1 Peter 4:7-13
Chapter 4
Above all, let your love for one another be genuine, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Welcome one another into your homes without complaining.
Serve one another with the gifts each of you has received, thereby becoming good stewards of God’s varied grace.
If you speak, do so as one delivering God’s word; if you have a special gift or ministry, let it be seen as God’s power so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belongs glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
My dear people, do not be surprised at the testing by fire, which is happening among you, as if something strange were happening.
Instead, you should be glad to share in the sufferings of Christ because, on the day his glory is revealed, you will also rejoice fully.
Commentaries
Hostility of the World.
Peter’s communities teach us believers today a valuable lesson. Christian behavior that has no impact on society shows that we have been carried away by the current of those who do not organize their lives according to the demands of the Gospel. The worst thing that can happen to us as followers of Jesus is that our conduct says nothing to anyone, that it offers no alternative to the world of injustice that surrounds us.