"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?' I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
1 Peter 2:1-5
"Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, the living Stone--- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." go to biblos.com to read on!
Digging down deep happens to provide us healing... what is dug out?
*Malice-- which defined by dictionary.com is " desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness:"
*Deceit-- "concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating:"
*Hypocrisy-- " a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess"
--- in reading through the new testament I think these people really believed they were doing right, but doing right does not also equal closeness to God or knowing God or loving Him or receiving His love.
*envy-- "a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc."
*slander-- "a malicious, false, and defamatory statement or report"
I'm guilty of all of these things. How about you? Peter here says, "rid yourselves" implying a choice to be rid of them. The thing is, to rid ourselves of these things we must give them to God as the feelings or urges present themselves. We must consistently practice taking our focus off of ourselves and putting them on Christ and others; receiving and giving His Love. This is how to rid ourselves. This is how to dig down deep. Ridding ourselves of these things leads to knowing that the Lord is good!
I've written before about how we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and also about how we are being rebuilt by God; here in 1 Peter he says we are being built into a spiritual house with living stones.
Hebrews 5:14, "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."
This is also a choice, after having rid ourselves. So ridding ourselves of those things listed leads to knowing God, laying a foundation, the Corner Stone of Christ is set in place, and then we can build... learning to distinguish between good and evil, becoming teachers as Hebrews 5 also says, becoming a holy priesthood. .. We should all be becoming teachers, but if we have not dug down deep and rid ourselves in order to lay that foundation strong and pure, lets not rush to build with out doing this nitty gritty work first. It is uncomfortable but necessary so that we are easily collapsed & destroyed.
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