1 Peter 4:10, commentary and pictures

Every person has received a gift from God and is to minister that same gift to others as a good steward of His manifold grace. The gift comes by grace and takes many-sided, varied forms that are to be received daily and passed on as through a channel. A steward owns nothing but holds all in trust as a loan from God by creation and redemption, to receive in order to impart and so become like Him. What is received must be used for others and for God's glory and the salvation of souls rather than hoarded or spent on self, traded upon and improved by use until it returns multiplied. Each steward remains individually accountable for how the trust is used, yet even the humblest wholly devoted service is accepted as faithful when done in meekness, humility, compassion and love.

Words and Scope

Every person has received a gift from God and is to minister that same gift to others as a good steward of the manifold grace of God. Those who use their gifts in this way are stewards of God's many-sided grace, called to development and service rather than dependence on others. The church is to practice this mutual ministry with hospitality toward one another without reluctance.

The gift comes through God's grace and includes knowledge of His grace and truth, together with time, means, talent, and influence entrusted for His glory and the salvation of others. Manifold means many-sided and varied forms of grace, to be received generously and then passed on rather than selfishly kept. Receiving God's bounty calls for unselfish giving, so that Christ's Spirit within becomes a source refreshing others and moving them to serve and share the gospel. Each soul must receive grace daily in order to communicate it, making it daily business through faith and dependence on the saving grace of Christ to gain the knowledge of God and of Christ essential to salvation, learning meekness and lowliness, increasing in knowledge and wisdom, and aiding others in spiritual education rather than hoarding in selfishness. In this way every soul is to be a channel that both receives and gives, returning to God multiplied what He continually gives and bringing light, joy, peace, and the fullness of His grace into other lives.

A steward holds all in trust as a loan from God, not as owner, for position, possession, knowledge of the truth, worldly business, talents, means, learning, property, income, and opportunities for service are lent to test character and must be accounted for to Him to whom each belongs by creation and redemption. Talents are to be used not for self but in devoted service to God with pure and loving hearts and with loving, whole-hearted obedience, growing in ability to serve, using them as Christ directs without claiming glory for self. The gifts are bestowed to be ministered to others by receiving in order to impart, striving to obtain knowledge in order to labor for the ignorant and perishing and to carry forward God's work of educating youth and saving souls ready to perish. In such unselfish service for the blessing of others the giver becomes like God and like Christ, fulfills God's great purpose for mankind, meets the high ideal of Christian education, is ennobled and purified from selfishness, and causes glory to flow back to God as His people represent the heavenly kingdom.

The verse stands with sober watchfulness when the end is at hand and with speaking as the oracles of God and ministering as of the ability God gives, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Whether a person speaks or serves, gifts differ yet each is to do so with the words and ability God supplies, in dependence on God. These lay down the principles that must actuate workers in God's cause and control the heart, so that workers realize the work is God's, not theirs, and He has the same care for every part of the great whole. With Christ and His glory made first and love of self swallowed up in love for souls for whom Christ died, no worker becomes so absorbed in one branch as to lose sight of every other or to think his own part most important, exalts self, takes unassigned responsibilities God never required, or hinders the work God purposed to do through them. Everyone in the family circle must thus have words and works after the works of Christ and stand wholly under the control of Jesus Christ, with strong traits that would eclipse mercy and love and compassion put away and every principle of the Word magnified in life.

Gifts God Entrusts

The gifts entrusted are broad and concrete, covering time, means, money, talents, abilities, influence, intellect, sympathy and affection, mental and moral powers, physical strength, skill, health, learning, position, possessions, business and opportunities. Means placed under a person's care are to be brought into service rather than withheld, used to help those in need and to support the work and its ministers and institutions, not hoarded or spent selfishly. Good stewardship turns those means toward mercy and benevolence, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry and advancing the cause, rather than toward pride and display. Gifts of mind and body must be guarded and kept ready for service, carefully developed and used for noble purposes especially to draw people to Christ, not weakened by self-indulgence or misuse since harm to one part lessens the usefulness of the whole, with habits and practices brought into conformity with the will of Him who gave His life.

