the end of all things — and therefore also of the wantonness (1Pe_4:3, 1Pe_4:4) of the wicked, and of the sufferings of the righteous [Bengel]. The nearness meant is not that of mere “time,” but that before the Lord; as he explains to guard against misapprehension, and defends God from the charge of procrastination: We live in the last dispensation, not like the Jews under the Old Testament. The Lord will come as a thief; He is “ready” (1Pe_4:5) to judge the world at any moment; it is only God’s long-suffering and His will that the Gospel should be preached as a witness to all nations, that induces Him to lengthen out the time which is with Him still as nothing.

sober — “self-restrained.” The opposite duties to the sins in 1Pe_4:3 are here inculcated. Thus “sober” is the opposite of “lasciviousness” (1Pe_4:3).