“So get rid of all evil behaviour. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.”
1 Peter 2:1-3 NLT
Continuing his theme from the last chapter, Peter starts with a “so”. He ended the previous verse in chapter 1 with the reminder that the believers in the five provinces had heard the Good News. They had responded to the preacher and became believers, children of God. And because of that Peter introduced a “so”. There are consequences to being born again. We enter a phase in our lives where we have dual nationality. We are citizens of the country in which we are born or in which we live, but we are also citizens of the Kingdom of God. As children of God, as believers in the Word, we have responsibilities. Hence the “so”.
As children of God we cannot continue to live our old sinful lives. Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers, “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception” (Ephesians 4:21-22). Paul wrote “throw off”. Peter wrote “get rid of”. But the message is the same. We pilgrims, regardless of how long we have been believers, must clean up our lives and live as we would expect the children of the living God to behave. So how to we go about this? Paul continued in Ephesians 4:23-24, “Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy”. We can’t clean up our lives on our own. After all, we read in Jeremiah 17:9-10a, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts …”. Only the Holy Spirit will bring about a transformation in our lives, but we have our responsibilities as well. We listen to the gentle whisperings of the Holy Spirit within us, and say a massive “Yes!” in response. It may take a while to reprogram our minds to conform to God’s way but persevere we must, because only He knows what is best for us.
Grace is a wonderful quality, and one that, coupled with love, will go a long way to correct our “evil behaviour”. We must think before we respond because in that way we allow God to help us to avoid, for example the “unkind speech” that Peter wrote about. Our tongues can be a constant problem to us, as James wrote in his letter. “Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way … In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself” (James 3:2,5-6).
We must also align our thoughts to God’s ways. Paul wrote in Romans 8:5-6, “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace“.
The wonderful thing is that our relationship with our Heavenly Father is not benign and unfruitful. It is active and transforming. He is a loving Father who wants the best for all His children.
Father God. We embrace all that You have for us. Please help us to become more like Your Son Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 