Good Morning Friends,
Yesterday we looked at the story of Blind Bartimaeus and it is clear that Bartimaeus left behind his dirty cloak and way of life to follow Jesus, but that faith came before his healing. It dovetails well with our passages from 1 Peter where we are given a recipe for spiritual growth… We are told to remember what God has given to each of us that has accepted Jesus Christ as our savior—a living hope, a spiritual inheritance and genuine faith—then we are told that because we have a spiritual inheritance and genuine faith in God, we need to live holy lives in the presence of those who do not know Jesus…and we are told that we also need to love those in the family to show sincere, fervent love to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Now you may have come to your own conclusion about which sounds more difficult…living a holy life or being a fervently loving person…the important thing to remember, however, is that neither is possible without the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, and both are possible if you are filled with the Spirit, because nothing is impossible for God. Now as we come to Chapter 2, Peter is telling us that, now that we have a new recipe for living, it is time to leave behind the dirty stuff of our lives akin to cleaning out the old leftovers that we have been keeping around in the back of our refrigerator…Following His encounter with the rich, young ruler, Jesus discussed the difficulty of salvation for those distracted by pleasures. The topic is about whether we are venturing to create something that eventually will pay eternal dividends, if we are willing to give up something in order to gain something better. So, How Are We Investing Our Lives To Rid Ourselves Of Malice, Guile, Insincerity, Envy And Slander?
Scripture: Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours made careful search and inquiry, inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look! Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:10-16 (NRSV)
Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.
For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
1 Peter 2 (NRSV)
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Mark 10:17-27 (NRSV)
Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Mark 10:28-31 (NRSV)
They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
Mark 10:46-52 (NRSV)
Message: The Lord works from the inside out while the world works for the outside in. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human behavior. Through hope, holiness, wisdom and love, God has given us the One way to receive the power to change, the One way to have victory over sin in our lives. And in the trials, we are to realize that being joyous is always better than whining. Friends, the Christian life might not always be easy, but it is better than all the alternatives. So, trust in a future you cannot see. Believe in what cannot be found by human effort. And have faith in the hope of our salvation that moves us to respond moment by moment now. The best investment is often in yourself and others around you and the best way to grow that investment is to have Jesus nurturing it. Many today seek the riches of this life. And really there is nothing wrong with enjoying life, but most of those things will not matter much if at all in eternity. Friends, we are to have life and have it abundantly, but the best of life is not what is typically advertised in the world. The thing is that those who know Christ become rich and joyous beyond measure. So, this morning, we want to look at five vital ingredients of the recipe for living that he’s given us that he says can replace those things we give up in order to follow Jesus. They are all found in chapter 2, verse 1… “all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander.” Peter begins the list with malice, which is the desire to see something bad happen to someone else…malice is not really an action we have to get rid of in our lives, it is a state of mind or a condition of our heart. What Peter is saying is that, before we get to specifics of what you should get rid of in terms of your actions, we need to deal with the thought process. The next thing to leave behind that Peter comes to is guile—guile means to be cunning, but more than just cunning, it implies trickery and misleading others to get what we want…when a child of God uses trickery, it shows that he or she has no confidence in God and wants control things through his or her own actions. If we have confidence in God, we have no need for trickery. Insincerity is the third item mentioned, and it is a cousin of guile. It is pretending to be something you are not. And why we do this reflects how crazy we are for this behavior does not impress God. We usually hear this about the church in the context of someone who doesn’t want to be in church saying… “Ah, those Christians, they’re all a bunch of hypocrites, I don’t want to hang around with them.” Now either the people saying that don’t understand Christianity and are therefore mistaken in their assessment, or they understand Christianity just fine and we are pretending to be what we’re not…probably a little of both…but the point is, we need to present ourselves to the world as sinners saved by the grace of God, rather than as those that have “arrived” and are now successfully living all aspects of the Christian life, when we all know very well we do not succeed in doing that, much as we may try. The fourth item is envy… which is wanting what you do not have. As Christians, we need to recognize that there is nothing that we need. Literally, there is nothing more that we need in this life. We need to be sincere. The final of the five items Peter wants us to get rid of is slander. What Peter is really saying here, I believe, is that if there is any other kind of nastiness that he has not covered in dealing with the previous four items, this one catches it all. The book of James, chapter 3, tells us that our tongues are full of deadly poison. Taming the tongue is the most difficult thing to do. So how do we do it? How do we conquer malice, guile, insincerity, envy and slander?
And So, whether I am alone or surrounded by friends…give me Jesus. This world offers nothing that compares to the blessing and assurance of experiencing God’s love and being saved by the divine grace of Christ. But this is not something to be experienced in the sweet by and by. It is available now. If you have Jesus, you have all you need. He is more than enough not just for the future but in this very moment. If we believe, Christ provides a return on investment that pays a healthy dividend. But we need to invest wisely and regularly. We are all to be making an investment in eternity as we live this life. Those investments will soon pay dividends. Be persistent and devoted. I urge you to start investing not just in your future with Christ but in all your relationships now. Let me suggest that we need to look not to our own strength, but to God’s strength, to conquer our sins. You see, Peter does not just give us a list of things to get rid of, he gives us someone to follow.
Pray we are investing in the Christian life. Pray that our devotion and commitment is directed by the Holy Spirit on the upward journey. Pray that whether we are on the mountain top or in the valley’s shadow, we have a living hope grounded in God’s mercy. Pray that even though we are sinners God has begotten us again, so we might have a life beyond what our physical births can give…beyond even the mountaintop we see before us. Pray we have confidence in a personal resurrection and restoration as members of the Kingdom of God. Pray we realize that we have been redeemed by the precious atoning blood of Jesus Christ and are heirs of God to this inheritance. Pray we keep believing, keep investing and keep loving people into life. Pray we experience the fullness of God’s living hope. Pray we rejoice!! Pray we give up those things that are barriers to following Jesus.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 