Return To God.

Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.

The Lord has an indictment against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us—the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial name: “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” – Hosea 12:1-6 ESV

Jacob was the common ancestor of both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. His life had been a contentious affair, and it started at his birth. He had come from the womb clutching the heel of his twin brother Esau. He would grow up to be a man who depended upon trickery and deceit to get what he wanted. But it was after his face-to-face encounter with God, where he wrestled with the Lord, demanding that He bless him, that his name and his life were forever changed. Jacob called the name of the place where his encounter with God took place, Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered” (Genesis 32:30 ESV). had been given a new name. And it was there that God gave him his new name. “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:28 ESV). Israel means “he strives with God.” Jacob, in desperate need of God’s blessing, was willing to physically fight with God in order to receive it. For the first time in his life, he knew he needed God. He could not live his life on trickery and deceit any longer.

Much earlier in his life, Jacob had had another encounter with God. It was at a place called Luz. Moses records what happened there.

And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” – Genesis 28:11-15 ESV

Jacob had renamed the place, Bethel, which means “House of God.” And years later, after God had changed his name to Israel, he was instructed by God to go back to Bethel.

“Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. – Genesis 35:1-4 ESV

It is interesting to note, that while Jacob commanded his household to put away their foreign gods and worship God alone, he did not destroy the idols, but hid them under a tree near Shechem. His obedience to God was incomplete. While the idols had been buried, the peoples’ desire for them had not gone away. Years later, when they had been returned to the land after their more than 400 years of captivity in Egypt, the descendants of Israel would continue to prove their unfaithfulness to God through the worship of false gods. And Bethel would be one of the cities where Jeroboam, the king of the northern nation of Israel, would set up a golden calf and command the people to worship it. He turned the place called “House of God” into a place to worship false gods. It was as if the idols Jacob had buried under the tree had been dug up. Their influence upon the people of Israel had never really diminished.

When Jacob had wrestled with God, he had recognized the divine nature of the place. He had said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!” (Genesis 28:16 NLT). And now, generations later, his descendants had turned Bethel into gateway to idol worship and apostasy. But Hosea begged the people of Israel to return to the Lord. He wanted them to remember the faithfulness of God and turn away from their love affair with false gods. “The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the Lord is his name! So now, come back to your God. Act with love and justice, and always depend on him” (Hosea 12:5-6 NLT). As Jacob had learned his need for God, the people of Israel needed to rediscover their desperate dependency on Him. Like Jacob in his early years, their lives were characterized by deceit, trickery, manipulation and self-sufficiency. They wanted the blessings of God without obedience to God. Now Hosea was calling them to live lives that reflected their status as God’s children. They were to exhibit love, justice and obedience. Their lives were to be characterized by faithfulness. No more wrestling with God. No more contending and conniving. Jacob’s wrestling match with God had left him with a permanent limp. And the people of Israel were going to find out just how painful resistance to God can be. God wanted to bless them, but they were too stubborn to let that happen. And sadly, there are believers today who refuse to let God bless them. Rather than submit to His will and walk in His ways, they stubbornly demand to live their lives according to their own terms. Rather than return and repent, they resist. They may bury their idols under the tree, but their love affair with them remains.

Throw Up. Grow Up.

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. – 1 Peter 2:1-3 ESV So. Therefore. As a result. Consequently. With that in mind.

That little word, “so” is a transitional word. It links everything in chapter one with what is about to follow. In chapter one, Peter has provided us with some indicative statements. As the word suggests, they indicate something. The statements Peter makes in chapter one point out or show us something that is a truth or fact. For instance, he says that according to God’s great mercy, “he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3 ESV). He tells us that, as a result, we have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven” for us (1 Peter 1:4 ESV). We are being guarded through faith by God’s power for salvation (1 Peter 1:5 ESV). During this lifetime, our faith will be tested, but in the end it will only prove that our faith was genuine, bringing praise and glory to God (1 Peter 1:7 ESV). We have been called by God and have been set apart by Him to live holy lives (1 Peter 1:15 ESV). And our souls have been purified because we obeyed the truth of the gospel (1 Peter 1:22 ESV).

So, as a result…

This is where the imperatives come in. Indicatives are always followed by imperatives, which are simply commands. According to Dictionary.com, an imperative is “something that demands attention or action; an unavoidable obligation or requirement; a necessity.” So chapter two begins a long series of imperative statements that provide us with clear insight into how our behavior should reflect our new standing in Christ. He begins by saying, “put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1 ESV). To understand this verse, we have to go back to verse 22 of chapter one. Peter wrote, “love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again.” The five nouns found in verse one of chapter two are all antithetical to the kind of love to which Peter is calling us. Malice is a kind of evil that desires to harm others. Deceit describes a subtle, hidden intent to trick or bait someone in order to harm them or get something from them. Hypocrisy is another form of deceit, where one tries to dishonestly portray himself as something other than what he is. Envy is a form of jealousy mingled with spite. It not only longs for what the other person has, but hates them for having it. Slander is a form of backbiting or gossip with an intent to harm the reputation of another individual. 

You can see how these five attitudes or actions stand in direct opposition to the kind of brotherly love that Peter has called us to. So he tells us to put them away. The Greek word he used is ἀποτίθημι (apotithēmi) and it means “to cast off, to renounce” (Greek Lexicon :: G659 (KJV). Blue Letter Bible. http://www.blueletterbible.org). There is a certain forcefulness to the word. It was a favorite word of Paul. He told the believers in Rome to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12 ESV). He wrote to the Ephesian believers, “having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor” (Ephesians 4:25 ESV). To the Colossian church he wrote, “you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth” (Colossians 3:8 ESV). Even the apostle, James, got in the act, using the very same word when he wrote, “put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21 ESV).

Because of who we are in Christ, we are to live differently. We are to love one another. But it is impossible to pull that off if we are constantly backbiting, deceiving, envying and attempting to take advantage of or harm one another. So we have to take an aggressive attitude toward these things in our lives – casting them off like filthy clothes. They should repulse us and be repugnant to us. And it is important that we keep in mind that, like most of the letters in the New Testament, this letter has a corporate message to it. These imperatives are written to the church, not just the individual believer. Together, we are to put aside these things. We are to make sure that they are not present in our fellowship. Any one of these things can become a cancer, spreading disease and ultimately spiritual death to a congregation if it is allowed to linger. So we are to put them away.

And in their place we are to long for the “pure spiritual milk” of God’s Word. As we rid ourselves of these things, we are to fill ourselves with Scripture. We are to long for it. In fact, the Greek word Peter uses is ἐπιποθέω (epipotheō) and it is a word that is often used in a negative sense to refer to lust. It means “to earnestly desire or long for” (Greek Lexicon :: G1971 (KJV). Blue Letter Bible. http://www.blueletterbible.org). We are to crave God’s Word like an infant craves milk. And the Word of God plays a formative role in the life of every believer, strengthening and nourishing them, providing them with all that they need to grow up in their faith. It’s interesting to note that Peter says the Word of God helps us “grow up into salvation.” For many of us, salvation was a one-time event that took place some time in the past. We prayed a prayer. We walked the aisle. We gave our life to Christ. But Peter seems to indicate that, while our salvation had a beginning, it is to be ongoing. To grow up into salvation is to mature in our faith and our understanding of just what God has done for us through Christ. Our understanding of and appreciation for God’s mercy, grace, love and forgiveness should grow day by day. Our dependence upon God should increase over time. Our realization of our own weakness and His power should grow exponentially as we spend more time on this planet.

Maintaining his imagery of a nursing infant, Peter tells us that if we tasted the goodness of the Lord at our conversion, we should long for it more and more as we grow older. We should want more of that goodness with each passing day. And we should be willing to get rid of anything that would stand in the way of us receiving it. We will never fill up on God’s goodness if we are filled with malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy or slander. So we need to purge these things from our system. And in reality, these things are less like dirty garments we wear than they are like destructive elements we have ingested into our system. Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19 ESV). So, in a sense, we need to regurgitate what is inside us so it can be replaced with the nourishing, nurturing Word of God, and grow up into salvation.