“So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Peter brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Jews, while Paul primarily gave his message to Gentiles. In this epistle, Peter instructs the new converts to The Way in the rules of the road for the New Covenant. Those rules are still incredibly useful for living a Godly life… and something most modern Christians continue to struggle with!

Deceit: distorting the truth (sounds like today’s media!), fraud, cheating

Hypocrisy: the pretense of having a virtuous character, principles, or beliefs one doesn’t possess

Jealousy: resentment against a rival, or against another's success or advantage itself

Unkind speech: any word from our lips that lacks kindness or mercy

Think of how many times a day even the best of us tells a “little white lie”, acts in a self-righteous manner, resents another person for their success or something that they possess, or says something just isn’t nice. It was true of the early believers and it happens now.

I wonder if Peter ever thought that his advice would still be valid 2,000 years after he first wrote it?

Photo by Nicolas Gras on Unsplash

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