To God Be The Glory Series

Our Prayers, Our Passions & Our Praise

The position is that the end of all things is at hand. The miserable destruction of the nation foretold by our Saviour is now very near; consequently, the time of their persecution and our sufferings is but very short. The world itself will not continue very long. The eternal fire will put an end to it; and all things must be swallowed up in an endless eternity. But Peter admonishes us to give ourselves to prayer, give ourselves to holy passions and give ourselves to the praise of His Glory. Just preceding our text, in verse 3, he says: "For the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles, and to have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, winebibbings, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatries." Later on in chapter 5 he brings in the same warning in clearer phrase, exhorting Christians to be sober and watchful for, "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

Our Prayers

Be you therefore self-controlled and sober-minded, v. 7. Be serious in your behavior and watchful with your prayers! Do not suffer yourselves to be caught with your former sins and temptations, watch unto prayer. For the sake of our prayers… we must watch over our own ways and our own walk and do so sober in mind. Whatever we say in regard to sobriety, we must also say relative to that other virtue — temperance (self-control). They are mutually related, but temperance respects not only eating and drinking, but is opposed to all immoderation in outward life — in clothing, ornament, and so on; to whatever is superfluous, or excessive; to any extravagant attempt to be greater and better than others.

ILLS: My youngest son is home for the weekend and he wanted to grill and all I had at the house was chicken so we went meat shopping. I said do you want to get some chops? No I’m not in the mood for chops. Do you want to get some ribs? No I don’t want to wait for ribs to get tender. If you want something quick lets get some sausage. So, because I’m a Texan, I head over to the smoked sausage, the andouille sausage, garlic - jalapeno sausage and he says Dad don’t you remember that the Chicago sausage is the Polish Sausage! I have not had a polish in 20 years and we brought it home and lit the fire and coals began to smoke and we grilled whatever meat we had in house but the star on the grill was that juicy polish sausage. He said I think it ready Dad! So I said I chop some onions and get some relish and he said nope Dad just bring the buns. So we stood by the grill, father and son, eating a polish, with the smoke in our eyes and sun on our back. And he went for another… so I went for another! And I realized in the moment that I finished the second that I had exhibited a lack of self-control! I let the nostalgia of the moment cloud my judgement that I had not eaten a polish is 20 years and now I had just consumed two. Oh, I paid the price for a lack of self-control!

Our Passions

And above all things have fervent love among yourselves, v. 8. Christians ought to love one another, which implies an affection to their persons, a desire of their welfare, and a hearty endeavor to promote it. This earnest affection is said to in priority above all things. Paul teaches that love is greater than faith or hope, 1 Corinthians 13:13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. Peter is specific! Have love among yourselves. He does not say for pagans, for idolaters, or for apostates, but among yourselves. Let brotherly love continue, Hebrew 13:1. It is not enough for Christians not to bear malice, nor to be disrespectful to one another, they must intensely and fervently love each other.

It is true love that covers a multitude of sins. It inclines people to forgive and forget offences against themselves, to cover and conceal the sins of others, rather than aggravate them and spread them abroad. It teaches us to love those who are weak, and who have been guilty of many evil things before their conversion; and it prepares for mercy at the hand of God, who hath promised to forgive those that forgive others, Matthew 6:14. Jesus taught that when we pray that we should ask the Father to, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Where hearts are inflamed with animosity toward one another, prayer has ceased; it is extinguished. He who prays the Lord's Prayer while indulging wrath, envy and hatred, censures his own lips; he condemns his own prayer when he seeks forgiveness from God but does not think of forgiving his neighbor.