Peter’s Instructions: Part Four

I will never forget hearing evangelist Hal Hightower preach on this verse. He read it straight from the King James Version and stopped at that old word—eschew. He asked who knew what it meant. I didn’t. Most of us didn’t.

So he explained it in a way no one in the room could forget.

He said, imagine taking the nastiest things you can think of—rotten food, roadkill, spoiled leftovers, garbage and refuse—and dumping it all into a black trash bag. Tie it up and drag it out to the curb where it belongs. Then he asked, “How many of you would stand around and hang out with that bag?”

No hands went up. No takers.

Nobody in their right mind would linger near that stinking mess. You’d avoid it. You’d step away from it. You’d wrinkle your nose and move on as fast as possible. He said, that is what it means to eschew—to shun, to avoid, to flee from something as if it were a disaster.

That is exactly how Peter tells us to treat evil.

Not to manage it.
Not to tolerate it.
Not to keep it nearby.

But to leave it at the curb where it belongs. Sin is corrupting and vile, and one day God will deal with it completely. The garbage man will come, so to speak, and take it away to be destroyed. We have no part in it.

Instead we are to spend our time doing that which is good, right, and pleasing to God.

Then Peter gives the second instruction, and it follows perfectly.

“Let him seek peace, and ensue it.”

To ensue means to pursue, to follow after with intention. Peace does not happen by accident. It must be sought. It must be chased. It must be preferred.

The Christian life is directional.

We are to run from evil
and run toward peace.

Eschew and ensue.

Leave the garbage behind—and walk after what is good.