Holiness Day Two…

Morning!

Raises his cup of coffee

It is Tuesday April 8th of 2025.  It is a cool, clear morning with a high of 46 forecast.  Sunrise will be at 6:41am.

We’re taking a bit of a detour today and continuing to reflect on holiness.  If we remember, holy means to be set apart—and in the case of God Himself, it means wholly other. There is none like God.  He is the Alpha and the Omega.  He is I AM—He who exists without other.  He is Jehovah Jireh, the LORD our Provider.  He is Jehovah Rapha, the LORD our Healer.  He is Jehovah Shalom, the LORD our Peace.

If that list doesn’t make you lower your head in reverence, we might need to do a little bit of praying.

Proverbs 1: 7

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

We have been chosen by this very same God to be His children.  One God in three Persons.  God the Father, Jesus the Son and The Holy Spirit, three distinct persons in one God.  Our faith has been put in Him.  Or more appropriately put, we have been given our measure of faith in Him.

Peter teaches…

1 Peter 1: 13-19

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’  And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your smiles conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

Peter begins by telling us to get our minds ready. He tells us to rest our hope fully upon the grace of Jesus Christ.  But the next few lines—that’s where things get interesting.  We are not to conform ourselves to our former lusts.  Now… let’s take a minute here to look at the word used for lusts.

Epithumia: (Greek)

- A longing (especially for what is forbidden)

- Concupiscence, desire, lust after

Lusts: (English)

- Usually intense or unbridled sexual desire: Lasciviousness

- An intense longing: Craving

- obsolete: Pleasure, delight; personal inclination

It sounds to me like Peter is telling us that we are going to change.  He’s teaching that what we used to desire—what we once longed for—we are no longer to conform ourselves to those things. Instead, we are to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. Set apart from our former lusts. And more than that—we’re to replace those former lusts with holy wants.  We are to shed our former works—our old ways of doing things—and instead, put on the new man in Christ.

So.

How do we do this?  Peter continues…

1 Peter 2: 1-5

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.  Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Now, before we go too much further, let’s remember…

Proverbs 21: 2

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.”

It can be easy to gloss over this list without considering what is involved.  So let’s take a moment to look at some words.

Malice: (noun)

- Desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another

- Intent to commit an unlawful act or cause harm without legal justification or excuse

I woke up this morning a little later than usual. Nothing serious—just an extra hour of sleep—but it was enough to throw off the routine in the household.  Every morning, the animals have come to expect the same thing. I get up at a certain time. I started with my daily prayer. I say hello to the animals. I do what I need to do to get myself moving. Then—it’s time for food. And they know it.  My cat, Katie, has figured out a very specific way to let me know she’s ready to eat. She finds the nearest plastic thing—usually a trash bag, a treat bag, or whatever she can get her little teeth on—and starts chewing on it. Relentlessly.  She knows it aggravates me.  That’s why she does it.  Because what do I have to worry about when the crinkling won’t stop?

Malice.  Everyday Malice.

It may not be intense. I never want to hurt my cat—don’t get me wrong. But it’s easy to forget that Jesus teaches us the action of malice starts in the heart.  Anyone who is angry at their brother without cause has already committed murder in their heart.  Now, I might not want to hurt my cat, but I definitely struggle with wanting to cause her equal distress because of the relentless crinkling plastic. It is maddening.

Until…

Isaiah 26: 3

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

And…

Proverbs 12: 10

“A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”

I’m then reminded—by Jesus—that my cat is simply hungry and telling me so.  Through the Word of God, malice is removed.  She might also just be giving me a hard time for being lazy and sleeping in an hour too.

Deceit: (noun)

- The act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid: the act or practice of deceiving: deception

- An attempt or device to deceive: trick

- The quality of being dishonest or misleading: the quality of being deceitful: deceitfulness

It’s hard for me to admit to myself that I get aggravated with my cat. She’s a good friend—and generally very patient with me, especially since I like to give her a lot of attention.  But it’s that easy to deceive ourselves.  Because maybe it’s not the cat. Maybe it’s our kids. Or our parents. Or our friends.  Or the person working the register at the store.  How easy is it to tell ourselves that our irritation—our malice—is somehow justified by the circumstances around us? Like we have some sort of personal exception from Peter’s teaching.  But to put away deceit is to put on truth.  To put away deceit is to use honest scales—figuratively and literally.

Deceiving ourselves is, of course, only the first half of deceit.  We might also struggle with deceiving others. And this can take many forms. But one thing’s for sure—when we care more about pleasing people than pleasing God, we’ve opened the door to this kind of deceit.

Matthew 10: 32-33

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.  But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

When I miss a ministry opportunity I struggle with this one.

Hypocrisy: (noun)

- A feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not: behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel

- An act or instance of hypocrisy

As Peter teaches us, we are to shed our former lusts—the desires we have for that which is not God—and replace them with holy behaviors, God-honoring behaviors.  It’s not about doing what is expected of you.

It’s about looking to Jesus to transform you into what He promises you will become.  In order to begin—and continue—that journey, we must shed hypocrisy from our hearts. That’s the goal: to walk in a true and honest faith.  Righteousness through faith.  Righteousness through love of Jesus.  Just as we’ve learned in Psalm 119, David hates the double-minded. And we know from James that God does too.  I humbly suggest this: if you struggle with this, begin working on a single-minded focus on God—and work on constant prayer.

And we should always remember…

2 Corinthians 1: 3-4

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Our struggles through these things always have a purpose.  The knowledge that God has stored up for us—the wisdom He has purposed for us—is often given through trials. It doesn’t come all at once. It comes through walking, stumbling, learning, and pressing forward.  And we are not meant to keep it to ourselves.  We are to take that wisdom, that knowledge, and use it to bless others—to comfort, to encourage, to stand beside others in their own trials with the understanding we’ve been given.  With God, there is always a purpose.  Even if, sometimes, it’s hidden at first.

Envy: (noun)

- Painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage

- Obsolete: Malice (which I find interesting)

- An object of envious notice or feeling

Exodus 20: 17

“Thou shall not covet thy neighbors house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.”

And…

James 4: 1-10

“Where do wars and fights come from among you?  Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?  You lust and do not have.  You murder and covet and cannot obtain.  You fight and war.  Yet you do not have because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.  Adulterers and adulteresses!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?  But He gives more grace.  Therefore He says ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’  Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Lament and mourn and weep!  Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Now the last one might be more of a challenge.  Evil speaking.  The words used in the text is…

Katalalia: (Greek)

- Defamation

- Backbiting

- Evil speaking

And just like that—I need to watch myself again.  Because it’s really easy for me to say, “That darn cat,” or something along those lines when she’s giving me a hard time in the morning. Even easier for me to speak poorly about the guy in the crazy, mismatched workout outfit running on the sidewalk.

James 3: 1-14

“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.  For we all stumble in many things.  If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.   Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.  Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.  Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.  See how great a forest a little fire kindles!  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.  The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.  For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.  But no man can tame the tongue.  It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.  With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.  Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.  My brethren, these things ought not to be so.  Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?  Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?  Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.  Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.  But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.”

Holiness.  We are set apart from the world and set apart to glorify Jesus.  Let’s do some thinking this week on malice, deceit, envy and evil speakings and see what work we can do with The Holy Spirit.

As always!

Pray without cease!

Rejoice!

Don’t forget to give thanks in everything.  Not some things.  Everything!

And I think that’s a good place to start for the day.