1 Peter 4:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"But the end of all things is at hand," that is, of those who were justified during life and of those who were justified in Hades. For at the second coming of the Lord, each one receives what is due in full.

If someone rejects the Lord's preaching in Hades, saying that the dead in Hades gain no benefit from it, according to the saying, "Who in the grave will give Thee praise?" (Ps 6:6), he understands the preaching in Hades crudely.

Such a man takes confession not as praise of God, but as acknowledgment, not understanding the saying, "The dead will not praise Thee, O Lord" (Ps 113:25).

Because it is the end of the labor of proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles.

"The end" means, he says, the fulfillment, completion, or limit of all prophecies. According to the true word, this is Christ. For the completion of all things is precisely He. It is not as the Greeks vainly babble. Some, like Epicurus, insist that the end of all things is pleasure. Others say it is knowledge, contemplation, or virtue.

So that no one would comfort himself with the thought that the future judgment is far away, where Peter said the living and the dead will be judged, he prudently gives warning. Though the time of the last judgment is uncertain, everyone certainly knows that they cannot remain long in this corruptible life.

The near end is the end of the world, though thousands of years may pass from the times of the Apostles until it (2 Pet. 3:8). Our death will bring us near to this end.

"But the end of all things is at hand." Above, the apostle mentioned the nearness of the coming of the Judge of the living and the dead in the indicated sense (1 Pet 4:5).

With the Lord's coming to judgment, the end of the world in its present condition and order will follow. Therefore the apostle speaks decisively: the end of all things is near.

He speaks in the same sense in which the Apostle James said that Christ's coming had drawn near (1 Pet 4:8), and in which the other apostles speak of the nearness of the world's end, Christ's second coming, and the dread judgment.

The apostle uses this thought about the nearness of the end of all things in order to derive from it a series of moral instructions for Christians, which he sets forth next.

The apostle presents the judgment of the living and the dead as soon to occur in the same sense in which the Apostle James speaks of the nearness of Christ's coming (see Jas 5:1-8), and the other apostles also.

That is, he speaks in the sense of the unexpectedness of death, which could overtake Christians, especially at that time, the time of persecutions.

Concerning the judgment of the living and the dead, blessed Theophylact says: "The dead also are judged. This is clear from the Lord's descent into Hades.

For after His death on the Cross He appeared there and preached there also, as on earth. He preached not by word, but by deed.

To those who lived according to the flesh He appeared for condemnation. But to those who lived according to the spirit, that is, who led a spiritual and virtuous life, He appeared for glory and salvation."

The contemporaries of Noah, of whom the preceding verse spoke, spent their life carelessly. They drank, ate, and married (Mt 24:38), not thinking of the misfortune that threatened them. Then the misfortune burst upon them.

The Flood caught them unawares. A similar danger threatens all careless sinners. Let no one calm himself with the thought that the end of the world is not near.

After the Old Testament period came the New Testament. This is already the final period of the divine economy of salvation, the period of the kingdom of grace. After it will come the kingdom of glory.

There will be no interval mediating between them. In this respect the end of all things truly is near, and therefore the judgment of the whole world is near.