on waiting for the end

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

—1 Peter 4:7-11

It’s a bit of a running joke among Christians that we’re always waiting for the end of the world. Anytime there’s a big earthquake or a war, some Christian somewhere in the world will be urgently asking Does this mean Jesus is coming back now? It’s a running joke because Christians are jumpy that way. And because they’ve been asking this question for, well, 2000 years now. 

And reading today’s passage, you might see where it all came from: after Jesus told his disciples that he would come back, that the kingdom of God is near, it seems many Christians thought he would come back very soon. Peter, the man who wrote today’s passage, certainly thought so. Because Jesus is coming back soon, he says, be ready: love one another, forgive one another, be generous. Because the King is coming back any day now.

But… it’s been 2000 years. And because of that, I think many Christians, including myself, don’t quite know what to make of passages like this. If we’re honest, we’re probably a little embarrassed by the whole he’s coming back aaaany day noooow thing. But we still try to do what the Bible says. So we’re good at certain parts of today’s passage: we can treat each other nicely, we can act generous and kind. But we’re not so good at the why. 

But if you keep doing it that way, you might realise at some point the same thing that I realised just the other day: I focus a lot more on loving people than loving God. Part of it is just taking God for granted, but I think a lot of it is that we just don’t know what to make of a God who will return someday — but we’ve been waiting for him for 2000 years now. We don’t want to relate to a God who we know loves us a lot, because he sent Jesus to save us, but he’s also a God who often seems distant, who doesn’t always answer our prayers. Or maybe it’s all just a little embarrassing, having a relationship with the invisible man in the sky, who watches us and who’ll come back soon.

The result of that? We Christians may try our best to love and care for others, but we forget why we should. And slowly, slowly, we might find ourselves questioning why. Loving others is hard. Forgiving others is hard. Serving others is hard. Sometimes it’ll actually create trouble for us. And one day we might even find ourselves bitterly regretting all of it. We might even start questioning our own faith, since if it’s just all about being kind, but we don’t want to involve God in it, then what makes us different from someone who isn’t a Christian? 

But that’s why Peter included the second half of today’s passage: serve each other by using the gifts God gave you; if you speak God’s word make sure you really are speaking for God; help other people by using the strength God gave you, and all of this so that God will be glorified through Jesus. Why does Peter mention Jesus? Because Jesus loved us first. He models what it looks like to love people who don’t deserve love. He models what it’s like to love when being loving is hard work. And we do that for him, for God. God must be the why behind everything Christians do. That’s how they’ve been able to wait these past 2000 years. Christians, we cannot ignore our relationship with God. We cannot allow our faith to just be something that helps us meet friends, or something that comforts us when we don’t get the grades or the subjects we want, or something that makes us feel better about ourselves, better than others. Our relationship with God must come first, that’s the only way we can follow what today’s passage tells us, to continue to be loving, to be patient, and to do it all because we love and worship the God who loved us first. And who will come back one day. 

Non-Christians, this probably all sounds pretty strange. But I hope it helps you understand Christians a bit better. Christians are called to be kind, and even if we don’t always succeed, we’re supposed to be doing it for God, not to just look good or to protect ourselves. And hopefully it will touch your heart someday too.