Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
Wherefore laying aside means putting off completely all ill-will and deceit and pretense and grudging envy and every kind of harmful speech. It belongs with craving as newborn children the pure nourishing truth of God's word in order to grow, after tasting that the Lord is kind and gracious. This putting away belongs to new birth and true conversion, for no one is cleansed except by receiving and obeying the truth, being born again by the incorruptible word and purified unto unfeigned love of the brethren. It calls God's people into oneness, for these evils must be repented of and removed from the heart so that no barrier remains between believers to obstruct fellowship, humility, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Those who do God's work must above all be cleansed from them by divine grace with watchfulness and prayer, since cherishing rivalry, faultfinding, and evil speaking mingles self with the labor and makes it of little effect, and no one who keeps revealing these fruits will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Meaning of the Evils
The command is to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, putting away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and harmful speech as incompatible with desiring the sincere milk of the word and growing thereby. Those doing God's work must put these away because they are contrary to the high principles by which they are to live, and the change belongs to the religious life of all who have received the Word. Malice is comprehensive, embracing all evil speaking and all evil acting.
These evils are products of the carnal mind and unsanctified heart, which God abhors. They are like a fungus growth in heart and character, causing deformity and weakness, and they must be weeded out and uprooted through self-correction and cooperation with God. Left cherished, they deform character, hinder spiritual growth, mingle self with nearly everything, and make even costly, anxious, hard labor of little effect. Cherishing rivalry and craving to crowd out and supplant fellow workers belongs to this same unsanctified spirit, which is not from God but from beneath and is abhorrent to Him.
The command especially exposes envy and malice, with evil thinking and evil speaking, as weights to be laid aside. They hinder the race for immortality and obstruct being of one heart and mind in humble, patient, watchful prayer together in faith for God's answer and promise. Putting away evil speaking in particular is required, including foolish talk and backbiting as harmful food incompatible with having tasted that the Lord is gracious. It includes hasty, reckless speech, which lies at the root of many church troubles, and murmuring and complaining, whose removal belongs with deeper consecration and more earnest labor for God.
Standing in a position of faultfinding toward others is forbidden, including magnifying their errors and speaking evil of them. Condemning, censuring, and speaking sharply against brethren who have erred must be refused, in pitying tenderness that seeks to save sinners from their sins. Believers are to be open and truthful with one another rather than acting underhandedly or speaking unkindly, for God sees the thoughts and purposes of the heart and records words and actions. Nursing grudges and condemning others from prejudice or dislike are likewise contrary to the command, undermining unity and reflecting a spirit unlike Christ's, while humility and respect for fellow believers help keep the heart free of guile.
Surrounding Passage and Setting
The laying aside belongs together with craving as newborn infants the pure milk of the word in order to grow by it, after having tasted that the Lord is gracious. These are changes required in the religious life of those who have received the Word, for the sinful attitudes and actions named are incompatible with the new life that grows from tasting His goodness. Feeding on the Word of God in this way gives a wonderful experience.
Tasting that the Lord is gracious means learning His care for His servants, including His colored servants, and trusting Him to open the way to do the appointed work of preparing a people for the day of the Lord, each standing in his own lot and place. That graciousness is discovered not by having all that is desired but by passing through the school of affliction, where tasting the sweetness of the Word creates a never-ending desire for more, a sense of His presence, and fellowship with a heavenly Companion in suffering.
The verse stands in a sequence of coming to Christ as a living stone rejected by men but chosen of God and precious, and as living stones being built into a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That building rests on faith in the chief cornerstone laid in Zion, elect and precious, so that the one who believes will not be confounded, precious to believers but to the disobedient the stone the builders rejected made the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense to those who stumble at the word. The cleansing that enables growth joins directly to the call to desire the sincere milk, and the following verses describe believers as living stones built into that spiritual house.
The same context declares believers a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people called out of darkness into marvelous light to show forth His praises. It means living as strangers and pilgrims who abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and keep honest conduct among unbelievers, so that those who speak against them as evildoers will see their good works and glorify God in the day of visitation.
The verse describes another class distinct from the world that eats and drinks and marries and is destroyed as in the days of Noah when the Son of man is revealed. It stands as great encouragement in the Word, full of hope and courage for those who follow on to know the Lord whose goings forth are prepared as the morning.
