1 Peter, 4:7-11
Vern Peterman · Feb 18, 2007
1 & 2 Peter (2006-07), No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926017226758

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

1 Peter 4, 7-11, and just to kind of get ourselves in sync, we are stepping into a new section. It's the second to the last of that kind of bottom row of sections that we've been moving through. The larger umbrella for this section, beginning at 1 Peter 3.13, is the suffering of the believer.

Buffeting of Christians and Humility. This particular passage, we want to take note of it. And the reason is, Peter, as he was writing this passage, was passing on practical realities of the life of Christ. He's not being just hypothetical or academic. He's passing on, this is what it's lived out like, this is what it looks like, kind of description.

The believers that Peter was writing to were suffering in various ways. One of the difficulties that they had when they became believers is in the pagan culture in which they lived, and I have to say frankly, ours is drifting in that direction, and the drift may not be so slow. Ours is drifting in that direction. There was a great deal of opposition. to what they presented because it was in stark contrast to the culture. Christianity is getting to be in greater contrast to our own culture.

So I guess what I would say is this is more and more relevant as the days go by. Now another thing to look at here A point for us to note here, this fits with a pattern we've seen in Peter's writing. Peter's often prone to writing about the way the Christian has lived out, Christian life has lived out with an inaction kind of description.

A lot of times those words are translated as if they're an imperative. But we like to bring out the fact, especially when it's the case here, and it is, that a great deal of the time Peter writes about action and progress rather than using the imperative. And he does so here and we will indeed point that out. What you will find is the first verse there has a couple of imperatives and from then on it's all action and progress, okay? And we'll make note of that as we go through.

One other thing is that this passage has an interesting characteristic. It is kind of a bridge passage. It looks back and it looks forward. And we'll see that as we step our way through it. It looks back at the passages that we've looked at before and it looks ahead to the passages that we'll see from now until the end of the book. Chapter 5, verse 14, the end of the book. So we're also going to see some of these topics that he touches on expanded upon as he goes through. So in a way, it's kind of a mini outline as well.

All right. Now the verse, 1 Peter 4, 7, the end of all things is near. And just so we're clear, that's not what he had in mind. All right. The end of all things is near. Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Therefore, no more jokes. Right? No more humor in the message. No more funny pictures. Can't do that anymore. Right? Is that what he has in mind? No. That's a good thing. Because Bud's here. Okay. What does he mean by this? Let's take a look here.

In Paul's writing, Paul often wrote, as he wrote especially to believers who were substantially, not always, but substantially Gentile. And what Paul would do is he would write about the believer's position, their eternal position in Christ, and then he would follow through by spelling out, okay, this is what it looks like. And he would go to sometimes great lengths to spell out that position sometimes for chapters, before he'd put any, here's what it looks like, kind of description. Now, he didn't always do that, and what we find is the Apostles didn't do that as a consistent cookie-cutter pattern, but it's interesting that Paul often laid things out that way.

Here's your position, now here's what it looks like, here's the logical outcome. He'd use words like therefore, since, because of. to make the connection between here's your position and here's the way it gets lived out. Why would Paul or any of the apostles worry about that? Why wouldn't they just say, here's your position and good luck? Why would they have to spell out what that looks like?

Yeah, Tom? Okay? Yeah, notice he's saying that Paul's background was quite different, and Paul understood the Gentile mindset, didn't he? He understood it very well. And he was rather uniquely equipped in having expertise in how did the Gentiles think, and how did Jews think. And so he would describe this, here's your position, and here is how that gets lived out.

Because for one thing, in the pagan religions there was almost, let's get to where I can see Bud here, there was almost no connection between the religion and morality. We brought up the fact before, we have records of some of the pagan people writing down their prayers to the gods, praying that they might be able to steal better. Praying that they could lie even more expertly than before. Isn't that amazing? There was little connection between religious belief and how that gets lived out. Here comes Paul and he's saying, here unlike all the gods you've heard about, Zeus would go and commit immorality and hide it behind a cloud so that Zeus' wife wouldn't find out. No sense of morality, even among the gods.

