1 Peter 2:1
What does 1 Peter 2:1 mean?
A plain-English look at 1 Peter 2:1 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What 1 Peter 2:1 means
Peter calls believers to make a decisive break with community-destroying sins: malice that wills harm, deceit that manipulates, hypocrisies that wear masks, envies that resent others’ good, and slander that tears down with the tongue. These attitudes belong to the old life and poison fellowship. To “put away” is to strip off filthy garments—an intentional, thorough rejection. Growth in holiness does not happen while we cling to hidden resentments or cutting words. The apostle begins with the heart and the mouth because love for God is proved in how we speak of and treat others, especially fellow Christians, whom God has made family by grace.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
KJV
King James Version · 1611Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949So putting away all wrongdoing, and all tricks and deceits and envies and evil talk,
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Having put aside, then, all evil, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings,
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Wherefore laying away all malice and all guile and dissimulations and envies and all detractions,
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Laying aside therefore all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings,
Context
This opening “therefore” flows from the prior call to holy living and sincere love. Verse 1 names what must be removed so that something better can be received. The next verse will urge the positive pursuit of nourishment, like newborn infants longing for pure milk. Verse 3 will ground this desire in tasted experience of the Lord’s kindness. The frame is preparatory: repentance clears space; desire reaches out; experience confirms that God’s way is good.
v.1This passage
v.2as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation;
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Matthew 15:7
Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
- Romans 13:12
The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
- Ephesians 4:22
that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit;
- James 5:9
Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that ye be not judged: behold, the judge standeth before the doors.
- Matthew 24:51
and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
- John 1:47
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
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