Sermon Tone Analysis

— 1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

The believer’s call to the discipline of godliness demands the transformation of lifelong habits through the application of practical righteousness.

Peter resumes his call to godliness with a specific exhortation to be like God:

“like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior” (1:15).

Why?

Because “it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’

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Here he quotes directly from , which is part of God’s call to Israel to be distinct from the rest of the nations

in order to be a reflection of His true, holy nature.

Therefore, a basic understanding of the holiness of God is essential if we are to live up to our holy calling.

The holiness of God is His “set-apart-ness.”

Holiness is essential to God’s nature; it is not so much an attribute of God as it is the very foundation of his being.

Holiness denotes the separateness or otherness of God.

Holiness is what makes God distinct from His creation.

God declared to Moses, “there is no one like Me in all the earth” ().

The Greek word translated “holy” in the New Testament is that which means “separate, marked off.”

It is the same word used for “saints,” referring to believers as those who have been set apart by God for Himself.

Our role is to be “children of obedience” since God has “called us with a holy calling” ().

Therefore, when the Scriptures say that we are called to be holy, this is primarily what it means:

to be holy is to live in such a way that we accurately reflect God to unregenerate sinners.

This does not mean

being different for difference’s sake,

nor drawing attention to ourselves by means of some uniformed appearance,

but it means seeking to become like the God who saved us,

which naturally results in a life characterized by distinctiveness.

The idea of holiness for God’s people includes specifically a moral sense of separation from evil and dedication to a life of righteousness.”

This is why Peter compels us to be holy in all our behavior, our conduct, our active life; especially “in relation to others.”

This means we should make holiness our “trademark”;

in other words, godliness should be our reputation in the world.

This sober approach to the Christian life is an expected response of the believer

to the gracious salvation God has provided in Christ.

If we have been saved by the grace of God from a life of sin and destruction,

then our present calling is to let that same grace empower us

to live in such a way that we reflect the righteousness of God to an unrighteous world.

For this reason, we must pursue a complete transformation of life which proceeds from

the renewal of the mind and the reformation of inner desires

the reformation of inner desires

to the replacement of sinful habits with the practical working of righteous behavior.

This requires the constant application of holiness by putting off the old man and putting on the new.

And so, Peter waist no time in applying the truth that we love because we’ve been born again.

And this loved involves our “growing” up which is going to demand a love that is known for “laying aside” some things while “desiring” other things.

The things we are to “put away” have one thing in common.

They all undo other people.

They destroy relationships.

In contrast love

builds others up;

love strengthens relationships.

— 1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

We should set aside every ungodly desire and inclination and simply long to be fed and nourished by the Word of God.

It’s a very simple concept that brings life-changing results.

Imagine how different you would be if you aligned your thinking and lifestyle with the Bible.

Rather than becoming arrogant,

you would love God more;

you would be in tune with your God-given mission;

you would see people not as means to your own ends

but as valuable creations of God, and

you would find ways to love and serve the people around you.

The first word in the sentence is “therefore.”

On the basis of what Peter said in the last section of the previous chapter (1:22–25), he now draws a conclusion.

That is, reborn children of God ought to exhibit their new life in their daily conduct.

When someone is born again (1:23), we expect to see the evidence in his personal behavior.

In fact, we are looking for demeanor that is distinctively Christian.

How are the recipients to live a Christian life?

Peter instructs, “Rid yourselves of all malice.”

In the Greek, he uses a verb that expresses the imagery of removing garments, for he says, “Lay aside all malice.”.

Peter figuratively tells the readers to take off the garments of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

a. “All malice.”

This is the first evil in a catalogue of sins.

Note that the word all is comprehensive and allows no exceptions.

In his list of sins Peter writes the term all three times.

The word malice signifies ill will that originates in our sinful nature.

If we allow this evil to express itself in our relations with others,

love for our neighbor vanishes.

In brief, malice is a desire towards hostility, or a strong dislike of our fellow man.

b. “All deceit.”

Once again Peter uses the adjective all to include everything that is deceitful.

He alludes to a number of actions that are covered by the phrase all deceit:

falsehood, craft, seduction, slander, and treachery.

The concept deceit comes to expression, for example, in Paul’s description of the sorcerer Elymas on the island Cyprus.

Paul calls him “a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right.”

Then he adds, “You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery” ().

Deceit takes on the appearance of truth so that the unwary may be tricked.

Therefore, deceit and hypocrisy are twins: by deceit a person is wronged and by hypocrisy he is deceived.

c. “Hypocrisy, envy.”

These two words appear in the plural in Greek.

The hypocritical person pretends to be what he is not;

he is a man with a double heart and a lying tongue.

For instance, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and teachers of the law for their hypocrisy

when he said, “You hypocrites!

Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’ ” (; ).

Envy is an attitude expressed in a desire to possess what belongs to someone else.

Envy often leads to holding a grudge.

d. “And all evil speaking.”

The Greek puts the words slander and all evil speaking in the plural and

literally says, “all evil speakings”.

Also, for the third time in this catalogue of vices Peter uses the adjective all.

He implies that the tongue is a ready and willing instrument to talk about one another behind backs (compare ; ; ).

Slander occurs in numerous ways and the misuse of the tongue gives the impulse to other sins.

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As we have said, an important part of making disciples is teaching people to obey everything Jesus commanded ().

This means that we need to know Jesus’s teaching and commands.

It may seem that the first disciples had an advantage on us here.