Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.
I Peter 2:2
Pure milk! No better analogy could befit one’s pure spiritual hunger than that of a baby whose very appetite longs for pure milk.
A missionary in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, told of a conversation with an African pastor who passed through on his way home to Chad, where civil war was raging. Realizing the pastor had many needs, the missionary asked the pastor, “What would you like to take to complete your forty-four pounds of baggage allowance? Sugar? Powdered milk? Medicine?” The pastor replied, “If I could have some Bibles please.” The missionary, knowing that the pastor needed these things personal items, was shocked and asked, “How’s that?” The pastor responded, “Back home we lost everything in the war, and we learned to place less importance on that which passes away and more importance on that which lasts.”[1]
Yes, food and physical sustenance are vital, but how are we doing with Jesus’ words, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord”?
Necessary for Spiritual Growth
From I Peter 2:2, the Apostle Peter encouraged the dispersed and persecuted Christians of the first century with an age-old truth: pure milk is necessary for one to move from infancy to maturity. And, as the follower of Jesus has tasted the kindness of our Lord (I Peter 2:3), there should exist a genuine appetite for the spiritual nourishment of God’s Word.
The typology of “spiritual milk” to which Peter ascribed was used by the author of Hebrews (in Hebrews 5:13-14), but with a negative application for one who is not growing in his or her faith:
“For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”
Although the application of spiritual milk referenced in I Peter and Hebrews offers two distinctly different interests, there is nonetheless a clear harmony of truth between the two. Peter exhorts the importance of milk as necessary for growth. The writer of Hebrews does the same, but with added emphasis that one should not stay at the level of milk, for maturity from spiritual infancy represents God’s desire for His children. And, together, both passages indicate the undeniable requirement for spiritual nourishment from God’s Word.
The Life Context of Spiritual Growth
With consideration given to the necessity of spiritual milk for growth, Peter’s exhortation offers insight and encouragement for the responsibilities surrounding the call of discipleship. With the larger context in view, chapter 1 closes with emphasis upon the Word of God as more than sufficient help for purifying one’s soul (I Peter 1:22-25).
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Obvious from the opening of this epistle, Peter’s audience is identified as newly established believers in Christ who were vulnerable in their Christian growth due to the persecution of the church. Many were scattered. Many were finding it difficult to stay true to their faith. Therefore, Peter encouraged a lifestyle free from harmful attitudes and actions toward others that was representative of their unregenerate past (I Peter 2:1). Pressure from without caused pressure within, as the newly formed body of Christ succumbed to such sinful habits as malice, deceit, envy, strife, and slander. Peter encouraged them to put these practices aside, and he charged his readers with positive action: crave pure spiritual milk to foster spiritual growth, as eagerly as newborn infants desire physical nourishment.[2] He then followed this statement with the purpose of this exhortation: that you may grow in respect to your salvation.
The Goal of Spiritual Growth
The Word of God strengthens, fills, and develops one’s spiritual life. The terminology of “pure milk” denotes the ability milk has to set in motion physical growth that can potentially continue for all of life. In like manner, God’s Word sets in motion spiritual growth. Growth is a sign of health. Spiritual growth, as it pertains to salvation, not only represents a sign of present spiritual health, but a spiritual health that lasts as the believer moves forward with ever increasing spiritual fullness.[3] A.T. Robertson identifies the phrase “in respect of salvation” to mean final salvation wherein all believers will stand before the Lord.[4] The Biblical teaching of salvation never intends to place the individual believer in a passive state of comfortable compliance, but actually spurs the saint on toward the call of God in Christ Jesus. The scattered believers of the first century persecuted church needed to hear Peter exclaim that a diet of pure milk was needed to make them strong against the onslaught of resistance that would cause many to retreat into idleness and furtiveness.
Conclusion
The ultimate emphasis of the “pure milk” of God’s Word is, of course, the craving. “Man does not live by bread alone.”
Crave God’s Word. Yearn for the sweet taste of our Lord’s kindness found in every part of whole counsel of the Scriptures. This always leads to spiritual growth. To grow in respect to salvation is to understand both the foundational truth of our regeneration as well as the future culmination of our salvation. The pure milk of God’s word prepares for both building the foundation and strengthening the journey toward that day when Christ calls us home. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (God’s way for our lives) will be filled. Are you satisfied with Him?
Blessings.
READ
Read Peter 2:1-12 and receive fresh direction in your spiritual identity and journey.
[1] Charles Daniel Maire. Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 3.
[2] Norman Hillyer, New International Biblical Commentary: 1 and 2 Peter, Jude (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1992), 56-57.
[3] Hillyer, 57.
[4] A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, vol. VI (Nashville, Broadman Press, 1933), 95.
