Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 4
Peter’s command “put away all malice…deceit…hypocrisy…envy…slander” is connected to becoming “like newborn infants”; which of the speaker’s “baby qualities” exposes the most adult, cultivated sin in you, and what would it look like to genuinely “go back” and start again there?
Another way to ask: Which “baby-like” quality shows you a grown-up, practiced sin in you the most, and what would it look like to start over and change there?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The speaker uses babies as a picture of what it looks like to be free from certain sins, so the “most adult” sin is whichever trait in you most contradicts those baby-like qualities (malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander). To “go back” would mean stripping those patterns away and returning to the “sincere milk of the word” as your starting point for growth.
- He links growth with childlikeness: “if we want to grow… we must become as a child… We need to go back and become as a small child.”
- He lists “baby qualities”: not malicious, not deceitful, not hypocritical, no envy, and no desire to ruin reputations (slander).
- He clarifies this is about removing sins: “We are called to remove these things from our thoughts and from our lives.”
- He names the remedy: “desire the sincere milk of the word… the straightforward, honest, unembellished truth.”
- He warns against fake maturity: “to pretend at being mature is not sufficient.”
- He implies adult sin is learned and rooted: older children “can be malicious,” showing these traits can become cultivated over time.