1 Peter 4:10

1 Peter 4:10

The Christian Stewardship.

I. 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. And by it a lesson is conveyed to us of no inconsiderable importance. We have not, I think, been good stewards of this manifold grace. We have been ever apt to look on the grace of God in one or at most in some few of its aspects only. We have forgotten its manifoldness, its many-shifting hues, its exquisite and inexhaustible richness of tint and pattern. In other words, we have assumed for the Gospel of Christ too exclusively theological a character. This has been the fault of the Church for ages. By setting forth the Gospel in its manifold points of human interest, we might have had much more hold on men's hearts, and brought in a richer harvest of souls to Christ.

II. Every one of us is more or less put in trust with this manifold grace, in one or other of its departments. And when we review the wonderful process of love by which it has been won for us, is it not a very solemn question for us all, for every one in his own case, "Am I a good steward of this manifold grace?" (1) Wealth is a stewardship. As a man's worldly means increase, so his charities ought to increase. (2) Talent is a stewardship. (3) Influence is a stewardship. If we use our stewardships as our own, His property committed to us as if it were not His, we cannot walk in the track of His gracious purposes, nor at last enter into His joy.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. v., p. 15.

References: 1 Peter 4:10 . H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 60; Preacher's Monthly, vol. vii., p. 287; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 228.