CHAPTER 4
1 Therefore for Christ suffered in flesh, be ye also armed by the same thinking; for he that suffered in flesh ceased from sins,
2 that that is left now of time in flesh live not now to the desires of men, but to the will of God.
3 For the time that is passed is enough to the will of heathen men to be ended, which walked in lecheries, and lusts, in much drinking of wine, in unmeasurable [or oft] eatings, and drinkings, and unleaveful worshipping of maumets [or of idols].
4 In which now they be astonied, in which thing they wonder, for ye run not together into the same confusion of lechery, and blaspheme.
5 And they shall give reason to him, that is ready to deem the quick and the dead.
6 For why for this thing it is preached [or it is evangelized] also to dead men, that they be deemed by men in flesh, and that they live by God in Spirit.
7 For the end of all things shall nigh. Therefore be ye prudent, and wake ye in prayers;
8 before all things have ye charity each to other in yourselves always lasting; for charity covereth the multitude of sins.
9 Hold ye hospitality together with-out grutching;
10 each man as he hath received grace, ministering it into each other [or ministering each to other], as good dispensers of the manyfold grace of God.
11 If any man speaketh, speak he as the words of God; if any man ministereth, as of the virtue which God ministereth; that God be honoured in all things by Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is glory and lordship into worlds of worlds. Amen.
12 Most dear brethren, do not ye go in pilgrimage in fervour, that is made to you to temptation, as if any new thing befall to you;
13 but commune ye with the passions of Christ, and have ye joy, that also ye be glad, and have joy in the revelation of his glory.
14 If ye be despised for the name of Christ, ye shall be blessed; for that that is of the honour, and of the glory, and of the virtue of God, and the Spirit that is his, shall rest on you.
15 But no man of you suffer as a manslayer, either a thief, either curser, either a desirer of other men’s goods [or things];
16 but if he suffer as a christian man, shame he not, but glorify he God in this name.
17 For time is, that doom begin at God’s house; and if it begin first at us, what end shall be of them, that believe not to the gospel?
18 And if a just man scarcely shall be saved, where shall the unfaithful man and the sinner appear?
19 Therefore and they that suffer by the will of God, betake their souls in good deeds to the faithful Maker of nought.