Clean House!

So clean house!

Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense,

envy and hurtful talk.

1 Peter 2:1 [The Message]

Malice – an emotion that Webster defines as “…the desire to cause pain for the satisfaction of doing harm.”  Synonyms would include cattiness, hatefulness, hostility, malevolence, maliciousness, meanness, nastiness, spite, spitefulness, venom and viciousness.

Pretense – is defined as the quality or state of trying to appear more important or more valuable than is the case.  Synonyms: Affectation, affectedness, arrogance, grandiosity, self-conceit.

Envy – is mean resentment of another’s possessions or advantages.  Synonyms: animosity, covetousness, enmity, ill will, jealousy, malice, resentment.

Hurtful Talk (Gossip/slander) – to relate sometimes questionable or secret information of a personal nature about another individual; to make untrue or harmful statements that damage another's reputation.  Synonyms:  blab, bandy about, circulate, defamation, malign, reveal, insinuate, smear, snitch, tattle, vilify.

In the early church, Peter’s influence was enormous; he was, in many ways, one of the most powerful figures of the early Christian community.  In his introduction to the first of Peter’s two letters to the church, Eugene H. Peterson says, “From what we know of the early stories of Peter, he had in him all the makings of a bully.  That he did not become a bully (and religious bullies are the worst kind) but rather a…humble, self-effacing servant of Jesus Christ… is a compelling witness to what he himself describes as a ‘brand-new life, with everything to live for.’”

When Peter called for a clean sweep of the attitudes and actions listed above, he was not speaking from a vacuum, but from experience.  He was not standing as judge and jury, but as a fellow sojourner who had to deal with these issues in his own life.  Kindness and humility are listed as antonyms for the above attitudes.  Peter did not come to Christ either humble or kind; sometimes we are neither, as well.  God’s unconditional love, however, can act as a cleansing broom to sweep our houses clean, transforming our lives.