Sin is deep-seated in us all, even we who confess and trust Jesus for forgiveness. That sin is not dormant; it’s looking for a way to show itself. An awful image comes to mind: A snake deep within a person’s body breaking through the skin to wiggle its ugly way out.
There are two lists of sin in 1 Peter, one is in chapter 4. “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” When Peter talks about ceasing from sin, he means committing blatant sins. He’s not saying we’re no longer sinners. Check that out in Romans 7. Peter goes on to list some blatant sins he has in mind. “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry” (1 Peter 4:1-3). Good enough, we church-goers don’t do those things, at least not normally. But…
…that snake of sin deep within us still wants to become active and get out. How might that happen? Earlier in his epistle, Peter talked about how church-goers interact with one another. He listed some sins we might commit with one another. “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1). Malice is ill will. Deceit is hiding or misrepresenting the truth. Hypocrisy is professing one thing but doing another. Envy is jealousy about some one else’s life. And slander here means making disparaging remarks about another person. Unlike the blatant sins, these sins can come out of the heart through our words. “Well, you know so-and-so is…” The sinful snake slips out also among us.
Peter immediately offers a cure. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation – since indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2). There is a power in our heart stronger than the sins that want to show up on our lips, the Word of God that enables us to resist temptation. Because we long for our Lord’s pure spiritual Word to get down into our hearts and crush the serpent’s head, we go to church and listen.
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