Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

We now have the privilege of studying God’s Word

Please take your Bible and turn to 1 Peter chapter two

Having already completed chapter 1, we are now looking at chapter 2, verses 1-3

Peter says in 1 Peter 2:1-3 “1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

Those three verses are one sentence in Greek (Hiebert)

They all center on the one imperative verb in verse 2 that’s translated “long” or “crave”

We are to crave the word like a new born baby craves his mother’s milk

That’s how we “grow in respect to salvation” (v.2)

But there are things in verse 1 that hinders that craving

Some call it “junk food” but the Bible calls it sin and gives us 5 of them in verse 1 that we are to put aside

J.C. Ryal said, “Sin will not come to you, saying, ‘I am sin’; it would do little

harm if it did.

Sin always seems ‘good, and pleasant, and desirable’” (Thoughts

for Young Men).

Before he launches into his list in verse 1, he begins with the conjunction “therefore”

As we have said on many occasions, when you come to the word “therefore” you need to understand what it is there for

“Therefore” (oun) always takes you back to something that was previous said

and ties it in with the present

In 1:23-25 Peter talked about being “born again…through the living and enduring word”

This word “which was preached” to them (1:25) was “the truth” they obeyed and brought about the purification of their souls

So Peter says, “Since we have been begotten by means of the eternal Word we should long for the milk of the Word as our true and proper nourishment.”

(R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude, (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1966), 76).

The second word that Peter gives in verse 1 is translated “putting aside”

(apotithemi)

This is an aorist middle participle

It’s referring to a once for all action of putting aside sin

Though it is not an imperative, “it has imperative force” (Fritz Rienecker, The Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament)

It referred to any kind of rejection, and sometimes referred especially to stripping off soiled garments, which is the analogy Paul had in mind when he admonished the Colossians to “put … aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices” (Col.

3:8–9; cf.

Eph.

4:22, 25; Heb.

12:1; James 1:21).

In ancient Christian baptism ceremonies, those being baptized customarily took off and discarded the clothes they wore to the ceremony.

Following their baptisms, they put on new robes they received from the church.

Exchanging clothes symbolized the salvation reality of laying aside the old life and taking up the new (Rom.

6:3–7; 2 Cor.

5:17; Eph.

4:24).

(John F. MacArthur Jr., 1 Peter, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2004), 97).

Peter gives 5 vices they were to put off before they could crave the word

Plato calls the love of sin magnus daemon, “a great devil”

This “great devil” has to be killed anytime it shows its ugly head

This is a constant activity in the believer’s life

We have to “be killing sin or it will be killing you” (Jonathan Edwards)

Peter gives the first sin or vice in verse 1...

LESSON

I. Put Aside All Malice (v.1a)

Malice refers to any kind of wickedness

“Malice” is the Greek word kakia

It is all inclusive term (Rienecker) and refers to “vice of any kind” (AT Robinson)

Peter also uses the adjective πᾶσα translated “all” connoting “every form of” (Grosvenor, Zerwick, A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek NT).

Kakia occurs 11 times in the NT to “indicate that wickedness which comes from within a person” (MacArthur)

It is translated “evil” (Mat.6:24),

“maliciousness” (Rom.1:29) and “naughtiness” (Jas.1:1)

Peter uses this same word in Acts 8:22 when describing the “wickedness” of Simon who tried to buy the Holy Spirit

Peter said in Acts 8:22, “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.”

Paul uses this word in Romans 1:29 to describe those whom “God gave over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness...”

This was part of the old life

It’s included in Paul’s list in Titus 3:3, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”

This is something we are never to grow up in - 1 Corinthians 14:20, “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.”

The Christian’s new life can’t grow unless sins are renounced.

When that purging takes place, then the Word does its work (John MacArthur, MacArthur Study Bible).

Not only were they to put aside all malice but also...

II.

Put Aside All Deceit (v.1b)

“Deceit” (dolos), is also translated “guile”, and comes from a verb meaning “to catch with bait” (Rienecker).

It is “any cunning contrivance for deceiving or catching” (Liddell-Scott).

Friberg calls it “fraud or treachery”.

It means “to deceive by using trickery and falsehood” (Louw-Nida)

Warren Wiersbe says, “This is a word that…[uses] devious words and actions to get what you want” (Bible Exposition Commentary).

Peter encompasses again “every form of” deceit with the word pasa “all”

This can refer to the tongue

Peter used this term to describe those who desires life, to love and see good days

1 Peter 3:10, “For, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.”

Our tongues are to speak “what is good” not what is corrupt

Ephesians 4:29, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”

Our speech is to always be with grace

Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”

“grace” (charis) refers “to that which is spiritual, wholesome, fitting, kind, sensitive, purposeful, complementary, gentle, truthful, loving, and thoughtful”

This can also refers to our deeds

John 1:47, “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”

Just as Nathaniel had “no deceit” that should be true of us

People should be able to look at our life as Jesus looked at Nathaniels and say the same thing

“Deceit” like the other vices comes from the heart

Mark 7:21-23 “21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.

23 All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

A.W. Tozer said, “You cannot study the Bible diligently and earnestly without being struck by an obvious fact — the whole matter of personal holiness is highly important to God” (The Quotable Tozer 1, p.110).

All malice, all deceit…we are also to put aside…

III.

Put Aside Hypocrisy (v.1c)

Warren Wiersbe says, “If we are guilty of malice, we will try to hide it; and this produces ‘hypocrisies’” (The Bible Exposition Commentary).

The word for “Hyprocrisy” (hupokrisis) “was generally used for flattery and deception” (Zodhiates).

It is “pretense, to pretend” (Lou-Nida), “insincerity” (UBS Lexicon), “outward show” (BAG).

This word also “was used of an actor on the Greek stage” (Rienecker) referring “to acts of impersonation” (Wuest).

It occurs 7 times in the New Testament (Quickverse).

Jesus said this is what characterized the Scribes and Pharisees

Matthew 23:28-29, “28 So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,”