So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
So what? It is a terse statement that asks the speaker why the previous statement matters and what comes next. In the case of Peter, the question pertains to his previous verse,
“And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”
Peter told these churches that they had heard the gospel, that Jesus died for their sins, rose from the dead, and made a way for them to become children of God. So… then you see what the “so what” is. If Jesus chose you and made you his own, then look it, Peter said. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17,
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
People are watching us, especially if they know we are Christians. They know we go by the name of a follower of Jesus Christ so whatever they see will reflect on the name of Jesus. If we tell them that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and they ask, “So what?”, first, we must be ready to preach to them the good news, and second, we must have none of these attributes, malice, deceit, envy, slander, and the big one, hypocrisy. This is the one we hear on our Prayer Walks. It means “actor”. If people think you are acting, they will think you are fake and that Jesus is too. So what?…
So tell them Jesus is acting in you.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church