Laying Aside Malice

1 PETER 2:1-2

SUBJECT: GROWTH THROUGH PERSEVERANCE

THEME: because God is always in control and our hope is in Christ, we are admonished to never despair or backslide due to difficult and unfair circumstances. We should rather strive to grow spiritually and persevere in practical righteousness. We must lay aside wrong attitudes because they hinder our spiritual appetite and growth.

INTRODUCTION: How should I conduct myself when life seems to fall apart?  What does God expect of us when things are unkind, unfair, and filled with unwanted pressures? 1 Peter 1:6-7, Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: [7] That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Pursuing the will of God despite our pressures is God’s answer, but how do we do that?

1) There is a tendency to quite living for God resorting to the world’s way of handling hurts, troubles, and unfair treatments. Anger, revenge, backbiting, and resentment are the usual forms in which we vent our frustrations towards people. Backsliding is what happens to our fellowship with the Lord. When we are NOT growing as Christians, we are actually straying away, weakening, and falling behind.  Harboring wrong attitudes can significantly hinder our spiritual progress. In such times we need to refocus ourselves and adjust our perspective to live more completely up to God’s expectations in the realm of our emotional life.

2)  Instead of becoming cold towards God in our trials, we must maintain a correct attitude and spirit toward Him and others. Sometimes it is very easy to put on a smile and go through the motions, but to be real in our spirit, attitude, and heart is a different matter. Trials can be real opportunities to grow spiritually but we will have to be especially attentive to the purpose of living for God during these hard times.

When you come to the point of quitting draw on God’s strength, you’ll build endurance in your life.

MESSAGE: 

STRIVE TO GROW IN THE LORD BY LAYING ASIDE HARMFUL ATTITUDES  1Pet. 2:1

There is a great temptation to take on non-Christian attitudes and to assume a hostile spirit when difficulties come our way.  Sometimes extreme adjustments, out of the ordinary pressures, and unfamiliar challenges can generate negative energies that will eventuate into hostility, irritability, and shortness of patience with others. In such times the child of God must resist the temptation to revert back to the old sin nature and actually take off the “Old Man.”

     A.  WE MUST LAY ASIDE ALL MALICE “Wherefore laying aside all malice,”    

          1. Remember What You Have in Christ. “Wherefore” reaches back to the last chapter to continue a thought and to further substantiate an ongoing argument. 

               i) Remember Your Great Salvation.

Peter has admonished these Believers to Remember Their Salvation (2-3), their Hope (vs 3) and Security (vs 5) in Christ, their Inheritance (vs 4) that is being kept for them and they are being kept for that inheritance.  

              ii) Remember Your Godly Separation.

Peter has challenged them to live Holy (vs 14-17) in their corrupt world and to govern themselves with great reverence for God. Peter now continues by encouraging them to lay aside some things. This is practical righteousness, therefore prepare for instruction when you see the word “wherefore” in Scripture.

APPLICATION: God has a bases for this exhortation; therefore, we are obligated to take heed to every bit of council God gives us. We are admonished to live for the Lord since we are saved, regardless of our conditions or circumstances.  If God said it, we should obey him.

         2. Take Off the Wrong Attitude of Malice. “Laying aside all Malice” The allusion is to take off clothing items.

              i) “Lay aside” means to ‘stripe off’, much like you would take off a dirty or sweaty shirt. It means that we should cleanse ourselves of anything that defiles. We must cast off these things entirely; we are not to practice them any longer.

Accordingly, the garments of “malice” must be stripped off forever!  Our Spiritual hygiene is substandard when our attitude is dirtied by malice, and we need to cleanse it away. What does malice mean? Col. 3:8, But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.    

            ii)    External Malice: (Actions) Wicked Actions of All Kinds and All Forms of Evil. It is a word that accompanies all vices of people. The Greek word for malice includes evil of all kinds. This is External Malice! See the notes at Rom 1:29. Compare Acts 8:22, where it is rendered wickedness, and 1 Cor 5:8; 14:20; Eph 4:31; Col 3:8.

Rom 1:29-30, Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, (30) Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents

Titus 3:3, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

            iii) Internal Malice: (Attitude) Deep Seated Feelings Against a Person; Lasting Hatred; Intense and Long-Lasting Bitterness Against a Person.

QUOTE: The word "malice" we commonly apply now to a particular kind of evil, denoting extreme enmity of heart, ill-will, a disposition to injure others without cause, from mere personal gratification, or from a spirit of revenge—Webster.  It means wishing that something bad will happen to a person. This is Internal Malice!

                 a) Malice Inflames the Person to Do Mischief to Others.

                 b) Malice Inflames the Heart to Design Mischief Toward Others.

                 c) Malice Inflames the Heart to Delight in the Mischief That Befalls Others.

APPLICATION: The Child of God must lay aside ALL Malice.  Every wicked deed is to be taken off like clothing and every wicked desire is to be cleansed away because it defiles the Believer. We are to be unclothed of External wickedness and cleansed of Internal Wickedness. Peel it off like you peel a banana, and we are to clean it out like greasy pot. Romans 13:12, The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

ILLUSTRATION: George Washington Carver was refused admission at a university because he was black. Years later, when someone asked him the name of the university, he replied, “Never mind.  That doesn’t matter now.”  He harbored no malice.

 CONCLUSION: How does God expect me to conduct myself in troubled times? We must lay aside wrong attitudes of the heart because they hinder our spiritual appetite and growth. Let Us Lay Aside Wrong Attitudes!

1. God expects us to take off some things. He expects us to grow spiritually even in hard and unfair situations. 1 Peter 2:1-2, Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, [2] As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

2. There is a tendency to quite living for God and resort to the world’s way of handling hurts, troubles, and unfair treatments. But we no longer allow anger, revenge, backbiting, and resentment to prompt us to vent our frustrations. We do not have to relinquish our fellowship with the Lord. We must not stray away falling behind harboring wrong attitudes that hinder our spiritual progress. In such times we can refocus and adjust our perspective to live more completely up to God’s expectations choosing the power of the Spirit and refusing to be controlled by our emotions!