Conversion and Spiritual Growth
Laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings belongs to new birth, true conversion, and becoming sanctified. These evils are incompatible with the new life received and with obedience to God, and those who come to Christ must put them away. The pure gospel nourishes believers, and its power appears in a changed life and character, so that those who receive this spiritual nourishment grow as living stones in God's spiritual house.
There is cleansing in no other way than by receiving and obeying the truth, the Word of God. Having purified the soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, and being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which lives and abides forever, believers put off defilement and lay aside these evils. Removing them requires divine grace to cleanse natural tendencies and partialities, because they are contrary to the high principles by which God's people are to live. This laying aside then opens the way for newborn believers to desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby, having tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Being born again is worked out in life character as perfect obedience to the Word, which is truth unto everlasting life and, obeyed from the heart, remains saving truth. The verse calls for putting off what is evil through the purifying power of the Word, casting away old habits and practices contrary to the Word, with malice comprehending all evil speaking and all evil acting. Obeying this makes men, women, and youth wise unto salvation. It means earnest sanctification of soul, body, and spirit through obedience to all of God's commandments, by which Christ as the great Healer purifies, sanctifies, and redeems the whole physical and spiritual nature. This obedience purifies the soul by obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, loving one another with a pure heart fervently in being born again by the Word which lives forever.
Laying aside malice and deceit helps people receive the precious truths of the Word. It prepares them to partake of the precious food, the sincere milk of the word as newborn babes, that growth may follow, opening spiritual appetite to crave communion with the Lord. Feeding on the Word of God in this way gives a wonderful experience of growth and coming to Christ as a living stone. This obedience fits people as holy and undefiled subjects for heaven above, members of the royal family and children of the heavenly King. It makes earthly homes bright and beautiful by Christ's presence revealed in obedience, and it requires choosing obedience to God over the scheming attractions of the devil.
The passage from the verse through the rest of chapter 2 sets the high standard Christians in every place must attain and practice with watchfulness and prayer. Fathers and mothers are to study it with all intelligence and express its meaning in words and actions, engaging in constant spiritual warfare while in this world of sin. It is a most precious representation of what Christians may be if they hear and obey, showing daily obedience to all the commandments of God and bringing the law of heaven into everyday experience as evidence of receiving Christ and partaking the divine nature. It warns against lifting the soul unto vanity and against unsanctified ideas and speech detrimental to healthful piety.
Unity and Fellowship in Church
The verse calls God's people to unify and come into the sanctifying circle of truth. It means laying aside pride, seeking to be greatest, fault-finding, dissension, unbelief and disunity. Instead believers are to draw together, walk humbly with God, be subject one to another, press together, walk circumspectly, and heed every word of God that creates oneness. It is a word given by God to bring His people to the highest standard as new men created in righteousness and true holiness, helping their brethren to be one as Christ is one with the Father.
These sins of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and harmful speech must be repented of and removed from the heart so that no barrier remains between believers. They obstruct unity, Christian fellowship, humility, and the work and revelation of the Holy Spirit in the church, including dissension, strife, variance, evil surmising and unchristlike traits that dishonor God. Laying them aside belongs with desiring as newborn babes the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby. Their removal brings growth with repentance and confession of own sins, settling of differences and alienations, brotherly love and tenderness of heart, and unity of purpose and Christian fellowship in humility, without which souls will not be convicted and converted.
The command applies inside the church and requires purging out the old leaven of evil-speaking and hypocrisy, jealousy and malice. This is needed so that new converts are surrounded by influences most favorable to spiritual growth and can increase in knowledge and love of the truth and grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. The truth received must be expressed in word and in spirit, with every act a revelation of Christian refinement. When the church is thus purified from evil speaking and other sins that damage it, it grows in grace, and receiving and living out the truth's principles changes conduct in the family, the church, and the world.
The instruction means Christians are not to be careless with words or hurt one another through unkind speech, but are to grow toward the fullness of Christ. Their words should instead be pure words of praise and encouragement, expressing gratitude for God's goodness and helping one another grow in Christian experience, and such words can also convict unbelievers. Persistent hasty, reckless evil speaking lies at the root of many church troubles and calls for church discipline, even separation from membership.
