1 Peter 4:7-11. Exandi 1927. Volume 1. Page 55.
The end is at hand. This truth is apparent to all, if we will but open our eyes, for it is a common, every day experience that of all the things we can see and feel nothing abides, but perishes under hand. The great floods of the Mississippi again illustrate this. With one sweep of its devastating waters rich farmlands and cities are destroyed. The crops they expected to harvest this year have been destroyed. He who builds for this world only must expect forgiveness find himself very much disappointed in the end for the end of all things is at hand.
St. Peter admonishes us, Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. Prayer is a gift of God. It is one of the gifts that Jesus purchased for us when he ascended to heaven. For St. Paul says when Jesus ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men. Prayer is the privilege of a child of God. A heathen may babble with many words and call it prayer, but it is merely a making and repetition of words, while the child of God pours out his heart to God in prayer.
The prayer of faith is a great power, for the all powerful Lord is behind it to give what the child of God prays for. We should not begin anything without prayer. We should not collect for a Seminary, but pray for it. That we still lack enough funds to cover the cost of our Seminary is caused I am sure by the fact that there is not enough whole hearted praying for it. How many of you even remembered this work of God in your prayers? You are receiving a pamphlet today that gives you the financial report on our collections for the missions of our church during the last two years. The books for this 2 year term closes June 30th, and we are still a couple hundred thousand behind our goal. Another proof that there has not been enough whole hearted praying for the welfare of these missions. Thousands have poured in to the Red Cross for the flood victims. A good share of that goes to the administration of the relief, while the victims themselves receive little. There are greater flood victims we are seeking relief for in our Mission work, the victims of sin, who are etneral lost, whose eternal home is lost to them without the gospel we alone can bring to them. Let us therefore earnestly turn to our all powerful Lord in prayer, beseeching Him in Jesus’ name to give us the necessary means to give this great and noble lasting relief.
A drunken man cannot pray. Therefore he says, “Be sober”, etc. When we have stopped our own stomachs with food and drink we cannot fervently beseech God for those who have not the food of everlasting life. It were better for us both spiritually and bodily, if we gave less thought to the desires of the stomach and more energy to prayer. The end is at hand and what benefit is anything this earth can give to us then? Watch and pray.
II.
The nearness of the end of all things should also induce us to fervent love toward one another. The old English word for love is charity. Charity has changed its meaning since the Bible was written. Love is the first and foremost of all virtues, for no deed is good unless it is done in love. If we love one another, that love will always guide us to do the right thing at the right time, for love worketh us ill to his neighbor. Whenever we are in doubt as to what would be the right thing to do, we need but ask ourselves, “What would love induce me to do?” We can notice that love has grown cold in many respects. It can only grow by exercising it. What the world calls love today is in most cases nothing but sexual lust, the devil’s substitute for love.
Love is forgiving in nature, for he says, Charity shall cover the mulstitutde of sins. Some seem to interpret this passage in the meaning charity has today and think they can cover their own sings by gifts to the poor. Thus we find men robbing millions and then giving large donations to colegges to cover up their love for money. The word of God here does not say that you should cover up your own sins by charity, but you should show charity toward the sins of others. That is if you love your neighbor you will rather forgive and forget their sins and if they be a multitude than to be ready to condemn. A mother will overlook the many faults of her own child while she may not be as ready to overlook the faults of other people’s children, because the love is not there that she has for her own child. Such love we should have toward all, have fervent love among yourselves. That that refers to us so Christians especially. We are one family in Christ and will be one in heaven.
Love is sociable and enjoys company. For he says, “Use hosptiality one to another without grudging.” Hospitality means to make people feel at home in your home and with your things. Hospitality is one of the things that makes life more pleasant on earth. We would expect to find it in the houses of sick who have the most to give, but experience shows that those who have the least are often the most hospitable. People may sometimes misuse our hospitality, but it should not hinder us or discourage us from practicing it, for Jesus says, “What ye have done unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me and if it be but a cup of water you have given.” Lot harbored angels unawares and thus do we harbor Christ Himself unawares in His brethren.
III.
Finally he admonishes us to use our gifts tot he glory of God. We need not boast of what we have more than others nor of what we are able to do better than others, for as Peter says , “Every man hath received this gift.” If we have received it, then it was given to us and not purchased. All the gifts we have we have received of God as James says, “Every good and perfect gift comes from above.
They are given to us as he says, that we should minister the same one to another, that is service one another with these gifts. The hand has a power of its own, so has the foot and the mouth, but all serve the one body. So are we members of Christ and should serve Christ such in his own capacity and with his own gifts.
We are as he says merely stewards of the manifold grace of God. A steward is a man like Joseph who was made manager of all the household of Potiphar, yet did not own a thing over which he was manager. Thus we should not consider ourselves so owners of God’s gifts. They belong to God and we also, but they are given into our hands that we shoudl use them in God’s name and to His glory. Even children are not the parents property, for the Bible says, “Children are an gift of God.” Parents are merely stewards and should use the authority they have in the name of God and to God’s glory.
If any man speak, etc., Speech is a gift that God has given only to man, by which He has placed man above the dumb animals. Though we may speak the same language, hardly two people speak alike, one has a loud voice another soft and sweet, so that we can very often recognize people by their speech, even if we do not see them. It is a wonderful gift men used to the glory of God. Let him speak as the oracles of God. The oracles of God speak truth and so should our speech be as dependable as the word of God. Only such speech will remain. Only such speech glorifies God.
Ability. No man is able to do everything and we should know our place and use and develop that ability which we have, that God in all things may be glorified. That is the glorious aim and object of a Christian life that God may be glorified, as Paul says. No man liveth with himself and what I live now in the flesh I live into Him, etc. That makes life worth while and enduring in fruit and success.