The gifts differ from person to person in measure according to ability and capacity by wise purpose to promote the kingdom, so people need one another and can help one another. No one is accountable for talents never had or for work entrusted to someone else, but only for the work and gifts actually entrusted, and no small gift, humble service, or small task is to be despised. Moral and spiritual capital is given with each person's own God-appointed work to do where he can, employing talents to the glory of God according to ability and faithfully trading upon them, each in a particular sphere with proportionate result returned to God. The person with a few pence who serves faithfully with those pence is judged as faithful as the one who has improved pounds, and even the humblest service wholly devoted to God's glory is acceptable. Individual responsibility and accountability cannot be transferred to another, so no one may control another mind or talent, make little of entrusted qualifications by human estimate, weigh another's gifts in human balances, merge individuality into another, become steward for another, take another's work out of God's hands, discourage or hinder fellow workers, neglect his own duty by anxiously judging another, glorify the possessor or exalt people; each is to be fashioned by God's hand and fitted for the work given him, using gifts to uplift Christ, represent truth, benefit others and help fellow workers carry out their duties. Faithful use brings glory to the Giver, while misuse robs Him, and failure to acknowledge His claim does not lessen guilt, with allegiance to evil meeting judgment without His acknowledgment.

The trusts pass from generation to generation as a hereditary trust, gathered age after age for over eighteen hundred years, with increasing responsibilities descending to the present and responsibility growing with light received. Stewards are to lay aside self and peculiarities of character to unite heart and soul with fellow workers in harmony and reveal grace in the life to break down barriers that keep people apart, with even the lowest service accepted when directed to doing the Master's will and promoting His glory rather than one's own, clothed not with one's own garments but with the robe of righteousness. Included are the power of speech, song, writing, intelligence and spiritual gifts, with every gift and power promised to faithful servants bestowed for use, including mental capabilities belonging to God by creation and by redemption. Speech is capable of being the greatest blessing of all gifts and should be diligently cultivated and trained to be most effective for good in convincing and persuading, offering prayer and praise, and telling of redeeming love. The ability to sing is a talent of influence to be cultivated and used for God's glory, at times delivering a message alone or with others in worship and public meetings, but generally involving and encouraging everyone present. Intelligence is to be consecrated as a vessel receiving heavenly treasure to let it flow in rich currents to souls starving for righteousness, never so truly enriched as when trying to enrich poverty-stricken souls, requiring connection with the Source of all power, following the rugged path of self-denial and cross-bearing, daring to stand alone, accepting the Holy Spirit, learning divine methods and laboring together with God as channels through which God and ministering angels communicate, thus reaching the highest mental and moral development and full complement of influence. Talents and capabilities are expected to be increased by use, every talent employed in blessing others and bringing honor to God with human effort combined with the divine, as in healing the sick, so physicians and medical missionaries may not treat capabilities as individual property for branching into unappointed lines.

Faithful Stewardship Required

What has been received must be used for others and for God's glory and the salvation of souls, not hoarded, buried, or left dormant. The gifts belong to the Lord and not to those who receive them, so each is responsible for how they are used in the place of duty and work appointed to him. Faithful work is to match the light and ability received, and sincere effort for the Master is accepted as an offering to Him. Such faithful use brings greater ability to do good and to serve, purifies and elevates the worker and makes him an instrument for God's work, while the worker remains both a learner and a teacher working for the good of humanity. The grace given makes each a steward to share the gospel broadly and faithfully, so that the Master may receive His own with increase.

Nothing entrusted is to be spent on self-gratification or selfish pleasure, nor used to glorify its possessor, since without Christ's grace all would be lost and no merit can be claimed as one's own. Talents must be traded upon, improved by use, and returned multiplied with increase. Every person is God's hired servant holding a stewardship that must not be bargained away, to administer the truth committed to him before the heavenly universe with sanctified heart and with hands having something to impart as occasion demands from the income God entrusts. Even the humblest has been entrusted with talents and made God's agent to use gifts for His name's glory, and it is personal duty to realize that responsibility and turn talents to advantage as a gift to be returned after doing his best to improve it. He who so improves his talents presents his offering to God as a consecrated gift, fragrant incense before Him, a savor of life unto life, acceptable to the Father through Christ's merits when given sincerely in love for God and desire to serve Jesus.

