The Power And The Glory - 1 Peter 4:11b Series

1 Peter 4:11 If anyone speaks, let him do it as one speaking the words of God. If anyone serves, as with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Introduction

1 Peter 4 is all about how to deal with the problem of suffering for Christ. But right in the middle of the chapter Peter has a little three-verse interlude where he talks about love. The whole chapter is about persecution from the outside, but in this one little section he stops and discusses love on the inside. And he calls us to love one another in three ways: with forgiving love, with welcoming love, and with serving love. And now, at the end of that section Peter breaks into a doxology.

To Him be the Glory…

Doxology

A doxology is any statement attributing glory to God. The root word doxa is the Greek word for glory. Logos is word, so doxology is a word of glory – a statement designed to glorify God.

1 Peter 4:11 … so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

When we are reading the Bible our temptation is to just kind of skip over the doxologies. It just sounds like some extra, religious lingo tacked on the end that does not really teach me anything practical or helpful. The fact that we think that way shows just how desperately we need to spend more time studying the doxologies. There is not anything in the Bible more practical for day to day living than a doxology. You do not have anything going in your life right now more important than the glory of God. And there is not any topic I could preach about today that would be more helpful to you than the topic of the glory of God. So we are going to spend our whole time today just on this closing phrase of verse 11.

The Best Thing that Can Happen

Imagine yourself lying down in bed tonight and thinking, “Wow, today was a good day. Some really good things happened today.” What would it take for you to say that? Maybe if you were offered a great job. Or some estranged relationship was finally reconciled and healed. That would be a good thing. If there were an election and all your favorite candidates won, or if someone invented some way of providing plenty of food to all the starving people in the world from now on, we would all say, “Yes, something really good happened today.” There are a lot of very good things that can happen. What is the best thing that can happen? Of all the really good things that can possibly happen, what is the best thing that could ever take place? Answer – God being glorified. God is the greatest, most worthy being there is, and so Him being glorified is the best thing that can ever take place.

The Meaning of Glory

Last week I introduced the concept of glorifying God just very briefly. I told you that God’s glory is all that is wonderful about God that can be known and experienced by us. And His glory has a lot of facets. For example, one facet of God’s glory is His amazing love. The fact that He is loving is a wonderful thing that is true about God that we can know and experience, and so that is one facet of His glory. Another facet of His glory is His tremendous power. Some other facets are His wisdom and patience and creativity and gentleness and knowledge and faithfulness and perfection and eternality - He never came into existence and will never go out of existence. There is also the fact that He forgives those who repent, and redeems those in bondage, restores that which was ruined, strengthens the weak, and cares for the helpless. That is what He is like.

He is also the Author of life. He is the Source of all beauty, all pleasure, and all goodness. He is a person, with awareness, emotions, will, intention, desire, and motivation, and He communicates – He reveals Himself. He is never limited to any location, never contained by any space, and His presence is available wherever His children are. He never sleeps, never grows weary, never makes a mistake, is never surprised, never even slightly frustrated. He has total, sovereign authority over all things, and His decisions can never be overturned by anyone. He has no rivals, nothing threatens Him, and He never runs out of anything. He listens to the prayers of His people and responds to them. And like a father He cares for us, provides for us, guides us, teaches us, disciplines us, and loves us. Those are all facets of His glory.