1 Peter 4:7-11

1 Peter 4:7-11

Analysis:—Exhortation, in contemplation of the approaching end of all things, to watch and pray, to love and to do, to serve others with the gifts they have received, and in a word to seek in everything the glory of God

7     But the end of all things is at hand:18be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.19 8And above all things have fervent charity among20yourselves: for charity 9shall cover21 the multitude of sins. Use hospitality22 one to another23 without grudging. 2410As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability25 which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ: to whom be26praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.27

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1 Peter 4:7. The connection is with 1 Peter 4:5; the Apostle takes up and further enforces the thought that the Lord is ready to judge the living and the dead; here begins also a new series of exhortations closely connected with the thought of the end of all things. It has been shown that Peter in common with the other Apostles, James 5:7-9; Judges 18; 1 John 2:18; Revelation 1:3; Revelation 22:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Romans 13:11-12; Romans 1:0 Cor. 15 51; 2 Corinthians 5:2; Philippians 4:5, expected that the second advent of Christ and the end of the whole present dispensation were nearly impending, cf. 1 Peter 1:5; 1Pe 4:5; 1 Peter 4:17; 1 Peter 4:13; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 5:4; 2 Peter 3:10-11; Matthew 24:6. This may be accounted for by the fact that the coming of Christ in the flesh is the beginning of the world’s last period, during which no further revelation of grace is to be expected; and that according to the mind of Jesus, His disciples ought to consider His second coming as always close at hand, and to be prepared for it. “It ought to be the chief concern of believers to fix their minds fully on His second advent.” Calvin. “We live in the latter half of the world’s period, which will quickly flow on. Although we may not live to see it, after death we shall realize that we are near it.” Roos. It is however to be remembered that nothing but the long-suffering of God is arresting the judgment, and that He is counting by the measure of eternity, according to which a thousand years are as one day (2 Peter 3:8; Psalms 90:4). [The emphasis of πάντων is noteworthy. Bengel; “Finis adeoque etiam petulantiæ malorum et passionum piorum.”—M.]

Be temperate therefore and sober unto prayers.—As our Lord in contemplation of His day exhorts the disciples, Luke 21:34, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,” so the Apostle here exhorts us to σωφρονε͂ιν = to act wisely, to be temperate and modest. It primarily denotes bodily temperance, then mental discretion and watchfulness, cf. 1 Peter 5:8; Romans 12:3; 2 Corinthians 5:13; Titus 2:6.—νήφειν=to live soberly, moderately both bodily and mentally as in 1 Peter 1:13. “Temperance facilitates vigilance, and both aid prayer.” Bengel.—εἰς τὰς προσευχάς, the Plural, because, as Huss remarks, there are different kinds of prayer and because prayer ought to be without ceasing. The reference is probably to fixed, regular prayers of the Church.

1 Peter 4:8. Then follows the still more important exhortation to brotherly love according to its real nature, cf. on ἐκτενῆ 1 Peter 1:22; 1 Corinthians 13:1, etc.; 1 Corinthians 14:1. It is the mother of all the duties to our neighbour. Where love is wanting, prayer is hindered.