Duty of Workers and Witness
Those who do God's work must lay aside malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and harmful speech, for these are contrary to the high principles by which they are to live. Their removal requires divine grace to cleanse natural tendencies and partialities, producing through the Word received and obeyed a purified heart and sincere fervent love for fellow believers. It is accomplished through watchfulness and prayer amid continuing outward temptations and inward tendencies to sin while growing in grace. It belongs to the high standard set forth through 1 Peter 2:1-12 for Christians in every place, to be attained and practiced with watchfulness and prayer, studied with all intelligence by fathers and mothers and expressed in words and actions. It calls for daily obedience to all of God's commandments and bringing heaven's law into everyday experience, by which the believer shows receiving Christ and partaking of the divine nature having escaped worldly corruption through lust, maintaining spiritual life only by such obedience in constant spiritual warfare in this world of sin.
Those who open the Word to others must first eat and digest that Word themselves by laying aside these evils and desiring as newborn babes the sincere milk of the word in order to grow thereby. This means eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man, keeping watch over self and fighting battles with self rather than letting unsanctified impulses control mind and judgment. These evils are products of the carnal mind and unsanctified heart which God abhors, a deforming fungus-like growth causing weakness in heart and character that must be weeded out. Cherishing them, including rivalry and a craving spirit to crowd out and supplant fellow workers, mingles self with nearly everything and is not from God but from beneath. It makes even costly, anxious, hard gospel labor and money of little effect, because the workers have not eaten the flesh and drunk the blood of the Son of Man and self has been mixed into their service.
Teachers and leaders must especially put aside malice and guile in order to receive the precious things of God's Word and feed on truth. Laying aside malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings prepares them to partake of the precious food of the sincere milk of the word as newborn babes so that growth may follow. Such laying aside opens spiritual appetite to crave communion with the Lord and to taste that the Lord is gracious, a graciousness discovered not by having all that is desired but by passing through the school of affliction, where tasting the sweetness of the Word creates a never-lost desire for more, a sense of His presence, and fellowship with a heavenly Companion in suffering. Accusations from others must not turn such a worker from the path of duty or keep him from pressing toward the goal God has set.
The verse begins the teaching on the priesthood, which means bringing to God the individuals met in personal work and presenting them before the Father, asking Him to let His light shine into heart and mind and soul and to give wisdom so that spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ can be offered. To work as Christ wants His people to work they must put away these evils where they exist among believers, practicing self-denial and self-sacrifice and replacing the feeling of having nothing special to do with intense interest in the work. Even Judas might have had all that belongs with laying aside evil and desiring the sincere milk of the Word as newborn children desire milk in order to grow thereby, tasting that the Lord is gracious and coming to Christ as the living stone disallowed by men but chosen of God and precious. With abundant opportunities to eat the bread of life he might have laid aside evil, grown by the Word, and formed a firm Christlike character as a lively stone built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Acceptable spiritual sacrifices are not made when men in great responsibility magnify themselves and dishonor God, growing earthward with self and selfishness instead of growing up into Christ the living head in all things and manifesting His divine attributes, devotion to God, and spiritual life in Jesus Christ. Elevated position gives no excuse to turn from Bible principles to finite judgment, no liberty of speech and planning contrary to God's will, and no power to sanctify the heart or develop character. Whether character reveals God depends on whether a man works himself and is worked by Satan or is worked by the Holy Spirit. All must therefore make Christ their righteousness and place Him as the honored cornerstone, the elect precious chief cornerstone laid in Zion in whom the believer is not confounded and to whom Christ is precious, by cherishing and acting on His lessons of humility and mercy and justice and the love of God.
Motives Warnings and Outcome
Believers have no right to malice because Christ has given an example of love to be followed in His footsteps. He is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, the Son of the infinite Father, one equal with God, the Prince of life, who in compassion for the fallen race clothed His divinity with humanity and paid the price for man's redemption. Because of that infinite sacrifice believers must imitate Him and not be careless or indifferent, but share the same interest and zeal and self-denial and self-sacrifice and act their part in bringing many sons and daughters to God and hundreds to the truth. Practicing His virtues through daily consecration puts them in a place of usefulness and proves their claim to believe in Him, opening the way to desire as newborn babes the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby, having tasted that the Lord is gracious, and the duty is urgent because the end is near.