So now here looking at this passage, what's happening? Peter's like Paul saying, here's what it looks like, but he assumes position, occasionally describing it. It doesn't go to quite the same lengths that Peter does, but their understanding and perspective is the same. And Peter is also very much focused on how this looks like in action. What does it look like lived out? That's what he zeroes in on. Let's go to page two.

Peter calls for believers to use sound judgment and be sober in spirit for the purpose of prayer. He says, the end of all things is near. Why would he say the end of all things is near? Is that just to make people scared? Is that threatening? Ah, okay. Peter presents a time perspective.

And what does he mean by the end of all things is near? Everything's going to blow up and you're done? What does he mean by the end of all things is near? Pardon? Yeah, one of the things he's talking about that's included within that is the rapture is imminent. Now, does that mean that he's putting a time frame on when the Lord has to return?

No. It means in any possible moment return. That's the idea. Any possible moment. Okay. Could it have been within Peter's lifetime? Yeah. Could it have been within my grandfather's lifetime? Yes. Could it be the next moment so that we don't even get to finish this class? Yes. Could be. It's that kind of imminence, not putting, it's got to be within the next 10 years or 10 days or 10 minutes, but it could be at any time. Okay.

Here's another perspective. The pagan culture taught that the material universe was eternal. What does this teach? It's not. This is all going to wind up and come to an end. We're going to see, and I'm going to highlight it in the next time here in our main service, we're going to see a passage in 2 Peter where he says everything here is going to be burned up. In view of that, how should we live? The same perspective. And what we're going to find out, let's take a look at a supplement that you have.

It's the second to the last page among the pages. And there is a chart there. This is only those passages that are rapture passages. So the rapture is a kind of a very obviously special part of the collection of passages in the New Testament, like the one we're reading right now, that points to the future and then says, here's how I live based on looking into the future. This is a chart that looks like this. It's a chart that says common factors of rapture passages.

And what we'll see, there is a column, let me count here, it's about the sixth one over, that says, living godly because he is coming. That's the kind of message that Peter's giving here. That's the kind of message we're going to see in the second Peter passage, is the apostles, Peter, Paul, others, laid out this perspective.

We're not going to be around here forever. It's not that, you know, we're going to be around and we're just going to drop off the face of the earth, but we're not going to be around here forever. And there's going to be a day come when the Lord will come for us. All this stuff here on planet Earth isn't going to exist for all for all time and forever and ever. OK, it's going to be ended. And in the end, We will be with the Lord forever.

In view of that, how does it impact how you live? That's the perspective that Paul presented. That's the perspective that John presented. That's the perspective that James presented. And as we see in this passage right here, here's Peter. The end of all things is near. Therefore, how do we live? That perspective keeps coming through by numerous New Testament authors as they wrote. They wrote letters. They wrote books.

Now, notice here, there is this perspective that he has. Remember we looked at this being armed? I'm on the top of page two here. This being armed in the first Peter 4.1 passage. Peter urged the believers to arm themselves. This is the verb haplizo. for the noun haplon and what did Paul say and in Ephesians 6 10 through 17 this is the passage that's frequently referred to and we studied previously about spiritual warfare he used basically the noun form put on the full armor of God and use that word twice what Peter does is he uses this word in the verb form put on the heavy armor what's the lesson here Communication with the Lord. Communication with the Lord is prayer. Now, why do I bring that up? Notice what are the two things that Peter says after the end of all things is near. He says, the end of all things is near, therefore give up. Right? Now, what does he say? Pardon? Yeah, he talks about sound judgment and sober spirit.

Interesting, if you look at those two words, they are very similar in meaning, and they have slightly different shades, but in general the meanings overlap. They're practically almost synonymous. That repetition pattern seems to be a Hebrew way of talking, and that may be exactly why Peter chose them.

