What Does 1 Peter 4:10 Mean?

(10) **As every man hath received the gift.**—There is no definite article in the-Greek, which might be rendered, *According as every man was gifted.* They are reminded, as in 1Corinthians 4:7, that the gift was *received, *and for the same purpose. At what period these gifts were received it is hard to say, as in some instances the gift was of a spiritual nature, in others of a temporal nature. Each, however, has a gift of *some* kind for the benefit of the community. **Even so minister.**—In the original, *ministering.* It is still an exhibition of the “intense charity” of 1Peter 4:8. The verb is the same as in 1Peter 1:12, where see Note. **As good stewards.**—No one receives these gifts, spiritual or temporal, as his own; he is but a “steward,” and when he offers them to the Church it is not as a benefactor, but as a servant, “ministering.” **Of the manifold grace of God.**—“Grace” is here used, not in its theological sense, but, as in 1Peter 3:7, in the sense of bountiful giving; and the beautiful word rendered “manifold” brings out the subtle and picturesque *variety* with which God arranges and distributes His bounty. But the emphatic word of the sentence is “of God.”