Faithfulness means walking in the light, refusing to use intellect, pleasant manners, life and activity for selfish gratification, carefully economizing entrusted means and using every talent so that it increases. This calls for care in using means, simplicity in dress, strict economy, and diligent, sincere, self-sacrificing effort in the Lord's vineyard to do good and save souls to Jesus Christ, sowing good seed beside all waters. So the worker lays gold, silver, and precious stones on the foundation that will live through eternal ages rather than hay, wood, and stubble that will be consumed by the fires of the last day, and God blesses such service and grants eternal life as its reward. Neglect weakens, wastes what was entrusted, and forfeits reward, for however great the gift it is worthless unless it is used aright, and unless gifts are used aright they are of no service to Him.

Stewards remain individually accountable and must give an account, for everything possessed is a loan from Christ and every gift makes the receiver a steward under obligation wisely to improve every capability in order to point sinners to Him. How entrusted capability is used decides destiny, for eternal life is worth everything so that to fail in that stewardship is to lose everything. Serving others' needs as Christ did belongs to the Christian life and brings into closer fellowship with God, and faithful use in helping others, including working and praying for the conversion of those nearby who do not share the faith, both helps others and strengthens the believer's faith and experience. Every faculty and energy is given in trust as Christ's property employed in His service, so one seeking education must examine motive and ask how best to employ time and privilege, putting on the whole armor of God provided by the gift of the only-begotten Son and opening the heart to the Holy Spirit so that every entrusted power is aroused for Christ. Even the most highly endowed can fulfill God's purpose only as he purifies himself from all selfishness, greed, and worldly ambition, with the one work of seeing the salvation of sinners, doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, never seeking to exercise the prerogatives of God and never being conscience for other men.

Allegiance to evil and refusal to acknowledge God's claim brings judgment, and stewardship is compromised and wasted when personal dignity is preserved by refusing to confess and continuing as a transgressor of God's holy, just, and good law. True stewardship loathes committed sins, repents and confesses while Christ is still pleading in the courts of heaven, and comes into the Saviour's presence to touch His scepter even if it means perishing, resolving to be a transgressor no longer and to use what has been entrusted faithfully. The church is not to depend on ministers alone, for every believer has a part in this work. Even the lowest and humblest service, and the few pence of the small steward, is accepted and judged as faithful as pounds when wholly devoted to do the Master's will rather than one's own, clothed with Christ's righteousness. Abilities and knowledge given by God are therefore to be shared for the good of others and of every line of His work, not treated as one person's exclusive possession, with what has been received shared, divine light gathered and allowed to shine out to the world, that servants may become wise and trustworthy in serving with it.

Spirit and Manner of Service

Speaking is to agree with the word of God and serving is to be done with the strength God supplies, with truth shaping words, thoughts and actions and faith working by love, so that God receives the glory. Speaking and acting faithfully toward others belongs to stewardship of Christ's grace, and speaking without care shows that grace has not been learned and stewarded faithfully. Ministry of the entrusted grace is to serve the church humbly, relying on the Holy Spirit and setting aside selfishness. Good stewardship requires earnest self-education to be best fitted for the great work committed, making wise use of faculties and opportunities and doing one's best, including disciplining manners, tone, gestures and language to use correct, sound and pure words, to keep the tongue from evil and lips from guile, to discard defects that detract from usefulness and influence, and to make daily advancement toward perfection as representatives of Christ and the truth. Faithful stewardship is shown in speech and attitude by not speaking unadvisedly, not opposing each step of advance, not making the way hard for those who most need help, and not causing perplexity or leaving unhappy impressions on minds. It requires walking humbly before God, keeping His honor first, expecting little from men, cultivating kindness and true heavenly courtesy, and refusing retaliation or hostility toward those who are suspicious and unjust. Principles and ideas must be changed by learning in Christ's school, obeying God and becoming meek and lowly in heart, for otherwise selfishness prevents the Holy Spirit from preparing a person to bear responsibility in the church and its work. Workers in institutions are to treat others, including those who err, with compassion, kindness, patience and forbearance rather than hurt or discourage them.