But notice, what is the purpose of having the sound judgment and being sober in spirit? What's it aimed at? Prayer life, it's communication with the Lord, and that's the reason for bringing up this 1 Peter 4, 1 passage about being armed, and Ephesians 6, 10-17, being armed. It is a matter, and you notice at the end of both of those passages, and the connection here is for prayer. For prayer.

Yes? It just seems to me that this passage really kind of puts the kibosh on On those groups that would say we need to be drunk in spirit. Yeah, several different points. One is, during New Testament times, there was worship of the god Bacchus, and many cities in the New Testament era, including cities right in this area where Peter was writing, had an annual festival in which they got just completely crazy drunk, for several days and would tear apart small live animals with their bare hands.

And that was considered a religious activity. How about that? I'm glad we don't do that here, especially not every Sunday morning. Do they call it the Mardi Gras? Yeah, Doug's asking if they call it the Mardi Gras. That's not a bad question. What we have isn't too wildly different, is it?

But Peter's point here is certainly that there is that. There is also an appeal to Christians in our own era. Nancy brought up the drunk and the spirit thing. That was a point of us departing from a church where I had been on staff and an elder, where things had shifted completely towards a rather wildly charismatic view among the people in the church and even the rest of the leadership to the point where we felt we had to leave. This passage certainly speaks against that, doesn't it?

That getting wildly out of control and being anything that's equivalent to drunken behavior is not what the Lord's aiming at. He says instead, The purpose of having some sound judgment, being sober in spirit, is not so that we can make rules against making jokes, and not that we can't have any fun, but so that we're able to pray. That prayer is a priority. Therefore, getting wildly out of control, whether it's by chemical substance or anything else, is not what the Lord has in mind.

And it's because communication with the Lord is key. As we see the pattern in both Paul's writing and in 1 Peter 4 here, this is an important aspect of our being armed spiritually, is that communication. And in a military context, one of the key things that they have as a part of military operations is communication, isn't it? You don't want people just moving around randomly without the coordination and communication. Staying in communication is key. And the Lord has exactly that in mind for us as well. We are to be heavily armed, Peter says, and Paul says. And not an optional aspect of that is communication with our Lord. Talking to Him.

1 Peter 4.8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another. Because love covers a multitude of sins.

How about this above all? Does that mean that we've got to get a platform that's way, way up above there and get everybody on the platform? That we need to abandon the pews and get up to another higher level? What does he mean? Most important. Top priority. Okay? And you know, isn't that good for us to have a sense of what's priority? You know, what's priority in life? How do we sort out what matters and what doesn't? He's just saying, OK, you want to know what's priority? Here it is, OK? Interesting, and it gets downright practical.

Keep fervent in your love for one another. It's interesting, this word fervent is a word that was used in the common Greek, so this isn't just a religious word. And it, by the way, is not some equivalent to what Nancy was talking about earlier, being drunk of the Spirit. There's a meaning to this. It was used in the Greek outside the New Testament for a horse running at full gallop. Isn't that interesting? So this word, ektenos, was used for a horse running at full gallop and an athlete straining at the finish line. Full on, full out, full gallop. So when it comes to loving one another, we're to run at full gallop. Are you running at full gallop?

That's what he's urging. He wants us to run at full gallop in our love for one another. Or to use another analogy, he wants us to go for the tape. Go for that finish line. He wants that kind of a love. Not a lackadaisical love, but a love that has that intensity. That's what he's describing here. We might say in our own vernacular, pedal to the metal, full bore. You think of other terms that happen to fit that? To the max, yes. Good. It's these kinds of terms that fit what Peter's describing. Okay? Love to the max.

Why did Peter say this, love covers a multitude of sins? Could that be taken wrongly? What does he mean by that? What would be a kind of a bad understanding of love covers a multitude of sins? Oh yeah, I'm going to love and that's going to mask the sin problem. Do you think that's what Peter has in mind? Nope. Okay, probably not. Alright, so he's not looking for that.

