January 17, 2012 – 1 Peter 4 – 5

I think sometimes we don’t understand that we are stewards of God’s gifts to us. (4:10) A steward is a person who manages another's property or financial affairs. The things we have from God are not ours. We are not free to do whatever we want with them. Well, we are free to do whatever we want, but then we are not being good stewards. What we have is not ours, but God’s, given to us to manage, as the definition puts it. The owner is God. Keep that in mind when you feel free to go about doing whatever you please. Would you drive recklessly with someone else’s car. Would you spend someone else’s money unwisely. Would you treat someone else’s child negligently if you were caring for them. We are called to treat all of our gifts with the same care because they do not belong to us.

5:8 reminded me of the nature videos you always see of the lion going after the herd of animals. The one he catches is always the one that isn’t quite fast enough or is crippled for some reason. Picturing the devil as a lion going after a herd, then picture the person that is not “sober and vigilant”. This is on a spiritual sense, when we cripple ourselves or do not exercise our faith and gifts, we become the one that is left behind and devoured by the lion. Except in our case, there are many lions prowling and we must be on constant guard.

That imagery has a bit of a flaw when you think about what the herd doesn’t do for the one that is caught. We are not called to abandon those that are ensnared by the devil in order to save ourselves. We are called to reach out and save them. But, we may not be called to reach out so far that we leave ourselves vulnerable to attack (here I am thinking of a person that joins a cult to get their friend out of it. That is a grave risk that I don’t think we are called to do).