Every once in a while you read about a wacky religious group that has become so convinced that the Lord’s coming is imminent that they have sold everything they owned and gone out to sit on a hilltop and await His coming.

When these ‘prophets’ make predictions that do not come true, it ought to remove their ideas forever from the news cycle and our mind.

The simple fact is that behind this there is one inescapable and most personal truth. For everyone of us the time is near. The one thing which can be said of every man is that he will die. For every one of us the Lord is at hand. We cannot tell the day and the hour when we shall go to meet him; and, therefore, all life is lived in the shadow of eternity.

It does raise the question that Peter addresses in our text for today’s study: How should the church conduct itself in light of the fact that we are living in the end times?

These verses are sandwiched in a context dealing with the persecution Peter’s readers were facing. In both the preceding and following sections, Peter brings in the certainty that Jesus Christ will return to judge all people (4:5, 17).

In our text, he is telling the church how to relate to one another in light of the present suffering and the future judgment.

Trials have a way of either driving a family closer together or further apart. Peter wants to make sure that the churches to which he wrote would draw together as the persecution intensified and as the coming day of the Lord draws nearer.

An Expectant Attitude toward Christ (1 Peter 4:7a) The end of all things is at hand…

This verse gives us the vertical component (how we relate to God) to help us overcome the pressure to sin. Verses 8 and 9 give the horizontal component (how we relate to other people).

Christians in the early church expected Jesus to return in their lifetime (Rom. 13:12; 1 John 2:18). The fact that He did not return does not invalidate His promise (2 Peter 3; Rev. 22:20).

No matter what interpretation we give to the prophetic Scriptures, we must all live in expectancy. The important thing is that we shall see the Lord one day and stand before Him. How we live and serve today will determine how we are judged and rewarded on that day.

This attitude of expectancy must not turn us into lazy dreamers (2 Thes. 3:6ff) or zealous fanatics.

Peter has just mentioned how Christ is ready to judge the living and the dead (4:5). Some believers had died, which may have drawn ridicule from scoffers (4:6): “The Christians died just like everyone else! What difference does your Christianity make? Those ‘holy Joes’ who died just missed out on all the fun they could have had!” But Peter asserts, “Now the end of all things has come near.”

Today many would scoff and say, “That’s crazy! It’s been over 2,000 years and life goes on. How can anyone say that the end of all things has come near?”

Peter answers that charge in 2 Peter 3:3-10. What such scoffers don’t realize is that God’s view of time and ours are significantly different. A thousand years with the Lord is as one day. Any extension of time that God gives before the certain, coming judgment is due to His patience and mercy: He does not wish for any to perish. But that judgment is delayed does not mean that judgment is not coming!

And, while the signs of the times look as if the return of Christ is very close, even if He does not return in our lifetimes, we are individually very near the end, aren’t we? None of us is certain that we will be alive tomorrow. So we all need to live in light of the fact that the end of all things is near.

Does that mean that we make no plans for the future, that we sell everything and go sit on a hilltop? No, of course not!

Although he is no theologian, newspaper columnist Sydney J. Harris was on target when he wrote, “The art of living successfully consists of being able to hold two opposite ideas in tension at the same time: first, to make long-term plans as if we were going to live forever; and second, to conduct ourselves daily as if we were going to die tomorrow.”

Because the end of all things is near, Peter shows how God’s people should live.

The church should glorify God through prayer, love, and service (4:7b-11).

We are to have a clear head; we are to take Christ’s return seriously. Persecution and suffering battle against clear-mindedness; self-control is difficult when one faces injustice^.

If Christ is ready to judge the living and the dead (4:5), if it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God (4:17), then here is how we, as His people, should conduct ourselves.

There are commands in three areas (prayer, love, and serving one another), but the overarching principle comes at the end of verse 11: “so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

God’s glory is a rather nebulous concept, so let me explain what it means and what it means to glorify Him.

The Hebrew word (“kabod”) translated “glory” has the nuance of weight or heaviness. It points to the riches or power of a person of importance, much as we may say, “He’s a heavyweight” or “a man of substance.”

The Greek word (“doxa”) comes from a word meaning “to seem or think,” and has the nuance of reputation or honor.

When applied to God, His glory is His inherent majesty and infinite worth. God’s glory is intrinsic to His being. It is the manifestation of His perfect attributes, often expressed on earth by light brighter than the sun (Matt. 17:2; Acts 26:13; Rev. 1:16).

In the Old Testament, God’s glory was often seen as a bright cloud or a fire (Exod. 24:16-18; 40:34-35).

