1 Peter Chapter 2

Reborn believers crave the Lord, are built into God’s priestly house, live honorably among unbelievers, and follow Christ’s steps through unjust suffering.

1 Peter 2:1-3

Growing as Newborn Children

1 Peter 2:4-10

The Living Stone and God’s Own People

1 Peter 2:11-12

Pilgrims Among the Nations

1 Peter 2:13-17

Free Servants Under Human Authority

1 Peter 2:18-25

Following the Suffering Servant

1 Peter 2:1

“Wherefore” ties the command to what Peter has just said. His readers have been born again of incorruptible seed, by the word that endures forever (1:23-25), and they have been told to love one another “with a pure heart fervently” (1:22). New birth and brotherly love lead directly to a list of things that must go. The verb pictures removing clothing, as a person strips off soiled garments before putting on clean ones. The same imagery appears when Paul urges believers to put off the old self and put on the new (Colossians 3:8-10).

The five vices form a sequence. “Malice” is settled ill will, the wish for harm to another. “Guile” is deceit, the bait that hides the hook. “Hypocrisies” describes playing a part, presenting a face that the heart does not match. “Envies” are resentments at another’s good, and “evil speakings” are the backbiting and disparaging talk that spread behind someone’s back. The movement runs from hidden motive to spoken word, from what festers inside to what wounds others in public.

Every item on the list attacks the love Peter has just commanded. A congregation already pressed by hostile neighbors cannot afford to be torn from within. Peter repeats “all” three times, allowing no reserve of tolerated spite. Guile appears here at the start of the chapter and returns near its end, where Christ is the one in whose mouth no guile was found (2:22). Laying aside these things is therefore more than self-improvement; it is the reshaping of a life after the likeness of the Lord who called them.

Study Links

Cross References

1 Peter 1:22

Word / Phrase Notes

ἀποθέμενοι (apothemenoi) — laying aside

The participle describes putting off something as one removes a garment. It depends on the command “desire” in verse 2 and carries the force of an instruction: having stripped away these vices, crave the Lord’s nourishment. The image implies a decisive break rather than gradual tinkering.

καταλαλιάς (katalalias) — evil speakings

The word refers to speaking against others, especially slander and disparaging talk carried on in their absence. Peter later uses the related verb for the way unbelievers speak against Christians (2:12; 3:16). Believers must not treat one another as the world treats them.

1 Peter 3:16