Good Tuesday morning to my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
Today may I invite you to consider how many different “filters” of various kinds you and I use in the normal course of life? Of course, during COVID we became accustomed to looking at everyone with their mask covered face as we also adjusted our mask. It was a ‘filter’ supposedly protecting us as it filtered the air we breathed. And what about water filters purifying the water you drink, or gasoline and oil filters purifying the fuel and lubricants in your automobile? And how often do you replace the air filters in your furnace and air conditioner? And what about filters on your computer blocking all types of evil things and people trying to steal your private information or draw your heart into lust or a scam? Filters are a major part of life, aren’t they? But what filters do we have protecting the most vulnerable, important part of our lives… our minds and our hearts?
Let’s rejoin Peter as he’s writing some important truth to people just like us in the first century. “…rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” (1 Peter 2:1) Do you see the key action words ‘rid yourselves’? So, I wonder what method you have discovered or developed which is successful in your attempts to remove these very destructive attitudes and behaviors from your life? I wonder if Peter and Paul had been discussing this together. Listen to what the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephes. 4:29-32) Now, because both men were writing about the same time in the first century, and we know both men were being led by the Holy Spirit of God with what God wanted them to write, do you conclude this is a very important matter to God or do you just pass it off as plagiarism, one of them basically quoting from the other? Now be careful with your answer… it’s very, very important!
I think God is talking here about the big issue of “self-control”! Do you remember that “self-control” is one evidence of the Holy Spirit fruit in the life of an authentic Christian which Paul mentions in Galatians 5:23? But it’s more than simply determination NOT to do or say certain things, isn’t it? What both Peter and Paul are describing here is the miraculous work of the partnership between us, normal human beings, and the Holy Spirit of God at work in our lives.
One role of the Holy Spirit is to identify those things in our lives which are abhorrent to God. Things in our lives which not only do not HONOR God, but they actually DEFILE God and God’s reputation which we carry as Christians. So, you see my friends, this isn’t a simple statement saying that we’d be nicer people if we didn’t have this ugly stuff in our lives. Oh no! Both Peter and Paul are challenging us to consider that IF those ugly words describe reality in your life or mine we MUST decide… not once or twice but ALL THE TIME! Whenever the Holy Spirit helps us see this evil darkness in us we must decide three things…
* What does it mean that such evil is in us, while at the same time we claim a relationship with God through Jesus Christ?
* How did that terrible stuff get through our filters and find fertile ground in our mind or heart and start rooting there?
* What are we going to do about it, now that we realize it is truly in us and obvious to others?
So, what are your answers to those questions my friends? I’m calling us out… all of us, including myself! In 2023 we need to refine our ability to discern when the Holy Spirit of God is showing us ANYTHING in us which mocks God or blasphemes God or defiles God’s reputation or gives the devil a foothold in our lives (Eph. 4:27) or distracts us from daily growing our relationship with Jesus!?
Do you agree with my challenge to you and me? Will you join me in it? Will you join me in EVERY DAY, at least once per day, asking the Holy Spirit to run a full scan of our lives and show us any evidence of anything which is NOT God honoring? (Psalm 139:23,24) Then next, will you join me in asking the Holy Spirit to empower us to take the action necessary, whatever that is, to RID ourselves of this ugly stuff. We need to dig it out by the ROOTS my friends and that will require God’s help! Now that’s going to take courage my friends!
And finally, we need to do one more thing Peter calls us to do: “Like newborn babies, CRAVE pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord Jesus is good.” (1 Peter 2:2,3) So I ask you my friends, what is your appetite for God’s Word? Do you CRAVE it? Do you feel you are starving if you don’t have a good intake of God’s Word EVERYDAY or can you go sometimes for a long season feeding on lots of other things, with God’s Word set aside? The apostle Paul challenges all Christians to be equipped by God’s Word “…so that the body of Christ [the church] may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become spiritually mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph. 4:11-14)
WOW! Now that’s quite a challenge isn’t it friends? In 2023 how often will you hear something that tries to sweep you off your moorings and put you adrift out on the ocean of confusion and doubt, maybe even bordering on insanity? Look around us friends. Many popular opinions or teachings or political positions today were considered insanity not long ago! So today I urge us to take very seriously the warnings from these two wise men who were persecuted and eventually paid with their lives, as they called to Christians of all ages in all places to filter carefully EVERYTHING they hear and see, comparing it all to God’s Holy Truth. And more… to look closely in our lives and take whatever action, even aggressive action, to remove from our lives anything that God calls evil which is taking root in us!
Now today I leave you with that challenge, urging you to reflect deeply on these words from Peter and Paul! Is there some action you need to take today my friends?
Today’s Scripture is 1 Peter 2:1-3.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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