1 Peter series – “Holding onto Hope in a Hostile World”

1 Peter 1:22-2:3

²² You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.  ²³ For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. ²⁴ As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. ²⁵ But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And that word is the Good News that was preached to you. 2 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. ² Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, ³ now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

After looking at malice and deceit now we see:

Hypocrisy

It was a word commonly used of actors on the Greek stage, it means to “wear a mask.” It’s the idea of pretending to be someone you’re not. When we put on a mask our profession does not match our practice. How many have walked away from Christ because our witness didn’t match our words? Does your public life match your private life? When I hear someone tell me that they don’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites I reply, “Why don’t you come and join us and we’ll have one more.” What’s really going on on the inside? Reputation is who people say you are your character is who you really are. Worry more about your character than your reputation. There are multiple stages to our life, front stage where everyone sees us, back stage were those closest to us see us, and off stage where it is just us and God. Are you the same person on all three stages or are you a Chameleon Christian, blending into your surroundings? 

Envy

One of the seven deadly sins, envy is not only wanting what someone else has, but hating that person for having what you want. How do you know if you are struggling with envy? Are you jealous about the success of others or joyful over their misfortune? Does others success cause you to celebrate or sour? Mark 15:10 tells us that the religious leaders were envious of Jesus’ popularity and that’s why they conspired to kill Him. Envy is evil and it’s a practice that comes at a price: 

Evil Speech 

Also known as slander, it includes all kinds of destructive speech and it literally means to run others down. This is the sin of backbiting, what I call bullying behind the back. It also includes gossip, what I call the sly sin, because it’s the one we most often try to cloak in Christianism’s. It’s where we use prayer as a presence, “I don’t know if you know but we need to be praying for so and so because…” let’s be honest our goal is not Godly its gossip. Gossip feeds on others failure and misfortune, it finds its pleasure in others pain. It’s often driven by the deeper desire to deflect attention from our own failings. The worse light we can put others in the less our own darkness shows. So let me ask you is your speech edifying or evil, is it building up or belittling, is it sweet or sour? 

Your relational sins will affect your relationship with God. The sins we hold on to will sour us spiritually, a bitter spirit will get the better of you. Relational discord can keep you from drinking and dining on the Word. As D.L. Moody once said, “God’s Word will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from God’s Word.” The way we think and talk about other believers will either shore up or short-circuit our spiritual growth. Don’t say you love God if you are harboring hate toward His children. Are you loving other believers or lashing out and letting bitterness bog you down? If you are stuck because of relational sin, then confess it, Call it what it is – sin, don’t cloak it in some Christianism, get it out of the closet, come clean. Second repent, that means to reject and remove it, the phrase “get rid of” is the picture of someone taking off and discarding dirty clothing. The early Christians used to take off their old clothes before they were baptized and then would put on a brand new set when they came up out of the water. Repentance is how we rid ourselves of sin. Lastly don’t just remove it run from it, put up Godly guard’s in your life to protect you from going back and participating in these sins.  Have you laid aside those things that sour you spiritually, don’t be passive about the sins you are participating in. Don’t make excuses when it comes to evil, get rid of it. Stop filling yourself with trash, because the toxic trespasses that you are committing against others is trashing your relationships. How many of our problems would be resolved if we took this counsel on sin seriously? If we would only flee from sin, our lives wouldn’t just be better they would be blessed. Sin deprives us of God’s best, and yet often we play games with sin. We brush as close as we can without being burned. But sin is never without consequence or cost. What we sow, we reap. Do you have a carnal craving a sweet tooth for sin then stop fueling it and put your cravings in the can.