Ben Stuart guides us through 1 Peter 4:8-11. By God’s grace, He came into our chaos and calamity and saved us so that when times of crisis hit, the body of Christ can come together to love one another as a family, endure, and show compassion to one another.
Key Takeaway
God wants us to stretch out with a love that covers sin and treats people like family by His grace and for His glory.
When a crisis comes, do we, as the Church, bind together or break apart? In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about how we will stand before Him and will have to account for our responsibility to those we serve.
Community thrives to the degree to which everyone contributes. There's strength in solidarity.
This is how Christians responded in the Roman Empire, and the early Christian Church grew. The plagues in AD 165 and 211 were both major epidemics that wiped out a high percentage of human life. The Church grew because Christians had better answers as to why there was suffering in the world and could comfort them, and Christians have been taught by Jesus to love. Love always expresses itself in service. Romans fled the scene, but Christians would stay and care for whoever needed it. Before the pandemics, one in 250 Romans were Christians, by the end it was one in four. Christianity grew because of how they loved one another.
This matters because Peter was writing this letter during the early days of Roman persecution breaking out towards Christians. Peter tells them to pray, be sober-minded, and love each other earnestly.
1 Peter 4:8
- Keep loving earnestly. The Greek word for earnestly is "ektenes," which means to take seriously and stretch out. It's an Olympic term, as in stretching out to win the race. The literal translation would be, "Keep having love that stretches out."
- Peter is insinuating that they should not shrink back but stretch out.
- Why stretch out in love like this? Because "love covers." He's not calling for covering up sin. He's using the fire imagery found in Proverbs 10:12, which says that hatred stirs up strife, but love covers offenses. You agitate a fire to get it roaring, you cover it to put it out quick. So, Peter is telling them that they don't have to deny shortcomings and flaws, but they do need to deny them oxygen so they don't hinder what they're accomplishing together. We all struggle in many ways, you can let that be the lead story or you can smother the oxygen to our sins.
How do we love like this?
1 Peter 4:9
- Show hospitality. Hospitality is philoxenos in Greek. It's a combination of "philos," which means "brotherly love," and "Xenos," which means "stranger." So, hospitality is treating the stranger like family. The Biblical example is the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-37. The question isn't "Who is my neighbor?" but "Who was neighborly?"
- Do practical things without grumbling.
1 Peter 4:10
- As you receive a gift, your steward is through service. Notice how he talks about our serving. You received a gift; you got served God's grace, so you steward it. A steward is in charge, not the owner. The picture is that when you come to Christ, He takes some aspect of you and infuses it with supernatural power; that's the gracious gift that He's given you to help people know Him through service. He gave His grace to you, so by His grace, share His grace and love with other people.
1 Peter 4:11
- Whether speaking or actions, do it so that God is glorified. Whatever you have, bring it all. What He gives you, use to honor Him.
We stretch out with a love that covers sin and treats people like family by God's grace and for His glory.
Where does Peter get this idea of a love that stretches itself out to cover sin and turn enemies into family by the grace of God for the glory of God?
- He looked at the Cross. He sees Jesus Christ's sacrifice of His own life for ours. It's crazy to stand at the foot of the Cross, hear Jesus say to love others as He has loved you, and say, "Nah, I'm good." That means you don't understand grace. We are not good, but by His grace for His glory, He is rescuing strangers and making us family. Like any good parent, He says the way to love Him is to get along.
This is how Christianity has grown. This is how we have faced challenges in the past; This is how we'll face them in the future. When we face any crisis, we forge a family that can take anything on by His grace and for His glory.
Discussion Questions
- When you face a challenge or crisis, do you bind together with your community or do you blow apart?
- What makes for a strong community?
- What type of historical events contributed to the rise of Christianity? Why? What did their response say to the world?
- What was the climate when Peter wrote his letter?
- Read 1 Peter 4:8. Why did Peter use the word earnestly? What does it mean in the Greek?
- How does Proverbs 10:12 support the idea of love covering sins? What does Peter mean when he says that? How does the fire imagery help the explanation?
- What is the Greek word for hospitality? How do you practice this in your life? Is this something you would be known for?
- When God gives you a gift by His grace, what are you expected to do with it according to 1 Peter 4:10?
- What is the point of us using our gift to serve others and God?
- Where does Peter get this idea of a love that stretches itself out to cover sin to turn enemies into family by the grace of God for the glory of God?
Scripture References
