In this chapter the great Apostle continues and further presses upon all Christians the study and growth in holiness, which he had started in the thirteenth verse of the previous chapter. In chapter one he had stated the reasons why they should pursue holiness, namely: (a) because God is holy, therefore, they must be holy; (b) because of the impartiality of God in judgement; (c) because of the price paid for their redemption, even the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; and (d) because of the means provided for it, namely, "the incorruptible seed of the word of God". Now, in these and following verses he tells them how they may grow in holiness.

Two things are pointed out in these verses: first, the persons exhorted; and secondly, the exhortation itself.

A.  The persons exhorted⤒🔗

The Apostle exhorts the recipients of his Epistle to their duty, viz, to "lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speakings", to "abstain from fleshly lust", to "have their conversation honest among the gentiles", to "submit themselves to every ordinance of man", to "love the brotherhood", etc. But whom is Peter addressing here?

It is obvious that the Apostle is addressing not all men and telling them how they may reform themselves and the society, but he is addressing a particular class of people.

Peter is not addressing the world to "lay aside all malice, etc." and to "abstain from fleshly lusts" and to "have their conversation honest among men", etc. No, but he is writing to a "chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people;" to those who "have tasted that the Lord is gracious," those who "are redeemed from their vain conversation by the precious blood of Christ." They are men and women who have experienced such a radical transformation which can only be described in terms of new birth; they have actually been "begotten again by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." They are "made partakers of the divine nature." Their whole outlook, their whole character and nature have changed. They are the children of God. (A Christian is not someone who has been reformed here a little, and improved there a little in his character, but he is a man who has been wholly transformed by the renewing of the Spirit of God.) And now "as new-born babes", they "desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby." These "peculiar people", "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" is Peter exhorting to follow these directives. Only they can adhere to such admonitions because of their renewed nature, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them.

The designation "new-born babes" does not suggest innocence and gentleness, but rather consciousness of helplessness in himself and complete dependence on the Lord, and absolute confidence in Him. And like as a new-born babe has instinctive unquenchable desire for his mother's milk, so the Christian has an insatiable desire after suitable spiritual nutriment of his new nature, "the sincere milk of the word". He loves the truth of Christ for it is life to him.

B.  The exhortation←⤒🔗

But the designation also suggests that the Christian, though renewed in the inner man, yet he is not perfect; though really holy, he is far from having attained perfect holiness; though regenerated, he is far from having attained maturity. In fact, he is, as the Apostle says, but "a new-born babe". There is still much to part with, and much to attain to before he reaches to "the measure of the stature of perfect man in Jesus Christ." (The Christian will attain full maturity and come to perfection only when he enters into glory.) Therefore, they are exhorted to a double duty: "laying aside … desire."

First then, they are exhorted "to lay aside" certain evil tendencies and dispositions, by which exhortation two fundamental truths are suggested to us. First, that men – all men – are naturally prepossessed with these evils. Man is not born into this world as tabula rasa – a blank sheet of paper – upon which impressions are made from the outside; he does not start life from a point of moral-ethical neutrality, but the seed of all evil he brings into the world with him. From his mother's womb "he was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did his mother conceive him" (Ps. 51:5). Indeed, these evil seeds improve and grow by the influence and example that is round about him, but their root and origin is in his very nature. The Apostle does not say, "beware of putting these things on", but he exhorts them "to put them off". "Our hearts," says Leighton, "are by nature no other than cages of these unclean birds, malice, envy, hypocrisies, etc."

And the second truth that is suggested is that these "unclean birds" are not automatically set to flight at our regeneration, but they still indwell in the Christian's heart, and he is exhorted "to lay them aside", "to put them off". Notice, the Apostle does not say "beware that they enter not again into your hearts", but rather "lay them aside".

Now, what are these evils which the Christian is exhorted to "lay aside"? The first mentioned is all malice, meaning wickedness as an evil habit of the mind. It signifies malignity, ill-will, malevolent disposition whereby one procures or wishes another's evil.

The next is all guile, or deceit. It is descriptive of all fraudulent and deceitful means for gaining an end. It is the general term for all unfaithfulness and dishonesty in dealing with others from the most refined to the grossest.

Then is hypocrisies, a term meaning to pretend to be what one is not.

Next, the Apostle mentions envies, a word referring to that uneasiness which a malignant person feels in the happiness of the object of his ill-will, and the restless, painful desire he has to deprive him of his advantage. "Malice and envy," says Leighton, "are two branches growing out of the same bitter root … Malice is properly the procuring or wishing another's evil; envy, the repining at his good; and both these vent themselves by evil speaking."

Lastly, he mentions evil-speakings which refers to all whisperings, backbitings, slanders, insinuations, and hinting at faults.

It is to be noticed also that all these evils are in the plural, suggesting both multiplicity as well as variety of each of them in the heart of every man.

Now, the Apostle exhorts them not to cover these unsightly deformities of the old man in them "with the veil of an assumed courteousness and politeness, or sanctimony" (J. Brown), but to eradicate them; not to modify them, but to mortify them, and to cast them out and to cleanse and purify the heart from their foul character, that they may "desire the sincere milk of the word". The two cannot co-exist, but are mutually exclusive; for quoting Leighton again,

Can there be anything more contrary than the good Word of God, as the Apostle calls it, and those evil speakings? than the Word that is of such excellent sweetness, and the bitter words of the malignant tongue? than the Word of life, and the words full of deadly poison? For so slanders and defaming of our brethren are termed. And is not all malice and envy most opposite to the Word, that is the message of peace and love? How the gall of malice and this milk of the Word agree? Hypocrisy and guile stand in direct opposition to the name of this Word, which is called the Word of truth.

But just to lay these evils aside is not enough. This is only negative; it is first, it is necessary, but it is negative, and to stop there may make us good moral men, but certainly cannot make us Christians. Therefore, Peter proceeds to the second part of the exhortation, the positive side of it: "Laying aside … desire."

"Desire," the Apostle says, "the sincere (meaning pure, unmixed, unadulterated) milk of the word," to the end that "ye may grow thereby." The Christian is a spiritual, "new-born babe", and as any new-born babe is expected to develop and grow in size, in strength, in intelligence, so also in the case of the spiritual "new-born babe" – growth is a requisite.

Notice that both regeneration as well as the sustaining and development of that new life is effected by the Word of God, for we are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever," and being born again, we are to "desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby."

What does this growth involve? In what must a Christian grow? As a spiritual new-born babe, the Christian, the Apostle says elsewhere, must "grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord." He must grow in the knowledge of the only true God and the Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, Whom to know is life eternal.

Now, the Christian does know God; he does know the Lord Jesus Christ, else he cannot be a Christian. The Lord is revealed to him by faith. He believes everything that is said in the Holy Scriptures regarding the revelation God makes of Himself. He has tasted that the Lord is good; he sees Him now as in a mirror darkly, and what he knows of Him makes him desire to know Him even as he is known by Him. Paul prays for the Christian people of Ephesus that "the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, they may know … what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his power." And as for himself, he says, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord." To know more of His glory, His purity, His holiness, His love, His justice. To know Him that he may learn to fear Him, reverence, adore, and love Him, and to live in all holiness and purity before Him.

Moreover, he must grow in the knowledge of "the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." In other words, he must grow in the faith of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. He must grow in reliance on the free grace of God, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer.

He must grow in a deeper awareness of his own wretchedness and utter unworthiness; greater conviction of his sinfulness; his own helplessness and utter dependence upon the grace and power of God in all things. He must learn that "without Him we can do nothing."

Finally, he must grow in grace, that is, in those gracious outworking of the Holy Spirit in his heart and life. He must grow in humility, in abhorrence and hatred of sin, in know­ledge of himself, in vigilance against temptations and devices of Satan, in love of holiness, in zeal for the divine honour, love for the brethren, love for the lost souls and the furtherance of God's cause in the world.

But how does a Christian grow to spiritual maturity? There is but one means, one spiritual food provided whereby we may grow and that is the Word of God – "the sincere milk of the word," as the Apostle calls it. It is by feeding upon the pure Word of God, by meditating upon it, and by the enlightening and instructing of the Holy Spirit in the truths revealed therein that one grows in the knowledge of these glorious truths. Apart from Scriptures there is no other source whereby we may know the Lord, His grace, His salvation. There the Lord reveals to us His own self, His attributes, His plan of salvation, the Covenant of Redemption, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is offered as the surety of that Covenant. All these glorious truths God revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. Let the reader examine himself whether he is made alive to this spiritual food; whether he feeds upon it; whether he knows anything of this "laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings," and of this craving, this desiring "the sincere milk of the Word, that he may grow thereby"; grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.