Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Laying aside all -- evil.

1Pe 2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby

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Malice- desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness: the malice and spite of a lifelong enemy.
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Guile- insidious cunning in attaining a goal; crafty or artful deception; duplicity.
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Hypocrisies- The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
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Envies- a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions
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Evil speaking- speaking ill of others; calumny;
censoriousness.
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Lay aside ALL desire to hurt someone, to cause someone suffering. Lay aside ALL insidious cunning, ALL deception, ALL duplicity. Lay aside ALL lying. Lay aside ALL discontent. Lay aside ALL covetousness. Lay aside ALL evil speaking.

What does it mean to lay aside all these bad parts of ourselves?

It means to get rid of them, doesn't it? These things can't be a part of our lives- not willingly- not without the very real desire to live without them. When we enjoy evil what's that say about us? Something isn't right with us, in fact something is very, very wrong. By the grace of God we will NOT embrace evil but shun it!

When a person does commit evil we are quick to notice and note that it's wrong. We've prisons filled with people who have chosen evil, people who have been overcome by committing evil. We've mental hospitals filled with people who have brain malfunctions that cause them to commit evil. Evil is a huge part of our every day lives because it's all around us. Is it any wonder we are told to lay aside all that evil? That we HAVE to be told to lay it aside.

Bits and pieces of that evil creep into our lives in so many ways. We don't have to be the biggest hypocrite to be a hypocrite. We don't have to be huge liars to be a liar. We don't have to be the greatest deceivers to be a deceiver. Do you see, we ALL have to lay aside the evil in our lives. This isn't a message for the *big* sinners, this is a message for all of us, for all sinners. This is a message for all of us who would be God's.

1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby

We have to lay aside all that evil and then, and ONLY then as NEWBORN BABES we have to desire the sincere milk of the word.

I speak from firsthand very, very recent experience when I say that newborn babes desire that milk often! They desire that milk more than most anything else. They do desire to be changed, and they do desire to be cuddled and loved, but their most basic need is to feed on the milk that they NEED to live, to grow.

We need to lay aside all that would keep us from desiring God and the Word of Life more than anything else. As a babe wanting milk we have to want God! Do we? Seriously, do we? Do we want God in that big of a part of our lives, taking up that much time? Newborn babes constantly eat, sleep, mess their diapers- this is their life. We have to want to eat that much- we have to want God that much in our lives. He needs to be our ALL in ALL, our source of LIFE. But for Him to be that big a part of our lives we have to lay aside all the things that would keep us from that life with God.

We have to CHOOSE to lay aside the things that would keep us from our Savior.

By the GRACE of God may we do this, may we choose to live for God fully, desiring Him in our lives more than anything else.

All through HIM and HIS LOVE!

By HIS SPIRIT!

Amen.

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