Because Jesus in pitying tenderness is seeking to save sinners from their sins, believers must lay aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking. They must refuse to condemn and censure and speak sharply against brethren who have made mistakes, and as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby. They are to meet the mind of the Holy Spirit by pledging with God's help to put away all murmuring and complaining and all evil speaking, to cease hindering one another by setting a wrong example, and to advance the work of God instead of hindering it. Putting evil speaking away belongs with deeper consecration and more earnest, devoted labor for God.
Becoming a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar people who show forth His praises requires laying aside these evils and, as newborn babes who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, desiring the sincere milk of the word to grow thereby. It requires abstaining as strangers and pilgrims from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and keeping honest conduct among unbelievers so that good works glorify God. True Christian character keeps advancing to know the Lord instead of retrograding and backsliding, diligently exploring every part of the field of revelation where the unsearchable riches of Christ are hid. It does not settle satisfied as rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing, but comes to the searching of the Scriptures with contrition of soul and a humble teachable spirit so that precious jewels of truth reward the search and stand in their proper framework in the plan of redemption.
These evils are products of the carnal mind and an unsanctified heart that God abhors and must be laid aside and weeded from heart and character. Fellow pilgrims seeking a better, heavenly country must lay aside the spirit that craves to crowd out and supplant fellow workers, for in all who desire to follow Christ there is natural depravity that must be uprooted lest the representation of Christ be marred. Cherishing these traits — including rivalry and the desire to crowd out others, and selfishness and covetousness and vanity and hastiness of temper and picking at straws to think and speak evil of others — mingles self with nearly everything, makes costly labor and money of little effect, harms Christian work, and is work in direct opposition to God. No one who keeps revealing those fruits in life will enter the kingdom of heaven or hear Well done, good and faithful servant at the end of the journey.
Envy and malice and evil thinking and evil speaking are sins Christians must lay aside as weights that hinder the race for immortality. Their removal belongs with unity and tender love for one another, being of one heart and mind. In that oneness believers pray together humbly and patiently and watchfully and wait in faith for God's answer and promise.
Wherefore laying aside means putting off completely all ill-will and deceit and pretense and grudging envy and every kind of harmful speech. It belongs with craving as newborn children the pure nourishing truth of God's word in order to grow, after tasting that the Lord is kind and gracious. This putting away belongs to new birth and true conversion, for no one is cleansed except by receiving and obeying the truth, being born again by the incorruptible word and purified unto unfeigned love of the brethren. It calls God's people into oneness, for these evils must be repented of and removed from the heart so that no barrier remains between believers to obstruct fellowship, humility, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Those who do God's work must above all be cleansed from them by divine grace with watchfulness and prayer, since cherishing rivalry, faultfinding, and evil speaking mingles self with the labor and makes it of little effect, and no one who keeps revealing these fruits will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Meaning of the Evils
The command is to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, putting away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and harmful speech as incompatible with desiring the sincere milk of the word and growing thereby. Those doing God's work must put these away because they are contrary to the high principles by which they are to live, and the change belongs to the religious life of all who have received the Word. Malice is comprehensive, embracing all evil speaking and all evil acting.
These evils are products of the carnal mind and unsanctified heart, which God abhors. They are like a fungus growth in heart and character, causing deformity and weakness, and they must be weeded out and uprooted through self-correction and cooperation with God. Left cherished, they deform character, hinder spiritual growth, mingle self with nearly everything, and make even costly, anxious, hard labor of little effect. Cherishing rivalry and craving to crowd out and supplant fellow workers belongs to this same unsanctified spirit, which is not from God but from beneath and is abhorrent to Him.
The command especially exposes envy and malice, with evil thinking and evil speaking, as weights to be laid aside. They hinder the race for immortality and obstruct being of one heart and mind in humble, patient, watchful prayer together in faith for God's answer and promise. Putting away evil speaking in particular is required, including foolish talk and backbiting as harmful food incompatible with having tasted that the Lord is gracious. It includes hasty, reckless speech, which lies at the root of many church troubles, and murmuring and complaining, whose removal belongs with deeper consecration and more earnest labor for God.
