Doing The Will Of God When Your Faith Is Under Fire - Part 2

1 Pet 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

1 Pet 4:8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."

1 Pet 4:9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

1 Pet 4:10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

1 Pet 4:11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Last time we took our message from the epistle of 1st Peter where Peter encourages his readers how to respond as they lived in a world that hated them because it hated their Savior.

In this letter, the Apostle Peter is addressing Jewish Christians who had been persecuted and fled their homes and lands. In this letter, Peter attempts to provide an explanation for their "fiery trial" (1 Pet. 4:12).

Peter wanted his readers to know that they should view their suffering through the agonies of Jesus.

Peter wanted his readers to know that there was a divine purpose in their suffering.

He wanted his readers to know that there was a proper response the Christian should have to suffering.

Peter wanted his readers to know that Christians suffer so that they might become more like their Savior, Jesus Christ.

It happens more often that we would like to admit it that when we suffer, when we are in pain, we take it out on the people who are the closest to us. The pressures of “not enough money” transform mom or dad into a walking time bomb ready to go off when the most innocent of statements are made, “Can we go to McDonalds” or “My shoes are getting too tight.”

So it was in the church, that when the world came against it and persecuted it, the tendency for Christians under pressure to attack one another increased.

As the eschatological calendar comes to an end and Satan realizes his time is up, he will increase his attack against the beloved ones of Christ and rather than coming together to “resist the devil” the saints of God will bite and devour one another. (Gal 5:15)

So Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:7-8, “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins.”

(1) …therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

The word serious (NKJV) or sober(KJV) or clear-minded (NIV) comes from the Greek word, sophroneo, so-fron-eh'-o and means to be of sound mind, i.e. sane, or to be in right mind.

You can break the word sophroneo down and find two Greek words. One that means “to save” and another that has to do with the mind. And I suppose we could extrapolate from this that the basic idea is to keep your mind safe, save your mind, guard it, protect it, and keep it clear. Another way to put that would be to fix it on spiritual priorities, fix it on holy things. To borrow Paul's statement to the Colossians, "Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth."

It also could imply here that the Christian is not to be swept away by emotion, not to be swept away by passion. It is the same word used in Mark 5:15 where it talks about the maniac, whom Jesus delivered from the legion of demons and it says he was clothed and in his right mind.

It is used in Romans 12:3, "We are not to think more highly than we ought to think but to think sanely...to think soundly, to bring our mind, as it were, captive to divine truth."

Everything proceeds out of the mind. The Bible says, "As a man thinks, so he acts." A sound mind, sound judgment is reflective of a holy orientation. The sinful, self-indulgent, deceiving, demonically influenced world in which we live, is a very easy place to lose your spiritual mind! It's a great place to lose your mental and moral balance. And so Peter says be spiritually sane. Think on God, think on spiritual things, think on holy things, think God's thoughts.

But Peter is not done. Look again at verse 7. He says, "Be of sound judgment," and then adds, "and sober spirit." The NIV says, “Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.”

The KJV tells us to be watchful.