Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Please take God’s Word and turn with me to 1 Peter chapter two.

We are returning to our study of the first three verses.

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.”

Peter lists 5 vices that we must put aside in order to crave the Word of God.

These 5 vices, like all sin, hinder God’s Word and growth in your life.

They attack your desire, so therefore they must be put aside once and for all.

Paul begins verse 1 with the word “therefore.”

This word takes us back to chapter one, verse 22 and runs through verse 25.

By using this word, Peter is saying:

Since this is the Word that purified your souls (v.22)

Since this is the Word that produced a sacrificial sincere love for the brethren (v.22)

Since this is the Word that caused you to be born again (v.23)

Since this is the Word that will endure forever (v.23)

Since this is the Word that was preached to you (v.25)

“Therefore” lay aside sin and crave the word!

And now he lists what they are to lay or put aside.

First he says they are to...

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)

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.”

They are to put aside “all” (pas) every form of malice.

Secondly they are to...

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).

They are to put aside “all” (pas) every form of deceit.

Third, they are to...

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).

Next, and this is where we left off last time, they are to...

IV.

Put Aside Envy (v.1d)

“Envy” (phthonos) is “the feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of others” (W.E.

Vine).

This is a “hatred of others on account of some excellency which they have, or something which they possess which we do not” (Albert Barnes, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible).

John Gill said this is envy “at each other's happiness and prosperity, riches, honours, gifts temporal or spiritual” (John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible).

“Envy is a sin that carries its own reward: It guarantees its own frustration and disappointment.

By definition, the envious person cannot be satisfied with what he has and will always crave for more.

His evil desires and pleasures are insatiable, and he cannot abide by any other person’s having something that he himself does not have or having more of something than he himself has” (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Titus).

Someone once said, “Don’t envy the man who has everything: he probably has an ulcer too” (Drapers).

This was also a feature of our life before salvation

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 a work of the flesh

Galatians 5:19-21, “19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

This marks those whom God has given up to a debased mind.

They are “full of envy” (Rom.1:29)

This was the attitude of those who delivered Jesus to Pilate

Mark 15:10, “For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.”

Last, we are to put aside...

V. Put Aside Evil Speaking (v.1e)

“Evil speaking” (katalalia) means to “speak against, often involving speaking evil of” (Lou-Nida).

It is “hostile speech” (Friberg), “insult” (UBS), “evil speech, slander” (Kittel), “defamation - back-biting” (Strong)

It is “‘speaking down’ a person, referring to the act of defaming, slandering, speaking against another” (Wuest).

Many churches have been destroyed because of the tongue

Paul said that his fear was in leaving Ephesus was “that from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:30)

The church at Corinth experienced much division---all because of the tongue!

1 Corinthians 1:10-12, “10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

11 For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.

12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.””

1 Corinthians 3:3-5, “3 for you are still fleshly.

For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? 5 What then is Apollos?

And what is Paul?

Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.”

2 Corinthians 12:20, “20 For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances;”

The church at Galatia also experienced the power of the tongue to the point of leading many astray

Galatians 1:6-9, “6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

We must make sure that we do not slander or speak evil of others

Whether you’re an older person - Titus 2:3, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good,”

Whether your husband officially serves in the church - 1 Timothy 3:11, “Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.”

Slander or evil speaking is not fitting for a believer.

It is sin!

“A slip of the foot may be soon recovered; but that of the tongue, perhaps never” (Drapers).

Ephesians 4:31-32, “31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

James 4:11, “Do not speak against one another, brethren.

He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.”

“Close your ear against him who opens his mouth against another.

If you receive not his words, they fly back and wound him.

If you receive them, they fly forward and wound you” (Francis Quarles - Drapers).

Once these 5 sins are put aside then you will...

VI.

CRAVE THE WORD (vv.2-3)

1 Peter 2:2-3, “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.”

“Peter wanted his readers to be as eager for the nourishment of the Word as babies are for milk.”

(Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary.