Verse: 1 Peter 2:2-3 (ESV)
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation – 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Devotion
Raise your hand if you enjoy being called immature. Nobody? Well, that’s okay, because it’s not what Peter is doing here. He’s just finished telling us in verse 1 some of the things we need to get rid of in our lives. So, naturally, he follows that with what we should look to add. And he uses the most natural analogy possible. