11.23.12

1 Peter 2:1 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deciet, hypocricy, jealousy and all unkind speech.

 

My Thoughts

Get rid of all evil behavior..we know that that is sin. We recognize those sins so perfectly spelled out like adultery, murder, greed. I find it interesting that after we are told here to get rid of all evil behavior...that deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy and all unkind speech was also listed... listed separately by name.  I believe it is because we often do these things without realizing we are doing them.  They seem to "just happen." Then we notice we have been guilty. 

 

I looked up the definition of deceit and it says,  the act or practice of deceiving... deceiving is defined as cause to believe something is not true, typically to gain an advantage.  We deceive people when we do not correct their belief of us, when we know they are seeing us in a different light.  Half truths are deceiving.  Often we deceive ourselves about ourselves. Often we tell a half truth about our self by leaving parts out.  We must be very careful of this!!

 

Hypocrisy is defined as ... The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness. Oh my... how often do we do this?  I thought of how much I love God... how much I love His word...yet when I do something contrary to God word that is hypocrisy.  When we claim to love God and His word and we gossip we are committing hypocrisy.  We must be very careful of this. 

 

Jealousy is defined as ... the state of being jealous. Jealous is defined as ....Feeling or showing envy of someone or their achievements and advantages. I think we all have these moments!!  We often think we are not jealous.... but then we want to be as thin as someone... or we wish we had somebody else's sense of style... or we wish for somebodies creative ability... or their education and the advantages that it brings.  I think jealousy is dangerous on so many levels.  The thing is God gave us each our own unique abilities... abilities He intended for us.. we can be jealous of others or we can educate ourselves on what we are good at and get better...and we can be thankful to God for what He has given us. When we are jealous of others we are saying to God that He made a mistake in what He did for us. When we are jealous it is, probably the biggest form of ungratefulness we could express.

 

And then there is that last part...all unkind speech. It does not say unkind speech that is not true.. it says ALL unkind speech. So even when people do things we don't like .. or that we feel is wrong and we talk about it to others and it is unkind. If it is putting them in an unkind likeness or is unkind in any way...any way, we are not suppose to do it.  Even if it is a problem for us and it paints somebody in an unkind light it is unkind speech and it is wrong.  My mom and I talked about this one time. We were trying to figure out how to talk about our problems with people without talking about a person.  We decided that if I had a problem at work with someone... if I told her about it but didn't give her a name then when she came into where I worked she would not have a bad feeling about any of the people before she herself formed her own opinion.  In James it talks about our tongue and the power it has and how hard it is to control.  But we are still expected to control it.. we are expected at the very least to make a good and honest effort to do so!!  The Bible tells us we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us... so we can do this too...oh but it will take  us much effort and much prayer. 

 

I think these 4 things are listed by name separately from all other evil because they so often seem to "just happen." And since they do we have to be very aware of each of them by name so we can recognize when we are letting these evils take over ...once we are aware we can, at least stop ourselves in the middle of them happening.  Once we learn to stop ourselves half way through... then maybe we will stop a forth of the way through...then one day we will stop ourselves even before we get started.  If we ever find ourselves saying, "I know I shouldn't be saying this but..." our next words should be "I shouldn't be saying it so I won't."