Your life is MUCH BIGGER than yourself. God isn't just hoping you become a "better person" - he is BUILDING a PEOPLE for HIS own possession. THIS is why "community" isn't just a "good idea", it's not just the better way - - it's THE ONLY way. Scripture tells us JESUS is the cornerstone, and we are like "living stones" being built up into a spiritual house. So when Peter urges his readers to "put away" things that will hard others (such as malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander) - he's not just hoping you "do better behaviors" to make God happy, he's pointing us BACK to design, to the ETERNAL word of GOD - the design that GOD is and HAS Been restoring since the fall. YOU have a part - but it's part of something bigger.