8. Pilgrimage to Paradise: Citizens of a Different Kingdom

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The recent political brouhaha here in Canada swirling around honesty, integrity, hypocrisy among the leaders of the major party leaders highlights the importance of Peter's instructions to the pilgrims of his day.

He writes: "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind". (1 Peter 2:1)

Whenever we see a "therefore" in Scripture we know that something was said earlier that is important. The previous section of Peter's letter had to do with being holy as God is holy. This call to holiness is based on what Christ did in giving His life to provide salvation for these pilgrims, these exiles now scattered throughout the Roman world. They were to love one another deeply as Christ had loved them.

And love, being more than "a warm fuzzy" has characteristics. Peter is about to describe what those are. If these pilgrims, and by extension, if we, want to live out our journey in keeping with Psalm 84:5-7 and bring life into a dying world, we need to be different from that world.

Peter begins with five world qualities that shouldn't be found in those bound for heaven.

Malice is defined as "the intention or desire to do evil".

Deceit is defined as "the action or practice of concealing or misrepresenting the truth".

Hypocrisy is defined as "the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense." 

Envy is defined as "a feeling of discontent or resentful longing  aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities or luck".

Slander is defined as "the action of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation".

This is what the world looks like. This is death valley. This is not what a follower of Jesus should look like.

What are the opposites to these death valley characteristics? What qualities in the lives of believers stand against these evils and bring life to that valley as they are lived out? A cursory look at the antonyms reveals this:

Slander shifts to Praise. The ancient adage is "if you can't say something good, don't say anything at all". The believer goes beyond that and looks for something praise-worthy to say. Even the worst person is still someone Christ died for and that, in itself, is a praise-worthy statement.

Envy shifts to Contentment. The believer understands that what he has is given by God and what he doesn't have is withheld by God—both for good reasons. Faith in the rightness of what God gives or withholds fuels contentment. 

Hypocrisy shifts to Sincerity. Of all the charges leveled against the church, aka believers, hypocrisy heads the list—pretending to be what we are not. But what an encouragement to a flawed world to admit that we too are flawed, but because of the work of the Spirit of God in our lives, sins are forgiven and flaws are in the process of being corrected. Since there is hope for us, there is hope for everyone.

Deceit shifts to Honesty. Tell the truth, but always in love. What is truth in a world where "my truth" might not be "your truth"? God's truth as laid out in His Word is the real deal, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Handle it with care.

Malice shifts to Benevolence. The Scriptures are full of injunctions to run from evil and to do good even to those who persecute us or who have wronged us in some way. For Peter's pilgrims that would have been a daily challenge. The temptation for "payback" comes to us all too easily. Once more, faith comes to the fore for the believer. The understanding that the righteous Judge of all the earth will one day right every wrong is critical to being able to do good in the face of evil, and when faced with the temptation to do evil. 

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage". (Psalm 84:5) This valley of death produces the opportunity for seeding life as we set our eyes on heaven and live out our journey displaying the character qualities of citizens who belong to a better kingdom.