Get rid of going behind the scenes either of your heart or behind backs with private messaging to think and speak ill of others.
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” (1 Peter 2 v 1)
These are heart issues.
It is hard to assess and hold accountable the issues of the heart.
The exterior of the Christian can look so polished and yet masked by gifting and personality can hide the most dangerous of evils which eat away like a cancer the very soul of the one professing to have been saved. But saved from what? Are we just saved from hell? Is that it?
Salvation that Peter has spoken of in the first chapter is surely to be saved from the diseases found lurking in our very soul. A simmering anger which has lodged itself perhaps years ago, malice. Words that pretend to be helping but are fuelled by a manipulation to either expose the weakness of the other or benefit the one speaking, deceit. Linked closely is that of being a friend to everyone, complimenting much but meaning little because of a hidden agenda, hypocrisy. Looking at colleagues who have been promoted beyond you, treated and favoured better than you, who have prospered and have more than you and all this is validated by what is in the heart, envy. Speaking in corners, hushed conversations, ‘message me’, things that cannot be said in the open because of the need to protect the outward image, slander.
I wonder what the spiritual audit on those 5 things would reveal.
But that is what God sees. As a disciple of Jesus Christ who has saved you by his precious blood (1 v 18-19) you can live your whole life and not be assessed on these 5 killers of the heart.
Here are 5 questions that will help:
Who has hurt you?
What ambitions do you have?
Who are your close friends?
Are you happy?
What kind of conversations are in your text messages?
Missions Paul 