Scripture: 1 Peter 2:1-3
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Introduction:
Imagine if you would. I have not seen you for many years and I invited you to stay at my home. When you arrived I invited you in. I showed you to your room and told you to make yourself at home. I told you that supper would be in half an hour and left you there to get comfortable. Before supper you decided to unpack your things. You opened the drawer to put a few things in, only to find it full of stuff. So you decide to hang some clothes in the closet. When you open the closet door you realize that the closet is jam packed with items. So you decide to leave your clothes in a bag. When a half an hour is up you come down for supper. However, you find that I am not there. There is a note saying that some friends called and I would be home in about three hours. I also said in the note that there is food in the fridge, just help yourself.
What would you think of me as a friend? Especially after I had not seen you for many years?
When Christ came into my life this is how my life was. Sadly, it was like this for many years. I believe this is how He finds many lives when individuals accept Him as Lord. The drawers are full. The closet is packed. Often Christ takes second place in our lives.
Let’s read 1 Peter 2:1-3
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
When we see the word “therefore” what is the question we should ask? What is the therefore, there for? To find the answer to that, we need to look at the previous chapter. In 1 Peter 1:3-12 we find the Apostle praising God for the living Hope that they have in Christ and His Salvation and 1 Peter 1:13-25 emphasizes living a holy life and turning from worldliness. The passage also focuses on the infinite cost that Christ paid for our Salvation and the hope we now have in light of this. We were chosen before the creation of this world and have been purified and regenerated through eternal truth. Let’s read 1 Peter 1:13-25 to get a better understanding of this call to living a holy life before we look at chapter two.
Read 1 Peter 1:13-25
Be Holy
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord stands forever.”
Now we come back to our passage for today. 1 Peter 2:1-3. In light of the call to living a holy life in the previous chapter, the apostle is giving us a more specific detailed map to strive for Christ-filled life. Let’s read the passage one more time.
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
In this passage I have come up with three things that we as believers must do in order be more Christ-like. The believer must:
1. Get rid of sin and obsessions in their lives.
2. Get into the Word
3. Get growing in Christ
I. Get rid of sin in our lives
The first thing we can see is the apostle urging the readers to give up five specific sins.
a. First, we must get rid of all malice in our lives. What is malice? Malice is anger and bitterness towards another that is held within us. In other words it is bitterness we hold towards others and we harbor this bitterness inside. This malice is not healthy and it is not conducive to living a Christian life. Also, malice hinders the body of Christ.
b. Deceitfulness is the second thing Peter warns us about. Simply put, deceitfulness is trickery on our part to deceive others for our gain. Lying, telling a non-truth, and deceiving for personal gain are all forms of deceitfulness
c. The third thing the apostle warns us about is hypocrisy. William Barclay defines Hypocrisy as the act of a hypocrite. A hypocrite is someone who is not what they seem. We see a lot of this in our society – people being dishonest in order to gain money and wealth the easy way. We find another example of hypocrisy in Galatians 2:11-14. Ironically, here Paul has to confront Peter, the author of 1&2 Peter on his hypocrite behavior. Let’s have a look: 11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing, for it was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who don’t bother with circumcision. But afterward, when some Jewish friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these legalists would say. 13 Then the other Jewish Christians followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their hypocrisy.14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you trying to make these Gentiles obey the Jewish laws you abandoned? This is important for us to see. When we read the Scriptures, we often see these men as super spiritual, but they were as human as you and I and they had their short comings also. As Peter did, we need to recognize “hypocrisy” and if I can use the word “inconsistencies” and avoid them, flee from them.
d. Fourthly, we are not to envy. Envy is yearning for something that another has. This could take many forms. We could yearn for others wealth, their looks, their prestige, and even their intelligence. This goes as far back as the first family.
Genesis 4:3-8 describes this: 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Cain brought some of his produce, but Abel brought the first and portions of his herds. As a result, God look on Abel’s offering with favor, but God knew that Cain did not bring the choice produce for his offering. In a sense, Cain was envious. Envy was to blame for the first recorded murder on earth. There are many other examples of envy in Scriptures: There was Rachael who was jealous of Leah (Genesis 30:1); There was Leah jealous of Rachael (Genesis 30:15; In Genesis 37:4-11 we see Joseph’s brothers being envious of their brother Joseph because he was favored by his father. There are so many more examples throughout scriptures of this sin of the heart.
