Something came to me as I was leading Bible study last night. Something that wasn’t in my notes but came out of my mouth anyway.

Peter puts two seemingly unconnected commands back to back. He instructs us to remove ALL malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander from our lives. Then, he tells us to long for spiritual milk (Scripture) so that we can grow up (mature) in our faith.

Here is what occurred to me – these two commands are very much related.

If I don’t have a desire to study God’s Word and I’m not seeing growth in my love for the Lord, love for others, willingness to give, serve, pray, etc. – then I have probably not “put away” all of the sinful attitudes I’ve been told to put away. 😳

And, just in case you read a word like “malice” and think it doesn’t apply to you – read through the definitions of each of the words. You may (like I did) recognize yourself in one of them!

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