When Peter wrote to the Christians, he knew they were facing hardships and persecutions. Peter wanted to encourage them and offer them hope and meaning in the midst of their suffering. The Christians he was writing to were living in Asia Minor, which is Turkey today. These Christians were upset with how they were being treated and what was being said about them. He wrote to them in 1 Peter 2:1, "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander." Although the Jews were causing them great trouble, Peter was encouraging them to not treat them likewise.
John also wrote to this same group of Christians located in the same area. He wrote in 1 John 4:7-8, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love."
How easy is it for us as humans to find fault in someone else! How easy it is for us to talk critically of someone else!
But the Bible says we are not to participate in that kind of thinking or speaking. That is what malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander is. Then the apostle John has the audacity to tell us that if we do such, then we "do not know God" because God would not treat His children that way!
Yes, the criticism you and I face daily is from people who "do not know God". If they did, they would not treat their brothers and sisters in Christ with such meanness. More importantly, we must ask ourself if we are participating in any "malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy or slander" towards them and are we instead showing them love? I don't know about you, but I don't want to disappoint the Father. Not showing love to those who speak unkind of you and me would be a travesty in God's eyes and a waste of our time here on earth.
Tomorrow I will share more emails, phone calls and comments from our viewers and hear what some of you had to say about yesterday's blog.
4 comments:
You are so right. I'm working on taming my tongue each day. Your blog entry today was just what I needed to hear!
I wanted to let you know your hair looks great, and you looked really nice on last night's broadcast. You could really tell in your suit how far you've come in your weight loss! Good for you, you look beautiful!
God Bless You!
Too sad that Obama and McCain couldn't read this blog.....Seems someone needs to speak out and tell those running to do so on their on merits and agendas .....
Barbie,
I am so sorry to hear that people cannot just keep their mean feelings to themselves! We are all supposed to teach others how to treat others as we would want to be treated. However, I guess not everyone learned that principle as a chlid. I hope that things get better very soon! Honestly, I don't see how they could get much worse. Keep doing what you are doing and others will learn to keep their mouths shut!
I've always heard that "less is more" and I wanted to tell you how beautiful you looked at noon today. Your outfit was adorable and you look so SLIM!! Whatever you are doing is working and keep up the good work!! Pass it on down to SW MS too!!
Post a Comment