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Stewarding Grace for Jesus' Eternal Glory and Dominion (1 Peter 4:7-11)

Scott Kercheville
10/03/21 - Sun AM

“All things praise thee, Lord most high, Heav’n and earth, and sea and sky; All were for Thy glory made, That thy greatness thus displayed; Should all worship bring to Thee; All things praise Thee  — Lord may we!” All things were made for the glory of God the Father, and the aim of all history is that in the Son God would have glory and dominion over all things, and that through the Spirit his presence would fill all the earth.

So, God has made us in his royal image and told us to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it — we are to be filling the earth with God’s image and multiplying beautiful, fruitful works as we would in a temple. But we have allowed evil spiritual beings to deceive us. We have filled the earth with violence perverted sexual unions and with cities built, not for the glory of God in all things, but to make a name for ourselves.

We upended the plan of God, but Scripture tells us God’s purpose is steady: “All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD” (Num. 14:21 ESV). How will he do that? Key to that plan is setting up both himself and a human as king over all creation. Dan. 7:14 ESV, “And to [the son of man] was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion…”

Knowing this great king would be a son from David’s lineage, Solomon prayed: “May [the king] have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!” “May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!” “May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed! Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel… may the whole earth be filled with his glory!” (Psalm 72:8, 11, 17-19). Through his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has been enthroned as king and is subduing his enemies and leading his people back to be fruitful for the glory of the Father.

Thus, consider 1 Peter 4:7-11 again with the layout I have provided. Peter is saying: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore” *do everything* “in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” to whom “belong glory and dominion forever.” Let’s fill this out.

The End (Telos) of All Things Is At Hand (7)

The end of all things is at hand. That should be a stunning statement if we let it hit us. We are born, we go to school, we work, we get married, we have kids, we build families, businesses, governments, cities, churches. We are busy with many things, but the telos, the end, the goal of all things is at hand.  Have we been living within the telos, the end for which everything was made? Have we been doing all things in the body of Christ, in school, work, family, government that Jesus’ would have dominion and glory over all these things? Has our aim been the glory of God in all things through Jesus the Messiah?

The aim of the world is accomplishing personal dominion to make a name for themselves. The aim of the governments of the world is “Nebuchadnezzar’s glory,” and “Pax Romana,” and “Life liberty and happiness for all.” But the aim for which all things were made is God’s glory. The end is of all things is at hand. Are we living in God’s purposes for all things?

If you have seen people react to the news that the end is near in our world, there is something astonishingly different here. If one were to know that the end was today, in a few hours, that would call for a radically different life. Imagine the end is today — what would you do? Is there some good thing undone? Some poisonous root bearing bitter fruit that must be uprooted? If there is something radically different we would do, does that not show we have not been living as if the end is at hand? So, what ought we do?

1. Be Self-Controlled and Sober/Clear-Minded for Prayer

This is similar to 1:13. “Being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Since the end, the goal of all things is at hand when Jesus will have glory and dominion over all things, there is a need for clear-headed focus, discipline, and control over ourselves. Do we see this is not the way of the world? The world is not self-controlled or clear-headed, sober-minded. There is a constant IV going into going into their veins anesthetizing them from pain, clouding their minds, distracting them from higher purpose: gluttony, drunkenness, greed, idolatry, lost in sexual fantasies, addicted to amusement, dings, flashes, videos, music, and urgent news.

Creation was made that we steward it for Jesus’ dominion and enjoy it with thankfulness to God’s glory. But the excess and immorality clouds everyone’s minds to the truth: the end for which all things were created is at hand.

At that reality must lead us to be sober-minded for the sake of our prayers. The imminent end should not cause us to be fatalistic or to leave behind responsibilities (Jobes 365). It leads us to be like Anna in Luke 2: camp out before God’s throne and knock day by day bringing the current darkness in our lives and in the world before him, pleading with him to guide us through the storm, begging him to redeem Jerusalem, bring his kingdom, cause his will to be done on earth as in heaven for the honoring of his name.

This is one of the problems with getting stuck in the pleasure of sin and hooking up our bodies to constant sources of amusement: the excesses cloud our minds so we don’t see clearly. We don’t see the darkness, our need, how all isn’t right, the need for God’s promises to come through, and the need for us to be disciplined in prayer because of all that.

What we do in our bodies — whether we have self-control — effects our prayers. In our commonly dualistic worldviews that split up our spirit and body, this is hard for us to grasp. We may read about fasting to pray or read 1 Corinthians 7 where married couples agree to abstain from sexual relations for a time to commit themselves to pray it may be confusing. We reason, “If I need to pray, I’ll go to my closet for 5 or 10 minutes, then I’ll eat my dinner and go to bed. Ha! Those mystic ancients didn’t get it.” But in reality it is we who struggle to understand. We need self-control and clear-headedness and the ability to take time occasionally to say “no” — not to punish ourselves or reject God’s good gifts — but to pray. To pray and align our bodies, minds, spirits to the reality that the end, the goal of all things is at hand. All things are not right and I need to speak to my Father to ensure that the things in my power are being stewarded to the end for which they were created — God’s glory. I long to be more disciplined in my camping out before God’s throne — let us work on this together.

2. Love one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Love today is defined as having happy feelings and vibes about someone. But Christian love is a verb we do toward one another earnestly — we are to steadfastly pursue loving one another (Jobes 366). Peter insists this love is vital above all because earnest love will cover a multitude of sins. This does not mean we atone for our sins by loving others. It is an allusion to Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up strive, but love covers all offenses.”

