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1 Peter 2:1 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
¹ Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,

Therefore, putting aside. On the word rendered laying aside, see Rom. 13:12; Eph. 4:22, 25; Col. 3:8. The allusion is to putting off clothes; and the meaning is that we are to cast off these things entirely; that is, we are no longer to practice them. The word wherefore (οὖν) refers to the reasonings in the first chapter. In view of the considerations stated there, we should renounce all evil.

All malice. All evil, (κακίαν.) The word malice we commonly apply now to a particular kind of evil, denoting extreme enmity of heart, ill-will, a disposition to injure others without cause, from mere personal gratification, or from a spirit of revenge.—Webster. The Greek word, however, includes evil of all kinds. The word used here denotes a desire of injuring others; or, as we should express it, malice. It is that depravity and obliquity of mind which strives to produce injury to others. See Acts 8:22, where it is rendered wickedness, and 1 Cor. 5:8; 14:20; Eph. 4:31; Col. 3:8; Titus 3:3.

And all deceit. Deceit of all kinds. The Greek (δόλος dolos) means shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception. It means “to deceive by using trickery and falsehood—‘to deceive, to trick into, treachery.’”^[1] See Rom. 1:29; 2 Cor. 12:16; 1 Thess. 2:3.

And hypocrisy. The Greek (ὑπόκρισις hupokrisis) means to be insincere as pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have. See 1 Tim. 4:2; Matt. 23:28; Gal. 2:13, on the word rendered dissimulation. The word means, feigning to be what we are not; assuming a false appearance of religion; cloaking a wicked purpose under the appearance of piety.

And envies. (φθόνος phthonos) Hatred of others on account of some excellency which they have, or something which they possess which we do not. It has the sense of spite or resent because of another person’s success or possessions. See Rom. 1:29.

And all slander. Greek, speaking against others. This word (καταλαλιὰ) occurs only here and in 2 Cor. 12:20, where it is rendered backbitings. It has the sense of abusive words falsely spoken that damage a person’s reputation. It would include all unkind or slanderous speaking against others. This is by no means an uncommon fault in the world, and it is one of the designs of religion to guard against it. Religion teaches us to lay aside whatever guile, insincerity, and false appearances we may have acquired and to put on the simple honesty and openness of children. We all acquire more or less of guile and insincerity in the course of life. We learn to conceal our sentiments and feelings and almost unconsciously come to appear different from what we really are. It is not so with children. In the child, every emotion of the bosom appears as it is. Nature there works well and beautifully. Every emotion is expressed; every feeling of the heart is developed; and in the cheeks, the open eye, the joyous or sad countenance, we know all that there is in the bosom, as certainly as we know all that there is in the rose by its color and its fragrance. Now, it is one of the purposes of religion to bring us back to this state, and to strip off all the subterfuges which we may have acquired in life; and he in whom this effect is not accomplished has never been converted. A man that is characteristically deceitful, cunning, and crafty, cannot be a Christian. ‘Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven,’ Matt. 18:3.

By Albert Barnes and Edward D. Andrews

^[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 758.