Standing in a position of faultfinding toward others is forbidden, including magnifying their errors and speaking evil of them. Condemning, censuring, and speaking sharply against brethren who have erred must be refused, in pitying tenderness that seeks to save sinners from their sins. Believers are to be open and truthful with one another rather than acting underhandedly or speaking unkindly, for God sees the thoughts and purposes of the heart and records words and actions. Nursing grudges and condemning others from prejudice or dislike are likewise contrary to the command, undermining unity and reflecting a spirit unlike Christ's, while humility and respect for fellow believers help keep the heart free of guile.
Surrounding Passage and Setting
The laying aside belongs together with craving as newborn infants the pure milk of the word in order to grow by it, after having tasted that the Lord is gracious. These are changes required in the religious life of those who have received the Word, for the sinful attitudes and actions named are incompatible with the new life that grows from tasting His goodness. Feeding on the Word of God in this way gives a wonderful experience.
Tasting that the Lord is gracious means learning His care for His servants, including His colored servants, and trusting Him to open the way to do the appointed work of preparing a people for the day of the Lord, each standing in his own lot and place. That graciousness is discovered not by having all that is desired but by passing through the school of affliction, where tasting the sweetness of the Word creates a never-ending desire for more, a sense of His presence, and fellowship with a heavenly Companion in suffering.
The verse stands in a sequence of coming to Christ as a living stone rejected by men but chosen of God and precious, and as living stones being built into a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That building rests on faith in the chief cornerstone laid in Zion, elect and precious, so that the one who believes will not be confounded, precious to believers but to the disobedient the stone the builders rejected made the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense to those who stumble at the word. The cleansing that enables growth joins directly to the call to desire the sincere milk, and the following verses describe believers as living stones built into that spiritual house.
The same context declares believers a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people called out of darkness into marvelous light to show forth His praises. It means living as strangers and pilgrims who abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and keep honest conduct among unbelievers, so that those who speak against them as evildoers will see their good works and glorify God in the day of visitation.
The verse describes another class distinct from the world that eats and drinks and marries and is destroyed as in the days of Noah when the Son of man is revealed. It stands as great encouragement in the Word, full of hope and courage for those who follow on to know the Lord whose goings forth are prepared as the morning.
Conversion and Spiritual Growth
Laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings belongs to new birth, true conversion, and becoming sanctified. These evils are incompatible with the new life received and with obedience to God, and those who come to Christ must put them away. The pure gospel nourishes believers, and its power appears in a changed life and character, so that those who receive this spiritual nourishment grow as living stones in God's spiritual house.
There is cleansing in no other way than by receiving and obeying the truth, the Word of God. Having purified the soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, and being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which lives and abides forever, believers put off defilement and lay aside these evils. Removing them requires divine grace to cleanse natural tendencies and partialities, because they are contrary to the high principles by which God's people are to live. This laying aside then opens the way for newborn believers to desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby, having tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Being born again is worked out in life character as perfect obedience to the Word, which is truth unto everlasting life and, obeyed from the heart, remains saving truth. The verse calls for putting off what is evil through the purifying power of the Word, casting away old habits and practices contrary to the Word, with malice comprehending all evil speaking and all evil acting. Obeying this makes men, women, and youth wise unto salvation. It means earnest sanctification of soul, body, and spirit through obedience to all of God's commandments, by which Christ as the great Healer purifies, sanctifies, and redeems the whole physical and spiritual nature. This obedience purifies the soul by obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, loving one another with a pure heart fervently in being born again by the Word which lives forever.
Laying aside malice and deceit helps people receive the precious truths of the Word. It prepares them to partake of the precious food, the sincere milk of the word as newborn babes, that growth may follow, opening spiritual appetite to crave communion with the Lord. Feeding on the Word of God in this way gives a wonderful experience of growth and coming to Christ as a living stone. This obedience fits people as holy and undefiled subjects for heaven above, members of the royal family and children of the heavenly King. It makes earthly homes bright and beautiful by Christ's presence revealed in obedience, and it requires choosing obedience to God over the scheming attractions of the devil.
