One of the greatest definitions of worship that I have heard is to “give something more worth than anything else.” In this way, we could worship money, by giving worth to ambition more than anything else. We could worship fame, by giving the desire to be known more worth than anything else. These are things we could worship, but we should not.
What we should worship, and give more worth to than anything else, is Jesus Christ our Savior. To be an offering, we give up what we want as humans and give our Savior more worth than our human desires.
Peter gives so much practical application in this chapter of his first letter that it would take me a whole week of posts to get through it. So, I’m going to break up the chapter each Wednesday, and give a little bit at a time.
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” 1 Peter 2:1.
One sentence is all it takes to floor us. That’s how God’s Word works.
The term ‘malice’ (which Webster defines as “desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another”) is not a term we see every day, but Peter tells us to get rid of it. When we have thoughts of hurting others, we need to give more worth to Jesus and His compassion than the thoughts of hurting others.
We are called to get rid of deceit. We are called to give more worth to Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life than to deception that leads to personal gain.
We are called to rid ourselves of hypocrisy. This one is especially hard for people who publicly lead worship. If you are in front of a congregation and you have sin in your life that you are not confessing or letting God take care of, you are being hypocritcal. Of course, by our very nature, we all struggle with sin, and there is no way to be rid of it this side of Heaven, but if we are in front of a congregation calling for them to live a certain way, yet we are living the very way we are calling them out of and not asking God for His help, we are disobeying God’s Word. We are called to give more worth to Jesus and His integrity than living double lives.
We are called to get rid of all envy. This one is hitting me particularly hard lately. Sometimes, as worship leaders or members of a tech team, our work goes unnoticed or unthanked, and we get jealous of people who seem more appreciated. We are called to give more worth to Jesus than the approval of men.
And finally, we are called to get rid of slander of every kind. We are called to give more worth to Jesus and His love and grace than to discussing problems about people behind their back.
I know for a fact that I struggle with each one of these issues, and I am praying that God would continue to change me in these areas. Would you pray for me and yourselves as well?
WHAT TO DO NOW?