The End of All Things Is at Hand

 

Peter makes a shocking statement in the middle of chapter 4, “But the end of all things is at hand…” How do we understand a statement like this, given that 2000 years have transpired, and we are still going strong? In fact, we have quite a few statements like this in the NT, statements that appear to expect the return of Jesus and the end quite soon.

In verses 7b-11, notice what Peter says should be the results of living near the end. I believe taken together these are the summary of a vibrant Christian testimony. Peter lists four:

1. Be vigilant for prayer (4:7b).

Prayer is a crucial part of maintaining a relationship with God. How can you have a proper and growing relationship with someone that you don’t talk to? It is important that believers are not distracted by suffering—or by anything else for that matter—and contact with God through prayer be lost.

2. Love one another deeply (4:8a).

Love for fellow believers has been a constant exhortation throughout 1 Peter. Christians need to stick together otherwise they will disintegrate. We need lots of encouragement from each other and need to give a lot of encouragement to others if we are going to prosper in the Christian life.

What, however, does Peter mean by the statement “love covers a multitude of sins” (4:8b)? Cover is used in the sense of forgive (cf. Ps 32:1), with the sense that love always forgives the other. Love covers offences in the sense that it minimizes wrongs by refusing to take offence.

3. Show hospitality (4:9)

In the early church individual Christians used their homes for corporate meetings and the support of itinerant teachers. Hospitality may have been difficult due to the extra stresses this would bring during times of potential persecution. Yet hospitality has always been a defining mark of Christians and must continue to be so today in an age where individuality threatens to dampen a sense of corporate solidarity.

4. Serve God and the Christian community by exercising the gift you have been given (4:10-11).

Peter does not provide an exhaustive list of gifts here but gives some examples. What is clear is that each person has received a gift and it is the responsibility of each believer to find out what that gift is and employ it for the good of all. It is simply not the job of the pastor or minister to do everything in the church. This leads to serious problems including burnout for the pastor and a lack of spiritual growth for the congregation. Christian growth occurs not only by knowing but by doing and serving is a crucial component of learning to follow Jesus faithfully. The role of the pastor is to be a facilitator for the growth of the Christian community, to help people discover their gifts and to use them effectively.

So, friends, just like the original recipients of this important letter known to us as 1 Peter, we live in the shadow of the end of all things. This should enable us to get a proper perspective on difficulties we encounter for our faith and witness for Jesus. It must motivate us to a distinctive Christian lifestyle that is not some crass mixture of Christianity and pagan or secular practices. We need to be vigilant, prayerful, and supportive of those in the Christian community, showing love and exercising the gift we have been given.

Finally, Peter’s conclusion of this section of the letter provides an over-arching motto for the life we seek to live as followers of Jesus today:

“…that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen”

 

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Matt Athey serves as Youth Pastor at Faith Baptist Church of Folsom, California.

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