So getting back to 1 Peter, The apostle is telling us that Envy is not conducive to living a holy God-filled life. We need to be content with that which we have.
e. Lastly, the apostle warns us to avoid slander of any kind. We are to avoid evil speech of every kind. This could take many forms, but the one form of slander that many Christians deal with is gossip. Gossip tears down individuals when they are not present to defend themselves. William Barclay states that gossip “is almost always the fruit of envy in the heart”. In Luke 6:45 we get Biblical support for this. It says: The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). What we feel and think on the inside, will eventually surface. I would argue that nothing serves to undermine the Christian church today then this humongous sin. James 3:8 puts it best when it states “but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison”. As believers we need to realize the devastating effect the tongue can have. We have to do more than just control it. We need to find the root problem in our thinking and deal with those issues
Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander are five things that the apostle pin points as being detrimental to living a holy life. Verse one shows the necessity of empting the drawers in our lives of this sin.
II. Get into the Word
The second thing that we as believers need to do is “Get into the Word”. Verse two states that we need to crave spiritual milk like a new born baby. I like how the NASB puts this verse. “like new born babies, long for the pure milk of the Word”.
I used to work in a cow calf operation when I was nineteen. In this operation I worked a lot in the calving pen. I would give needles to the calves and assist the cows during the birthing process. Instead of a mid-wife I was a mid-cow. When the cows would give birth we were most anxious to see the calf get up and start sucking its mother. However, often we had to go in and get the calf on its feet. Then I would place the calf between my knees and hold its head towards its mother’s utter. Then I would start milking the cow by hand and get milk on my fingers. I would place my fingers in the calf’s mouth so that it could get a taste of the goodness. After that it was just a matter of moments before the calf would figure things out and go for the goodness.
We as believers need to crave spiritual milk. This spiritual milk is the Holy Word of God. This Word is living and necessary for us as believers. In order for use to receive the benefit from the Word we must take it off the shelf and read it. We need to allow it to penetrate our lives. This does not just mean on Sundays, but everyday we need to take time and get into the Word. We need do this in order achieve the last part of verse two. This brings us to point three. “Get growing in Christ”.
III. Get growing in Christ
If the calf did not receive the mother’s milk it would not grow. We too, if we are not daily in God’s Word we will not grow in our faith. I really like how Matthew Henry puts it concerning this growth: “The word of God, rightly used, does not leave a man as it finds him, but improves and makes him better”. Let me read this again because I feel it best describes growth of a healthy believer. “The word of God, rightly used, does not leave a man as it finds him, but improves and makes him better”. The Scriptures are calling us to grow and not remain stagnant in the faith.
Finally the Apostle finishes this introduction with and allusion to Psalm 34:8. He writes “Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good”. When we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior we have tasted the goodness of the Lord. As a result of this wonderful grace we should feel compelled to grow closer to God. We need to deny ourselves and allow Christ to reign freely in and through us. Tasting this God-given grace should only compel us to yearn to be closer to Christ.
Application
There are two main applications that come out of this passage that are prevalent to each and every believer.
1. The first question that arises is: What is in your drawers? We need to empty our drawers of that that is hindering our walk with Christ. Not only do we need to rid our lives of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander, but also of all sin in our lives. And we need to recognize the myriad sins in our lives, confess them and make an effort to avoid them before we can experience victorious living.
What are our drawers filled with? What do we need to get rid of in our lives before we can move on in our faith? Maybe you struggle with the five sins listed in verse one: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and/or slander. But I believe that all sin in our lives impair us being Christ-like and experiencing victory. Maybe you’re struggling with other sins like greed, lust, laziness, being dishonest or any others. What is in your drawers that are keeping you from living a victorious Christian life?
2. The second thing that comes out of this passage is the question: What is in your closet? What is in your closet that is keeping you from diving into the Word of God? Are you to busy in your life to make time to receive the spiritual milk that is in the Word of God. There are things in my own life that has taken center stage over the years and pushed God to the side. For years I worked eighty to hundred hours a week, I love to play golf, hunt, fish, and so on. I would fill my life with so much and thus shorten or even eliminate my time with God. Ashamedly, there were times that my studies at Bible College took first place in my life before my devotional life. All the things I mentioned are not wrong, but they are if we put them first in our lives. What is in our closet that is taken away from communing with God.
Conclusion:
So to experience this victorious Christian life we must rid our lives of sin. We need crave the spiritual milk of the Word first in our life in order to grow in our faith. With this intake of spiritual milk, we also need to commune daily with God in prayer. When we put God first in our lives we will grow as we should, in Christ. I am reminded of the Sunday school song from when I was kid. Read you’re Bible, pray every day and you’ll grow, grow, grow. Don’t read your Bible and pray everyday and you’ll shrink, shrink, shrink. This is a children’s song, but there is so much truth in it. We need to deny our sin and ourselves and yearn totally after God. Why, because we are commanded to live holy lives. We need to quit seeing Christ as merely a guest in our lives and start seeing ourselves as Christ’s temple.
