Laying aside therefore all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings,
The word "therefore" points back to chapter 1 and the new birth. Then Peter names five things that must go. What ties these five together, and why must they go before a believer can grow?
(Some quotes below use an older translation. There "deceit" is "guile," and "slander" is "evil speakings.")
The list is not random. It grows out of the new birth, and it looks ahead to Peter's picture of believers joined in one house.
The closing verses of chapter 1 have shown us that the new birth of each believer has a purifying effect. So the first verse of chapter 2 takes it for granted that we lay aside those ugly features which belong to the flesh in us. Of the things named, malice, envy and evil speaking touch our dealings with other people most of all. Peter names them because he is about to show us the believer in close relation with all his fellow believers: as a stone in a spiritual house, and as one of the priestly family. In such connections, nothing goes right unless we lay these evils aside.
The word Peter uses matters. It does not describe a slow programme of improvement.
The English reader, and anyone who does not know the original language, should keep in mind the force of the opening word. It means an act done once for all. That is what the aorist tense implies: a tense of fact, not of gradual process. The verb is also in the middle voice, not the active. With verbs that take an object, the middle voice turns the action back on the one who does it.
The five faults are linked. One leads to the next, and the trail runs from the tongue back to the heart.
We are to lay aside malice, which holds evil thoughts about others, and guile, which hides what we are. We are to lay aside hypocrisy, which pretends to be what we are not, and envy, which leads us to slander the person we envy. Guile and hypocrisy always accompany malice. A person may speak evil of his brother and then try to hide the malice, claiming he acts for his brother's good. That is guile. Further, he may claim that he has nothing in his heart but love for his brother — this is hypocrisy. Behind malicious words there is envy, which is the real motive for evil speaking.
Envy has a target: the good that is really there in someone else.
Hypocrisy springs from claiming a good we do not have. Envy is the other side: it tries to deny and blacken the real good in others. Thank God that He still works here and there in ways of love, devotion, patient grace, zeal for the truth, delight in His glory, and compassion for the wretched and the unworthy. Those who show none of these qualities have plenty of room to run others down. It galls them to see others credited with something so good.
Two of the five are inward and three are outward, and the verse deals with both.
Guile, hypocrisy, and evil speaking are the outward expression of malice and envy working within. So God goes to the root. The inward working and the outward works are alike revolting to God. Only the practical laying aside of both root and branches clears the way for what follows: an eager desire for what God has provided for the growth of the soul.
Of the five, the last is the one most easily excused.
Lastly, and fittingly, comes the warning against "all evil speakings," for what a variety of shapes this wears! And how readily it cheats many a person under the plea of care for the Lord's honour and just censure of what is wrong!
Laying it aside is something you can act on the moment someone brings you a bad report.
But what if another believer comes to us with an evil report about a brother or sister? Ask that person to stop speaking this way. How much evil speaking would die in its tracks if we did this. Remember: even when real sins have been committed, there is no blessing in telling others details they do not need. Keep the circle of information as small as possible — only those who can deal with it righteously.
Notice what Peter does not list here. These are not the crimes a court would punish.
As pilgrims we are to grow, but there are two essentials for growth: one is laying aside, and the other is feeding. Do you notice the things the apostle tells us to lay aside? He does not say lay aside stealing, and murder, and the various outward immoralities. It is the guile, the hypocrisy, the malice. It is that tongue, that evil speaking, so sadly common among God's people. If we are to grow, we are to lay aside these things.
- Born, therefore put off. The new birth of chapter 1 purifies. So verse 1 assumes we lay aside what belongs to the flesh.
- Once, not gradually. The word means an act done once for all. The verb turns the action back on the one who does it: a decision, not a slow process.
- Five links, one chain. Envy is the motive, malice the thought, guile the cover, hypocrisy the pretence, evil speaking the outcome.
- Root and branch. Two evils work inside; three show outside. Both kinds are revolting to God, so He goes to the root.
- No growth without it. These are not gross crimes but common faults among believers. Growth takes two things: laying aside first, then feeding.
as newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation,
Peter has just said that God's word gave his readers new life. Now he tells them to crave that word — but what is this "milk," and who is it for?
The desire Peter commands has a precondition. Verse 1 lists the evils to drop: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. One writer sorts them into root and branches.
Deceit, hypocrisy and slander are the outward expression of the malice and envy working within. So God goes to the root. The inward working and the outward acts are alike revolting to God. Only the practical "putting away" of root and branches clears the way. What follows is an earnest desire for what God provides to grow the soul.
A mother's milk is the one food suited to the child she has just borne. Peter's point is the same: the word that gave new birth is also its food.
No one can doubt that it is the milk of the word that nourishes the believer. God's word gave him new birth, and the same word now feeds him... Here the Spirit of God dwells on how well the food suits the baby once born. Everyone is encouraged to long for the pure nourishment God supplies in abundance. It is milk for the believer's mind. A mother's breast feeds her baby's body; God's word feeds our spiritual understanding.
Many read "milk" as beginner's material to be outgrown. One writer argues the opposite. The whole Bible is the milk, and the picture is the newborn's hunger, not a low grade of teaching.
The Word itself is milk, the whole of it, and we are to be not simply like babies, but like newborn babies in our desire for it. To a newborn baby, what is milk? Its very life, we may say. And that is what God's word is to us... The highest and most advanced truths, so called, only expand, illustrate and confirm the gospel itself. No truth is more wonderful, deeper or higher than the gospel.
Commentators differ on how far to press this. Another sees milk and solid food as two supplies, both drawn from the same source:
If we feed on the Word we grow up. But even then we still need the Word, for it is meat for those of full age as well as milk for babies, as Hebrews 5:12-14 tells us.
Peter does not command hunger out of nothing. The next verse gives the reason: "if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."
All true desire for the word is the outcome of having tasted that the Lord is gracious. The more we enjoy the company of the Lord, the more eager we shall be to sit at His feet and hear His word. Seeking Christ in all the Scriptures keeps a loving interest in God's word alive. It makes many a hard passage plain and simple.
Growth here has a goal. Salvation is not only something already received. It is finished when Christ comes.
More and more, we should be saved from everything that holds back our spiritual progress. At last, when Christ comes, we will be saved completely. Then our body of humiliation will be changed into the likeness of His body of glory.
One writer puts the cost of neglect plainly:
A Christian who does not know his Bible has almost no defence against the world, the flesh, and the devil. He is a spiritual dwarf, for he cannot grow without the pure milk of the Word.
- Clear — put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander first. Allowed evil kills the appetite.
- Crave — the point is not your maturity but your hunger. Want Scripture the way a newborn wants milk.
- Feed — the word that gave you new life also feeds it. Nothing else feeds spiritual understanding.
- Taste — desire grows out of tasting that the Lord is good. Enjoy Christ, and the appetite follows.
- Grow — the aim is not information but growth. It is complete only when Christ comes.