THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2019
MALICE FORBIDDEN
TEXT: 1 PETER 2:1, 2
BIBLE TEXT:
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby†(1 Peter 2:1, 2).
Malice is a desire to inflict injury on another either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated anger. A former American President, Abraham Lincoln said, “With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wound.†This counsel is still relevant in America today as ever. Indeed, it is needed in homes and nations where there are festering wounds brought about by offences, leading to malice, hate speeches and acts. Believers should keep off malice and rather bind up the wounds caused by strained relationships. Reconciliation is the best way to go. The Bible instructs, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice†(Ephesians 4:31). Instead of these vices, Christians are admonished to be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us. Malice is a sin. Cain killed Abel due to jealousy and malice.
Challenge: Keep off malice before it keeps you off heaven.
Prayer: Oh God, grant me a heart full of love and kindness.
Quote: Reconciliation is the best way to go.
Bible Reading in one Year: Colossians 3:6-10