An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of I Peter 4:1-22, with the title “Our Faith,” for Sunday, April 13, 2025. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at

INTRO:

Begin class by sharing and/or discussing this quote:

A statement attributed to Martin Luther reads, “If I knew that tomorrow was the end of the world, I would plant an apple tree today!” (Patheos.com, 4/25/14)

(I’ve heard a similar quote, where someone said if they were to die tomorrow, they’d plant a tree. To me that would make more sense, as a tree might benefit future generations to come. But if the WORLD would end tomorrow, I don’t know that I would plant a tree. But that’s just me! You/your group can share your thoughts.)

But then you might ask your group (or you might just start off with this discussion question: 

??? “What would YOU do today, if you knew the world was ending tomorrow?”???

Then share: In our passage for today, Peter writes to Christians, encouraging us as God’s people to live as though we may be in the last days, and he gives some specific instructions on just how should live in the light of the end. 

CONTEXT:

We are continuing our study of I Peter today, and we have seen that Peter is writing to Christians who were suffering, many of them from false accusations, and he reminds us to fix our hope on the eternal inheritance we have in heaven with the Lord, and repeatedly in this book encourages us to live lives that both honor the Lord, and witness to the world around us. Last time we saw how we should strive to be “apologists” for the Lord — people who share the reasons for our faith with all those who observe our good behavior for the Lord in our trials. 

In today’s lesson Peter now encourages us to live our lives for the Lord in light of the end — and he gives us some specific instructions on just how we should live out our faith. 

OUTLINE:

I. Commit Yourself to Holiness (:1-7)

II. Devote Yourself to Love (:8-9)

III. Use Your Spiritual Gifts (:10-11)

TEXT:

I. Commit Yourself to Holiness (:1-7)

:1 “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. 4 In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

This section (:1-7) is all about how we should live holy lives, in light of the end. 

This is the opposite of the inclination of many, who think, well, if it’s the end, then “let’s eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” A few years ago I read one survey in which many Americans said if they were to die tomorrow they’d go get drunk and go to Las Vegas today. That’s the worldly mindset. If it’s all over, then just sin; do whatever you want.

But Peter tells us here, that is NOT the Christian mindset. A Christian living in light of the end should be committed to living a HOLY life. We see several references to that in this section:

(In fact, you could ask your group as you look at this section, to call out each time in this passage that Peter encourages God’s people NOT to sin. Answers should include:

— :1 speaking about suffering, says “he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” (We aren’t to continue in sin because it’s the end, but CEASE from it.)

— :2 “so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” (It’s not “get saved and live however you want, but we’re to live “no longer for the lusts of men.”)

— :3 “the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles …” (Your past sins are enough; you don’t need to sin any more.)

— at the end of :3 he lists several of the sins we should have done away with: “sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.” You could point out that Peter lists some things here that some Christians TODAY think are ok — or are at least practicing! He says we should rather be “done away” with these things!

— :5 reminds us we’ll “give account” to God for how we’ve lived, implying that this should motivate us to keep from sin.

— and the end of :6 encourages us to live sober, prayerful lives in light of the end. In other words, if it’s close to the end, God’s people don’t “eat, drink, and be merry;” we don’t “get drunk and go to Las Vegas” like many Americans in the survey indicated — instead we should devote more time to prayer. We’re about to be in the presence of God, so let’s get tuned up to worship Him, which is what we will be doing forever. 

So this whole section encourages God’s people to live holy lives in light of the end. 

ILLUSTRATION:

During the early part of the Revolutionary War, George Washington and the upstart Americans had hemmed the British Army into the port city of Boston. It was a cold winter’s night, and the British decided to have some entertainment while they were “hunkering down.” To add insult to injury to the Americans, the British decided to meet in “Faneuil (pronounced “fannel”) Hall, sacred to Boston patriots as ‘the cradle of liberty,’ was converted on General Howe’s wish into a ‘very elegant playhouse’ for amateur productions of Shakespeare and original farces, with officers and favored Loyalists taking parts. …