So, we are living in community together for the glory of God and all will know who we are by our love and unity. But Christian community is messy. I do wrong and so do you. We sin. As we consider the reality that the end is at hand and that the Gentiles are maligning us — if we hate one another, we will cause strife every time someone sins against us. But, if we love one another, we will be able to cover a multitude of sins and allow our relationships and the community to continue to grow for God’s glory.

Now, I must put an asterisk on this. Organization after organization and church after church in recent years has been plagued by scandals where very destructive sins were covered up — not in wise graciousness — but in ways that left people with little voice in the dust, without hope, help, love, or community. People have been wronged in destructive ways that weren’t dealt with. And at times this explanation has been misapplied by people who are not truly repentant: love me and cover up my sin. At times, some have helped wolves put their disguises back on.

Thus, this is not an injunction to cover up sin in the camp. The church will not exist for God’s glory if we do that. So let us have both wisdom and love. Love one another enough to deal with sins, but to not cause strife; love enough to forgive the repentant and cover up a multitude of sins.

3. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

If you have been a Christian community a long time, it is easy to take your support system for granted. People who come to Christ are often very vulnerable because their old communities that promote ungodly behaviors were usually very supportive. As we come out of the world and often have to cut ties with worldly communities, we are to find open doors, open arms, extra beds, and extra seats at the table in one another’s homes.

Some have said in the past that hospitality is only when you open your home to complete strangers — especially giving them a place to stay. And, yes, there were not many inns in those days and that was very important in the Christian community then and still is today. Why stay at a hotel when you can be with friends and family? Independence and space can be overvalued.

But note that he says to show hospitality to one another. They worshipped and ate in each others homes. We are to open our homes, beds, and tables to do the same. In our quarantine and pandemic world, I don’t think I can over-emphasize the importance of this today. But in our spread out 21st century cities, I must emphasize the unique challenge of our situation.

In Jesus’ day, Jerusalem was 1 square mile. Ancient Rome was about 5-9 square miles. Hundreds of thousands of people lived in Rome. In Rome, Jews tried to live near one another. For all the challenges of the ancient world, imagine how easy it was to be connected to one another when literally everyone is within walking distance. Even if we don’t count some outliers in our congregation, we are spread out not over 1 or 9 square miles, but roughly 800 square miles plus traffic. This is a challenge. And while I hold out hope there will be opportunities for more of us to live in closer proximity to each other, this is our situation. And it calls for us to live intentionally in hospitable community together. Virtual assembling and virtual hospitality are oxymorons — for God did not send a hologram of himself, nor did his spirit merely temporarily inhabit a man as the gnostics taught, but he lived embodied among us. So, let us open our homes and tables. Don’t worry if it is perfectly clean or whether the meal is exquisite.

But let us not grumble when we do show hospitality. People who receive hospitality are always nervous they are invading someone else’s space. While it is good to be considerate as a guest, we certainly don’t want to undermine our hospitality with grumbling — for this would not be glorifying to God.

4. Steward God’s varied grace to serve one another.

Some fake humility and say they don’t have a gift, but if that’s so, that means God hasn’t given you grace. God’s grace and gifts to us are varied and different, but each one of us should steward this grace to serve one another.

So, if we are in a role of speaking, shepherding, teaching, preaching, counseling, rebuking, encouraging — let us speak as one who speaks the oracles of God. If we are in a role where we are serving and working with our hands and feet and resources, let us do so with the strength that God supplies.

Note that we speak with God’s oracles and God’s strength. Why? In order that in everything God may be glorified in Jesus Christ. The goal of all history  is that Jesus is given dominion and glory forever to the glory of God. Thus, in whatever we do to serve others and speak truth, we must always see ourselves as stewarding God’s oracles, God’s strength, God’s creativity, God’s love, God’s grace for his glory. God is glorified when we use, grow, and give to others what he has given us.

To give examples, when we speak, we ought not speak with the wisdom of Oprah’s chicken soup for the soul; rather, we should meditate on Scripture day and night, let that transform our imagination and intellect, and speak to others as one who speaks God’s oracles. When we serve and love, we ought not try to emulate Ghandi. When we hold positions of leadership, we ought not do it as Washington, Bush, Obama, Trump, or Biden would. When we give we do not give as Tim Cook or Bill Gates would. Why? We don’t want Oprah, Ghandi, Washington, Biden, or Bill Gates to have dominion forever — we want King Jesus to have that. We don’t want them to have the glory, we want God to have the glory. So we speak and serve with his uncorrupted word and his enduring strength.

This is why it is not enough for you or me to get up here to merely teach spirituality that makes us somewhat nice people. This is why we shouldn’t give leftovers. This is why it’s not okay to go to school only to get good grades or to start a business to get rich or to work on a project to become famous or to counsel others to merely make them happy or to be a friend to simply cure loneliness. This is why the aim of a Christian is not to merely run a nice empire for Nebuchadnezzar’s glory, for Pax Romana, or for life, liberty, and happiness. We are to do all things to the end that Jesus would have dominion over all things. We are to do all things to the end that God would be glorified and honored by how every molecule, person, relationship, church, business, government, and ruler honors him.

To God belongs glory in Jesus Christ. And to Jesus Christ belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen, may it be so. This end where all things have been put under Jesus’ feet and where God is glorified in all things — this end is at hand. Let us be clear-headed for our prayers, earnestly loving one another, hospitable, stewarding every gift of God for his glory — hastening the end for which all things were made.