What do you need to let go of? 1 Peter 2:1 says, “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking.” I have a verse taped to my refrigerator. Titus 3:2 says, “To speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.”

People lash out at others through hurtful words or actions, because they have not laid aside their past. Jesus was sinless. He had no past. For several mornings I have woken up with these words from the hymn “It Is Well.” My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more; Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

In 1 Peter 2:23 we find our example of how to emulate the Lord when our flesh wants to rise up in self-defense. It says, “Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.” Revile means to abuse insultingly.