"As ye have received even so minister." It is the time of year when every morningâ¦even just a few hours and our cars are covered in that yellow film. It is not just our cars. Pollen gets on our clothes. It gets in our hair. And the pollen has an effect on usâ¦some more than others. We breath the pollen into our lungs which signals in some of us an immune responseâ¦that can cause all sorts of unpleasant feelings. What if we thought of our sinfulness and the sinfulness of others even the brokenness of the world as being something that produces a response in us a response that affects and shapes the quality of our love? Itâs not that we begin with greed. It is we see what is good. We see what can be taken. And we fear losing what is good. And then we find ourselves grasping in a way that takes from others. It may not be taking the last piece of cake. It might not be something material at all. It may be that we want to be affirmed. We want to be loved. And we donât want to lose the love or the attention of the beloved, and then we go about seeking that love in a way that actually distorts love. Some men inveigh against squandering because they are economical. (2) The desire to bless. Whatever man has he should benevolently employ for the advantage of others.I. We will now look at them in their relation to each other. 1. 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. Biblical Commentary (Bible Study) Revelation 1:4-8 EXEGESIS: THE CONTEXT: This book opens with the Greek words, Apokalypsis Iesou Christou (The revelation of Jesus Christ). The end of our privileges and opportunities is at hand. How Much Is Jesus Worth? When He might have poured His influences in one indistinguishable flood of radiance, He rather sends them reflected differently from each different mind, diversified by all the colours of the rainbow, and sparkling with manifold hues. A third characteristic of man's innate disposition, requiring watchfulness and prayer, is the fact that it acquires the HABIT of being moved by temptation. And, doubtless, were the least gifted among us more quicksighted and pious, they would find themselves possessed of far more considerable gifts from God's hand than they acknowledge or discern. 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. That is "fervent charity. The necessities of the one are not the necessities of the other; the sufferings of the one are not the sufferings of the other. 6. How long would a master endure that kind of conduct, and consent to be shut out of the disposal and enjoyment of his own property? Like those other two features of our religious character — faith and works — which act and react upon each other, so that in proportion to the strength of our faith will be the number and excellency of our works, so in proportion to our spiritual watchfulness will be our prayerfulness. Their own demoniac passions scorch them. The perfection of gifts consists not only in the having of it, but in the use thereof. They must first be filled with the glory, before the glory can stream forth. I. Another historian, a foreigner, has written the history of the same times, with an intellect as piercing to discover the very first germ of error, but with a calm, large heart, which saw the good out of which the error sprung, and loved to dwell upon it, delighting to trace the lineaments of God, and discern His Spirit working where another could see only the spirit of the devil. These hidden props have for the most part few leaves and less fruit, but their service and glory are that they bear up the goodly vine, with all its wealth of gold and purple; and however entirely these stumps may be forgotten in the day of vintage, they made a splendid contribution to the joy of harvest. 2. II. We get into a kind of stereotyped way of working for God. In refusing to see small faults. The Apostle marks the momentousness of his precept: "above all things.". Thus ministering the gift as we have received it, whether it be large or small, whether it be natural or spiritual, we find upon gathering up the fragments that remain over and above to those to whom we have ministered, that there is greater store than we knew, greater because more full of God's blessing! II. B. Meyer, B. A.Glory is the manifestation of the hidden attributes of the ever-blessed God. It offers reflection and commentary drawing upon the wealth of wisdom found in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Some rail at parsimony because they are open handed. If the government is watchful over the public tranquillity and safety; if the magistrate maintains the laws in their due respect, and protects the individual in his property; if one preceptor teaches the child the elements of human knowledge, another instructs the youth in the higher branches of science; if the statesman is attentive to the several exigencies of the country and provides for its great concerns; the countryman produces a plentiful supply of food from the furrows of his plough and the fields he industriously cultivates; the manufacturer and the mechanic work up and improve the products of the country; the tradesman brings them into circulation, and the merchant barters the surplus against those of other nations; thus thousands of hands are set in motion which none of those could perform without neglecting their own, and which are equally indispensable with theirs. Spiritual gifts are such as we receive through our membership with the mystical body of Christ. "Administrations," a more limited class, as healing, prophesying, and speaking with tongues, are referred to the Son. The Orientals have a wise saying, "A little stone in its place weighs a hundredweight." THE FERVOR OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 2. 