On the evening of January 8, uniformed officers and their ladies packed Faneuil Hall for what was expected to be the event of the season, a performance of a musical farce said also to have been written by (British General) Burgoyne. Titled The Blockade, it was off to a rollicking start from the moment the curtain rose. A ridiculous figure, supposed to be George Washington, stumbled on stage wearing an oversized wig and dragging a rusty sword. At the same moment, across the bay, Connecticut soldiers led by Major Thomas Knowlton launched a surprise attack on Charlestown … With the roar of the guns, which the audience at Faneuil Hall took to be part of the show, another comic figure, a Yankee sergeant in farmer garb, rushed on stage to say the rebels were ‘at it tooth and nail over in Charlestown.” The audience roared with laughter and ‘clapped prodigiously,’ sure that this, too, was part of the fun. ‘But soon finding their mistake [wrote an eyewitness] a general scene of confusion ensued. They immediately hurried out of the house to their alarm posts, some skipping over the orchestra, trampling on the fiddles, and, in short, everyone making his most speedy retreat, the actors (who were all officers) calling out for water to get the paint and smut off their faces, women fainting, etc.’ Reportedly, it was General Howe himself who shouted, ’Turn out! Turn out!’”

(David McCullough, 1776, pp. 74-75)

How ashamed Howe and his army must have been, to have been caught dressed up in makeup, ‘eating, drinking, making merry,” when Washington came by surprise. It’s a good picture, and a good reminder to us as Christians, not to be found doing anything we wouldn’t want the Lord to see, when He comes. 

You might ask your group as an application question here at the end of this point:

??? Is there anything you are practicing/participating in, in your life right now, that you would not want to be found doing when Jesus comes???

(Of course the response to that should be, if there is, then we need to repent of it NOW. If it’s wrong then, it’s wrong now — and we certainly don’t want to be found doing it when He comes. 

As God’s people, we need to commit ourselves to holiness.)

(Now, some people may lift their eyebrows at the first part of :6, “For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.” This is very similar to what we dealt with last week, on Christ in the Spirit preaching through Noah. It is NOT saying that somehow the gospel is preached to people who are dead NOW — as though they are receiving another chance at salvation. As we saw last week, there is NO scriptural basis for that — and there is scriptural evidence that it is NOT true, like Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” All that I Peter 4:6 is saying is that the gospel was preached (past tense!) to those who are NOW dead, that although they had committed sins which could have been judged, they have been saved by the Spirit of God. It’s just talking about believers who are now dead, but they were saved. So don’t get bogged down on speculations on this verse. Focus on the primary emphasis in this text: how we are to live in light of the end. And the emphasis of this first section is that God’s people are to be holy in light of His return, and the end.)

II. Devote Yourself to Love (:8-9)

8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaint. 

The words “above all” here refer to the priority of love. The Bible repeatedly makes it clear that there is nothing more important:
— I Timothy 1:5 says “the goal of our instruction is LOVE.” The end result God is seeking from our teaching isn’t “knowledge”, but that we might grow in LOVE!
— I Corinthians 13:13 says “now abide faith, hope, love; these three — but the greatest of these is LOVE.”

Many Christians want to do some “big thing” for the Kingdom of God. They might think: let’s build a great organization; let’s construct an impressive building; let’s do something that will make headlines throughout the region or even the world. But what we have to realize is that the Kingdom of God is not really about these things. The Kingdom of God is about LOVE! Love God greatly! Love people greatly! The “big thing” we are to build is LOVE! 

And then notice what he says in the second part of the verse; this is significant. He says, “because love covers a multitude of sins.” What does this mean, “love covers a multitude of sins”? It means that when you love someone, you overlook their flaws, and the sins they commit against you. 

Think about it: the people that you love aren’t perfect; far from it. They occasionally do things that might hurt or annoy you. But you overlook those things, because you love them. You might say something like: “Oh, I know they did (such and such a thing)”– but you don’t care, because you love them. Now some OTHER person, whom you do NOT love, may do the SAME kind of thing, and yet you are offended or hold it against them. What was the difference? It wasn’t the deed, or the “sin” itself — because you forgave one for it. No, the difference was that you had LOVE for one, and you didn’t for the other.

