1 Peter 2:1

1 Peter 2:1. Having put off. The noun connected with this verb is used by Peter in the caveat which he throws in on the subject of the antitypical relation of the waters of baptism to those of the flood, where he explains that what he has in view is ‘not the putting away of the filth of the flesh' (1 Peter 3:21). The verb itself occurs both in the Pauline writings (Romans 13:12) and in others (Hebrews 12:1; James 1:21) with the figurative sense, taken from the act of putting off or laying aside clothes (cf. Acts 8:58), and is employed in Paul's two great statements regarding the ‘putting off' which is involved in the ‘putting on' of the' ‘new man' (Ephesians 4:24-25; Colossians 3:8; Colossians 3:10). The vices to be renounced, therefore, are compared implicitly to a foul garment enwrapping the old man. They are the ‘Nessus shirt' of corrupt habits which the new man tears off. This divestiture is represented here (the participle being in the simple past) as preparatory to, and the condition of, the fulfilment of the positive charge which follows.

therefore, i.e =having by help of the Word an undying life capable of an undecaying love, forswear everything hostile to the life, and by a right use of the Word foster it till it grows to the perfection of final salvation.

all (or, every kind of) malice. The noun (which in the Septuagint, e.g. Amos 3:6; Ecclesiastes 7:14; Ecclesiastes 12:1; and once in the N. T., Matthew 6:34, has also the objective sense of calamity or trouble) may mean either wickedness, viciousness, in general (as in 1 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Corinthians 14:20; Acts 8:22), or, in particular (as in Romans 1:29; Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8; Titus 3:3; James 1:21), malevolence, the wish to injure. On the ground of its apparent import in 1 Peter 2:16, some give it the former sense here, in which case it would be the parent disposition, of which the things which follow are the issue. The latter sense, however, is favoured both by the repetition of the ‘all' with the ‘guile' (which would give us a second generalization), by the analogy of Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8; James 1:21, and by the relation of the whole sentence to the previous charge to brotherly love. The ‘wickedness' which the R. V. places in the text, therefore, should go to the margin, and its marginal ‘malice' should occupy the text.

and all guile, i.e every form of the disposition to reach selfish ends artfully or by deception. In 1 Peter 3:10 this is re-introduced in relation to speech, as that is dealt with in Psalms 33:13.

and hypocrisies and envies. The transition to the plural indicates perhaps that acts are now in view, the unlovely acts which arise in those dispositions of malice and guile. These ‘hypocrisies' are in strong contrast to the love ‘unfeigned,' literally ‘unhypocritical,' in 1 Peter 1:22. The word (which is used in Galatians 2:13 with the softened sense of the dissimulation of Cephas and the Jews, which amounted to a ‘practical denial of their better insight') covers here all the insincerities, the masked acts and concealments into which the heart full of malice and guile drives one in relation to his fellows. The ‘envies' (the only vice in this list which is explicitly named in Paul's enumeration of the ‘works of the flesh,' Galatians 5:20-21) embrace all exhibitions of jealousy and grudging.

and all evil-speakings. The term is one of rare occurrence. The cognate verb, indeed, is found occasionally in the Classics, and there with the twofold sense of ‘babbling' and ‘railing.' But the noun itself is unknown to classical Greek, although it is found occasionally in the Septuagint (Wis 1:11),the Fathers (e.g. Clem. Rom. and Polycarp), and in one other passage of the N. T. (2 Corinthians 12:20). It means literally ‘speakings against,' and will include all words of detraction, railing, defamation, and the like. The five evils mentioned here may be antithetical to either of two things, the brotherly love formerly in view, or the character implied in the immediately succeeding designation, ‘new-born babes.' The close connection between the two parts of the verse, and the introduction of vices like guile and hypocrisy, which are more directly opposed to simplicity and sincerity than is love, favour the latter word. In that case, the point would be the renunciation of everything alien to child-like candour, to the transparency and healthfulness of the child-like character. The former view is generally preferred, however, and is supported by the prevalent tone of the evils specified, as well as by the relation of dependency in which this charge stands to the former. It is doubtful whether much is intended by the particular order in which the things are given. It is supposed, e.g., that the malice comes first, as being ‘the main cause of dissensions,' and that then we get naturally ‘guile the inward disease, hypocrisy its outward manifestation, and, as a result of the consciousness of evil, envy in its various forms, specially directed against those who have the peace in which the hypocrite knows that he is lacking, a feeling which sooner or later breaks out in calumnious aspersions' (Canon Cook). But if any inner connection is to be traced at all, it is rather that the malice which purposes evil to a brother, is named first as at the root of all; that this carries with it the guile which schemes to accomplish the end; that the guile which secretly works by plot and artifice for the ends of self, reveals itself in the hypocrisies into which it is driven to deceive the eye; while the masked acts by which we painfully cover our assault upon a brother's good, exasperate our envyings of his good, and these find vent in evil-speakings or overt attempts to talk him down.