It is debatable, grammatically, whether “to whom” (1 Pet. 4:11) refers to God or to Jesus Christ, although it really doesn’t matter (Rev. 1:6 clearly attributes glory and dominion to Jesus Christ).

Hebrews 1:3 asserts, Jesus Christ “is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.”

Jesus Himself claimed that the Father had given all judgment to the Son “in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23). So, as believers, we are to glorify God through Jesus Christ, who has revealed the Father to us.

To glorify God means to show forth His excellencies to others, or, as I’ve often said, in street language, to glorify God is to make Him look good as He really is.

If a photographer glorifies some natural wonder, he makes us revel in the inherent beauty of that scene. We see the photograph and gasp, “Look at the colors and grandeur of that mountain!”

If a literary critic glorifies an author, he brings forth the subtle nuances of language and plot in a way that makes us exclaim, “Wow! That author has a rare ability with words!”

When the photographer or critic does his work rightly, we don’t extol the photographer or critic; we extol the object toward which they point. We say, “What a beautiful scene!” Or, “What a tremendous author or work of literature!”

And when Christians properly glorify God, people should exclaim, “What a great being God is!”

Peter mentions three means of conduct which will glorify God: prayer, love, and serving in line with the gifts God has bestowed on us.

The church should glorify God through prayer (4:7b). …therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

Prayer glorifies God because it acknowledges our weakness and dependence upon Him. Not to pray is, in effect, to assert our own sufficiency and arrogance, in that we’re acting on our own.

So as we recognize the critical times in which we live, our own inadequacy, and God’s total sufficiency, we should be driven to prayer. Peter mentions two somewhat synonymous qualities which will help us to be people of prayer:

First, “Be of sound judgment.” Knowing that we are in the end times should not make us go off the deep end. Rather, we should keep our wits about us, or be sensible. The same word is used as a qualification for elders (NASB–”prudent,” 1 Tim. 3:2; “sensible,” Titus 1:8). It points to a man who is levelheaded, not impulsive, not swayed by fluctuating emotions.

The danger is not that we will think too lowly of ourselves, but that we will think too highly of ourselves. Sound judgment concerning ourselves will move us to prayer as we recognize our own sinfulness and weakness, but also, God’s holiness and strength.

Second: “Be sober.” (See 1:13; 5:8; Peter uses it 3 out of 6 NT uses). It is also a quality for elders (1 Tim. 3:2). It means, literally, “don’t be drunk,” but Peter intends more than not being intoxicated by liquor.

He means that we should be alert and self-controlled. We should have the clarity of mind and resulting good judgment that mark a person who is not drunk in contrast to the one under the influence.

The church should glorify God through love (4:8). Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

“Above all” does not pit love against prayer, as if you can choose love and neglect prayer. Rather, Peter is calling our attention to the priority of love for fellow Christians as a central part of the Christian faith.

Jesus said that love for one another is His new commandment, the mark by which the world will know that we are His followers (John 13:34-35).

Peter didn’t doubt that his readers were practicing love, but he knew that under trials it’s easy to start taking out our frustrations on those closest to us. So he writes, “Keep fervent in your love for one another.” “Fervent” (lit., “to stretch” or “strain”) was used of an athlete stretching and straining every muscle toward the end of the race. As we see the Lord’s coming drawing near, we should exert ourselves to love one another.

This implies that love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling. Rather, it takes sustained, strenuous effort, such as athletes expend as they near the finish line. The fact that love can be commanded shows that it is primarily an action, not an emotion, although often there will be an emotional element involved. But often biblical love is more sweat than sweet. It involves effort!

That’s implicit in the phrase, “Love covers a multitude of sins.” It’s fairly easy to love people who don’t sin against you. But biblical love extends even to those who wrong you.

Peter seems to have in mind the fact that love is ready to forgive and careful to protect the offender from needless exposure. The one who loves doesn’t keep a feud going by retaliating or holding a grudge.

This does not mean that love ignores, overlooks, or tries to hide sin. The “covering of sins” is the ability that believers have to forgive one another because Christ has forgiven them. Love works as a shock absorber, cushioning and smoothing out the bumps and irritations caused by fellow believers.

A GOOD INVESTMENT

We should live expectantly because Christ is coming. Peter gives six admonitions for how to prepare for the end times.

1. Live each day as though Christ could return at once (4:7).
2. Keep a clear head, not getting carried away by self-indulgence (4:7).
3. Stay disciplined and alert for prayer (4:7).
4. Make active expressions of love a priority (4:8).
5. Be faithful in the stewardship of your gifts, investing your time and talent where they will make an eternal difference (4:10).
6. In everything, praise God as the source of your energy and the reason for your service (4:11)