Did he mean that our love is as good as Christ's death on the cross for sins? If we love, then that takes care of that. And then it doesn't matter whether Christ died or not. Is that what he means? Probably not, right? No, probably not. So what does he mean?

He's saying that love will be gracious enough to deal with the offenses of others, including those in the church body. This even implies that believers will morally and or spiritually err, though he certainly didn't encourage or excuse that. Love covers a multitude of sins among us. It doesn't mean that he's saying, well, go ahead and sin, it doesn't matter because love will take care of it. But he's acknowledging that, yeah, there are problems among Christians. What? Problems among Christians? What a shocking thing to say. And what does he say will cover that? This love. This full gallop love. This pedal to the metal love. This to the max love. Okay? And what it is, it is an expression of graciousness. It means that somebody does something at which I might become offended and I say, no, that's not how I'm going to respond.

And doesn't it also mean that if someone is walking in sin, that you love them enough to pray for them, certainly, and as the Holy Spirit leads you, and only if the Holy Spirit leads you, to go to them and confront them, and exhort them, and come alongside to lead them back to fellowship. This isn't to just let sin lay by the wayside unaddressed. But it's not reacting in kind to the error.

In Galatians chapter 6, the first several verses, Paul talks about believers that have fallen along the wayside. And the word that he uses there means like falling off to the side of the path. It says, you who are spiritual. That is, he has just talked in previous verses about walking in the Spirit. You who are walking in fellowship with the Lord and are thereby responsive to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, you who are spiritual are then qualified to restore such a one. That's love. Restore the person, not just say, oh, all sinners will be sinners. Let's go on. It acknowledges that a believer can sin and err. It looks at lovingly restoring with humility. Okay? Not simply overlooking and walking by.

Alright, 1 Peter 4.9. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. So that means we all have to be in the hospital at the same time, right? That's how we're hospitable to one another? How do we make sure we all go to the hospital at once? That could be a real job. What does he mean? Bud, you're kind of an expert at this, aren't you? Now, it's interesting, Paul listed being hospitable as a required characteristic of an elder.

Both places that he gave the characteristics, 1 Timothy 3.2, Titus 1.8, hospitality was a key one. The author of Hebrews also called, as Peter does here, for all believers to be hospitable. There are a couple of historical and cultural insights we want to bring out that might underscore the reasons why would there be a call for hospitality.

In one reason, it says here, in some quarters, housing a known Christian could put a homeowner at some level of risk. We have an example from the first nine verses of Acts chapter 17. A fellow by the name of Jason was apparently being hospitable to Christians and gotten some trouble for it. There basically was a rousing riot outside of his home and he actually had to post bond and had some public pressure put on him because of it. So avoiding hospitality would be one way to avoid that trouble, right? So, but Peter here says, the author of Hebrews says, and Paul says it's required of an elder, be hospitable. Okay? So, then there's another reason.

Many of the overnight facilities throughout the Roman Empire had a very poor moral reputation, at least by Christian standards. Caravansaries, this is often times what is pictured as the place where Mary gave birth to Jesus, but as we presented at the Christmas Eve service, that's a bit of a mistaken selection. Caravansaries were known to have the ambience of a biker bar.

How about that? Okay? So, is that a place you want to spend the night? Probably, you'd be a little leery about that, right? And the motels often doubled as a brothel. So to stay at a caravansary, or what we would label as a motel or an inn, basically it's doubled as a brothel. So neither place would be a really great place for a Christian to hang out, right? Why would it not be a good idea for a Christian to hang out at either one of those places? What would be the problem with that? Pardon?

