Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. 1 Peter 2:1
While staying at a hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina, I struck up a conversation with a pleasant young desk clerk, who appeared to be curious about things Canadian. Originally from the warm climate of Louisiana, he was particularly fascinated by the harsh reality of winter temperatures that Canadians have to deal with. ‘I don’t think I could live there,’ he observed. So I told him that Canadians wear different clothing in the winter time, an entirely different wardrobe from the summer clothing that would be much like that worn in Raleigh or Louisiana. He seemed to be impressed with that concept. As Canadians, we don’t think anything of it, it’s just a matter of discarding the winter clothes when the weather gets warm. We don’t need snow boots and parkas in the summer so we lay them aside. Just like we lay aside the world’s way of treating people when we are saved.
According to Barnes Notes, the Greek word ‘kakian’ that is translated ‘malice’ in our text is commonly applied 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. That’s nasty! But it’s the way of so much of the world. No wonder Peter tells us that malice is something that every Christian should dispose of. The same goes for guile, which refers to all kinds of deceit. Doesn’t it make you cringe to think about the possibility of any Christians that you know being deceitful? And nobody likes a hypocrite, not even another hypocrite. The word used in our text refers to pretending to be what we are not, or cloaking an evil purpose under a cloak of piety. The word for envies refers to despising others because of some quality that they have, or something that they possess which we do not. All these things listed in our text would make for a very poor testimony, for sure.
The last term in our text is all evil speaking. Note the word ‘all’. The Greek word katalalia that is rendered evil speaking is used in only one other place in the Bible, in 2 Corinthians 12:20, where it is rendered ‘backbitings’. This includes gossip and anything unkind, unfair, or untrue that is said to or about anybody. This type of language is all very common among the people all around us, but it should never be the employ of the tongue of the redeemed.
The language of Heaven certainly does not include any malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, or evil speakings. As citizens of Heaven, our language here should not include those things either. – Jim MacIntosh