Although hospitality is of special importance to believers living in certain circumstances, Christian service is not limited to it, so that in verse 10, Peter widens the scope of the ways they should serve one another. He puts the matter in broad terms, and writes, "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."

The word "gift" is charisma. It denotes a spiritual endowment, or some talent or ability given by the Holy Spirit. The New Testament includes several lists of spiritual gifts (Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 12:28-30; Ephesians 4:11). The lists are not the same, and there is no reason to suppose that they exhaust the full range of spiritual endowments even when we combine them.

Although Peter splits the gifts into two main categories (v. 11), he has no interest in a list. Instead, he calls the gifts "God's grace in its various forms." Several translations say "manifold" (KJV, NKJV, NASB). Others read "varied" (RSV, ESV, HCSB). "Multi-faceted" is another good translation. This is the word Peter uses when he refers to "all kinds of trials" back in 1:6. God's grace is as varied as our needs and his purposes, and sufficient to meet any challenge in this world. His charismatic endowments cannot be fully enumerated in a short list. Even the same gift, such as the ability to teach, can manifest in a great variety of ways, although legitimate expressions are defined by the word of God (1 Corinthians 12:36-38).

Peter says that "each one should use whatever gift he has received," and this implies several things. First, just as each Christian has been assigned a place in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:7, 18), each one "has received" the corresponding spiritual endowments to perform his function. Therefore, every believer is able to contribute in some way "to the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7). But, second, Peter's point is not just that each one is able to contribute, but that each one ought to do so. Thus no believer should remain a mere spectator at church.

Then, third, there is a negative application of Peter's statement. Since he says that each one should use the gift that he has received, it also implies that no single person is expected to perform all the functions necessary to an effective church ministry. The principle is violated most often when Christians consider some of the most prominent agendas of the church, such as evangelism.

We have often made the overt act of evangelism the equal responsibility of every believer, when in fact Christ assigned it to the entire Christian community to be performed as a whole. Thus each believer should contribute to evangelism in some way, corresponding to the gift that he has received, but not every one has the equal responsibility – or the ability, for that matter – to preach the gospel directly to unbelievers.

Of course, every Christian is a priest of God, and may perform any function that is proper for such a position, including evangelism. But when a person has received an enhanced ability from God, then it is natural and appropriate for him to dedicate more of his attention to that type of ministry. For many people, this will be something other than evangelism. In any case, it ought to be clear that all of this is not to belittle evangelism, but it is a complaint against extreme individualism in the church.

Something similar can be said about the ministry to the poor, the sick, and the disabled. Can we say that someone who spends most of his time performing evangelism cares nothing about these people? No, the question is whether he is faithfully using the gift that he has received to contribute to the mission of the church. Now, if he avoids using his gift – whatever it may be – to benefit the poor, the sick, and the disabled even when the opportunity arises, then we can say that he cares nothing about them.

The purpose of spiritual gifts is to "serve others," or as Paul says, to build up the church and to promote the common good (1 Corinthians 14:12, 12:7). This fits well with what Peter has just said about love. Love is the proper motive for the exercise of spiritual gifts, which are not given for self-promotion and self-exaltation. On the other hand, love is frustrated without the gifts, since by itself it cannot perform the service that it wishes to render. Christian love is a volition dedicated to obeying the law of God in how a person treats others, resulting in actions that promote their welfare. Spiritual gifts enable this kind of love to express itself with effect.

In some circles, a common error is to pit love against gifts. But both are of God, and we must not pit God against himself. Now, in 1 Corinthians 12:31, Paul says, "But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way" (NASB). He does not say that love is better than the gifts, but that love as a motive is superior to mere desire in receiving and exercising the gifts.

Then, in chapter 13, he proceeds to note that the person who exercises spiritual gifts without love is nothing. That is, it is not that love is greater than the gifts (the idea is not here at all), and it is not that the gifts will fail without love, since Paul says that he could even move mountains. But the person is nothing who has the gifts but has no love. So Paul concludes, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts" (14:1).

This is also the solution for those who think that they have no spiritual gifts, or that they have but very weak endowments from God. They should reach out to serve the church in love, to serve other people, and the spiritual gifts will manifest themselves. And then they will discover that God has given them a place in the body of Christ after all.

However, in their zeal to rid the church of mysticism and fanaticism, and perhaps also to preserve their own dignity and conceal their inadequacies, some believers have adopted an extreme anti-charismatic agenda that is equivalent to an assault against the gifts of God. Anything that they cannot handle belongs to a past era. But the gifts of God represent his manifold grace, and believers must not persecute these manifestations of grace just because their unbiblical scheme prohibits them or because they have no faith to accept them. Then, of course charismatic lunatics abound, and some manifestations are indeed fleshly counterfeits. Nevertheless, discernment that is biblical does not "discern" away the manifold manifestations of divine grace and power.

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