How to Get Off Spiritual Junk Food
One reason so many Christians suffer from spiritual malnutrition is that they live on a diet of junk food , as far as building spiritual character is concerned. Peter is well aware of this and that’s why he says: “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit , hypocrisy , envy , and all evil speaking” (1 Pet. 2:1). The Greek word used for “laying aside” actually means to “strip off your clothes.” The same idea is expressed in Hebrews 12:1 where we are told to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us.” Peter talks about five specifics that we should strip out of our lives: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Malice was the general word for wickedness . In Peter’s day it meant “heathen evil”—the characteristic evil of the world surrounding the young Christian church . Peter doesn’t advise laying aside some of it; he demands all of it to go. Today’s Christians are no different from those in the first century. M...