Passage

1 Peter 4.9

Book: 1 Peter · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

7. But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore of sound mind, and be sober unto prayer: 8. above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covereth a multitude of sins:

9. using hospitality one to another without murmuring:

according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; 11. if any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God; if any man ministereth, ministering as of the strength which God supplieth: that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11, ASV)

WEB

7. But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer. 8. And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.

9. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms. 11. If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11, WEB)

KJV

7. But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 8. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. ^{shall: or, will}

9. Use hospitality one to another without grudging.

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11, KJV)

YLT

7. And of all things the end hath come nigh; be sober-minded, then, and watch unto the prayers, 8. and, before all things, to one another having the earnest love, because the love shall cover a multitude of sins;

9. hospitable to one another, without murmuring;

each, according as he received a gift, to one another ministering it, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; 11. if any one doth speak, 'as oracles of God;' if any one doth minister, 'as of the ability which God doth supply;' that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the power, to the ages of the ages. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Peter, writing through Silvanus (5:12)
Audience: scattered believers across five Roman provinces of Asia Minor, described as sojourners and exiles and facing social hostility rather than state persecution
Location: written from "Babylon" (5:13), most likely a designation for Rome
Time period: c. AD 62 to 64, before the Neronian persecution

Theological reading

Using hospitality one to another without murmuring.

Two words in Greek carrying a practical weight modern readers routinely miss.

Philoxenoi, hospitable, is literally love of strangers, the same term used at Hebrews 13:2 and the direct opposite of xenophobia. In a movement without buildings, whose travelling teachers depended on households and whose meetings happened in homes, hospitality was not a virtue added to church life; it was the physical form church life took.

Aneu gongysmou, without murmuring, is the concession that makes the command realistic. Gongysmos is the Septuagint's word for Israel's grumbling in the wilderness. Peter assumes that hosting is burdensome, that resentment is the natural response to repeated demands on a household's food and space, and he forbids the resentment rather than pretending the burden is light.

That combination is characteristic of the letter. Peter does not idealise. He tells household slaves to endure unjust masters while calling the treatment unjust, and he tells hosts to keep their doors open while acknowledging the cost.

The verse sits inside the end-times paragraph beginning at 4:7, so hospitality is presented as an implication of the end being near. Whatever else imminence produces in this letter, it produces open houses and unresentful hosts.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

No Strong's-tagged lexicon entry is curated for the key terms of this verse; the lexicon covers roughly 100 contested terms, not every word. See Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Argument from the Hospitality-Stranger Convergence

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.