The work is God's, not the worker's, with equal care for every part of the whole, and when Christ is first and love of self is swallowed up in love for souls, no worker becomes absorbed in one branch, exalts self, takes unassigned responsibilities, controls another mind, or hinders fellow workers. Each person entrusted with God's grace and precious truth must use what has been received faithfully in service, with work and responsibilities shared and others trained to serve, since one person cannot rightly be expected to carry an excessive burden alone. Being made a steward of the grace of Christ means carrying out a definite errand for the Lord in plain and decided writing and pleading, as a mother pleads with her son, giving the message God gives even when it surprises the receiver and even when the receiver denies the representation, claims someone filled the messenger's mind with trash, and is tempted to justify himself. That stewardship includes pointing out errors and mistakes and calling for changed plans and methods and altogether different character-building, lest storm and tempest sweep it from its foundation. A faithful steward does not let earthly and temporal matters so engross the mind that eternal realities are lost out of reckoning, but has a true sense of spiritual need, a desire for a better knowledge of God, a sense of urgency for communion with God, and values the messages of warning for this time enough to attend them from beginning to close instead of showing marked indifference and losing what would have been gained. Walking wisely means refusing to dwell on objectionable things until they swallow up everything else, for that course does not manifest the wisdom that makes wise unto salvation. Those given responsibility must manage entrusted grace faithfully, so that conference presidents are to be trustworthy stewards chosen with prayer and evidence of faithfulness. The work of young men can prepare them for wise and trustworthy stewardship of Christ's grace, and accepting correction and walking in the light belong to that preparation. The Lord's work has many branches and God employs human agents in numerous ways, and as God's stewards each man and woman has a work to perform, each being given capabilities which qualify for this work. Those in responsible positions must put aside selfishness and faithfully weigh probabilities and possibilities to place workers where ability can be used, moving any employed in one place to do work that might better be done elsewhere into other lines of the Lord's work, such as canvassing, for none are in this world to please and glorify self.

Faithful ministry requires meekness, humility, patience, forgiveness, unity, kindness, courtesy, compassion, self-denial and love, putting away strong traits that eclipse mercy, refusing retaliation, faultfinding and evil speaking, and becoming like Christ in disposition. Love is to be shown not only in words but in deeds, in personal ministry and sacrifice, as part of the commission given to the disciples and to all who believe to the end of time. Talent, learning, position, wealth and influence are gifts from God to be consecrated to Him rather than held as one's own. Education should qualify students to be wise stewards of the manifold grace of Christ, servants under Christ to do His bidding, connected with Christ by faith and yoked up with Him, bending every effort to act as messengers of His mercy and love, ministering His grace to others with hearts throbbing in unison with Christ in spirit and action. God gives His gifts so people will serve others with them, and using gifts to help and lift others makes them like God and like Jesus Christ. This serving work ennobles and purifies, cleansing the soul from selfishness, and causes glory to return to God, which God's people need to understand clearly in order to represent the heavenly kingdom. Stewardship of that grace includes following God's lead and developing a Christian character. Christ's followers entrusted with God's grace must faithfully use what they have received to serve others, living according to God's will and making themselves helpers in saving perishing souls. Human wisdom and efforts cannot replace God, who must be given the highest place.

