exhortation, miracles, tongues, healing, and many more.

What we don’t find in the Bible is an exhaustive list of the spiritual gifts. Nor can we compile the various lists and think that we have found the sum total of spiritual gifts. But what we do know, from the end of verse 10, is that God has a variety of gracious gifts to give. He chooses what gifts go to what people, and He chooses the measure of the gift that is given.

For instance, God has given me the gift of preaching. But He has given this same gift to others in far greater portion. They are the giants of preaching. Thiers are the voices that carry through the centuries. None-the-less, God calls me to steward my gift faithfully. So I will exercise this gift – which I truly do love to exercise – and I pray that the Spirit uses it for Christ exalting purposes.

Let’s looks at these two gifts that Peter lists.

Read 11a

Speaking

Though Peter says speaking, he is not referring to casual conversation. He is really talking about teaching and preaching the word of God. If anyone stands to teach or preach from the Bible, as I am doing now, then a heavy weight is upon you. You are speaking for God. That is what is means to speak oracles of God. My mouth is His mouth.

This is why James writes:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. -James 3:1

To be clear, I do not mean that preachers and teachers speak like Old Testament prophets. A preacher or teacher is not delivering new revelations from God. Preachers and teachers are merely proclaiming what God has already spoken, as revealed in Scripture.

How careful teachers and preachers must be to not deviate into their own thoughts. How careful the speaker must be to not make it about himself. It is about what God says in His word. It is about the glory of Jesus and no other. The personality that you should all be falling in love with is the One that gave His live for yours; and Jesus’ person should be on brilliant display every time a teacher or preacher opens their mouth to speak. Lord let it be so!

And to properly steward this gift, and speak faithfully, then the speaker needs to be motivated by love, above all else. A loving speaker points to Jesus, and not to himself; unless by pointing to himself, Jesus is in some way magnified.

Brothers and sisters, you must not tolerate anything less. You may not have been gifted to speak, but we all have been gifted to hear. You are to steward what God has given you, even your hearing. Accept nothing less than the oracles of God, spoken in love.

It does seem like Peter is listing two gifts that correspond to the two offices in the church – which he has helped to establish: elders and deacons. One of the primary distinctives of elders is their gifting to speak the oracles of God. The primary distinctive of deacons is their gifting to serve.

Service

How amazing that he links the strength of God with service! Does not the world regard servants as weak? But it was Jesus who first demonstrated just how powerful serving truly is; for all of history pivots upon this great Suffering Servant. He gave of Himself so completely, that He gave His life. What love!

Many of us, myself included, are tempted to roll up our sleeves and serve with a “git’ er’ done” mentality. That is service under your own strength. It’s unsustainable, eventually exhausting, and it does not honor Christ.

Service should first be bathed in prayer, just as a preacher should first bathe his speaking in prayer. Service should be brilliant with gratitude for what God has given, rather than expecting to receive from the person you serve. Above all, service should be about love for another, seeking no recognition.

This is every Christian’s calling. All of us are called to serve in this manner. But there are some who are especially gifted servants. (Just are we are all called to be hospitable but there are those who are especially gifted in hospitality.) Gifted servants do not seek recognition, yet they are easy to recognize. These are the men and women we appoint as deacons and deaconesses at Immanuel. May they serve with the strength that God supplies!

I want to briefly share about my gifting in hope that it will help you with your gifting.

As you were not, I was not born with an instruction manual. I did not know that I was gifted with preaching for most of my life. I started to understand my gifts by trying different things at my former church. First I was asked to teach a short series to the youth group, which turned into a weekly role. Then I began teaching adults of a variety of ages. Others recognized this gift and I was given more opportunities, and eventually I was invited to join the preaching team. That whole process took years, and I made many mistakes along the way.

It started because there was a hole to fill in the youth group, and someone thought I might be able to help. I took that step, and I never would have imagined that it led all the way to Immanuel.

We learn our gifts by serving. Don’t expect signs to drop from Heaven. It starts with an interest. It starts with someone suggesting you try something. Try it. If it turns out that you are not gifted in that area, great, you understand God’s design a little better; and you have gained an appreciation for those that are gifted in such a way. But without a doubt, as you faithfully serve the church in love, you will come to understand your gifting; and who knows where God will take you with that gift.

A word of warning: it is very possible that if you have been in the church for awhile and still do not know how you are gifted, you might be approaching church like a consumer. Yes, the church is here to edify you. But you are here to edify the church. You will not know the full benefits of the church until you are serving her in earnest love.

You have been given a gracious gift; and part of stewarding it faithfully is understanding what it is. Part of stewarding it faithfully is being diligent in exercising that gift, even when it is challenging.

Back in verse 10 we saw the phrase stewards of God’s varied grace. In the Greek, the word translated as “varied” carries the connotation of color, and sometimes more specifically, colored stones. In 2:4-5 Peter said that we are precious stones, being built up into a spiritual house. We are the living stones of the new temple of God, varied and colored; each one possessing a unique set of gifts given by the Spirit of God.

And these spiritual gifts are given so that we can be ministers of God’s varied graces. It’s part of our role as the royal priesthood, which Peter also wrote about in chapter 2. We have these gifts to minister to one another and lead the nations in worship of Jesus. Our spiritual gifts are given to accomplish Christ exalting purposes.

And that is right where verse 11 finishes.

Read 11b

Every single one of us who are called to be ministers of God: your gifts come from God. Your faith has been given by God. You have no reason to boast!

Let us not compare. Let us not jockey for position. Peter once argued with the others disciples about who would be greatest in the Kingdom, but such thoughts are far from him now.

Who is the greatest in the kingdom? Christ crucified, risen, and reigning. Let us use all that we have been given to bring His name fame. That is the most loving thing we can do for one another!

When you speak, when you open your home, when you serve, do it all in earnest love.

If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body up to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. -1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Brothers and sisters, as you draw near to the person that is love, the light of Christ will shine upon you, through you, and illumine the world around you. Rivers of living water! A flood of love! May God be glorified through Jesus Christ as seen in humble servants like us!