The passage from the verse through the rest of chapter 2 sets the high standard Christians in every place must attain and practice with watchfulness and prayer. Fathers and mothers are to study it with all intelligence and express its meaning in words and actions, engaging in constant spiritual warfare while in this world of sin. It is a most precious representation of what Christians may be if they hear and obey, showing daily obedience to all the commandments of God and bringing the law of heaven into everyday experience as evidence of receiving Christ and partaking the divine nature. It warns against lifting the soul unto vanity and against unsanctified ideas and speech detrimental to healthful piety.
Unity and Fellowship in Church
The verse calls God's people to unify and come into the sanctifying circle of truth. It means laying aside pride, seeking to be greatest, fault-finding, dissension, unbelief and disunity. Instead believers are to draw together, walk humbly with God, be subject one to another, press together, walk circumspectly, and heed every word of God that creates oneness. It is a word given by God to bring His people to the highest standard as new men created in righteousness and true holiness, helping their brethren to be one as Christ is one with the Father.
These sins of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and harmful speech must be repented of and removed from the heart so that no barrier remains between believers. They obstruct unity, Christian fellowship, humility, and the work and revelation of the Holy Spirit in the church, including dissension, strife, variance, evil surmising and unchristlike traits that dishonor God. Laying them aside belongs with desiring as newborn babes the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby. Their removal brings growth with repentance and confession of own sins, settling of differences and alienations, brotherly love and tenderness of heart, and unity of purpose and Christian fellowship in humility, without which souls will not be convicted and converted.
The command applies inside the church and requires purging out the old leaven of evil-speaking and hypocrisy, jealousy and malice. This is needed so that new converts are surrounded by influences most favorable to spiritual growth and can increase in knowledge and love of the truth and grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. The truth received must be expressed in word and in spirit, with every act a revelation of Christian refinement. When the church is thus purified from evil speaking and other sins that damage it, it grows in grace, and receiving and living out the truth's principles changes conduct in the family, the church, and the world.
The instruction means Christians are not to be careless with words or hurt one another through unkind speech, but are to grow toward the fullness of Christ. Their words should instead be pure words of praise and encouragement, expressing gratitude for God's goodness and helping one another grow in Christian experience, and such words can also convict unbelievers. Persistent hasty, reckless evil speaking lies at the root of many church troubles and calls for church discipline, even separation from membership.
Duty of Workers and Witness
Those who do God's work must lay aside malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and harmful speech, for these are contrary to the high principles by which they are to live. Their removal requires divine grace to cleanse natural tendencies and partialities, producing through the Word received and obeyed a purified heart and sincere fervent love for fellow believers. It is accomplished through watchfulness and prayer amid continuing outward temptations and inward tendencies to sin while growing in grace. It belongs to the high standard set forth through 1 Peter 2:1-12 for Christians in every place, to be attained and practiced with watchfulness and prayer, studied with all intelligence by fathers and mothers and expressed in words and actions. It calls for daily obedience to all of God's commandments and bringing heaven's law into everyday experience, by which the believer shows receiving Christ and partaking of the divine nature having escaped worldly corruption through lust, maintaining spiritual life only by such obedience in constant spiritual warfare in this world of sin.
Those who open the Word to others must first eat and digest that Word themselves by laying aside these evils and desiring as newborn babes the sincere milk of the word in order to grow thereby. This means eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man, keeping watch over self and fighting battles with self rather than letting unsanctified impulses control mind and judgment. These evils are products of the carnal mind and unsanctified heart which God abhors, a deforming fungus-like growth causing weakness in heart and character that must be weeded out. Cherishing them, including rivalry and a craving spirit to crowd out and supplant fellow workers, mingles self with nearly everything and is not from God but from beneath. It makes even costly, anxious, hard gospel labor and money of little effect, because the workers have not eaten the flesh and drunk the blood of the Son of Man and self has been mixed into their service.
Teachers and leaders must especially put aside malice and guile in order to receive the precious things of God's Word and feed on truth. Laying aside malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings prepares them to partake of the precious food of the sincere milk of the word as newborn babes so that growth may follow. Such laying aside opens spiritual appetite to crave communion with the Lord and to taste that the Lord is gracious, a graciousness discovered not by having all that is desired but by passing through the school of affliction, where tasting the sweetness of the Word creates a never-lost desire for more, a sense of His presence, and fellowship with a heavenly Companion in suffering. Accusations from others must not turn such a worker from the path of duty or keep him from pressing toward the goal God has set.
