Introduction
Are you living like Jesus could return at any moment, or like you have endless time to sort out your prayer life, your relationships, and your obedience later? The central teaching we need in this Advent season is this: because “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7), I must live with clear-minded prayer, fervent love, and forgiving endurance as I wait for Christ’s return.
Advent helps me look back so I can look forward. Yes, we remember Jesus incarnate, God becoming flesh because He loved us (John 3:16). But we also lift our eyes to the second Advent: the return of the King and “the end of all things.” And right now, even in a divided culture, many people sense a kind of shared anxiety that the world feels fragile: wars and rumors of war, political upheaval, fear about technology, fear about the future. Scripture tells us not to be shocked by that atmosphere, but to understand it through God’s storyline: Christ came once as the beginning of the end, and He will come again as the end of the end. So here’s the question I want you to answer with me: If the world is ending, if Christ is coming, how now shall we live? Peter doesn’t leave us guessing. He gives us a “therefore.”
Main Points
Are you living like Jesus could return at any moment, or like you have endless time to sort out your prayer life, your relationships, and your obedience later? The central teaching we need in this Advent season is this: because “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7), I must live with clear-minded prayer, fervent love, and forgiving endurance as I wait for Christ’s return.
Advent helps me look back so I can look forward. Yes, we remember Jesus incarnate, God becoming flesh because He loved us (John 3:16). But we also lift our eyes to the second Advent: the return of the King and “the end of all things.” And right now, even in a divided culture, many people sense a kind of shared anxiety that the world feels fragile: wars and rumors of war, political upheaval, fear about technology, fear about the future. Scripture tells us not to be shocked by that atmosphere, but to understand it through God’s storyline: Christ came once as the beginning of the end, and He will come again as the end of the end.
So here’s the question I want you to answer with me: If the world is ending, if Christ is coming, how now shall we live? Peter doesn’t leave us guessing. He gives us a “therefore.”
The End Nearness Clarifies Priorities
Peter says it plainly: “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). That statement can raise a fair question: If Peter said that 2,000 years ago, what does “at hand” even mean?
Let me disciple you through the Bible’s storyline the way Peter assumes we understand it. Most of your Bible is history, God working through eras:
- Creation (Genesis 1–2)
- The Fall and the spread of sin (Genesis 3 onward)
- God’s judgment and mercy
- God’s covenant people through Abraham
- The Law, the kingdom, and the repeated failure of human righteousness
- Captivity and longing, God’s people groaning for deliverance
- The first Advent: Christ arrives in Roman-occupied Israel, born in humility, announced to shepherds, revealing the heart of God
- The cross and resurrection: Christ defeats the true enemy, sin and death, not merely political oppression
- Christ enthroned at the right hand of the Father
- Now we live in the final stretch, awaiting His return
So if Peter’s church lived in the “beginning of the end,” how much more do we? We are near the last pages of the story.
And I need you to feel this personally, not just theologically. Waiting for Jesus can feel like children in the back seat asking, “Are we there yet?” over and over, so often that we start to wonder if the destination is real. But the Christian answer is not despair; it’s endurance with hope: we are closer than we think, and Christ can come “around the bend” at any moment.
Clear-Minded Prayer Over Panicked Headlines
Peter’s first “therefore” is not what many of us expect:
“Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.” (1 Peter 4:7)
Not watchful in your newsfeed. Not consumed by speculation. Not driven by fear about the next crisis. Peter is teaching us that end-times clarity should not produce end-times panic. If my study of the end makes me more anxious than prayerful, more fixated on bad news than the Good News, I’ve lost the plot.
He calls me to be clear-minded, steady, and focused so my prayers aren’t hindered (the sense reflected in several translations). The closer the end is, the more important it becomes that I keep communion with God central.
Psalm 90 captures this wisdom:
“Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
When I know my time is limited, whether the end of my life or the end of the age, I stop drifting. My priorities sharpen. And at the top of the list is this: seek God. Pray.
So I’m asking you directly: Is your view of the end driving you to prayer, or to distraction? Jesus’ own disciples asked Him, “Teach us to pray,” and Jesus Himself prayed with urgency when His “hour” was at hand (cf. Matthew 26:41). Nearness to the climax should deepen prayer, not replace it with endless analysis.
Love Above Everything Else
Next, Peter tells us what belongs at the top of Christian priorities when time is short:
“And above all things have fervent love for one another…” (1 Peter 4:8)
Notice the ordering: prayer toward God and then love toward one another. When we truly believe the end is near, we don’t become colder, we become warmer. We don’t become more combative, we become more devoted to love.