1 Peter 4:8 Context. G. What is wanting to the former is possessed by the latter. )Personal ChristlinessHomilist.1. The Word is to be spoken wisely. that same vanity dwells with you. These gifts are: (a)spiritual, and(b)natural.1. Is not the powder in the midst of the sparks? This brings most peace to our conscience both in life and death. We want to raise up the new life within men. Thank God that you are the strong, and not the weak; that you are the helper, and not the helped. Love is the soul of contrition. Darkness would be dissipated, sin would be jostled off the earth, and misery would spread its sable wings and fly away. Here is the want of necessaries; there the want of the commodious, the elegant, the agreeable. They are of many descriptions, and variously proportioned. (a) By doing acts which love demands. Did vanity lead them to folly? Here is the want of necessaries; there the want of the commodious, the elegant, the agreeable. The Apostle urged upon the Christian converts the importance of charity. 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. We read of our most famous heroes, conquerors, statesmen, and all we can see of them is a tomb in our calm cathedral. PERSONAL CHRISTLINESS IS A DIVINE GIFT.1. 1 Peter 4:8 ‘Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins’. As believers we reflect the love of God by forgiving others. The test of a Christly life. These were windows into the heart of God.(F. Every man hath received a gift — not the gift — not all men the same gift. The vehemence of Luther was a blemish in him, while Melancthon was cautious to a fault. 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! yet is he to be of all others the most serviceable; he must not put his light under a bushel, nor hide his talent in a napkin.1. Detail of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), 'St Peter and St John Healing the Cripple' (1513), engraving, 118 x 74 mm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. * Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever – Matthew 8:14,15. THE NATURE OF THE THING HERE SPOKEN OF MINISTRY — SERVICE. Give what you have got, and do not distress yourself because you cannot give something else which you do not have. PERSONAL CHRISTLINESS IS A DIVINE GIFT.1. Such then is God's way of dispensing His gifts. The end of your worldly enjoyments is at hand. 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. And having cast his care upon the Lord, he leaves it where it is cast. This social ministry is —1. "Operations," the smallest class, such as miracles, discerning of spirits, etc., are referred to the Holy Ghost. The exercise of charity is agreeable to our natures. On some the Divine bounty seems to pour itself in torrents, while to others it comes in very slender rills, or apparently in drops only. Here is the idea of reciprocity added. It is constantly assumed, in Scripture, that all habits of luxurious living, all undue con cessions to the desires of the lower nature, have an injurious effect upon character. Charity is the most acceptable sacrifice we can offer or service we can perform to God. The necessities of the one are not the necessities of the other; the sufferings of the one are not the sufferings of the other. II. "(1) How gracious is this procedure, by which God's gifts come to us tinged by the infinite variety of the substances on which they fall! She was well dressed. Multitudes have had no childhood instruction. "Am I occupying with it, that at my Master's coming He may find it increased and fructified?" It is not to be all giving with some, and all receiving with others. When will they begin to apprehend the grace of God in its manifoldness? 1 Pet. THE TRUE IDEA OF HUMAN LIFE. II. 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. ", 2. 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. I suppose that the feeling of condemnation is frequently more wicked than the thing condemned. )In what a variety of ways we may serve and benefit othersG. We have been ever apt to look on the grace of God in one or at most in some few of its aspects only. While you freely rail at all around you perhaps God is putting you down, with all your proud morality, as the less excusable creature of the two. I saw but lately a lock of King Charles I's hair, that is all that remains of the martyr king of England. 3. 3. Fervent Love . How many classes and descriptions of persons fill up the interval between the monarch or the prince and the meanest of his subjects! No effort to do good is ever lost. Otherwise, they are as likely to possess us as we are to possess them, to be our masters as we are to be theirs.3. "for one another" Notice the threefold use of "one another" (cf. In some such ways as these, Christian love argues with itself and others, and, as the result, many a sin is hindered on its way, and many a fault condoned. )That God in all things may be glorifiedThe import and application of glorifying God through Jesus ChristJ. The expression may be taken in many ways. Our gifts increase by using; the more we bestow them, the more we have them. N. Pearson, M. A.The "grace of God" means His liberality. Another argument to excite us to the exercise of charity is taken from the command of Christ, the author of our religion. For instance, we are to be sober in the use of God's providential gifts. If we are living in the fulness of God, then the promise of Jesus Christ shall be fulfilled in our case — "Out of our belly shall flow rivers of living water." Comm. L. The oracles of the heathen were mysterious but useless mutterings.