Home Church and School

The gift is to be put to use first in home and family life, practiced there daily. The aim is not to meet the world's standard or to seek its applause, but to do the will of the heavenly Father and to be a blessing to all who are met. Parents are stewards in their appointed work for their children, to do that work patiently and lovingly in faith, praying constantly for God to impart His grace to the children, without growing weary, impatient, or fretful, clinging closely both to the children and to God. By bringing light into the home they teach consideration and compassion, represent Christ, and share the wisdom and knowledge received from God while leading their children toward heaven. A father fulfills this stewardship by setting a right example, educating his children to be intelligent and useful, able to use God-given strength to carry forward His work in the world, training them by precept and example to be faithful stewards. Children are to be educated, disciplined, and trained to know they hold lent treasures in trust, to be used to the very best advantage for the highest service with nothing withheld, all gifts promoting the glory of God, cherishing accountability for the wise use of every faculty and improving and perfecting entrusted capabilities by use. Lived out in the family, this brings a higher and holier experience, a deep religious experience that takes foolishness out of the life, removes hindrances to growth in grace, and gives peace and joy in the Lord.

In the church each person is to use the gift received from God in service to others as a steward of God's grace. Hospitality is one appointed way, given simply and willingly without elaborate preparations that take time from the Lord, burden the household, or lead guests to overeat. Each member is responsible for contributing to the success of the camp meeting and must not depend on ministers or Bible workers as a substitute for personal spiritual life and service. Those who have received Christ's pardoning love and the Spirit's light owe it to every person they meet to share saving grace, not merely to receive blessing for themselves. God can use humble people to reach those whom ordained ministers cannot approach, and as they impart grace and use God-given abilities their own hope and faith grow while God supplies further grace and works with them. This stewardship includes mutual edification and care for the erring, and a special, active, patient and tender concern for young people and children, recognizing their spiritual need and danger while Satan seeks to lead them astray, giving them care and instruction and doing the work needed to guide them.

Teachers and students alike are stewards to minister faithfully in some capacity in the line of service to which each is best adapted, cooperating in doing their best. Teachers act as good stewards by constantly seeking wisdom from on high to be kept from mistakes, by giving careful attention to preparing each student for his place, and by making students see the importance of constantly rising higher and still higher. They must be awake to give the trumpet a certain sound, voicing the third angel's message and calling the world to make ready for the great day of God, for the message they bear has the seal of the living God. Everyone who has received a knowledge of the truth is accountable for personal influence, studying the Scriptures for himself, feeling the weight of responsibility, refusing to be an idler, cultivating ability and training every power to serve Christ who purchased him with His own blood. Such stewardship uses domestic, business, and visiting contacts to open the treasures of truth and impart a knowledge of salvation to those in darkness, including classes the minister cannot reach, so that light is brought to many and a harvest of souls is gathered. Every person to whom God has entrusted talents of means or ability must devote self and all to God not only of means but of grace given, because the great need of the mission field in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, India, China, the islands of the sea, and all dark places appeals for such consecration, so that many souls may be brought under the banner of Prince Immanuel in a much shorter time than many think possible. The physician who has received God's grace fulfills the same stewardship by living in close communion with the Saviour and guarding soul as well as body, since the sick and suffering entrust themselves to his wisdom and mercy and need the help Christ alone can give, prayers prompted by His Spirit, with his skill and faithfulness as their hope.

Mission to the World

Those who have received grace are its stewards and must use abilities, resources, money and talents entrusted to them for the good of others rather than centering them on selfish wants. Faithful stewardship is to communicate blessing, help people in need, impart truth faithfully in word and deed for the salvation of souls, and give God the glory for any success. It means making Christ's saving principles known to the world instead of following personal preferences or natural tendencies.

Those who know the truth are responsible for sharing it, teaching those who would accept it if presented as Christ presented it, and opening new fields left without the message. Like water making barren land fruitful, the riches of Christ's grace are to bring spiritual life to such places. This calls for seeking out humble, overlooked people who are already serving God with the light they have, visiting them, studying the Bible and praying with them, and meeting their needs through the Holy Spirit's power.

The same stewardship governs enterprises such as the health-food work, which is a gift entrusted to God's people and not a means of personal financial gain, with its profits to serve suffering people everywhere.