1 Peter 2:1-3 

¹Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Shower Fountain

I have a dream! There was outdoor shower fountain, right in front of our church building. During summer, we have baptism ceremony, right after worship services. It may remain a fantasy or it may happen one day. Shower under the sun is great.

Many individuals who love swimming outdoors are excited when summer comes.

When I was young, I was very skinny and sickly. I spent extended hours fishing and swimming in the river. I supposed that swimming and fishing had been beneficial to my health. I ate much fish, and I’ve got long hours of swimming exercise.

You wish to have a regular exercise but do not have consistency. Pray that God will give you wisdom to know which physical exercise you may love to do without forcing yourself to exercise. Of course, you know that physical exercise promotes good health. Someone said, “Health is wealth!” Yet, nobody is exempted from the pandemic.

Why does God allow us to get sick? Does God allow sickness to remind us that life on earth is temporary or to seek his help? It’s not very amusing to get sick. As we pray for healing, we also pray for stronger faith and godly wisdom. And when we get healed, it will serve as practical proof of God’s healing power. But if in cases that God may not remove your pains, do you still trust that his grace is sufficient for you to keep on?

How do you personally interpret what had been prophesied in Isaiah 53:5? ⁵He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Christ was tortured, wounded, died, buried and resurrected. He exemplified that the design of God for salvation of believers is dramatically painful but wonderful indeed. During his crucifixion, Jesus Christ endured torture and wounds as sacrificial punishment for our sins and iniquities. The Lord took all our sins and crucified them with Christ. Our old sinful self was buried with Christ, and we resurrect to new life in Christ.

Do you believe such mysterious design of salvation? Have you accepted Christ as Savior and Lord? Are you reconciled to God? If so, God considers you as righteous.

Personally, have you sensed the reality of what it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21? ¹⁷If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If you sincerely placed your faith and trust Jesus Christ for your salvation, you are saved from terrible eternal torture reserved for sinners; you received the gift of eternal life and you will also live with God forever in his heaven with glorious peace. Amen.

Have you proven if you have been given new life in Christ? Do you sense peace with God? Practically, what is the result of peace with God and reconciliation with him? We serve as ambassadors of Christ and we help others to be reconciled with God, but how?

Righteous lifestyle serves as practical proof that we are reconciled to God; when curious observers ask about why we behave the way we do, we point them to Christ.

God has already prepared a divine appointment for genuine believers to testify of his love and grace. So, pray that God may help you be prepared to testify about Christ.

It is not surprising when people resist when we tell them about the mystery of the cross. Lifestyle proves if we sincerely believed the mystery of Christ’s crucifixion. How? We rid ourselves of all malice, and all slander of every kind, we throw away.

1.  Throw

¹Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

All malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind: these inclinations are very natural to sinful humanity. How can we throw away our natural tendency?

If we say “I get rid of –  I throw all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind away from my life!” How simple is that? Can we simply say such statement and it will happen just like that? To rid ourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind is godly command that requires godly effort. Right?

Jesus Christ has the power to remove, get rid and throw away from us all sins, all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Can you accept that?

If Christ is Lord of our life, we must seek his help to remove those things from us. Ask God for wisdom and understanding to acknowledge 1 Corinthians 15:56-58: ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

By His resurrection from the dead, Christ had destroyed the power of death. Can you believe that? Practically, what happens when we believe in Christ? His Holy Spirit produces love in us, and he gives us desire to inform others about our hope of eternal life after physical death. If we obey his prompting, we can expect rewards waiting for us.

If there’s hesitation, pray for encouragement. It instructs us in Ephesians 6:18. ¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

            Are you praying for divine opportunity to tell the gospel of Christ to others? Are you hesitant to testify about Christ because you struggle with undesirable behaviors?

When we placed our faith in Christ, the Lord sent his Holy Spirit into our heart so that Christ dwells in us. If Christ lives in us, we become his temple. Would God ignore anyone who desecrates his temple? Do you believe that when you accepted Christ you become his temple? Undesirable behavior and bad vices can destroy us, Christ’s temple.

Personal Testimony

Before I followed Christ as Lord, I’ve got several bad vices. It came to my senses that if I believe that the Holy Spirit of Christ lives in me, he dwells in me as his temple. But bad vices was destroying my life; therefore his temple is desecrated. It’s not proper.

So, I prayed: “Lord Jesus, if you have resurrected from the dead, you can easily remove all my bad vices. Please Lord, remove all bad vices from me.”

From that time onward, I never craved for bad vices anymore. Praise the Lord!

You may ask, “How about all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind?” Should we pray that Christ cleanse us of any unrighteous or malicious activities?

