The End of All Things is Near

The End of All Things is Near

The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 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.  1 Peter 4:7-11

Hearing the words “The End is Near” conjures up many images: a tattered sign on the side of the road—or in the hands of a bearded street preacher—or maybe a stack of survival provisions inside a basement. For some, this message ignites paralyzing fear, while others calmly clean their guns and check their supply of ammunition. Others busy themselves running from teacher to teacher in order to discover about whom, what, when, and where these things must come to pass as if that will somehow bring them safety. Jesus had warned His followers to flee the coming wrath of Rome against Jerusalem, but now Peter implores the dispersed Christ followers to keep their wits in order that they might pray. Use your knowledge and wiles as you will, but salvation is of the Lord and only the Lord.

The Apostle’s first admonition is that we talk to God, not our Facebook audience. Prayer is our life-line to the creator and sustainer of life and our source for peace in every storm. If you fully embrace “End Time Theology,” then you must first submit yourself to God’s greatest fear fighter—prayer. While enduring part of Israel’s seventy-year captivity Daniel called upon the Lord:

“‘Turn your ears our way, God, and listen. Open your eyes and take a long look at our ruined city, this city named after you. We know that we don’t deserve a hearing from you. Our appeal is to your compassion. This prayer is our last and only hope:

“‘Master, listen to us!
    Master, forgive us!
    Master, look at us and do something!
    Master, don’t put us off!
    Your city and your people are named after you:
    You have a stake in us!”  Daniel 9:18-19

Secondly, if you believe the end is near you should practice hospitality! Peter calls for us to love practically (feeding, comforting, serving) and cheerfully. Notice the picture that is being painted does not include the “me and mine first” survivalist type thinking or activity! There is no admonition to move quickly unless it is to speedily fall onto our knees in prayer or toward our neighbor with charity. 

Eugene Peterson translates verse 8, “Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it.” I like this translation because I believe it does. Your life does depend on loving others since if you lack love you become an inanimate object, or worse, you become nothing. How can we expect to disconnect from love—the defining characteristic of our Father—and be anything of eternal value?

“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.”    1 Corinthians 13:1-2

And finally, if you are firmly in the camp that says “The End is Near” you must be generous in the gifts and graces of God. Faithfulness to God means sharing what you have—or more precisely, sharing what you have been given. Grace and gifts both exist because of the love and generosity of our creator and have little eternal purpose outside of love and generosity. It is the heathen who rage, and it is people who imagine vain things. Do not be caught up in the hatemongering that so pervades our present atmosphere. Abhor all wrongdoing, to the self-centered root, but love people and pray for their deliverance from evil. As the garden of the Lord, let us find our roots deeply embedded in Him that we might drink from His gracious supply and bring healing to the nations. The end of all things is near: pray fervently, love practically, and give generously!