1 Peter 4:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Not to make proper use of what belongs to us, and over which we are masters, is an extremely unjust thing.

Turn your attention again to this: when the Holy Spirit distributes gifts with authority and as He Himself wills, and allots to each of the saints, wondrous Peter affirms that the giving and variety of such grace are from God.

For he knows that the Spirit is not alien to the divine nature.

Therefore, when Peter calls the Spirit God, how is the one who places Him among creatures not impious and at the same time senseless? How does he not dare desperately against the preaching of the holy apostles?

One who has abundance must supply what the needy lack, not only in the acquisition of money and outward goods. The same applies to the advantages of nature and the gifts of the spirit. No one should say that these are the property of the one who possesses them. Rather, they belong to one's neighbor, to the one who is in need and ought to share in them.

The wings of the virtues (Ezek 1:23) are stretched out beneath the firmament when the good one person has is used for another.

Thus one who has received earthly wealth helps a needy neighbor in his want. One filled with the grace of teaching scatters the darkness in an ignorant neighbor by the word of his preaching.

One clothed with temporal authority defends the oppressed from their oppressors. One filled with the spirit of prophecy prevents threatening misfortunes from his neighbor's life by exhorting him to good.

One who has received the grace of healing piously and humbly uses his resistance for the healing of the sick.

One who is free from earthly affairs and has resolved to serve God alone prays for neighbors who act lawlessly.

Thus our Creator and Steward orders all things so that love may increase when divine gifts, which one person does not have, are passed from one to another. Finally, manifold grace is well distributed when the gift received is entrusted also to those who do not have it.

"Serve one another." This service is one manifestation of the love whose acquisition the apostle teaches (1 Pet 4:8), as is hospitality also (1 Pet 4:9).

Service is understood here in a general sense: as the fulfillment of Christian duties toward neighbors, both public and private, as official ministry in the Church, and as simple Christian helpfulness.

It seems that this thought is also included here: one who possesses any gift from God must not exalt himself by it. He must not use it for dominance or for some kind of lordship over others.

Rather, he is obliged to serve his neighbors with this gift in the sense commanded by the Lord Himself to His disciples (Mt 20:25 and following).

Instructions concerning the mutual relations of Christians with one another (1 Pet. 4:8-11). From the general rule of mutual love, "which covers a multitude of sins" of one's neighbor, in awareness of one's own many weaknesses, the Apostle draws the following particular rules: "Serve one another, each with the gift he has received. If anyone speaks, let him speak the words of God," that is, as though God Himself were speaking through your mouth: edifyingly, holily, and truthfully. "If anyone serves, let him serve by the strength which God supplies," that is, faithfully and as diligently as you can, "that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ."

The apostle's indication of the Lord's judgment was given to strengthen Christians for the endurance of sufferings and to awaken them to a watchful Christian life.

Therefore he now invites Christians to be prudent, that is, circumspect everywhere and in everything, and to be watchful in various kinds of prayers.

Thus they will be better prepared to meet the Lord the Judge and will spend their time cheerfully (see Eph 5:19), not like the pagans in entertainments, among which every shameful deed was permitted.

Next the apostle exhorts them to have love, and indeed fervent love. This is the kind of love to which a Christian must rouse himself, since a Christian must love even those who do not love him.

Mutual love, of which hospitality is an expression, must also appear in readiness to serve one's neighbors with whatever gifts one has received from God.

These gifts, spiritual and material, are given by God for use for the good of neighbors.

Their possessor must remember that, when he uses them to serve his neighbors, he is a steward, a distributor, of the manifold grace of God.

He is only an instrument in the hands of God's Providence for doing good to his neighbors. He must regard the talents given to him not as his own property, but as God's property.

They have been entrusted to him so that he may share them with those in need. He is not an independent master, but only a trustee, or steward.