Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking. ~ 1 Peter 2:1
Today, we continue our study of 1 Peter where we are learning how to maintain a vibrant walk with the Lord amid the godless pressures of this world. Integral to a steady walk with the Lord is always a love for His word which plays a major role in our sanctification. Our love for the word of God will always lead us to squaring up the evil desires in our lives that are yet within us. As a result of determining the danger the flesh poses, we see the utter importance of consuming the word of God for ourselves.
In the previous verses the Apostle Peter reminded us that all of our attempts to try to gain meaning and significance in this life apart from God and His definition of all things will always render us wanting. In fact, when we feed the flesh, we will always experience some form of death in our lives. The sooner we recognize that our attempts at life apart from God is a losing proposition, we will give up on our definitions of life and we will conclude that our way is like grass and flowers that fade away.
In context, Peter has been speaking about the utter value of the Word of God in our souls. In fact, Peter reminded us in the previous section of verses that we have been born again, not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible seed, which is the word of God.
In addition, Peter described the word of God as living and abiding forever. Then to begin today's verse Peter wrote, "Therefore." With this one word, Peter introduces the main theme for this second chapter. This theme is craving the Word of God which will be evident in v.2. In the first chapter of this epistle, the Apostle wrote of the theme of salvation and the results of our salvation. And, the first result of our salvation is our holiness or wholeness. When we love people unconditionally, we show that we are growing in holiness or wholeness because we are loving whether they love us in return or not.
The words translated "laying aside" in today's verse means "to strip off," like getting rid of something despicable. As a result of having been made alive to God through the abiding Holy Spirit, we now have the ability sufficient enough to enable us to strip off this list of ungodly traits are often those which throw a wrench into our loving one another authentically. Again, the goal is loving. And, might I add, it really isn't loving people. No, the goal is to be the welcomed home of the love of God. When we are such, we will love unconditionally and without any strings attached.
God operates on the basis of many principles, one is: Truth is only given to those who respond to the truth given. God does not give His word to those who disregard it. He knows that if this were the case, we will be desensitized to the truth and to Him. God does not give us more truth unless we are acting on the truth we have already have been given. But when we begin to respond to the Word, then the Word opens up to us, and we begin to see the truth in it which will expand His very presence in our lives. It is at this point that we truly experience eternal life.
There are many threats to the life of God in the soul of the believer. Most of these threats are summed up by two words in the Scriptures: the flesh. Even though we are born again, we still struggle with the sin that is yet within us. This is why God commands us to get rid of certain expressions of the evil that we allow ourselves to be defined by from time to time. If we are not being defined by God which will show up in our obedience to His word, then we will be defined by the self life. And, the self life is the equivalent of following the enemy.
The first threat to our ability to love others is "malice" which describes a condition of irritability that causes us to lash out at others. Malice is the intent or the desire to cause harm or pain to someone. This is what feeding the flesh does to us, it gives safe haven to hate which is the mother of all the many expressions of the flesh. Peter says, "Strip it off."
In addition, we are to strip off "deceit." This word originally meant fishhook which is a very deceitful thing because when we put bait on the fishhook a fish thinks he's going to get a nice meal not knowing that he has been deceived into becoming the meal. Deceit is the intent to defraud another. The enemy defrauds us with temptation which often arrives in the moment that God wants to do something most extraordinary. And, we can notice one fundamental similarity in all temptation: deception. Remembering this similarity will help us to recognize what is substantive and what is not.
We are also commanded to get rid of "hypocrisy" which literally means "to speak out from under a mask." The Apostle used an analogy out of a Greek drama portraying how actors would pick up certain masks, depicting a smile or a frown, and speak out from under the mask. The face used would not express the true attitude of the person behind the mask. Such is the nature of acting.
The next thing we are to strip out of our lives is "envy" which is feeling ill toward someone else because of the blessings that God has chosen to give them. Envy leads us almost inevitably to "speak evil of others" which explains Peter's next admonition to strip away "all evil speaking" which means to defame another.
The reason Peter implores us to shackle these sins in their own prison is due to the fact that these expressions of the flesh always rob us of our hunger and thirst for the Word of God. As a student long ago reminded me, the truth is only for the hungry and the thirsty. When we resist being defined by these sins, we then will have an appetite for God and His word. This is the formula needed for resisting the "flesh" which is at the behest of the enemy himself and he is out to destroy us.