For example, I love our little grand babies. And as a loving grandparent, I often overlook some of the little things that they do. Several years ago I got my first iPad, and when I did I got a Zagg keyboard case, that serves both as a case for the iPad, and it also folds out into a keyboard, which basically turns your iPad into a laptop. It’s just a marvelous accessory. I just loved it. 

But one day the grandbabies were over, and one of them wanted to play with my iPad. I generally guarded that iPad with my life, but I thought, well, I will let HER sit in my lap and do a few things on it. Before I knew it, she had reached down on the keyboard, and just ripped the “W” right off of it! I tried several times to fix it, but it never worked again. Now, if a lot of people had done that, I would have been pretty ticked off at them! But when my precious grand daughter did it; I just laughed, “Oh well, she’s sweet!” (Then  a couple of months later, one of our other grandkids tore the “M” off. I must admit: it slowed my typing down considerably!)  But I overlooked those girls’ “transgressions” because I loved them. Now there are probably some other people, who if THEY had done that same thing, I would have been pretty unhappy about them tearing the numbers off my keyboard. What’s the difference? It wasn’t the transgression — the difference is MY LOVE for one was greater than for the other.

If you think about it, there are all kinds of examples of this in our lives. There are people who do things to you, or say things to you, or forget to do something for you, or whatever — but you don’t hold it against them, and the reason you don’t is because you love them. You overlook it, and say, “Well, that is just how they are,” or “Well, they just forgot,” or whatever.  But if someone ELSE did the VERY same kind of thing, you would get ticked off at them for it. What’s the difference? It’s not the transgression; they both did the same thing — the only difference is YOUR LOVE: you really love the one, and not the other.

So God challenges us here in His word: be “fervent in your love for one another.” As we saw earlier in I Peter, it’s not enough for us to “like” each other, and be “fond” of each other with a brotherly love, but God wants us to grow to have a real “agape” love for each other: a sacrificial love like Christ has for us; the kind of love that overlooks transgressions in others — because GOD has this same kind of love for YOU!

In our house growing up I was the oldest, and I have three younger sisters. The youngest is named Hope, and she got a lot of love and attention as babies of the family often do. In fact my Dad used to have Hope sit on his lap, and he just cuddle with her, and he’d often tease her and say “What are you good for, Hopie?” One day she was sitting with him again and he gave her a hug, and said, “What are you good for, Hopie?” But this time she said, “I’m good for love!” 

May that be true for each of us, that we are “good for love.” Peter tells us there that there is no more important thing to found doing, when this world/our life ends. “Above all, keep fervent in your love …”. “Above all” means there is nothing more important than love.  

III. Use Your Spiritual Gifts (:10-11)

10 “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

I Peter 4:10 is one of my very favorite verses regarding spiritual gifts. If you just analyze it word-by-word/phrase-by-phrase, you glean so much truth about spiritual gifts:

— “as EACH ONE” — EVERY Christian has a spiritual gift. You will not look at one saved person in your class this Sunday morning to whom God has not given a spiritual gift. “Each one” has received one. When we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes into our life. And when He comes, He brings a spiritual gift. To “each one.” 

+x I Corinthians 12:7 “But to EACH ONE has been given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Again there, “EACH ONE”! Every Christian has a spiritual gift. 

To me an illustration of this is the difference between a “door prize,” and a promotional giveaway. For example, if you attend a banquet, they may have a drawing for a “door prize.” Some people get one, and some don’t. I’ve been in both situations, where I got one, and where I didn’t. It’s a lot more fun to get one!

But then there is a “promotional giveaway,” where for example on “Jersey Night,” everyone who attends a baseball game gets a free jersey. it’s not just some who get it; ALL do. 

And that’s how it is with spiritual gifts. Every Christian gets one. Now you might emphasize, your spiritual gift may not be what you expect it to be; it may not be what someone ELSE’S gift is; but you do have one. And one of the most important things you need to do in your Christian life is find out what your spiritual gift is, so that you can then use it. (which we’ll see in a minute).

— What has each one received?  “A special gift.” This is the Greek word “charisma,” from which we get the word “charismatic.” It means a gift from God’s Spirit, that we are to use to serve Him and His church.

