Thursday, June 7, 2018
The end of the
world is coming soon. Therefore, be
earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for
each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal
or a place to stay. God has given each
of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of
speaking? Then speak as though God
himself were speaking through you. Do
you have the gift of helping others? Do
it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God
through Jesus Christ. All glory and
power to him forever and ever! Amen. 1
Peter 4:7-11(NLT)
Did Peter miss it? He wrote that the end of the world was coming
soon; did he misspeak himself? Was he
wrong? Is Scripture somehow
untrustworthy because the head of the Apostle’s group failed to prophesy
accurately? After all, in the days of
ancient Israel the penalty for a prophet, one who spoke the Word of God, but
didn’t have a 100% accuracy record…was stoning to death. So, do we pick up a stone and bring Peter to
the edge of town?
Or is there an explanation we haven’t considered?
Well, for one thing, literally every
person that was alive when Peter wrote those words is dead now – that happens
in the course of 2,000 years. For each
of them, their world didn’t last more than several decades past the ink drying
on Peter’s letter. So, for each of the believers
to whom Peter wrote, the world did end rather quickly; quickly in the sense
that when they breathed their last (for some, perhaps that same day…others
within a normal lifespan), it was over too quickly. And it’s always too quickly, isn’t it? Just ask anyone over 60 how quickly life
seems to have slipped away.
But for all those to whom Peter wrote
in the first century, the difference between the last breath, and the next
moment is an instant, quickly, the twinkling of an eye. One moment the body is alive, pulsating,
experiencing – the next moment the spirit is gone!
The whole point with Peter’s prophecy
about the world coming to an end IS a reality for every human being; we will
all die someday. But, lest I evade the
point altogether, someday the world’s end will be a cataclysmic reality for everyone. At some point of God’s choosing this world
will pass away, and there will be, according to Revelation (21:1) a
new heaven and a new earth. And, for those
who trust in Christ, there will also be new bodies, and an indescribable new
life with God forever.
While this is the fondest, grandest
theme of our Christian hope, there is also that part of our Christian
experience that must be lived-out in the here and now. Peter does not ignore that. He reminds us to pray and love deeply, and to
be hospitable, using our gifts to serve each other. And to do all of it with every bit of
strength we possess. In the doing, our
lives bring glory to the One we love and serve.
In sum, the Apostle is bidding all
believers to leave behind a ho-hum, lackadaisical approach to our Christian
faith, in favor of a vibrant, energetic, all-in embrace of the Spirit of
Christ. He is calling for our heart and
soul, not just a body occupying a pew.
For You Today
With the dawning of each new day there
is an opportunity to bring glory to God or contribute to the stagnant pool of
unbelief; your choice…always.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