Reputation. Okay, and what's the problem with the reputation aspect? Yeah, that's right. Look at that Christian. He's going into that place, you know, and everybody assuming you're taking part in the same behavior. So what does it look like, regardless of what you do, what does it look like becomes an issue, right? Okay, good. That's one point. Is there another? Yes. Okay, so there is temptation, there is reputation, and I would put along with the temptation also pressure. Okay? Hey, Joe! They probably wouldn't use Joe. Hey, Joseph. Okay? Whatever name they would call them. They say, hey, you always used to have this stuff with us here. How about another round? One for the road. How about 10 for the road, right?

So there's not only the temptation, but alongside that, coupled with it, the pressure. Oh, this is the guy I used to see before. Now that I'm a Christian, things are different, but the pressure's still there. The temptation might be there, and the reputation, oh, we've seen him go in there before. We know what he does. All those things would couple together. That's a problem.

So here's Peter's exhortation, along with the author of Hebrews, along with Paul. spelling out, if you offer hospitality to believers, you avoid that believer being in basically what's a chain of brothels. You avoid that believer hanging out in the biker bar ambiance. And therefore, offering hospitality was offering a believer a way for them to, instead of these risks spiritually, offering a place of fellowship. One of the things we point out here, here is Paul on the way to Rome, and what does he do? He stays with believers there, Acts 28, 11-15, stays with believers for some time, and believers come from other places around to see him. And what do you have? Now you've got an opportunity for fellowship, encouragement, time to spend examining God's Word and to support one another rather than the risk to reputation, the risk to temptation, the risk to worldly pressure.

Yeah? Well, I was glancing at this passage about Jason in the book of Acts. Yes. It says that Paul was there for three Sabbaths. Uh-huh. And he stayed for about a month. Isn't that something? Yeah. Paul had stayed there. Yeah. A rather large thing. Yeah. Jason put himself at risk. Well, but also just the extent. Yes. You can't have only one person. You have one person in your household for an entire month. Yeah. And it changes your economics. Yes. Yeah. It could be tough to handle. Yeah.

So, several reasons for this encouragement. And yes, there may be some risks. to the person who is hospitable. One of the reasons he has to encourage it. And yet in the big picture, he's saying, spiritually speaking, this is well worth the risk. The author of Hebrews adds one more feature.

He says some have even entertained angels without knowing it. Have you ever entertained an angel without knowing it? Well, we don't know. A little tough to know. I've actually had a few circumstances where I've wondered. Yeah, a few circumstances where I've wondered, but we don't know.

Okay, 1 Peter 4.10, as each one has received a special gift, employed in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Now, I've had a few manifolds in my life. I think we had one on some of the Volvo's that we used to have, but that's not what he's talking about.

Paul lists and explains a lot more about the character of the spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit. With that, let's take a look at this legal-sized, folded-out, double-folded, punched chart here. That's everything you ever wanted to know about spiritual gifts and maybe a little bit more.

Essentially, what we've done is Peter makes general reference to spiritual gifts Paul gives the details. How does that fit with what we've been saying about how the way Peter writes? Peter assumes what Paul has taught all the way along. There's no exception. He assumes that you've gotten the teaching that Paul has had about the details.

So what he does is not provide here, I'll give you some more details again, some more also as well. Instead, what does he do? He encourages that. You guys know about the spiritual gifts, but I want to encourage you in this direction. So it's encouragement, not detail.

What we have here is massive detail on this chart. Essentially what this chart shows, and we won't go into the detail here other than to introduce it, there is first a list of apostolic era gifts. That is, gifts that were appropriate to the time of the Apostles and ended within the time of the Apostles. And then those that we call Church Age gifts, that is, they were valid and used during the time of the Apostles and are valid now, and in operation now. A distinction between those two. Example, the apostolic gift is a gift particular to the time of the apostles. The apostles had the gift of apostleship that was specific to their time. When John, the last apostle, was brought home to be with the Lord, that ended the expression of the gift of apostle.

In Ephesians Paul pairs up apostles and prophets three times. And in chapter 2, he calls the apostles and prophets a foundation. You don't keep building a foundation, right? You just keep going up and up and up with a foundation? No. You lay a foundation because you desperately need one, but at some point you begin building a structure. The foundation of the apostles has been set.

