1 Peter 4:7

The end of all things is near. Let no one soothe themselves with the delay of the future judgment, in which he said that the living and the dead were to be judged; he prudently warns, for although the coming of the final judgment is …

Be therefore prudent, etc. And the Lord in the Gospel has commanded us to always pray and watch, in view of the uncertain end. For he says, speaking of the day of judgment: Watch therefore, praying continually, that you may be accounted worthy to escape …

That is, both to those who were justified during their life, and to those who were justified in Hades. For at the second coming of the Lord, what is due shall be fully rendered to each one. If someone should reject the Lord's preaching in …

But the end of all things - And so of their wrongs, and your sufferings. Is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer - Temperance helps watchfulness, and both of them help prayer.

But the end of all things is at hand,.... With respect to particular persons, the end of life, and which is the end of all things in this world to a man, is near at hand; which is but as an hand's breadth, passes away like a tale that is told, and is but as a vapour which appears for a while, and then vanishes away.

Some of the strongest and best arguments against all sorts of sin are taken from the sufferings of Christ. All sympathy and tenderness for Christ as a sufferer are lost of you do not put away sin.

Let the frame and temper of your minds be grave, stayed, and solid; and observe strict temperance and sobriety in the use of all worldly enjoyments. Do not suffer yourselves to be caught with your former sins and temptations,

Thus "sober" is the opposite of "lasciviousness" (1Pe 4:3). watch--Greek, "be soberly vigilant"; not intoxicated with worldly cares and pleasures. Temperance promotes wakefulness or watchfulness, and both promote prayer. Drink makes drowsy, and drowsiness prevents prayer. prayer--Greek, "prayers"; the end for which we should exercise vigilance.

But the end of all things is at hand - I think that here also St. Peter keeps the history of the deluge before his eyes, finding a parallel to the state of the Jews in his own time in that of the antediluvians in the days of Noah. In Gen 6:13, God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me. This was spoken at a time when God had decreed the destruction of the world by a flood. Peter says, The end of all things is at hand; and this he spoke when God had determined to destroy the Jewish people and their polity by one of the most signal judgments that ever fell upon any nation or people. In a very few years after St. Peter wrote this epistle, even taking it at the lowest computation, viz., a.d. 60 or 61, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. To this destruction, which was literally then at hand, the apostle alludes when he says, The end of all things is at hand; the end of the temple, the end of the Levitical priesthood, the end of the whole Jewish economy, was then at hand. If these words could be taken in any general sense, then we might say to every present generation, The end of all things is at hand; the end of all the good which the wicked enjoy, and the end of all the evil which the righteous suffer. Be - sober, and watch unto prayer - Be sober - make a prudent and moderate use of all you possess; and watch against all occasions of sin; and pray for the supporting hand of God to be upon you for good, that ye may escape the destruction that is coming upon the Jews, and that ye may be saved from among them when the scourge comes.