Verse 11 gives us a couple of examples of these “spiritual gifts”:

— “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God;”

— “… whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies.” 

So Peter says two examples of these spiritual gifts are:

 —“speaking” — that could mean preaching, teaching, encouraging, counseling — he says, when you use those gifts, speak God’s words, not just your own. But speaking is one example of using your spiritual gift.

— “whoever serves” — this is the word “diakonei” — it means to wait on tables. We get our word “deacon” from it.  He says serve with the strength God gives you. So serving others in practical ways is another spiritual gift one might have. 

These are just two examples Peter gives. There are other lists of spiritual gifts in Romans 12:6-8, Ephesians 4:11, and I Corinthians12:7-10. Most Bible students believe none of these lists are exhaustive; they are all just examples of spiritual gifts God’s Spirit can give us.

— and then he says “employ it” — in other words, USE IT regularly for God’s Kingdom work, because when the Lord comes/this world ends, we will all be judged/rewarded for the way we used our gifts. So DISCOVER your spiritual gift, and USE it!

— and notice you don’t get a spiritual gift just for yourself. You get it for the specific purpose of ministering to others in the church: “employ it IN SERVING ONE ANOTHER.” 

God doesn’t give you the gift of teaching so can enjoy hearing the sound of your own voice; He gave it to you to benefit others with your teaching, so teach!

God didn’t give you the gift of giving so you could spend it all on yourself; use it to minister to others and further God’s kingdom.

God didn’t give you the gift of serving so you’d be good at fixing up your own house; use it to serve others and your church.

One of the reasons God didn’t give each of us, all of the gifts, is so that we would learn to depend upon others in the church, so we would need each other. People need you to use your gift. Your church needs you to use your gift. So “employ it in serving one another.” 

— And then it says “As good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Our spiritual gift is a “stewardship” from God; that is, a gift/ability that we are given to use for others, as we have seen, and for which we are ACCOUNTABLE to Him!

Another +x you might want to use here is Ephesians 3:2, where Paul writes of “the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you.” God gave Paul grace (in that context the knowledge of the mystery of Christ) but that gift was not just for him, it was “for you.” “To me”/but “for YOU”! 

When someone is given a stewardship, they are accountable for what they do with it. 

You can use this ILLUSTRATION if you want, or maybe you have one like it:

My mom passed away last November, and I am the executor/trustee of her estate. It fell to me to consolidate her accounts, and open a new account, which I could write checks on. But the money in that account is not “mine.” I had to pay for her funeral, I had to pay any bills she had due, I am paying for a temporary storage unit for her things until they can be disposed of, and I am responsible to see that the money she left to different people, gets to them. So I am very much a “steward” of that account. It has been entrusted to me, but it is not “for me.” It is primarily for others’ benefit, not mine. And I have a trust lawyer, and three sisters, and multiple grandchildren who are holding me accountable for what I do with that money. I am accountable for what I do with this stewardship that has been entrusted to me.

And we need to realize that the same thing is true of our spiritual gifts. God has given to each of us who are His children, but they are not primarily FOR us; they are to be used for the benefit of others in the church. And like me with Mom’s account, we will all be held accountable for what we do with the stewardship of our gifts that has been entrusted to us. 

Matthew 24:45-46 is a passage that motivates me. Jesus says:

“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.” Jesus is the Master; we are His servants. He has given us spiritual gifts to use in serving others. We will be blessed if we are found USING those gifts, when He comes. 

So a good answer to that question: “What you do if the world was going to end tomorrow?” is found right here in I Peter 4:10. Be found serving God. Be found using your spiritual gifts, when He comes!  This would be a great opportunity for you to encourage your class members to get involved in something in your church. It would be a great application for you to have a list of specific service opportunities in your church, that your class members can sign up for: nursery/extended service sessions; empty committee spots; mission opportunities, etc. Give them some specific ways to use their gifts as this passage teaches us.

I’m grateful that you as a teacher are using your spiritual gift to minister to your class, and I hope this overview will help you as you get ready to share this week!

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— These weekly lessons are based on content from Explore the Bible Adult Resources. The presentation is my own and has not been reviewed by Lifeway.

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