Because love covereth a multitude of sins.—καλύψει πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν. The words are cited from the Hebrew not from the LXX. of Proverbs 10:12, cf. Proverbs 17:9, but the former passage reads: “Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins”; and the latter: “He that covereth transgression, seeketh love.” In both instances the reference is to human love which is to consign to oblivion the sins of others. Some see in כִםָּה a reference to Genesis 9:23, and consider it an easy thing; so Cæsarius of Aries says: “There is nothing more easy than covering oneself or others with clothes.” But forgiveness is hardly so easy a task. It is better to explain it of the unsightliness of sin which forgiveness covers up. The old Protestant expositors understand it therefore rightly of human love pardoning the sin of our neighbour. “The covering up relates to man not to God. Nothing can cover thy sin before God except faith. But my love covers my neighbour’s sin, and just as God covers my sin if I believe, so ought I also to cover the sin of my neighbour.” Luther. So also Steiger, Hoffman, Lechler, Wiesinger and Weiss. Even Estius, the Romish expositor, admits that the quotation sustains the Protestant exposition. But many Romanist and rationalistic expositors explain the passage of merit and atoning virtue, which they ascribe to the love of our neighbour. Some quote Matthew 6:14-15, but that passage simply affirms that forgiveness is made possible, not that it is positively effected. Others, with reference to James 5:20, suggest an activity tending to improvement [that of others,—M.], but this is foreign to our passage. ὅτι seems however to conflict with our exposition, but its design is to give the reason for the ἐκτένεια of love. “The Apostle takes for granted that Christians love one another, still he recommends them to expand and increase in the brotherly love which they have, because true love forgives a multitude of sins.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Matthew 18:22. Steiger. According to Beza the connection is: “Love one another, because love, as the Scripture says, removes the substance of strife.” Calov remarks on this covering of sin, that it does not do away with the correcting of our neighbour, Matthew 18:15, and that it is necessary to distinguish public and private sins, between known and concealed sins. [Alford thinks that the meaning is the hiding of offences both from one another and in God’s sight, by mutual forbearance and forgiveness. He advocates to take the passage in its widest sense, “understanding it primarily of forgiveness but then also of that prevention of sin by kindliness of word and deed, and also that intercession for sin in prayer, which are the constant fruits of fervent love. It is a truth from which we need not shrink, that every sin which love hides from man’s sight is hidden in God’s sight also. There is but One efficient cause of the hiding of sin: but mutual love applies that cause: draws the universal cover over the particular sin. This meaning, as long as it is not perverted into the thought that love towards others covers a man’s own sin ‘ex promerito’ need not and should not be excluded.”—M.]

[Wordsworth: “St. Peter had spoken of love, stretching itself out without interruption; and the passage James 5:20, considered together with the context here, where St. Peter is presenting Christ as their Example, may suggest a belief, that he is comparing the act of Love to that of the Cherubim stretching out their wings on the Mercy Seat, and forming a part of the Mercy Seat (Exodus 25:18-20), the emblem of Christ’s propitiatory covering of sins.”—M.]

1 Peter 4:9. Be hospitable towards one another without murmuring.—Cf. Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2; 3Jn 1:5; 1 Timothy 5:10; Titus 1:8. “Peter remembers to have heard this saying from the lips of Christ, Matthew 25:35; he does not mean pompous hospitality, Luke 14:12, but that Christian, holy hospitality which readily welcomes by the promptings of pure love needy strangers, especially such as are exiled on account pf their confession of the true religion, gives them gentle and loving treatment, and cares for them as members of Christ and fellow-citizens of the Church.” Gerhard. “Let us take heed lest, having been hard and careless in entertaining strangers, the shelter of the just may be denied us after this life.” Ambrose.—ἄνευ γογγυσμῶν, without expressions of murmuring by which one secretly gives vent to his displeasure or reproaches another with the benefits he has received. The apposite is a cheerful, pure and unselfish spirit, Rom 12:8; 2 Corinthians 9:7. [Neander Ch. Hist. I. pp. 347, 348, referring to Tertullian, ad uxorem, II. 1, 8.; de jejunio, c. XII: “The care of providing for the support and maintenance of strangers, of the poor, the sick, the old, of widows and orphans, and of those in prison on account of their faith, devolved on the whole Church. This was one of the main purposes for which the collection of voluntary contributions, in the assemblies convened for public worship, was instituted; and the charity of individuals, moreover, led them to emulate each other in the same good work. In particular, it was considered as belonging to the office of the Christian matron to provide for the poor, for the brethren languishing in prison, and to show hospitality to strangers. The hindrance occasioned to this kind of Christian activity, is reckoned by Tertullian among the disadvantages of a mixed marriage. ‘What heathen,’ says he, ‘will suffer his wife to go about from one street to another, to the house of strangers, to the meanest hovels indeed, for the purpose of visiting the brethren? What heathen will allow her to steal away into the dungeon, to kiss the chain of the martyr? If a brother arrive from abroad, what reception will he meet in the house of the stranger? If an alms is to be bestowed, storehouse and cellar are shut fast!’ On the other hand, he counts it among the felicities of a marriage contracted between Christians, that the wife is at liberty to visit the sick and relieve the needy, and is never straitened or perplexed in the bestowment of her charities. Nor did the active brotherly love of each community confine itself to what transpired in its own immediate circle, but extended itself also to the wants of Christian communities in distant lands. On urgent occasions of this kind, the bishops made arrangements for special collections. They appointed fasts; so that what was saved, even by the poorest of the flock, from their daily food, might help to supply the common wants.”—M.]

