Lay aside

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking… if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. – 1 Peter 2.1,3

God’s word endures forever. It is not going to fade away. It is not going to change. What I read today is going to be the same tomorrow. 

How does that impact my life? It means that the sins and issues I deal with today are not going to okay tomorrow. So what do we do? 

That’s what the ‘therefore’ in this passage is there for – to tell us what to do. 

Therefore, lay aside:

All malice – all mean-spiritedness

All deceit – all trickery

Hypocrisy – hold others to a higher standard than we hold ourselves

Envy – begrudging what others have

All evil speaking – just what is sounds like

But the end of this is interesting as well – you do this if ‘you have indeed tasted that the Lord is good.' These things might be helpful to those who have not ‘tasted that the Lord’ but they are vital to those who have. 

I look at that list and wonder how I do in laying these things aside in my life. I also wonder how much of an impact the church would have if we took this to heart. It is easy for us to focus on the ‘big sins’ like murder and adultery and violence and abortion and such, but what about these sins? Are they priorities an the things we lay aside?