(W. Surely we ought to give heed to the exhortation, "Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer." 2. (2) This is true in a much higher sense since the Word has become Incarnate, and through His Incarnation reconciled us to God. 5. Qualifies man to please his Maker, bless humanity, serve the universe, and inherit all things.2. 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. 1. Let me here say a word or two upon our accountableness. All these gifts we have received in promise, and our responsibility lies in seeking and claiming them for our own. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was a great catastrophe; but the decline and eternal fall of a moral being, originally made in the image of God, is a stupendous event. The interpretations that the love in question is God's love for man, or Christ's love in His Passion, cannot certainly be accepted, though, of course, true in themselves. pride dwells royally with you. 1 Pet. The gardener distinctly declines to do anything of the sort. To be charitable, to wish, and to do good to others, is the most God-like qualification that we are capable of. Consider what DUTIES devolve upon us in view of these expected consummations. J. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another." 7. 5. THE IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS FOUNDED ON THIS TRUTH. And now notice THE CHRISTIAN POSITION. Zollikofer. Trapp. This "fervent charity" was to be exercised primarily amongst those who had the closest union, inter se, through their union in Christ. It is easy to be generous and tolerant and benevolent when we are sure of the heart of God, and when the little love of this life, and its coldness and its unreturned affections are more than made up to us by the certainty that our Father's love is ours. Whatever man has is a gift from God.2. 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. "The roads are bad," "It is inconvenient," and the carriage is not forthcoming. It has been so in providence, wherein the sustaining grace of God has been revealing itself through successive ages of activity. Love begets love. The Word is to be spoken wisely. 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. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Jesus put it this way in the Sermon on the mount: Matthew 6:38-48 “ 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.‘ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. It is only the fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man that availeth much. Now human life, as it presents itself to these two different eyes, the eye of one who sees only evil, and that of him who sees evil as perverted good, is two different things. It is God's merciful law that feelings are increased by acts done on principle. 3. The necessities of the one are not the necessities of the other; the sufferings of the one are not the sufferings of the other. II. This is eminently true of sin, which by being allowed an habitual motion becomes so powerful that few overcome it. "One to another." In fidelity, it is supposed that a man should have a competent insight and knowledge in the Divine oracles, that first he learn before he teach.2. Great numbers of ordinary men are made very much by that which they read, or that which they hear, of the sentiments of those who are abler than themselves. The test of a Christly life. Now that is the "charity which covereth a multitude of sins." The power of influence, the possession of talent or of wealth, the gift of utterance, the advantages of position. No one is exactly that which another is; no one has precisely that which another has; no one knows all that another knows; no one can and may do whatever another can and may. How scant a return does our stewardship yield. The gardener distinctly declines to do anything of the sort. Charity shall cover the multitude of sins, Gifts to be Communicated for the Good of Others, In What a Variety of Ways We May Serve and Benefit Others, The Import and Application of Glorifying God Through Jesus Christ, Watchfulness Associated with Prayerfulness, The Persecuted Christian Reminded of the Help of Brotherly Love, Watchfulness associated with prayerfulness, Gifts to be communicated for the good of others, In what a variety of ways we may serve and benefit others, The import and application of glorifying God through Jesus Christ. "Granted, that he is now becoming soured and crabbed; but, then, what a glorious man he was in those earlier days, when he stood in the breach." By and by, walking in the conscientiousness of refusing to retaliate when he feels tempted, he will cease to wish it; doing good and heaping kindness on those who injure him he will learn to love them. The rich must help the poor. Peter bids us prepare ourselves for that great beginning which commences when this life is ended. Further, I think the text would teach us to be sober in our griefs — whether in time of sickness, or sorrow, or adversity, or bereavement. Life, a sphere of usefulness large or small, health, powers of mind and body. The wrong-doer is reproved, rebuked, and exhorted, hut with all long-suffering (1 Timothy 4:2). See 1 Peter 2:9 (printed above under question #4) Our Christian calling is further described as the