1 Peter 4:11

If any man speak. — St. Peter proceeds to speak of two particular forms taken by this “manifold grace of God;” (1) the power to speak; (2) the power to minister. The speaking is, of course, public preaching in the Church; and the man who does so is to do it “as oracles of God.” The article is not added in the Greek, so that it must not be pressed to mean “speaking on the model, or in accordance with the doctrines of., the Old Testament.” Rather, the emphatic word is “of God;” and the Apostle means that the preacher is not to trust to his own natural powers and wit, or to seek applause for himself, but to act as one possessed of powers not his own; to speak only that which God inspires him to speak. This clause must not be taken as being in this place complete in itself. It is apparently only introduced to give point to what follows, the intention of the whole paragraph being to enforce liberality. It is easy to recognise in spiritual things the principle of God being all in all; and St. Peter bids them apply the same principle to material gifts. “Recollect that whatever you possess, you possess from God in trust for the Church. Just as the man who preaches is to preach as a mere mouthpiece of God, so the man who gives must consider himself as being but God’s dispenser, that in this, too, God may have all the glory.” For the same kind of rhetorical effect, see 1 Peter 2:17, last Note.

If any man minister. — This does not mean “ministering” in the congregation, or spiritual ministrations of any sort, but giving the good things of this life for the benefit of the poor. The word rendered “ability” not unfrequently expresses (like our word “resources”) a sufficiency of wealth; and the word which appears as “giveth” is the same which is used of supplying material blessings in 2 Corinthians 9:10. In a compound form, the same verb occurs in Galatians 3:5; Colossians 2:19; 2 Peter 1:5; and the substantive in Ephesians 4:16; Philippians 1:19. The original classical meaning of the word is to pay the expenses of putting a play on the stage, which at Athens was a public burden borne by the wealthier citizens in turn, like the shrievalty of an English county. Thus the wealthy Christian who supports the Church and relieves all the poor is not really the Church’s patron: he is a responsible manager; but the paymaster is God.

That God in all things may be glorified. — How clearly St. Peter works it out: “the manifold grace of God,” “as oracles of God,” “out of the resources of which God is paymaster,” “that God in all things may be glorified.” The “all things” means emphatically that in these money matters as much as in the spiritual works God’s honour is concerned. For a most touching expansion of this text, see the Epistle of St. Theonas, Patriarch of Alexandria, to the High Chamberlain of the Emperor Diocletian, an English translation of which may be seen in The Persecution of Diocletian, by the same hand as these Notes.

Through Jesus Christ. — They see and feel that, had it not been for Jesus Christ, these rich men would not have been so liberal; and when they thus thank Him for it, they are in effect thanking God.

To whom. — That is, to God, rather than to Jesus Christ. And it should be, “to whom is,” or belongs, rather than “to whom be,” and “the glory and the dominion,” not “glory and dominion.”