These verses poke a lot of holes in the current
attitude that our lives as Christ followers should be basically trouble
free & affluent, moving from one marvelous blessing to another.
Not so sure that's the way it works in this sin-soaked world...
1 Peter 4
8 ...continue to show deep love for each other,
for love covers a multitude of sins.
9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.
Use them well to serve one another.
11 Do you have the gift of speaking?
Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.
Do you have the gift of helping others?
Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.
Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.
All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
12 Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through,
as if something strange were happening to you.
13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering,
so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
14 So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.
15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people's affairs.
16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian.
Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name!
17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God's household.
And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's Good News?
18 And also,
"If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?"*
19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God,
keep on doing what is right,
and trust your lives to the God who created you,
for he will never fail you.
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