We have ongoing church ministries in the second half of that list of gifts, and I'll lead you to look through those in detail. At the bottom of that chart, we have some of the requirements and conditions of being an apostle, and then below that, talking about elders and overseers. So anyway, a lot more detail. You could spend days on this. I'll leave that to you to spend days on it. Okay? All right. Let's continue back with our study of 1 Peter.

One of the things that he does here, says each one has received a special gift. So that means that only Eleanor among us has got one of those, right? No. You disagree. Alright, she says not only Eleanor, okay, what's the right understanding? Each one, all, yeah, everyone.

If you're a believer here this morning, I'm saying that if with, well, I'm assuming it's true, okay? If you're a believer here this morning, you have one or more of these gifts, okay? Each one has been given this special gift. He says, employ it, put it into service, okay? In serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. That word translated manifold has nothing to do with BMWs or internal combustion engines.

It's a Greek word behind it, poikilos. It's a word where we get our word polkadot, right? Polkadots. So does he mean here stewards of the polkadot grace of God? Probably not. What he means is buried. just in the same way that we've gotten this idea across our own culture, usually polka dots are varying sizes.

He's talking about variety. It's the same word that is used in James 1-2, rejoice when you encounter various trials. Various trials, it's that same word. So God's grace is not monotonous. It's not monotonous. Tom? Yeah, I'm not sure quite what the makeup of that is, but that's an interesting idea. There's a great deal of variety. Certainly that isn't there. Certainly.

Okay, page 4, this is 1 Peter 4.11. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Alright, the words in italics in this passage have been added in the English, for smoother English. But in the original, it was what's called an ellipsis. An ellipsis is where words are dropped out for dramatic emphasis. Paul, for example, had used an ellipsis. Whatever is right, whatever is true, whatever is lovely and worthy of praise. You ever heard of that? After the first one, he doesn't use is in the Greek. Whatever right, whatever true, whatever lovely, whatever worthy of praise.

It does that in order to put in a kind of a grammatical pause and make you anticipate the word. Peter does that here. Where you see the italics there, whoever speaks as one who is speaking the utterance of God. See how that makes for a dramatic emphasis? It's a pause that makes us, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, here it is. That's what he does it for. Whoever serves as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies. So that's one point to make out here.

This is similar to what Paul said in Romans 12 regarding the spiritual gifts. For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think as to have sound judgment. Peter just said that, didn't he? Right?

As God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Each. We've seen that in 1 Peter here. For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and the individual members one of another.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly, if prophecy according to the portion of his faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Notice also, Peter underscores something. Where does the strength come from to exercise these spiritual gifts? What's the resource?

Yes, this is God's doing, okay? This isn't, boy, give it the old college try, you gotta really work hard at making those spiritual gifts crank. No. God is the one who is the empowerer for us. He is the one who empowers us to exercise these gifts. That is God's intent. A spiritual gift is not our best efforts. Yes, it's God's efforts which are always the best. We have to put our best efforts and put best in there. But God's efforts are always the best.

Unqualified. It just, it goes with it, naturally. Yes. Yes. Ah, yes. The outcome of the Lord's efforts, which are always the best, as Carol's pointing out here, have an outcome that is godly as well. A godly outcome. It's God's responsible for the outcome and not us. And that brings up another point. Thank you for bringing that up. Who gets the glory when this thing works out well? God gets the glory. He gets the glory. And that's exactly how Peter ends the verse there.

So that in all things, so that in most things, so that in a few things, so that in a couple of things, so that once in a while, No. In all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom? To whom? To who? Jesus Christ belongs to the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Until noontime, anyway. Right? No. Forever and ever. There is no limitation on this. All things. There is no limitation as to which things. It's all things. There is no limitation as to time. He is glorified forever. That's one other thing. These are spiritual gifts. How long do you get to exercise these spiritual gifts? How long? Always. Pardon? Always. Well, think about it. We get to exercise these spiritual gifts, as far as we know, as far as what's revealed here, for here. Right. While we're here. Right.

