But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.
The word translated "watch" in the authorized version is not that which we read in our Lord’s exhortation to "watch and pray". The word used here rather points to temperance, abstinence from strong drinks, though it suggests also that wariness and cool thoughtfulness which are destroyed by excess. The Christian must be self restrained and sober, and that with a view to perseverance in prayer. The Aorist imperatives, perhaps, imply that St. Peter’s readers needed to be stirred up (2 Peter 1:13; 2 Peter 3:1) to be aroused from that indifference into which men are so apt to fall. The exhortation to persevere in watchfulness would be expressed by the present.