1 Peter 4:11

‘That in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.'

For Peter's final concern is that in all things, in both our words and our actions, glory might continually be brought to God through the continual magnifying of Jesus Christ in what we say and do, and rightly so, he says, for it is to Him that all glory and dominion belongs for ever and ever.

This doxology is not a signing off. Rather it is demonstrating how overwhelmed Peter is at the thought of what he is asking. Possibly he is remembering back to how his beloved Master had so often spoken to His disciples. Now he is conveying the same message to them. And it makes him end up by glorifying Jesus Christ. Possibly there broke in on him at this moment the thought of the glory of Jesus as revealed in His transfiguration (compare 2 Peter 1:16).

Note how glory and dominion go together. Peter is aware that he will be a partaker of His glory (1 Peter 5:1), but is equally aware that he is under His dominion. We cannot have the glory without the dominion. The two go together. ‘May Your Name be hallowed, may Your Rule be established' (Matthew 6:9). And he wants us all to be aware of the same.

We are thus not to see this doxology as designedly ‘ending a section'. It is simply that Peter has been lifted into the heights by the very thoughts that he has been contemplating, the glory of the fully obedient life of God's true people. and what it is signifying. We can compare the similar experience of Paul when writing his letters (e.g. Rom 11:36; 2 Corinthians 9:15; Ephesians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 3:11).

That we all come short of this ideal is unquestionable. But if we walk in His light, as He is in the light, we will have oneness with one another in love and service, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son will continually cleanse us from all sin, and then our cry will truly be, ‘His is the glory and dominion for ever. Amen!'.