Because You Are Saved

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

(1Peter 2:1-3 ESV)

As Christians, we often get things backwards.  We tend to think that, before we can be forgiven, we must clean up our lives. We think that we must become obedient and, only then, will God save us. And, as our failures mount, we often lose hope and doubt that we could ever be saved.

We also express this false gospel with the world around us. We tell them to clean up their lives before we share with them the true gospel. We believe that they must get rid of the sin in their lives and, only then, will God save them.

We see the proper order of things in the words of Peter, above. The “so” that begins this passage ties it back to the previous one. In other words, it’s because of the truth contained at the end of chapter 1 that we’re able to do what he commands in chapter 2.

Because we’ve been born again through the living and abiding Word of God, we’re to put away all malice and deceit. Because we’ve been born again, we’re to put away hypocrisy and slander. Because we’ve been born again, we’re to long for the pure spiritual milk. It's for this reason that we’re to long for the Word of God.

We do these things, as he tells us in verse 3, because we’ve tasted that the Lord is good. We do this because we know his goodness for ourselves. We do so because we’ve experienced his goodness in our life.

As we live in the gospel, as we live in God’s salvation, we continually turn from our sin. We do so by living in repentance and faith. Turning from sin and trusting in Jesus is not simply a one-time thing,  but a constant state in which we live as believers.

It’s true that we must understand our sin before we can receive the gospel. However, apart from the grace of God, we’re not able to change our behavior. It’s only because we are saved from sin, it’s only by his strength, that we’re able to put these things out of our lives.