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 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:1)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

“All” is a big little word. It means “being or representing the entire or total number, amount, or quantity.” It does not mean “if and when you feel like it.” It doesn’t mean “unless they deserve it.” So, what are we to rid ourselves of?

Malice: the intention or desire to do evil; ill will.

Deceit: the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth. (Oops, there goes the “little white lie.”)

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

Envy: a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck.

Slander:  the action or crime of making a false statement damaging to a person's reputation.

A couple days ago, I wrote about not finding anywhere in Scripture that tells us that we are to forgive ourselves. Today, when we talk about ridding ourselves of all these harmful things, “all” must mean even when they are directed at ourselves.

I suspect that when God tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, He’s not issuing an order as much as He’s stating reality. We do tend to love our neighbors as ourselves, or, to not love them as we don’t love ourselves. Our malice toward ourselves is reflected in our malice toward our neighbors. Our self-deceit is echoed by our deceit to our neighbors. Our hypocrisy toward ourselves is a twin to our hypocrisy toward them. I’m not sure how one would go about envying oneself, but if we slander ourselves, it’s likely we’ll slander others just as readily.

It’s this last one that I want to stop in my life. I’m quick to tell people what they’re supposed to think of me instead of letting them form their own opinions. You might even say that I’ve just done so again, but where is the line between transparency and slander? The answer, I suspect, is in the second passage, and possibly in the idea that I want to be thus and so, instead of I am something else. 

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