Single lesson
1 Peter 4: Living for God’s Glory
1 Peter 4:1–11; 1 Peter 4:12–19
In 1 Peter 4, Peter teaches believers to turn from sinful patterns, serve one another for God’s glory, and keep trusting God when following Christ brings hardship.
Before you teach
This lesson covers two linked parts of 1 Peter 4. In 1 Peter 4:1–11, Peter calls believers to live for the will of God through prayer, love, hospitality and service. In 1 Peter 4:12–19, he explains how Christians should respond when suffering comes because they belong to Christ.
Students will identify Peter’s main teaching in 1 Peter 4 and explain one way 1 Peter 4:12–19 continues the call to glorify God by doing good.
Welcome: Living in a new direction
4 minAsk students for examples of choices that show who someone follows. Explain that Peter says believers should no longer live for human desires, but for the will of God. He also says God gives gifts for serving one another so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 4:2, 1 Peter 4:10, 1 Peter 4:11
Read and explain: From old ways to God’s will
7 minRead 1 Peter 4:1–6 aloud. Point out the movement in the passage: Christ suffered, so believers are to arm themselves with the same mind and live for God’s will. Peter lists sinful patterns from the past and says others may think the change is strange and speak evil.
1 Peter 4:1, 1 Peter 4:2, 1 Peter 4:3, 1 Peter 4:4, 1 Peter 4:5, 1 Peter 4:6
Discuss: What does Peter say to do?
6 minRead 1 Peter 4:7–11. On a board or paper, list Peter’s instructions: be sound-minded and sober in prayer, love earnestly, show hospitality without grumbling, and use gifts to serve. Notice that both speaking and serving are to depend on God, with God’s glory as the goal.
1 Peter 4:7, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 Peter 4:9, 1 Peter 4:10, 1 Peter 4:11
Make and respond: Trust God while doing good
8 minRead 1 Peter 4:12–19. Ask students to identify what should not surprise Christians, what kind of suffering Peter rejects, and what response he commands. Emphasise that suffering as a Christian is not a cause for shame, and Peter ends by calling believers to keep doing good and entrust themselves to God.
1 Peter 4:12, 1 Peter 4:13, 1 Peter 4:14, 1 Peter 4:15, 1 Peter 4:16, 1 Peter 4:19
Closing: One instruction to remember
5 minReview the whole passage together. Peter first calls believers to leave sinful patterns and live for God’s will. Then he teaches them to keep trusting God in hardship. Ask each student to name one instruction from 1 Peter 4:7–11 or one response to hardship from 1 Peter 4:12–19.
1 Peter 4:7, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 Peter 4:9, 1 Peter 4:10, 1 Peter 4:11, 1 Peter 4:12, 1 Peter 4:16, 1 Peter 4:19
Questions to explore
What change in behaviour does Peter describe when he says others think it strange and speak evil of believers?
Compare the past behaviour listed in 1 Peter 4:3 with 1 Peter 4:4, where believers no longer join in the same excess.
1 Peter 4:3, 1 Peter 4:4
Which instructions in 1 Peter 4:7–11 show how believers can live together for God’s glory?
Look for Peter’s commands about prayer, love, hospitality, serving, speaking and using God’s strength.
1 Peter 4:7, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 Peter 4:9, 1 Peter 4:10, 1 Peter 4:11
How does Peter connect suffering as a Christian with glorifying God and continuing to do good?
Read 1 Peter 4:14, 1 Peter 4:16 and 1 Peter 4:19 together and trace Peter’s response to insults and hardship.
1 Peter 4:14, 1 Peter 4:16, 1 Peter 4:19
Make, think or respond
1 Peter 4 Reminder Card
What you’ll need
- plain card or paper
- pencils or pens
- coloured pencils or markers
- Bible text
Try it together
- Choose one short line from the passage, such as living for the will of God from 1 Peter 4:2, loving earnestly from 1 Peter 4:8, being hospitable from 1 Peter 4:9, or doing good from 1 Peter 4:19.
- Write the words and the exact verse reference on one side of the card.
- On the other side, draw or write one realistic example that fits that verse.
- Share with a partner how your example matches the verse and whether it connects more with 1 Peter 4:7–11 or 1 Peter 4:12–19.
This card helps students remember Peter’s instructions in 1 Peter 4:2, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 Peter 4:9 and 1 Peter 4:19, and link them to his goal that God may be glorified in 1 Peter 4:11.
Adapt for your group
- For younger children, offer two or three verse choices and let them explain their example aloud while an adult or helper writes it.
- For older or more confident students, ask them to pair one instruction from 1 Peter 4:7–11 with one response to hardship from 1 Peter 4:12–19 and explain the link.
An optional closing prayer
You may pray: ‘God, please help us live for your will, love and serve others, and trust you when doing good is hard. Please help our lives bring glory to you through Jesus. Amen.’
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
1 Peter 4
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
2 that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
3 For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
4 They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.
5 They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
6 For to this end the Good News was preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit.
7 But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.
8 And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
10 As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms.
11 If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
12 Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you.
13 But because you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, that at the revelation of his glory you also may rejoice with exceeding joy.
14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler in other men’s matters.
16 But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter.
17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?
18 “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?”
19 Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.