And Peter isn’t describing lazy sentiment. He commands fervent love, earnest, stretched, intentional love. Other translations help us feel the ongoing demand: “keep loving.” That matters, because love often has a “grace period.” Early on, it feels natural; later, it requires endurance. It’s easy to start loving; it’s hard to keep loving.
That’s true in marriage, and it’s true in the church. Some of us came to Christ surprised by how much we suddenly loved God’s people, until we got close enough to be disappointed. Then the Spirit applies this command: Keep loving.
So I want you to hear me gently: a correct end-times chart without fervent love is spiritual failure. If my eschatology doesn’t make me more loving, I’m doing it wrong.
Forgiveness That Covers Without Excusing
Peter explains what fervent love looks like in real community:
“…for love will cover a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)
Underline that. The church is not a gathering where perfect people finally find each other. It’s the family where imperfect people learn to live under the mercy of God, and to extend that mercy to one another.
To “cover” sins means I learn, by the power of God, to forgive, to refuse to nurse every offense, to stop collecting debts, and to keep walking together toward the finish line. In any fellowship, offenses will come, small ones constantly and sometimes large ones painfully. If love doesn’t cover, the community collapses.
But I also need you to hold the full biblical shape of this truth. This verse is two-edged:
- On one edge, love is strong enough to forgive what would otherwise fracture us.
- On the other edge, love does not pretend sin isn’t sin. Love doesn’t become a cloak for abuse, an excuse for unrepentance, or permission to remain enslaved to addiction with no call to change. Peter has already confronted “fleshly lusts” and the old way of life (implied from the surrounding context of 1 Peter 4).
So biblical love forgives, and biblical love also speaks truth. The goal is not “ignore everything,” but keep the fellowship moving toward holiness with mercy and honesty.
Here’s a practical discipleship step: identify the grudges you’re carrying, especially the ones that keep resurfacing, and bring them to God. Ask the Spirit for power to release what you can release. Forgiveness is often not a single moment; it’s a repeated decision to cover rather than retaliate.
End-Times Living Looks Like A Loving Household
Let me bring this into everyday life. In my own household, I can emphasize many good “house rules”: work hard, do your best, don’t be wasteful, be thankful. Those are worthy. But if love dies in the home, all the rules become hollow. Kids can obey externally and still lose the heart of the family if they stop loving one another.
The church is similar. We can value doctrine, ministry, service, discipline, attendance, and even correct theology about the end. But if we lose love, we lose the center. The nearness of the end is meant to re-order us: prayer first, love above all, forgiveness that keeps us together as we endure.
So I want you to picture your life as a small outpost of the kingdom in the last days. If Christ is near, then this is not the time to grow careless, distracted, or bitter. This is the time to be a people whose love proves we belong to Jesus (cf. John 13:34–35).
Conclusion
Advent trains me to look back to the manger and forward to the throne. Jesus came in humility because God loved us, and Jesus will return in glory to finish the story. And since “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7), I must not live in panic or speculation. I must live in clear-minded prayer and fervent, enduring love, the kind of love that covers a multitude of sins without excusing evil.
So I’m leaving you with one urgent discipleship question: If Jesus returned sooner than you expect, what would He find, an anxious watcher of headlines, or a praying disciple who keeps loving His people?
Father, thank You for loving us enough to send Your Son into the world, and thank You that Jesus will come again to bring Your story to its final fulfillment. Teach me to live with the end in view. Make me serious and clear-minded so that I will be watchful in prayer, not distracted by fear. Put Your love above all things in my heart, love that is fervent, enduring, and forgiving. Give me grace to cover a multitude of sins, to release grudges, to seek reconciliation where I can, and to speak truth with humility where I must. Help our church and our homes reflect the living hope of Jesus as we wait for His return. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclusion
Advent trains me to look back to the manger and forward to the throne. Jesus came in humility because God loved us, and Jesus will return in glory to finish the story. And since “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7), I must not live in panic or speculation. I must live in clear-minded prayer and fervent, enduring love, the kind of love that covers a multitude of sins without excusing evil.
So I’m leaving you with one urgent discipleship question: If Jesus returned sooner than you expect, what would He find, an anxious watcher of headlines, or a praying disciple who keeps loving His people?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for loving us enough to send Your Son into the world, and thank You that Jesus will come again to bring Your story to its final fulfillment. Teach me to live with the end in view. Make me serious and clear-minded so that I will be watchful in prayer, not distracted by fear. Put Your love above all things in my heart, love that is fervent, enduring, and forgiving. Give me grace to cover a multitude of sins, to release grudges, to seek reconciliation where I can, and to speak truth with humility where I must. Help our church and our homes reflect the living hope of Jesus as we wait for His return. In Jesus’ name, amen.