1 Peter 4:10. Each man, as he received a gift of grace.—Grotius rightly expounds this not only of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:4, etc., but also of gifts of the body and estate. These are as well gifts of grace as those. Natural endowments also are included in the expression. The Apostle does not refer to specific official duties and the qualifications necessary to their discharge; he is unwilling to exact too much from and to impose too much on believers.

Even so minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.—αὐτὸ διακονοῦντες, cf. 1 Peter 1:12, to offer something as a servant. The term comprises the different duties of the Church which are not specifically committed to the pastoral office as such, and which are the outgoings of voluntary activity.

As good stewards.—ὡς denotes not only mere resemblance, but, as frequently, the generally known reason [as is becoming, fit in good stewards.—M.]. Christians are not owners, but only stewards of their goods and gifts, 1 Corinthians 4:2; Matthew 25:14; Titus 1:7.—Manifold, because exhibited in various gifts of grace [cf. 1 Corinthians 12:4; Matthew 25:15.Luke 19:13.—M.]. “We are liberal not with our own goods, but with that of another.” Gerhard.

1 Peter 4:11. If any man speak as of the power which God bestoweth.—Peter specifies two kinds of gifts, gifts relating to speaking and gifts relating to doing, gifts of teaching and exhorting, and gifts of outward service.—These gifts they were to use with humility and fidelity. λαλεῖν here denotes every kind of speaking and exhortation in the Lord’s name, Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:8; 1 Corinthians 12:10.—λόγια properly signifies Divine utterances, oracles, but here the revealed word of God, 1 Corinthians 2:7; Acts 7:38; Hebrews 5:12; Romans 3:2. Let him speak with the conviction and reverence, with the earnestness and humility which flow from the consciousness: it is God’s holy word to which, as a mean instrument, I lend my mouth, 1 Corinthians 12:3; 2Co 2:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13.—διακονεῖ applies here to the manifold offices belonging to the single or married estate, Acts 6:1-2. [But see Romans 12:8; 1 Corinthians 12:28.—M.] ἰσχύς the act springs from the power of God [as from a fountain.—M.] which He supplies. The term relates to powers of the body as well as to those of the mind. χορηγεῖν παρέχειν, διδόναι. [The primary sense and origin of the word is Classical, and denotes “to defray the cost of bringing out a chorus”, thence to furnish supply in general.—M.]. “Let each man apply to his neighbour all the good in his power with the utmost humility, knowing that of himself [i. e., without God’s supplying.—M.] he cannot have any thing to apply.” [Wordsworth: This precept of St. Peter deserves the consideration of those who claim to be his successors, and profess great reverence for his authority, and yet derogate from the dignity of the oracles of God, and set up oracles of their own, in place of the Scriptures and against them. See 2 Timothy 4:3.Revelation 11:3-10.—M.]. Bede.

That God in all things—to the ages of the ages.—ἴνα, the aim and end of all the Apostle’s exhortations.—ἐν πᾶσι may mean, in all of you or in all your doings; the latter is preferable. “As through Christ all benefits descend upon us from God, so also ought we in humble gratitude to refer all things through Christ to the glory of God.” Gerhard. δοξάζηται, the honour should be ascribed to Him for whatever is done in the Church, He should be praised for it, cf. Hebrews 13:15. Everything is mediated through Christ, through whom we receive all the power we have.—ᾦ ἐστὶν ἡ δόξα; ᾦ refers to ὁ Θεός as in 1 Peter 5:11, because God has already been named as the subject of adoration, and because Peter elsewhere calls Jesus κύριος=Jehovah, but not absolutely God.—On δόξα see 1 Peter 1:7.—κράτος goes back to ἰσχύς. All power among men is the emanation of His power, cf. 1 Peter 5:11.—εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, cf. Philippians 4:20.—ἀμήν, not a note of conclusion, but an expression of assurance of heart.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The doctrine of the consummation of all things on the coming of Christ, which is peculiarly prominent in the writings of Peter, contains the most powerful reasons for our encouragement and consolation. They make no mention of the distinction between the first and still impending coming for the establishment of the kingdom of glory and the judgment of a corrupt Christendom and the coming for the final judgment: that distinction was reserved for special revelations made to St. John.2. The love covering sins, which is here so emphatically recommended, is widely removed from the laxity, weakness and want of principle with which it is frequently confounded. The latter, says Wiesinger, ignores the sacred earnestness of love and fancies to do some great thing by putting some deceptive boards over graves full of mouldering decay and crying, Peace, peace! Hatred which unsparingly uncovers in its effects is preferable to love which thus covers up. The love here insisted upon has these characteristics, it is not put to anger by insults, it does not discover needlessly the sins of others and does not by revenge or passionate reproaches drag them forth into the light of rebuke.