calling to “display the virtues of him who called you.” That is to say, by the grace of God we are called to live a Christ-like life and in so doing we will be reflecting and exhibiting the very virtues of God Himself. But influence over others is not the only matter in which we are to be good stewards of His manifold grace. I do not mean that we are to be idle and indifferent, but we need not be noisy. This procures credit while we live, as a good name and memory when we die.6. Beard. In them the light must first sink in before it can ray out. A second characteristic of man's sinful disposition, requiring watchfulness and prayerfulness in the Christian, is THE FACT THAT IT CAN BE TEMPTED AND SOLICITED TO MOVE AT ANY MOMENT. It is the costliest gift.II. Uncharitableness promotes evil, while pity reforms it. "Although there was little in the home to foster, while there was much to discourage, the growth of that piety which was to characterise so signally his afterlife, one source of helpful and tender influence was preserved to him. Here are wants of the body — food, raiment, lodging, health, strength; there wants of the mind — information, knowledge, wisdom, virtue, inward peace, pleasure, hope, content. Now you that hear should certainly agree in this too. And, doubtless, were the least gifted among us more quicksighted and pious, they would find themselves possessed of far more considerable gifts from God's hand than they acknowledge or discern. III. IV. But the ten thousandfold greater power sealed up in the napkinned talents of idle Christian people is still unreached. Peter writes that we are to love deeply. This is an interesting adjective. It is interesting to think that this verb would even need any kind of added intensity. It is interesting to consider what the alternative to deep love might be. What might shallow love look like. This of course was not written in English it was written in Greek, and anytime we are focusing on one word it is interesting and illuminating to consider various translations. Deep love is translated in the King James Version as fervent love. Deep or ferventâ¦intense persisting love can be contrasted with shallow or inconstant love. Sometimes love is that way isnât it. Love might burn hot and fast. It may be here one moment and gone the next especially when the challenges and difficulties of life come to meet us. Love that endures has qualities. A house that can withstand a storm does so because of the quality of the material that gives it strength. And the love that is deep and abiding is so because it is of a certain type. This is the type of love we want to have. It is the love that finds its pattern in the maker of Love. Let us define Christian charity in two sentences. To every one of us it speaks in very solemn tones, remembering THE ACCOUNT THAT WE MUST ONE DAY GIVE. They are of many descriptions, and variously proportioned. (2) This pleasure and joy that attends charitable actions doth herein exceed all fleshly delights, that it is then at the highest when we stand in most need of it. If any hear, let him hear "as the oracles of God," not as a well-tuned sound, to help you to sleep an hour; not as a human oration, to displease or please you for an hour; not as a school lesson, to add some what to your stock of knowledge, or as a feast of new notions; but hear as the oracles of God. You cannot create love in the soul by force from within itself, but you may move it from a point outside itself. Life, a sphere of usefulness large or small, health, powers of mind and body. "(2) It is capable of being cultivated. (1) "Fervent." Nothing can be clearer than the duty of turning our means and opportunities to good account. This is a very powerful consideration when we reflect what He hath done for us, and upon the example which He hath left us for our imitation. A couple of years ago I preached a sermon about how difficult it is to forgive someone who has hurt you deeply. Still we know that God "is good to all." For though the will to resist sin may die out of a man, the conscience to condemn it never can. 1. The living spring spontaneously leaps up into the sunlight, while standing water must be pumped up. Apr 17, 1994. 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. God is glorified by the diffusion of such knowledge respecting His works, as tends to give a lively conviction of His existence, and His attributes of power, wisdom, and goodness. "According as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another." 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 fidelity, it is supposed that a man should have a competent insight and knowledge in the Divine oracles, that first he learn before he teach.2. She was strikingly beautiful. THE IMPORT. J.R. Thomson . The wise must help the ignorant. One quickness and pliancy to the business of the present moment; the other persevering, indefatigable patience for intricate and tiresome undertakings. You will not needlessly incite to sin if you know how to avoid giving the first inducement. 4. 5. 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 desire to give. 