Lay Aside
30 Days in 1st Peter - day 11
Fruitful plants need healthy soil. So, Peter begins chapter two with an admonition to clear the ground of the kinds of things that would hinder the implanted seed. The word “therefore” shows up again and points us back to what had just been said. The word of the gospel, the incorruptible seed, has caused us to be born again, “Therefore, laying aside…”
Earlier we saw how there is a consistent relationship between the indicatives (what God has done and is doing) and the imperatives (what we are to be doing). Our work is a fruit and outgrowth of God’s. Grace does not mean there is nothing for us to do. It means we do these things from a different motive and with a divine power behind them.
We must recognize that a failure to act on our part can hinder our spiritual development. One of the things we must do if we are to grow is to remove the things that block that growth. Peter gives us a short list. It is a list of relational issues: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking. These are all different ways we can sabotage love.
He has just told us to love one another fervently. Now he shows us something important: if we hold on to these attitudes, we will quietly undermine the very love God is trying to grow in our hearts.
Sometimes we think of sins like malice and envy and the like as unavoidable attitudes that spring up as a reaction to what is happening to us. But what Peter is showing us here is that we can, by God’s grace, lay these things aside. When we practice deceit and evil speaking, we are making a choice to do so.
You might have heard someone say something like, “love is a choice not a feeling.” There is truth in that statement. What we might miss if that is all we hear is that choosing to love most often involves choosing to lay aside the actions that destroy love.
Love often grows indirectly. It grows when we lay aside the attitudes that destroy it.
What sinful attitudes do you need to confess and lay aside so that love can break through in your life today?
