each according as he has received a gift, ministering it to one another, as good stewards of [the] various grace of God.
Peter writes this inside a short list of instructions. The end of all things is near, he says, so be sober, pray, love, welcome people — and use what you have received. It raises two questions that the writers keep returning to: who has a gift, and who owns it.
These instructions do not stand on their own. One commentator ties them to the expectation that this age will close:
The end of all things is at hand; always keep before your heart and mind that this age will end. And if it was true then that the promised end is at hand, how much more true is it now. Because we wait for His coming and expect Him at any time, we are to be sober and watchful in prayer. We are to show deep love for fellow believers. We are to welcome people into our homes without complaining, and serve one another as each has received.
"Each has received a gift" is not a description of a special class of Christians. One writer says so plainly, and adds the account that follows:
When the apostle talks of a gift, it is not only a man being able to preach or teach. He says, "As each has received a gift." So you see that you have a gift. You are responsible to use it. The first place to use it is the Church. Whatever you have, it is not yours; you are only a steward. It all belongs to Christ. You must be a good steward. One day you will have to give an account of how you managed it.
Peter calls this grace "varied," or "manifold." One writer takes that word to mean a supply that never runs short:
As to helping others, each person has different abilities. Each is to hold his gift knowing that he answers to God, who gave it. "It is required of stewards that they be found faithful." So each believer should work at this all the time: to hand out well what God has entrusted to him "of the manifold grace of God." This grace has many different sides. It can supply every believer with more than enough to serve for his whole life.
It would be easy to read the verse as a charter of personal freedom. One commentator argues the opposite. The verse presses duty, not freedom — and failing it costs God something:
"As each has received a gift," they were to use it to serve one another, "as good stewards of God's varied grace." This is exactly what human organising gets in the way of. How sad when believers approve of any meddling with God's will and ways! The verse does not plead the right of each person. It presses the duty that God's gifts lay on us: to use whatever we have, answering to Him. "It is required of stewards that they be found faithful" (1 Cor. 4:2) — from the greatest to the least. Otherwise we set aside God's rights and hold His grace back.
The gift is not for display and not for private keeping. One writer describes it as shared, pooled, and proved by the help it actually gives:
Because he had it, he was responsible to use it. He answered to the One who had not given it for nothing. The gift itself gave both the ability to serve and the right to serve. I am bound to help and serve with what I have. And if people are helped, they hardly need to ask whether I was given official permission to do it. This is the plain character of ministry. It is the service of love, using the ability God gives. Each serves each, and each serves all, without pushing or shutting one another out. Each gift went into the common treasury, and all were richer for it.
Not everyone speaks or teaches. So does the verse leave quiet believers with nothing to do? One writer says no, and prizes the hidden work:
In 1 Peter 4 the Holy Spirit urges Christians to use the gifts God has given them. They are His own direct and faithful stewards... Not all speak. Not all preach the gospel. Not all teach, because not all have these gifts. But Scripture says all must do what God has given them to do... We all have a duty to carry out, and to do it in God's strength. The service no one sees may be the most precious, because it happens before God and not before people. But all have something to do.
- Received — the chain starts with a gift you did not make. The end is near, so you use it in a life of sober prayer, love and open doors.
- Owned — what you received still belongs to Christ. You are a steward, and He will ask you for an account.
- Varied — the grace behind the gift has many sides. It holds more than enough for a whole lifetime of serving.
- Owed — the verse presses duty, not personal right. An unused gift keeps God's grace from others.
- Shared — each gift goes into the common store, so all are richer. The least visible service may be the most precious, since God alone sees it.
If any one speak -- as oracles of God; if any one minister -- as of strength which God supplies; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the might for the ages of ages. Amen.
Peter splits Christian service into two kinds: speaking and serving. Each one has its source in God, and the hardest question is what it means to speak "as one who speaks oracles of God".
Commentators start by rejecting the easier reading of the phrase.
Notice that this is not merely speaking according to Scripture — an all-important and essential matter, most surely. It is more. A man may stand up and speak to his fellows for an hour, and from the beginning to the end of his talk he may not say a single unscriptural sentence. And all the while he may not have been God's oracle at the time; he may not have been God's mouthpiece, or the present expression of His mind to the souls in front of him.
Darby presses the same point, and then gives Scripture its place as a test.
The apostle is not insisting on the scriptural accuracy of what is said, but on the divine source everything must be traced back to. That source is God Himself, and so He receives all the glory. It is quite true that if it is not according to Scripture it does not come from God. But that is a way of testing the thing.
Gift alone does not qualify a person to speak.
Not even a gifted man ought to speak without the assurance of God's mind for the moment and the case in hand. How much would be spared if this divine rule were truly felt!
The same test also pushes people to speak.
An oracle is the spoken word of wisdom for the moment to those who hear... "Have I the word from God for this people at this moment?" is the question! On the other hand, we would be led to be brave enough to speak His message when He commits it to us, and to make room for those who have it when we do not!
Darby separates two things that people confuse.
The claim to infallibility is one thing. Quite another is the certainty that we have God's mind, and that on this or that occasion we give it out from Him and according to His will.
Trotter adds the safeguard that keeps this from becoming private authority.
If I cannot say when I speak, "This is what I believe God has taught me, and what God has given me to speak at this time," then I ought to be silent. Of course a man may be mistaken in saying this, and it is for the saints to judge everything spoken by the word of God.
The second half of the verse guards a kind of service that often gets downgraded.
Notice here that ministry is different from speaking. What a vast change must have passed over the Christian world! Now a man is thought a minister mainly because he speaks. Yet real service to the saints is as precious in its place as any speaking can be.
Kelly names the source of power for that kind of service.
Even in everyday practical service, which is different from speaking, the right strength is the strength that comes from God — not human ability, achievement, rank, or wealth.
Natural ability still counts, and it is God's gift too — but it is never the same as the spiritual gift.
Whatever form the ministry takes, we are to exercise it according to the ability that God gives. So we recognise natural ability as something God gives... It is true, as someone has said, that "no ability by itself is a gift; but the spiritual gift does not set aside natural ability."
The point of both halves is where the credit lands.
Suppose a speaker comes to us telling us what he thinks, what his impressions and ideas are. We end up thinking him a very wonderful man, and honouring him as a kind of spiritual hero! But suppose he simply gives us what really is the word of God. Then we are subdued, and we glorify God instead of him.
Kelly ties both halves to the verse's stated purpose.
But those who look to Him also need present strength from God. So in all things He is glorified through Jesus Christ.
- Source — the phrase asks where the words come from, not just whether they match the Bible. A fully scriptural talk can still miss God's message for that hour.
- Moment — the working question is not "is this true?" but "has God given me this word for these people now?"
- Certainty — that assurance is not a claim to be beyond error. The saints still judge what is spoken by Scripture.
- Breadth — speaking is only one half. Practical service counts as ministry too, done in the strength God gives, not in human ability, rank or wealth.
- Result — when hearers trace both halves back to God, they stop admiring the speaker. They glorify God through Jesus Christ, and the glory and dominion are His forever.