1 Peter 4:7-9
Wednesday Night Prayer and Praise • Sermon • Submitted
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The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
What is the end?
It is the termination of the limit which a thing ceases; it is when something is finished. The major events of God’s redemptive plan have occured and the stage is set for the return and rule of Christ. God has a goal for history that includes the start of His eternal order. The early church associated closely the second coming of Christ with His first arrival.
There is also an assertion of the idea of the the final judgement of God.
How is this pertinent for us today?
Preoccupation with the second coming creates hysteria rather than sober wisdom. Remember Y2K?
The command at the end of the 1 Peter 4:7 is to be clear minded and self-controlled.
What does clear minded mean? It means to be sensible; reasonable; sober; sane; having a sound mind; thinking maturely.
It is the opposite of what is in verses 3-5:
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
The same words translated here for clear minded show up in other places in the New Testament.
and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.
Here in Luke the words RIGHT MIND give the same meaning.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Paul uses the words SOBER JUDGEMENT to mean the same thing.
What can we do to be clear minded?
We talked about self-controlled on Sunday as the final attribute of the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23.
Self-controlled means mastery or self-restraint. We have to be in control of ourselves to be effective for the Kingdom of God. Peter is saying in this verse that we must be clear minded and self-controlled in order that we can pray.
The implication is that we can pray more effectively, more intelligently, more appropriately.
Why do we need to pray more effectively?
The next verse tells us above everything else, to love.
Love is mentioned in 1 Peter 1:22
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
It is called sincere, deeply and from the heart.
When love exists and abounds, many offenses are overlooked. Where it is lacking, suspicion prevails and bitter roots are established.
See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
The opposite is declared in 1 Corinthians 13:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Peter is saying to love deeply. What does this mean?
Jesus taught that love for God and love for neighbor fulfills the law. Love each other deeply can be translated to love CONSTANT.
Love stretches in be depth and endurance:
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Why do we love?
We love because he first loved us.
Remember, love never fails:
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
Then the overflow of love is what?
Hospitality without grumbling.
What does that mean?
Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
and our verse in 1 Peter 4:9 says to do so without grumbling.
Do everything without complaining or arguing,
How can we do that in a pandemic world?
