Some things do not belong in the life of a child of God. We are to separate ourselves from them if they are matters of an outward nature, and we are to root them out if they are matters of an inward nature—the kinds of things with which Peter deals here. He calls upon us to respond to the new nature, which is ours by new birth, by “laying aside all malice,” a veritable root, indeed, of all kinds of evil things. The word for “malice” here is kakia, which has to do with depravity