Serve in the Ministry (Part 1)
What to do with all those blessings from God
===
Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God.
1 Peter 4:10 (NET)
===
Yesterday I talked about building the Body of Christ.
Here’s a verse that echoes that idea.
Serving one another — i.e., the Body of Christ — as good stewards of God’s grace.
The gifts we have as believers are not for ourselves, they’re for others.
I know it’s tempting to want to hoard the gifts, to use things to further my own status so that I look good to others. But that selfishness isn’t useful to building the believers. And it certainly doesn’t reflect the grace of God given to me.
When I was a fresh college graduate, before I jumped into seminary, I spent about a year under the mentorship of a collegiate minister in Colorado.
One of the phrases he liked to use was…
“blessed to be a blessing.”
I like how this reflects the unselfish attitude of God’s blessings & grace. That I could be a man blessed with all kinds of blessings from God — not to use for my own selfish gains — but to share that blessing with others.
More than sharing, Paul talks about serving.
This takes intentional work, sometimes hard work.
Sometimes it’s work that won’t be rewarded here on the earth (in fact, it seldom is). I expect that the service I render is just a part of my maturing in Christ process. Part of that maturity is waiting on the rewards in heaven, not here.
All right, I’d love to cover stewardship, but I’ve run out of room.
More tomorrow.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.