Medical experts argue that alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and bad vices of every kind have negative effect to users physically, mentally and psychologically. Likewise, how do all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind affect us anyway?

Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind are sinful nature of humanity that have negative effect to personality, attitude, behavior and character.

Pray like: “If Christ has resurrected from the dead, Lord, you have the power to remove all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind in my life. Please Lord, remove from me all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”

When God cleansed you from unrighteousness – all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind, you can practically know it. How? Praise and thankfulness will come out of your mouth spontaneously, and you will crave and thirst for spiritual milk.

2.  Thirst

²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

Why do newly born infants cry? Was it because the baby feels the pain when the doctor taps, spanks, or hits them? Maybe! Yet, when you give milk to newly born babies, they stopped crying. Babies cry because they crave and thirst for milk. Milk is basic food for infants to grow. Similarly, do you crave for spiritual milk? You are spiritually born. God’s word, the Scripture and basic Bible doctrines are spiritual milk for born-again.

Pray that you crave and thirst for spiritual milk to grow mature spiritually.

Worldly standard of success are power, popularity, prosperity and pretty (4Ps).

Christians can have worldly standards of success. It is sad to admit that members choose churches leaders based on worldly standard of success not spiritual growth. It happened to first century churches; it happens also in every generation of Christianity.

Corinthian Church

The ancient city of Corinth was a business center in the first century. Members of the church in Corinth were prosperous and powerful. But there’s division in the church. They cannot agree. Who should be their leader? Everyone preferred a leader to follow.

Apostle Paul rebuked them in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4, ¹I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. ²I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? ⁴For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

Split and division among churches are a reality that we cannot appreciate. Have you observed if wealthy church leaders cause division in the church? Where leaders go, followers follow. That’s a reality. Our church have experienced splits in the past. What can we do to avoid future divisions in the church? Seriously pray that spiritually mature Christians will accept their calling from God to join the leadership ministry.

Reflect on what it says in Hebrews 5:12-14, ¹²In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

To distinguish good and evil is not overnight sensation. It requires godly wisdom. With godly wisdom, we grow spiritually mature. How does godly wisdom help spiritual maturity practically? Teach! Wisdom will progress when we teach what we learn.

Pray for divine opportunity to share to others the spiritual lesson you’ve learned. When you teach the spiritual lesson you’ve learned, you can apply it personally much better; subsequently, you will taste the blessed goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3.  Taste

³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

God is gracious to all his creation. Have you tasted it personally? The Holy Spirit in us inspires us to credit God for his gracious provisions, and we acknowledge that good things we have and great situations we experience are blessings from the Lord. Amen.

How can we taste more of God’s goodness?

We have to grow mature spiritually. A baby wants milk. It’s not proper to feed an infant with exotic cuisines and delicacies. Similarly, pray that you may grow spiritually faster to taste delicious spiritual foods. We instructed to rid ourselves of all malice and throw away all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind so that by it, we may grow up in our salvation.

Upset 

Parents have experienced this. Young children cry to pressure parents to buy the toy they wanted. Busy parents with no time to buy toys may tell children, “Stop crying!” But most often, children don’t obey; they would cry all the more louder. Why?

Mindset of children can’t conceptualize why parents don’t give toys. Children do not deliberate mindfully about time management or finances. Young people learn about money and time management by the time they earn money or support themselves.

Similarly, when we regularly drink our spiritual food, we grow spiritually. When we teach spiritual lessons we have learned, we also learn that obedience to the Lord is far blessed than attending service; and we desire to obey more. Then, why do we throw away and rid ourselves of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind?

Napa Cabbage

Do you like eating Korean Food? Do you like Napa cabbage Kimchi? Did you know that cabbage is favorite food of caterpillars? Caterpillars can devour cabbage overnight. When caterpillars devour a cabbage, it won’t grow, right? So, remove the caterpillars.

Similarly, when we are instructed to throw away all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind, it’s the Lord’s spiritual way to rid ourselves of spiritual pest and remove spiritual caterpillars that devour and destroy us spiritually.

To remove pest or caterpillar is necessary for plants. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind are spiritual pest to be removed. Additionally, fertilizers can help plants grow. Similarly, God’s word is spiritual milk that helps us grow spiritually.

How do you interpret what it says in Hebrews 6:4-6? ⁴It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age ⁶and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Why do you desire to grow spiritually? Because you are born again spiritually!  Why do you desire to read God’s word? Because you received the Holy Spirit to help you discern his divine appointment and help you teach the spiritual lesson you’ve learned.

Following Christ is far better life than spiritual-pest-filled-old-life. Can you agree?

If you’ve tasted that following Christ is better life, you keep following him and desire to tell others to follow Christ as well. Why? Because you are growing in your salvation.

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