The End Is Near!

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 Peter 4 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
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. 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, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
When you read the first part of verse 7—“The end of all things is near”—what comes to mind? What do you imagine that to be like? The end times have long been an intriguing and hotly contested topic. People argue over how it will end, who will be involved, when it will take place, etc., etc.

Well, let me present a perspective of what Peter is referring to in this verse that may be different than what you have considered before. I’ll quote N.T. Wright on it:  

For Peter, as for the whole of early Christianity, what had happened in Jesus’ death and resurrection was the ushering in of a whole new world. ‘The end of all things is upon us’ (verse 7): this doesn’t mean that the space-time universe is about to come to a shuddering halt (that would hardly be a vindication of the God who made it and loved it!), but that God has already begun, in Jesus, the process of cosmic renewal, the renewal whose sign and foretaste is the renewal of human lives through sharing Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

If you are reading this first thing in the morning, that may be a lot to digest. N.T. Wright is simply saying that, for Christians, the old way of life has come to an end. There is a new kingdom “at hand”. The kingdom of God is breaking in where people’s lives are restored to the glory God originally intended. The end of that worldly kingdom full of selfishness and debauchery is already upon us.

 

Look at what Peter writes just a few verses earlier: 

As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 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. (verses 2-3) 

That old life of rebellious sin that is rooted in selfishness—what can I get for me, what feels good to me—should come to an end for Christ-followers. According to Peter, we have already entered a new kingdom with a whole new way of life (we’ve been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, Paul would say). 

 

So Peter goes on to explain, since that old worldly kingdom is coming to an end through Jesus, and we are now part of God’s renewal of all things, we should live in a very different way, characterized by love, hospitality, serving, speaking the very words of God… all to the praise and glory of God through Jesus Christ.

 

In this sense for the early Christians, the end had already come. The Messiah arrived bringing with him a new kingdom with a new way of life. For Jesus’ followers, the kingdom of hate and envy and revenge and greed is over. It ended when we pledged our allegiance to Christ and were empowered by the Holy Spirit.

 

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Looking back over your life, in what ways has “the end of all things” already happened for you? What parts of your old life before Christ are dead and gone? And what parts of that old life without Christ do you still cling to?

 

Thinking back over my own life there are some old sinful, selfish ways that are truly detestable to me, and I am thankful they are gone. But there are also some sinful, selfish ways that are way too present and current. May God give us all the power through the Holy Spirit to live in this new kingdom that Jesus brought, a new way of life, as Peter tells us, where we “above all, love each other deeply.”

 

 

WHO AM I?

My name is Greg Bland and I am the proud father of four children. Pictured is my oldest son, Jordan. He is super smart, hard-working, surprisingly bold, hungry for the things of God, a gifted worship leader, has a big heart for justice… but I don’t want to gush too much. J OK, I’m really proud of him. And I really miss him. He’s away at Manhattan College in his sophomore year. I’m hoping he returns to Texas in a couple years for medical school.

 

We’ve shared a lot of adventures together… an incredible “manhood” trip to Alaska, mission trips to India and Mexico, a crazy college investigating trip to NYC, breakneck downhill mountain biking New Mexico… and I’m looking forward to many more.