But who gets the glory from those? Spiritual gifts being exercised. And how long does the glory last for? Yeah, so this is an amazing thing. We have an opportunity here on planet Earth to exercise a spiritual gift by God's strength for a time, and the glory to God from that lasts forever. Cool, huh? He does it. He empowers it. He is the one who gives the gift. And the glory doesn't end when our time here ends. It goes on forever and ever. It keeps going. That's cool.

Carol? One special thing for us is we get to observe what He did and part of how it turned out and marvel in it. Yeah. You hear what Carol is saying? We get to observe and see what God is doing and has done and to be amazed. One of the passages that will be read this morning in the main service, as a part of the introduction to the special music, is just recognizing that the Lord takes ages, age after age after age, eternity, to reveal the magnitude and to show and demonstrate the magnitude of His glory and grace. Phenomenal. The riches of His grace. Amazing stuff. Yeah, Doug.

Does that also imply that whatever we do to glorify God does not go directly to God, it's filtered through Jesus Christ? It is interesting that Jesus Christ is the one who is glorified. Jesus Christ is the one who is glorified. And it's interesting too, and we'll see that also in the Revelation passages we'll look at briefly. here that the Lord is the source of glory, and what is interesting is the passages repeatedly state in the end of Revelation, of God and of the Lamb. So there's a particular, just like this, there's a focus on Jesus Christ here in the glory of the Lord.

Other thoughts? This is amazing stuff. Peter has packed powerful words here by the Holy Spirit's inspiration. What's interesting is he just says that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Isn't it interesting that here, some places, it says specifically God the Father, it doesn't make that distinction here, but it does make the distinction about Jesus Christ. That he's the instrumentality for God being glorified. Interesting. Other thoughts? You just have your hand up just because it's comfortable? Okay, all right, okay. I'm glad you're comfortable. Let's pray, okay?

Lord, as we look at this passage, boy, what potency, what power. Peter speaks with strong words and words that deliver a powerful message. We thank you for the strong words that Peter has used, words that have a drama to them, words that have an impact. the word for fervency that he chose. Amazing, Lord, at the way in which you inspired Peter to put these words down for our benefit. May we thank you for that. We pray that you would teach these truths to our minds and to our hearts, that you might be glorified forever and ever. Amen. If somebody doesn't know they have a spiritual gift, what happens to those?

Well, I would say two things. One, is it possible for a believer to exercise a spiritual gift and not know that they have it? Yeah, it could be. So that's one answer, is that a person could certainly have a spiritual gift and not know it, and the Lord may exercise it apart from their knowledge of it. After all, he's the one that empowers it. So I could, I'm speaking hypothetically, I could depend upon the Lord and the Lord carry out that gift even though I don't know that I have it and don't know the name. I might not even be thinking, oh, I'm exercising the spiritual gift at this moment. It's possible that somebody else will recognize the gift in you that you yourself don't see. Good point. That's a good point.

Because we are a church body, there is an interpersonal relationship aspect of it that God has built into it. That's the way Paul puts it, you know, not everybody's an eye and not everybody's an ear, you know. There's some body parts I sure wouldn't want to be, but the thing is that the Lord has designed all these parts to work together, and it may in fact, just the instance you brought up, and that Doug pointed out, somebody may not know that they have the spiritual gift, they may still display the gift, and it may take somebody else to recognize that that gift is being displayed. One of the things that happens in a body, people will serve oftentimes just because this is the way the Lord is leading them to serve. It may be a way that's subtle, or it may be more overt, and either one is fine. It isn't necessarily because the person is consciously saying, oh, I have this gift and I need to put that into action. The Lord can leave even through ignorance of that particular gift and circumstance. Thank you. Thanks for that question.