3. The opinion that the love of our neighbour covers our sins before God conflicts with the fundamental principles of the Gospel; it is not the cause, but only one of the conditions on which we are made partakers of Divine forgiveness, Matthew 6:14.

4. With respect to God, we are stewards of goods committed to our keeping, with respect to our neighbour only we are owners.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The end of all things, how it should minister to, 1, encouragement, 2, warning, 3, consolation.—Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember the end, Sir 7:36.—If Peter more than eighteen centuries ago was permitted to say the end of all things was at hand, how much more ought we to be prepared, to watch and pray. We should ever consider the great day of Christ to be near at hand. Believers wait for it as a bridegroom waits for his bride. The end of the way and the nearness of home is sweet and comforting to strangers and pilgrims.—Communion with God, the most precious enjoyment of earth, is only possible to those who are temperate and sober.—He that ministers to sensuality cannot soar in thought to God.—Love should be like fire which spreads its flame afar, and like a cloak which covers much. “That godly father would not shut his door to any poor guest, for I am afraid, said he, lest the Lord Himself might some day come, in the guise of a poor man, to test my liberality: how could I ever justify my having suffered Him sadly to depart from me?”

Besser: There is none so poor as to be unable to serve his neighbour with some gift.—God distributes His gifts unequally, Matthew 25:15. Moses has five talents, Aaron two, Jethro only one. Let each use his gifts to the glory of God, and he will stand before God and men.

Herberger: The Christian’s motto: Faithful and only faithful!—A Christian’s any and every work, should be a Divine service and conduce to the glory of God.

Starke: Men, beware of confidence! be ready that you may be able to stand worthily before the Son of Man, 2 Peter 3:11.—Love has the first place among all virtues and is the first mark pf the disciples of Christ, 1 Corinthians 13:13; John 13:35.—To give unwillingly and regretfully is to sin more than to do good, 2 Corinthians 9:7.—As among flowers the form and beauty of each differ from those of others, so among the children of God is seen the manifold goodness of God.—God has given to one something, but not everything, that we might serve one another, and that none should bury his talent, Galatians 5:13.—Are graces and gifts thine own? Who has granted them to thee? God. To what end? To parade them off? By no means, but to serve Him and thy neighbour with them. Love makes thee thy neighbour’s servant. The more thou hast received, the more thou hast to communicate in counsel and in deed, 1 Corinthians 9:19.—If thou hast nothing wherewith to serve thy neighbour, thou surely canst pray for him. Discharge this service of love with hearty cheerfulness; it is, if not better than, at least as good as pieces of gold, Romans 10:1; Acts 3:6. [But prayer—instead of ministering to the wants of the needy—where the ability is present and the occasion requires it—is sheer hypocrisy.—M.]. The glory of God should be the end and aim of all our works, otherwise they are good for nothing, 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Lisco: What does qualify us to receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost?—The conditions of real prayer.

Herberger: How should a good Christian, who desires to go to heaven acquit himself, 1, towards God, 2, towards his neighbour, 3, with respect to his own conscience, soul and office?

Stier: How Christians ought to prepare for the end of all things, or how we must live here in time in order that we may stand in the last judgment?

Kapff: Spiritual ascension, 1, By whom and how it is accomplished, 2, What are its effects on our earthly life?

Staudt: Christian mutual readiness to oblige, 1, its ability, 2, its opportunities, 3, the condition necessary for its discharge.

[Leighton:

1 Peter 4:7. It is reported of one that, hearing the 5th of Genesis read so long lived, and yet the burden still, they died; Enos lived 905 and he died, Seth 912 and he died, Methusaleh 969 and he died, he took so deep the thought of death and eternity, that it changed his whole frame and set him from a voluptuous to a most strict and pious course of life.

