Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
Laying aside - once for all. So х apothemenoi (G659)] aorist, as a garment put off. The exhortation applies to Christians alone: in none else is the new nature existing which, as "the inner man" (Ephesians 3:16), can more and more cast off the old as an outward thing. To unbelievers the exhortation is that inwardly, in the nous (G3563) (mind), they must become changed [metanoeisthai: repent] (Steiger). 'Therefore' resumes 1 Peter 1:22. Seeing that ye are born again of incorruptible seed, be not again entangled in evil, which 'is an acting in contrariety to the being formed in us' (Theophylact). "Malice," etc., are utterly inconsistent with "love of the brethren," unto which ye have "purified your souls" (1 Peter 1:22). The vices here are those which offend against the BROTHERLY LOVE inculcated above. Each succeeding one springs out of that which immediately precedes, so as to form a genealogy of sins against love. Out of malice springs guile; out of guile, hypocrisies (pretending to be what we are not; not showing what we really are: the opposite of "love unfeigned," "without dissimulation"); out of hypocrisies, envies of those to whom we play the hypocrite; out of envies, evil steaking. Guile is the permanent disposition; hypocrisies, acts flowing from it. The guileless knows no envy. Compare 1 Peter 2:2, "sincere" х adolon (G97)], 'guileless.' 'Malice delights in another's hurt; envy pines at another's good; guile imparts duplicity to the heart; hypocrisy (flattery), duplicity to the tongue; evil speakings wound another's character' (Augustine).