Taking Out the Trash!

In II Petter 1:5, we are commanded to "add to our faith virtue". (KJV) Some other translations translate the passage as "moral excellence", among others. The meaning behind this word, virtue, is to cut away all the impurities in order to leave only that which is pure. It means to be unalloyed with anything impure, leaving only the highest quality material.

Iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17), but aluminum alloy does very little to sharpen another metal. There is a story of a silversmith who was leading a tour of how he got the silver pure. He heated the molten metal until he could spot the impurities floating in the kettle and he would dip them out until he could see his reflection in the silver with no signs of imperfections. Until the master silversmith could see himself in the metal, it was not pure enough. Until He can see himself reflected in you, then He is not finished with us, thankfully! He is not finished with me. (Philippians 1:6)

I have noticed at our house, if we do not take out the trash, it stinks! The same is true in our personal lives. We often do not claim the promise that if we will confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9) We are failing to take out the trash in our lives. Repentance is the lifestyle of the Christ follower. We can often fool many people about being filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). However, it is difficult to be filled with the person of Christ when we are half-full of trash. If I produced two barrels apparently filled with water to the top, they both would appear to be so. However, if you could not see that one barrel was half-full of sand, both would look filled but one was not. Appearances can be deceiving. You can fool most of the people most of the time, but you can never fool the Lord! Perhaps your first order of business should be to TAKE OUT THE TRASH!