1 Peter 4:7-11

Key

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7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Comments

1.            This passage has the same instructions Jesus gave His disciples about how to live in light of the possibility that the world may soon end. See Matthew 24:45-47; Matthew 25:14-46.

2.            One core of Peter’s instructions here—loving service to each other—is the same that Jesus, Paul, and John gave, independent of concerns about the end of the world. John 13:14-15, 34-35; Romans 12:4-13; 1 John 3:11, 16-20. We therefore ought to do those things regardless of how close we are to the end of the world.

3.            Another core of those instructions—staying close to God through prayer and reliance upon His provision—is also consistent with what Jesus taught. Luke 11:1-13 ; Luke 18:1-8; Matthew 6:25-33. 

4.            Peter’s instruction to pray tracks those of the other apostles. Romans 12:12; Ephesians 6:18-20; Colossians 4:2-4; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; James 5:15-16; 1 John 5:16