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7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
— 1 Peter 4:7-8
On Wednesday, as I regularly do, I attended a prayer-fellowship breakfast with pastors of the Long Beach Harbor Southern Baptist Association. It is the local association that our church belongs to. We got to talking about how the 2000th anniversary of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, as well as that of the birth of the church, will be coming between 2030 and 2033. Scholars debate about the exact year, and I haven’t looked into it enough to have an opinion. But the point is that this bimillennial anniversary is coming in about six to nine years.
And then, on Thursday, P David, P Nathan, and I, along with the executive team of the Conference of Korean Baptist Churches of Southern California, met with Pete Ramirez, the Executive Director of the California Southern Baptist Convention. He shared a vision of seeing 900,000 people in California saved by 2033 (2% of California’s current population). He believes that 2033 is the bimillennial anniversary of Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost.
Dr. Ramirez wanted to meet with us to get our input on how the CSBC and Korean-American churches could better partner together to make this vision a reality.
Obviously, the fact that the bimillennial anniversary of the most important events in human history will be upon us in six to nine years doesn’t mean Jesus is returning on that anniversary. But it should be a good reminder for us that “The end of all things is near.” “Therefore …”
Therefore, we need to be alert to the most pressing problem facing all of humanity, which is lostness, according to Paul Chitwood, the President of the IMB. Also, we need to be of sober mind, which simply means to have the right perspective about life in the context of Jesus coming back.
Therefore, being alert to the most pressing need that people have and being soberly mindful that Jesus is coming back soon enough, we may pray according to the mind of Christ and the will of God. And “above all …”
“Above all” speaks to the priorities that we make. Our priorities are always driven by what we want and what we consider to be important in our lives. The Apostle Peter is saying that our “above all” should be driven by the reality of “the end of all things is near.”
And this reality should not cause us to be discouraged and lose hope. But this reality will cause us to be depressed and lose hope if our “above all” is driven by the things we want (when the things we want are not aligned to what God wants).
But it’s not that God wants to deprive us of good things. When the things that we want “above all” ARE aligned to what God wants, then there is the greatest joy and happiness and blessing to be had. I mean, who would NOT want to live a life in community where we “love each other deeply” and where such love “covers over a multitude of sins”? It’s the devil that wants to steal that from us.
Father, how I long to be alive when Jesus returns. Make me ready, LORD. But right here and right now, may I get ready myself by being alert and of sober mind, and loving others, especially the saints, deeply. In Jesus’s name. Amen.