1 Peter 4:8. Love is witty in finding out the fairest construction of things doubtful.—Where the thing is so plainly a sin, that this way of covering it can have no place, yet then will love consider what will lessen it most.—All private reproofs and where conscience requires public delation and censure, even these will be sweetened in that compassion that flows from love.—If thou be interested in the offence, even by unfeigned free forgiveness, so far as thy concern goes, let it be as if it had not been.

1 Peter 4:9. Now for supply of our brethren’s necessities, one good help is, the retrenching of our superfluities. Turn the stream into that channel, where it will refresh thy brethren and enrich thyself, and let it not run into the dead sea.—As the disease of the youth of the world, was the abounding of lust, Gen. vi, so of its age, decay of love: and as that heat called for a total deluge of waters, to this coldness for fire, to the kindling an universal fire, that shall make an end of it and the world together. (Aqua propter ardorem libidinis, ignis propter teporem charitatis.)

1 Peter 4:10. Manifold grace.—There is such an admirable beauty in this variety, such a symmetry and contemperature of different, yea of contrary qualities, as speaks His riches, that so divers gifts are from the same Spirit. A kind of embroidering of many colours (see Psalms 139:15) happily mixed, as the word ποικίλλειν signifies; as it is in the frame of the natural body of man as the lesser world, and in the composure of the greater world: thus in the Church of God, the mystical body of Jesus Christ exceeding both the former in excellence and beauty.—Be not discouraged, to have little in the account shall be no prejudice. The approbation runs not, thou hadst much, but on the contrary, thou hast been faithful in little; great faithfulness in the use of small gifts hath great acceptance, and a great and sure reward.

1 Peter 4:11. Ministers must speak faithfully, holily and wisely.—Faith’s great work is to renounce self-power and to bring in the power of God to be ours When I am weak, then am I strong, 2 Corinthians 12:10.—This is the Christian’s aim, to have nothing in himself, nor in anything but in this tenure: all for the glory of my God, my estate, family, abilities, my whole self, all I have and am. And as the love of God grows in the heart, this purpose grows; the higher the flame rises, the purer it is; the eye is daily more upon it; it is oftener in the mind in all actions than before. In common things, the very works of our calling, our very refreshments, to eat and drink and sleep, all are for this end and with a particular aim at it as much as may be; even the thought of it often renewed throughout the day, and at times generally applied to all our ways and employments. It is that elixir that turns thy ordinary works into gold, into sacrifices, by a touch of it.—M.]

Footnotes:

1 Peter 4:7; 1 Peter 4:7. [σωφρονήσατε=be temperate, of a temperate mind; νήψατε=be sober.—M.]

1 Peter 4:7; 1 Peter 4:7. [εἰς τὰς προσευχάς; (τάς is omitted in A. B. and by Lachmann;) also in Cod. Sin.—M.]

1 Peter 4:8; 1 Peter 4:8. [Translate: “Above all things having love intense towards one another;” on ἐκτενῆ see 1 Peter 1:22.—M.]

1 Peter 4:8; 1 Peter 4:8. [καλύπτει, A. B. K. Lachmann and Tischendorf, also Alford: καλύψει L. Receptus, is the more difficult reading.—ἀγάπη=love.—M.]

1 Peter 4:9; 1 Peter 4:9. [φιλόξενοι=hospitable.—M.]

1 Peter 4:9; 1 Peter 4:9. [ἄνευ γογγυσμοῦ, A. B., Cod. Sinait., Lachm., Tisch., Alford. γογγυσμῶν, Rec. K. L. Translate: “without murmuring,” so German.—M.]

1 Peter 4:10; 1 Peter 4:10. [Translate: “Each man, as he has received a gift of grace.”—M.]

1 Peter 4:11; 1 Peter 4:11. [ὡς ἐξ ἰσχύος ἦς χορηγεῖ ὁ Θεός=“as out of the power which God bestoweth,” so German, Van Ess, Allioli and others.—M.]

1 Peter 4:11; 1 Peter 4:11. [ἐστιν=is, not be.—M.]

1 Peter 4:11; 1 Peter 4:11. Translate: “To whom is the glory and the power (or might) to the ages of the ages. Amen.”—M.]