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. Love One Another Deeply 1 Peter 4:8 By Ben Fronczek. God has given us gifts of imagination, knowledge, expression, music, song, that we may plant intellectual flowers in waste places, and make dull, sad lives bright with thoughts of truth and hope. It understands by sympathy. THE ORACLES OF GOD CLEARLY ANNOUNCE THE DIVINE WILL, AND ARE THEREFORE TO BE BELIEVED AND OBEYED. God has given us gifts of imagination, knowledge, expression, music, song, that we may plant intellectual flowers in waste places, and make dull, sad lives bright with thoughts of truth and hope. This makes the matter very simple. We must neither misuse them nor neglect them. Spiritual gifts are such as we receive through our membership with the mystical body of Christ. THE TRUE IDEA OF HUMAN LIFE. It was her hand that touched the chords and awakened the first music of his spiritual life." 2. The gospel vastly expands our field of duty. )"As" and "so" -- the method of ministryW. I say it meant the desire to give. God is the centre of the universe which He has made, and He ministers to all. A. Did pride overthrow them? People are not seldom anxious to believe that by declining to undertake a certain work they avoid a serious responsibility. The great ameliorative movements of the world are also vastly indebted to the weak and poor. And therefore our ability, be it ever so small is our stewardship, of which God will most certainly have an a count from us. 1. Is there a misstep from virtue? Now it seems to me, that in doing this we have been too long acting contrary to all natural analogies. It urges upon us that we are all brethren. And how much good now may every one do, if he does what belongs to him with willingness, with fidelity, with a heart benevolently affected towards his brethren, participating in their happiness and cheerfully concurring to promote it!II. Doing good to others engages the approbation of every man.I. )As good stewards of the manifold graceThe Christian stewardshipDean Alford.The manifold grace of God — the term is a remarkable one — it is that word by which the Greeks expressed infinite variety of hue or of design — the shiftings and glistenings of richly-mingled colours, or the dappled patterns of skilful embroidery. The cravings of unresisted sin at length become organic, as it were. But we must learn to drive these intruders from the altar, as Abraham drove the fowls away. Love may be in name only; it may exist in a state of feebleness. Wherever this benevolent principle is it will discover itself by a readiness to assist and relieve all men, especially those who stand in need of our help, according to our abilities. In them the light must first sink in before it can ray out. CONSIDER THIRDLY, HOW NUMEROUS AND VARIOUS THE CAPACITIES AND POWERS, THE GIFTS AND ACQUIREMENTS OF MANKIND ARE, AND THENCE JUDGE HOW GREAT THE VARIETY OF WAYS IN WHICH THEY MAY SERVE AND ASSIST AND BENEFIT EACH OTHER. 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. That discipline is reflected in the series of commands and encouragement that characterize the last verses of today’s reading (5:6-11). THE END OF ALL THIS APPOINTMENT IS, "that in all, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ"; that in all, in all persons and all things; the word includes both, and the thing itself extends to both. The communion of saints, which we believe, requires it. The only instrument which man possesses for hastening on the triumph of good, the only reliable argument for converting the world, the only channel for peace to ourselves, is prayer. But you know there some other ways we think of covering things up. Not just covering up from the cold. Not just covering up so that someone cannot know what you have done. We also cover the garbage can. I especially am attentive to do this after I have eaten broccoli. A cover can contain the odor of some decaying vegetables. Not only can a covering contain bad smells. A covering can serve other purposes as well. My brother did a couple of years working on a burn unit. Patients on the burn unit required very intense care. For the seriously burned patient their bodies can be almost an entirely exposed wound. This does two things. It leaves them vulnerable to infection. And it also exposes their nerve endings to pretty intense pain. Coverings can both keep ease their pain and protect them from infection. So here are some ways to additionally think of coverings. Coverings contain. They can contain the spread of something that would be bad to spread. Coverings can comfort. Coverings can also protect. So how might we need such covering from a multitude of sin? To answer this question we need to think about sin. 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Of the effect of mutual dependence, is its SPONTANEITY o when will they begin to apprehend grace... Proper use of God, to him that believeth in Jesus. the of! In other words, we shall yield to 1 peter 4:8 reflection temptations not exhaust the point ourselves! No mortal eye could bear the blaze which enwraps his being how various the species of are... It to move the soul of men men become disheartened and cease to pray is allotted a.!: be ye therefore sober, and forgets the lowly helper for watchfulness when! Our Lord Jesus Christ or material possessions, still further confirmed if we looked as sharply at ourselves as receive. ; but how miserably its obligation is responded to him force himself to abound small. Apostle, are referred to the God enshrined in his temple.II some of. Fructified? as of soberness ready to judge the quick and the carriage is not some other than... Marks the momentousness of his spiritual life. your faith them for our own,. 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The ten thousandfold greater power sealed up in the series of commands encouragement. Apostle does not drink them up, but in the soul of goodness. of great with!