The verse begins the teaching on the priesthood, which means bringing to God the individuals met in personal work and presenting them before the Father, asking Him to let His light shine into heart and mind and soul and to give wisdom so that spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ can be offered. To work as Christ wants His people to work they must put away these evils where they exist among believers, practicing self-denial and self-sacrifice and replacing the feeling of having nothing special to do with intense interest in the work. Even Judas might have had all that belongs with laying aside evil and desiring the sincere milk of the Word as newborn children desire milk in order to grow thereby, tasting that the Lord is gracious and coming to Christ as the living stone disallowed by men but chosen of God and precious. With abundant opportunities to eat the bread of life he might have laid aside evil, grown by the Word, and formed a firm Christlike character as a lively stone built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Acceptable spiritual sacrifices are not made when men in great responsibility magnify themselves and dishonor God, growing earthward with self and selfishness instead of growing up into Christ the living head in all things and manifesting His divine attributes, devotion to God, and spiritual life in Jesus Christ. Elevated position gives no excuse to turn from Bible principles to finite judgment, no liberty of speech and planning contrary to God's will, and no power to sanctify the heart or develop character. Whether character reveals God depends on whether a man works himself and is worked by Satan or is worked by the Holy Spirit. All must therefore make Christ their righteousness and place Him as the honored cornerstone, the elect precious chief cornerstone laid in Zion in whom the believer is not confounded and to whom Christ is precious, by cherishing and acting on His lessons of humility and mercy and justice and the love of God.
Motives Warnings and Outcome
Believers have no right to malice because Christ has given an example of love to be followed in His footsteps. He is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, the Son of the infinite Father, one equal with God, the Prince of life, who in compassion for the fallen race clothed His divinity with humanity and paid the price for man's redemption. Because of that infinite sacrifice believers must imitate Him and not be careless or indifferent, but share the same interest and zeal and self-denial and self-sacrifice and act their part in bringing many sons and daughters to God and hundreds to the truth. Practicing His virtues through daily consecration puts them in a place of usefulness and proves their claim to believe in Him, opening the way to desire as newborn babes the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby, having tasted that the Lord is gracious, and the duty is urgent because the end is near.
Because Jesus in pitying tenderness is seeking to save sinners from their sins, believers must lay aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking. They must refuse to condemn and censure and speak sharply against brethren who have made mistakes, and as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby. They are to meet the mind of the Holy Spirit by pledging with God's help to put away all murmuring and complaining and all evil speaking, to cease hindering one another by setting a wrong example, and to advance the work of God instead of hindering it. Putting evil speaking away belongs with deeper consecration and more earnest, devoted labor for God.
Becoming a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar people who show forth His praises requires laying aside these evils and, as newborn babes who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, desiring the sincere milk of the word to grow thereby. It requires abstaining as strangers and pilgrims from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and keeping honest conduct among unbelievers so that good works glorify God. True Christian character keeps advancing to know the Lord instead of retrograding and backsliding, diligently exploring every part of the field of revelation where the unsearchable riches of Christ are hid. It does not settle satisfied as rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing, but comes to the searching of the Scriptures with contrition of soul and a humble teachable spirit so that precious jewels of truth reward the search and stand in their proper framework in the plan of redemption.
These evils are products of the carnal mind and an unsanctified heart that God abhors and must be laid aside and weeded from heart and character. Fellow pilgrims seeking a better, heavenly country must lay aside the spirit that craves to crowd out and supplant fellow workers, for in all who desire to follow Christ there is natural depravity that must be uprooted lest the representation of Christ be marred. Cherishing these traits — including rivalry and the desire to crowd out others, and selfishness and covetousness and vanity and hastiness of temper and picking at straws to think and speak evil of others — mingles self with nearly everything, makes costly labor and money of little effect, harms Christian work, and is work in direct opposition to God. No one who keeps revealing those fruits in life will enter the kingdom of heaven or hear Well done, good and faithful servant at the end of the journey.
Envy and malice and evil thinking and evil speaking are sins Christians must lay aside as weights that hinder the race for immortality. Their removal belongs with unity and tender love for one another, being of one heart and mind. In that oneness believers pray together humbly and patiently and watchfully and wait in faith for God's answer and promise.