self-controlled

That God May Be Glorified.

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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 ESV

Peter lived with a powerful and behavior-influencing belief that the return of the Lord could happen at any time. He truly believed that “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7 ESV). He obviously remembered the words of Jesus spoken to he and the other disciples: “if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3 ESV). Peter had no idea when Jesus was going to return, but he lived his life as if it could happen any day, and he encouraged his readers to do the same. A fervent expectation of Christ’s return will have a powerful impact on our behavior as we wait. That is why Peter tells his audience  to be “self-controlled” and “sober-minded”. The first word is σωφρονέω (sōphroneō) and it means to “think of one’s self soberly, to curb one’s passions” (“G4993 – sōphroneō (KJV) :: Strong’s Greek Lexicon.” Blue Letter Bible. http://www.blueletterbible.org). Remember, Peter had just told his readers to “have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind” (1 Peter 3:8 ESV). They were to have the same attitude that Christ had. They were not to be controlled by their sin natures, repaying “evil for evil or reviling for reviling” (1 Peter 3:9 ESV). They were to live their lives “in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God (1 Peter 4:2 ESV). To live differently, they were going to have to see themselves as different, set apart, distinct. They were going to have to remember that they belonged to God and had His Holy Spirit living within them.

The second word is νήφω (nēphō) and it means “to be calm and collected in spirit, temperate, circumspect” (“G3525 – nēphō (KJV) :: Strong’s Greek Lexicon.” Blue Letter Bible. Web. http://www.blueletterbible.org). It is the same word Peter used earlier in his letter when he wrote, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13 ESV). It conveys a seriousness of outlook that should pervade our lives as Christians. We are not here for our own pleasure, but to fulfill the purposes of God. Like Jesus, we have been given a job to do and we are to live our lives focused on the will of God. Our hope is to be in the return of His Son and the ultimate redemption and the glorification of our bodies. To live self-controlled and sober-minded is to take sin seriously and to make our calling by God our highest priority. As Peter suggests, it has a dramatic impact on our prayers. Not so much that our prayers will not be answered if we fail to live self-controlled and sober-minded, but that we will not know what to pray for. We will tend to pray selfish, myopic prayers that are based more on our will than God’s. They will focus more on making our lives easier, rather than more holy. They will be surface-oriented, instead of heart-focused.

Our prayers should be a reflection of our love for God and others. We should want for others what God desires for them – either their salvation or their sanctification. Love should motivate all that we do. And as Peter suggests, “love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 ESV). Love allows us to patiently put up with the sins of others, especially when those sins are against us. This doesn’t mean we tolerate or turn a blind eye toward sin, but that we allow love to dictate our reaction to it. We should never forget that “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 NLT). He didn’t demand that we get our act together first. He loved us in the midst of our sinfulness and provided for us a means of being freed from our slavery to sin.

Peter tells us that all that we do in this life is to be done for the glory of God. Every word we speak is to be carefully considered, and treated as if you were speaking for God. When we serve others, we are to do so with a complete dependence upon His strength, not our own. Paul expressed it well when he wrote to the believers in Rome: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36 ESV). We are to live our lives in complete reliance upon Him and with the intent to glorify Him through all that we do. We exist for His glory, not our own. We are to live like Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Romans 12:2 ESV). Our future glorification is coming. But in the meantime, we are to live in such a way, “that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11 ESV). And God is glorified through Jesus Christ as we live in faithful obedience like He did. When we emulate the life and love of Christ in this dark and dying world, we bring glory to our heavenly Father, just as He did.

Peter speaks of the eternal glory and dominion of God. That is something we need to dwell on more as we live in this temporary, time-constrained world. This is not all there is. God has something greater and grander in store for us. The end of all things is at hand. We don’t know when the Lord will return, but He will. So we need to live in eager anticipation and expectation of that day. We must long for His return more than we long for our best life now. We must focus on our future glorification rather than our immediate gratification.

…but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. – Romans 8:23-25 ESV

 

Praying Properly.

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The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. – 1 Peter 4:7 ESV

There is a manner in which we are to pray that will make our prayers proper and appropriate. It has less to do with form, than with our attitude toward prayer. Some of us worry far too much about our words and not enough about our hearts or disposition while we are praying. Peter gives us a valuable lesson on perspective. He reminded his readers that “the end of all things is at hand”. Peter, like the rest of the apostles, lived with a eager anticipation and expectation that the return of Christ was eminent. This attitude produced in him a day-to-day diligence regarding his lifestyle, including his prayer life. It resulted in a desire to live self-controlled. The Greek word he uses is sōphroneō and it means “to put a moderate estimate upon one’s self, think of one’s self soberly”. It can also mean “to curb one’s passions.” The idea is to live with a realistic understanding of who you are and what you are capable of. Don’t get too cocky and sure of yourself. Don’t get complacent about your sin nature and assume you are above giving in to temptation. Paul used the very same word when he wrote to the Romans and told a man was “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3 ESV). There is a sense in which we are to come to God in prayer with a sober-minded, realistic view of who we are. We are not to come before Him arrogantly, pridefully or with an attitude of self-righteousness. Pride can have a negative impact on our prayer life.

But Peter also uses the Greek word, nēphō, which means “to be sober, to be calm and collected in spirit”. It carries the idea of watchfulness or wakefulness, to be clear-headed and alert, capable of recognizing what is going on around you at all times. Paul used the same word when he wrote to the believers in Thessalonica. “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 ESV). Paul was also talking about the “day of the Lord”, the end times. He warned his readers that the day of the Lord would come like a thief in the night, suddenly and  unexpectedly. At that time there will be those who believe all is well. They will have a lazy attitude toward the Lord’s return. They will be caught by surprise. But Paul told his readers, “you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 ESV). As believers we are to live with an expectation of the Lord’s return. It could happen any day. And our awareness of that reality should change the way we live. It should impact the way we pray. Peter said that we should be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of our prayers. We should have a strong awareness of what we are capable of apart from the Spirit’s indwelling presence within us. We have the capacity to sin at any time. We have a sin nature that is constantly battling with the Spirit within us. That realization should produce in us a dependence upon God. It should show up in the way we pray. Our prayers should contain requests for wisdom, strength, protection, direction, and the capacity to live in obedience to His will. We also need to stay alert and awake, fully aware of what is going on around us. Our ability to sense the dangers surrounding us will keep our prayers focused on our need for God. We must constantly remind ourselves that this world is not our home. We don’t belong here any more. In fact, Jesus told us that the world would hate us. It hated Him and so it hates us. We must never lose sight of that reality. Satan would love to convince us that the world is our friend, that everything we need can be found right here. We can even buy into the lie that the things of this world can bring us satisfaction and contentment and allow our prayer lives to be filled with requests for more of what this world has to offer, rather than for requests of those things that God has promised – like peace, joy, contentment, and a hope for His Son’s return.

Prayer is not easy. But it is far more painless and effective when done with a proper perspective. We must remain constantly aware of our sin nature and our predisposition to disobedience. We must never think too highly of ourselves or see ourselves as somehow above the need for prayer. We must also live with a sense of expectation and wide-awake awareness of the Lord’s return. We can’t afford to get lulled into complacency or contentment with life as it is in this world. When we lose sight of the end that God has in store, we can find ourselves living as if this world is all there is. Then our prayers can become filled with requests for temporal rewards and earthly treasures. But God has far more in store for us. He offers us strength for the journey, not stuff to enjoy along the way. He offers us peace and joy in the midst of trial, not a trouble-free life. We are to live with the end in mind. We are to pray with our focus on what God has promised, not on what the world offers. We are to be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of our prayers.