General Epistles Vol. 1 (James, 1 - 2 Peter Commentary) (The Bible Believer's Commentary Series) by Ruckman Dr. Peter S

Author:Ruckman, Dr. Peter S. [Ruckman, Dr. Peter S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BB Bookstore
Published: 2011-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 2

2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

“Wherefore” (vs. 1). That is, in light of the fact that you have something that is “incorruptible,” that won’t wither or fall away, and that is permanent (1 Pet. 1:23–25), then you should do the following:

The first thing is “Laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings.” So the first thing you need to do is get rid of some things.

Notice, once again, that you are in “Pauline territory.” The Apostle Paul told his converts to put off the old nature and to put away certain works (Eph. 4). He said, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speakin, be put away from you, with all malice” (Eph. 4:31). He said in Colossians 3:8–9, “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blashemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.”

Now, Peter says to lay aside “malice.” Malice is ill will toward another person. You do something just for the purpose of messing someone up. It’s akin to hatred.

“Guile.” Guile is double-talk, double-dealing, manipulating, politicking, trickery. Politicians are the best example of it. A politician will go to one group and tell them what they want to hear in order to get their votes. Then he’ll go to another group and tell them something exactly the opposite to what he told the other group, but he’ll say it in such a way that it doesn’t sound like he contradicted himself. He is “equivocating” just to get elected.

It’s like the politician who was questioned on a particular issue and replied, “Well, some of my friends are for it, and some of my friends are against it, and I always stand with my friends.” What did he actually say about the subject? He didn’t say anything! That’s guile.

“Hypocrisies.” That’s pretending to be something that you are not. Most people associate it with profession. They identify a hypocrite as one who doesn’t live up to his profession. But by that definition everyone in the world is a hypocrite to some extent. There is nobody who completely lives up to what he professes to believe, especially in matters of morals and ethics, and right and wrong; unless he has the moral standards of an alley cat.

Hypocrisy goes beyond profession. It has to do with why you do what you do: your motive. A hypocrite will study the Bible to find an alibi to do what he wants; not to learn the Book. He will come to prayer meeting just to “make contacts.” To a hypocrite, church is a social club, not a place where you expose yourself to the teaching and preaching of the word of God.

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