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The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers. (A)Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins.[a] Be hospitable to one another without complaining.(B) 10 As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.(C) 11 Whoever preaches, let it be with the words of God; whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ,(D) to whom belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.[b]

IV. Advice to the Persecuted

Trial of Persecution.[c]

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Footnotes

  1. 4:8 Love covers a multitude of sins: a maxim based on Prv 10:12; see also Ps 32:1; Jas 5:20.
  2. 4:11 Some scholars feel that this doxology concludes the part of the homily addressed specifically to the newly baptized, begun in 1 Pt 1:3; others that it concludes a baptismal liturgy. Such doxologies do occur within a New Testament letter, e.g., Rom 9:5. Some propose that 1 Pt 4:11 was an alternate ending, with 1 Pt 4:12–5:14 being read in places where persecution was more pressing. But such doxologies usually do not occur at the end of letters (the only examples are 2 Pt 3:18, Jude 25, and Rom 16:27, the last probably a liturgical insertion).
  3. 4:12–19 The suffering to which the author has already frequently referred is presented in more severe terms. This has led some scholars to see these verses as referring to an actual persecution. Others see the heightening of the language as only a rhetorical device used at the end of the letter to emphasize the suffering motif.

The end of all things is near.(A) Therefore be alert and of sober mind(B) so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply,(C) because love covers over a multitude of sins.(D) Offer hospitality(E) to one another without grumbling.(F) 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,(G) as faithful(H) stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.(I) If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides,(J) so that in all things God may be praised(K) through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.(L)

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