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1 Peter 1:22 – 2:3
Yesterday we finished up with the thought since God has commanded us to be holy as He is holy, It indeed is an attainable goal in this life. The idea is that our hearts are able to – through the work of the Holy Spirit – be a reflection Of God’s heart. The illustration was if you take a cup of ocean water out of the ocean it still shares the same composition of the ocean. In other words, we can indeed be in step with the Holy Spirit and holiness of God.
And somewhere in the middle of yesterday’s devotion I talked about how Peter tells us we are going to have to roll up our sleeves and do some work in concert with the work of the Holy Spirit to make this happen. Let’s hear what Peter says next.
1 Peter 1:22 – 2:3 (NIV) Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. “And this is the word that was preached to you.
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Recently one of our friends had a baby boy. And they are at the stage of starting to feed him baby food. So they are trying different things. It was quite funny to see him trying bananas for the first time. He took the spoon and wanted to hold it and feed himself – but that was not going to happen. When the bananas hit his mouth you could tell by his facial expression that it wasn’t exactly what he was expecting. He kind of winced and squinted, and then his expression changed. His eyes opened wide and he had in a moment decided what he had tasted was really good.
When I read this Scripture today I liked how Peter talks about what our part is in all of this. The part about rolling up our sleeves and removing those obstacles in our lives that make it difficult for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.
In essence since we have made a commitment to follow Christ and live the Jesus Way, there are some things we can actually do on our part in response to the Holy Spirit working in us so that He will be able to work through us.
Peter says it like this, get rid of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind that has been a part of your life. It changes now on our part to make an intentional effort to rid ourselves of these behaviors. You wouldn’t think that in the life of a Christian you would find these. But I’m afraid, just like we don’t pay attention to these particular two books in the Bible, very often we also don’t realize these smallish things taking over in our lives. And it is important to get rid of them, like doing some deep cleaning in your home.
But take a moment and remember what did we just last study from the devotional series “All In?” The greatest command as Jesus saw it, and we see that from the book of Mark.
Mark 12:29-31 (NIV) “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
It would be near impossible to have a loving relationship with God or with others around us, if we left our old carnal habits of how we treated others before we were saved intact in our lives.
So is there something in your life, it might even be one of these that Peter lists, that God has been talking to you about removing from your life. Maybe there is something in your life that as you heard these Scriptures today God has just given you a little nudge about in your heart. Maybe there’s something that you’ve held back from Him, something that seems insignificant in your life, it may seem as if God want’s submission of that to Him. You know – as His creation there is nothing insignificant about you. Jesus wants to be part of everything you are – you are that important to Him.