1 Peter 4:7

The end of all things is at hand. — Or, hath come nigh; the same word (for instance) as in Matthew 4:17; Matthew 26:46. It is but a repetition in other words of 1 Peter 4:5, inserted again to give weight to all the exhortations which follow. Probably, if St. Peter had thought the world would stand twenty centuries more, he would have expressed himself differently; yet see 2 Peter 3:4.

Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. — These words sum up the cautions given in 1 Peter 4:1, before passing on to the next subject. The first verb includes more than sobriety, and means the keeping a check upon all the desires. The usual notion of sobriety is more exactly conveyed in the word rendered “watch,” which is the same as in 1 Peter 1:13 and 1 Peter 5:8. “Unto prayer” is a slip for unto prayers; the difference is that it does not mean that we are to be always in frame to pray, but that actual prayers should be always on our lips: every incident in life should suggest them. They would be especially necessary if any moment might see the end of the world. The tense of the imperatives in the Greek carries out the notion that the persons addressed had slipped into a careless state, from which they needed an arousal.