"Growing"

Our behavior is one of the most telling things about us. The effect of God on us is seen in our behavior. In I Pet. 1:22-23, Peter reveals 3 things that happened in our relationship to God. (1) We have been purified! When we entered Christ, God gave us a new start. With God, it is always about purity and removing the evil from us. Obedience to the truth always leads to purifying the soul. (2) We have been converted! Conversion is simply a change of heart and attitude. Conversion is what leads to a sincerity and sincerity always leads to the love of the brethren. Before we were purified and converted, we cared little about our brethren, the church. We had little desire to worship with them or be an intricate part of the body. When people leave their purification and become 'unconverted', it will show itself in this area! To not love the brethren, the church means something impure has happened in our heart. (3) We have been born again! This is a spiritual process. Our birth was not by some physical seed of man, but an imperishable seed of God to produce living, eternal and pure things in our lives. A new birth is what gives us contact with the eternal things of God. A new birth brings about a new desire for God's word, listening to His voice because it is from a spiritual source, God Himself! Allowing His word to abide in us will produce the life of God within.

Because of the three things above, there are two things that we need to realize to continue our growth, the life of God working within (I Pet. 2:1-2): (1) We must put aside all evil in our hearts! If the seed of God is planted in us, we have the opportunity to move forward with God in His world. If we do not put aside all evil that affects us, we will stop the growing process and head back into death! To "put aside" means you must make a decisive act. When people have bad habits they know are not good, if they never make a decisive act to put it away because of the Lord, they never overcome and remain overcome! We must put away all malice. Malice is active ill will toward another. We want them to feel the pain they have caused us. Malice is part of spiritual death. We must put away all deceit. Deceit is when you mislead another or scheme to get what you want. We must put away all hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the result of malice and deceit. They are simply fakers and some get very good at playing the game!!! God is aware and they will be exposed. We must put away all envy. Envy is that feeling of a grudge because some is ahead of you or gets recognized and you don't. It will darken your heart and cause one to hate. We must put away all slander. Slander is where you falsely accuse people with your words. These things must go from your heart or you will die spiritually. (2) We must long for the pure milk of the word. It is impossible to grow in respect to our salvation when we do not hunger for the pure milk of the word. If there is no longing, there is sickness and if the sickness stays too long, death will occur. When death occurs, all the purification, the sincerity and new birth will be for nothing. You will be worse off than before you came to God through Christ Jesus. Bottom line is we need to take our relationship to the Lord seriously because He does!