The Word

 1st Peter 2:1-3

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Philippians 2:14 -16

Do all things without complaining and disputing,15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

Malice, what does that mean? Simply defined, malice means the intent to inflict injury or harm on someone else. I would say it goes hand-in-hand with selfishness. When you're selfish, you want what you want, when you want it, and how you want it. And you could care less who gets hurt along the way, in order for you to get it. It's where we get "malicious intent" as a legal definition in our legal system. It wasn't an accident. It was premeditated. You planned to do it, and you did it. So, first and foremost, let go of that. 

And then, stop lying on a regular basis. I never realized what a big, fat liar I was until I stopped lying. Or rather, purposed in my heart to stop lying. 

Now, hypocrisy, we know what that is. Saying one thing, and doing another. Perfect example of that would be telling everybody else to stop smoking, when you in fact, are still smoking. Or drinking, or doing drugs, looking at porn, or whatever. And guess what, we're surrounded by hypocrites, because we are all hypocrites in one way or another. We all say one thing, and do the other, in different aspects of our lives. So don't kid yourself, when you point the finger at other people calling them hypocrites. You've got three pointing right back at you. Our job is to stop doing these things. And really, the only way to do that is to ask the Lord to help you. That is the key. Pointing fingers at other people because they fall short it's pretty stupid. Because we all fall short. You might not fall short where they fall short, but you fall short. 

Envy, we know what that is. Jealousy. 

Evil speaking? That covers a whole bunch of stuff. Lying, gossiping, speaking words of discouragement, rather than words of encouragement. Cuss words. All kinds of stuff. But again it's not a mystery to us when we see that. Evil speaking. We know what that is. So to help you keep from doing those things, we must have that thirst, that starvation of spirit, for the word of God. The pure milk of the word. Now, as you grow, you will go from drinking milk to eating meat. And it's at that point you can start sharing the meat of the word that you've received. And here we go right back into the sanctification process.

As we head into the next scripture of the day. Those verses above in Philippians are all about being a good example. Being an effective ambassador of Christ. Being a good example among fellow believers. Not whining and complaining about everything, and everyone. Because everyone whines and complains. But when you don't, you sort of stand out. You're weird. You're different. Why is that? Why don't you have that malicious intent to get your own way? 

Our goal is to become more like Jesus, and less like our old selves. To purpose in our hearts to allow that sanctification process to occur from within to without. In other words, from the inside out. It does no good to have a cup clean on the outside, if it's dirty and filthy on the inside. Signifying that we can really only be an effective witness if we allow the Lord to clean us from the inside out. Jesus spoke about this in 

Matthew 23:25-26

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."

And no, I'm not gonna lie to you, it's not easy. It's sometimes very uncomfortable being the different one. And it's hard because our old nature is ever present. Wanting to get a foothold again. And here we go again. That's why you have to purpose in your heart to meet with the Lord every morning in prayer, and to read your Bibles every single day. Feed your spirit, not your flesh. And finally, live what you believe. When you read and believe God's word, it's imperative to live according to it. And again, it's not easy. But it's the best way. Amen? 

All right, then, have a great rest of your day, and God bless you and yours. James.