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Dexu Xia

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Jul 11, 2017, 3:01:30 AM7/11/17

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Cleaning House

Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 1 Peter 2:1

Recently, I switched rooms in the home I rent. This took longer than expected, because I didn’t want to simply transfer my (extensive) mess to a new room; I wanted a completely fresh and uncluttered start. After hours and hours of cleaning and sorting, bags of stuff sat by the front door to be thrown away, donated, or recycled. But at the end of this exhausting process was a beautiful room I was excited to spend time in.

My housecleaning project gave me a fresh perspective when reading 1 Peter 2:1, as paraphrased in The Message: “So, clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy, and hurtful talk.” Interestingly, it’s after a joyful confession of their new life in Christ (1:1–12) that Peter urges them to throw away destructive habits (1:13–2:3). When our walk with the Lord feels cluttered and our love for others feels strained, this shouldn’t cause us to question our salvation. We don’t change our lives to be saved, but because we are (1:23).

As real as our new life in Christ is, bad habits learned do not disappear overnight. So, on a daily basis, we need to “clean house,” throwing away all that prevents us from fully loving others (1:22) and growing (2:2). Then, in that new, clean space, we can experience the wonder of being freshly built (v. 5) by Christ’s power and life.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the new life You are building in us through our Lord Jesus. Help us to daily turn to You for cleansing and renewal.

Every day we can reject destructive habits and experience new life in Jesus.

大扫除

所以要除去一切恶毒、一切诡诈、虚伪、嫉妒和一切毁谤的话。-彼得前书2章1节，新译本

最近，我在租来的寓所内，从原有的房间搬到另一个房间。这比我原本想像的还更费事，因我希望有个全新、整洁的开始，所以不想将多余的杂物搬到新的房间。花了许多时间整理后，门口堆放很多袋子，有些是要丢的，有些则是要捐赠或回收的。经过一番努力地清理后，我终于可以住在整洁漂亮的新房间了。

清理房间的经历，让我在读到彼得前书2章1节时，有了全新的省思：“所以要除去一切恶毒、一切诡诈、虚伪、嫉妒和一切毁谤的话。”彼得论述信徒在基督里得着新生命后（1章1-12节），就敦促他们丢弃那些阻碍灵命成长的性情（1章13节-2章3节）。当我们与主同行时感到烦乱，或对人爱心冷淡时，并不需要质疑自己是否已经得救。我们除去自己的恶行，不是为了赚取救恩，乃是因为我们已经得到救恩（1章23节）。

我们在基督里确实拥有新的生命，但旧有的陋习却无法立时消失殆尽。因此，我们每天都要“大扫除”，摒弃妨碍我们全心爱人的习性（1章22节），好让灵命持续成长（2章2节）。我们有了全新、清洁的心灵，就可经历基督奇妙的大能与生命，重新被建造（5节）。

天父，感谢祢藉着主耶稣在我们里面建造新的生命。
求祢帮助我们，每天都能来到祢面前，
得着洁净与更新。