An Appetite for Vices

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Scripture:


1Pet. 2:1    Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.


Observation:


Peter’s been calling the people to a holy life and now he gets specific. It all has to do with their appetite, which can be for the pure spiritual milk of God, which the Psalmist reminds us about: “O taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 34:8) The community of God is supposed to be united but when they come under heavy pressure from the outside, there is a tendency to slowly forget to drink the spiritual milk, and live by the vices. 


The vices themselves are listed: malice, guile, insecurity, envy and slander. Malice is engagement with evil and wickedness while guile is also translated as deceit. Therefore, God’s holy people are to avoid evil and should not have an appetite for deception. Insincerity, also known as hypocrisy has no place in God’s holy community. The follower of Christ is to be genuine, through and through. Envy is wanting what someone else has, and this will always take us in the wrong direction, and Christians who criticize and talk about one another behind their backs, are feeding on slander.

No Christian community can reflect the unity of the Triune God if they continue to feed on the vices, and no on pure spiritual milk.


Application:


The word of God is to shape our lives and this, on a regular basis. We taste and see that the Lord is good, when we feed on the word every day, and this feeding fills us so that we no longer have an appetite for the vices. 


The call to holy living is both individual and corporate. I believe that God wants the world to see a united body of Christ revealing their love for God and one another. Sadly, we are being encouraged to feed our appetite for the vices. This destructive behavior is destroying the witness of the Church from the inside out. We have leaders making headlines because they did not choose to live a life of self-discipline, and feed on spiritual milk. You can’t be filled with God’s Holy Spirit, and pure spiritual milk without it having an impact on your life. 


Throughout COVID I’ve been at home where we live in an apartment below our daughter Cara and her family. She had a baby boy in December and he’s been pretty much a quarantine baby, not having experienced too much of the world outside the family bubble. My daughter and son-in-law are very careful about what little Halston eats, because they want him to be healthy. My daughter knows that whatever she puts into her mouth will have an impact on Halston’s life. Today he is a very healthy 8 month old boy, already over 20 pounds. He crawls around the house and laughs and enjoys our company — and he’s has an excellent appetite. 


Today I have to stop and reflect on my appetite. What is it that brings me fulfillment? I know that when I spend time in God’s presence and in the word, I feel satisfied. At the same time, I know that there are days when I become busy and I fill myself with spiritual fast-food, and if that goes on for too long, my appetite changes. To live the holy life, I need to be feeding myself the right food every day. Only in this way can we all become healthy followers of Jesus Christ. 


Prayer:


Lord, may I be just as disciplined in my spiritual food as I may be in my physical food. Amen. 

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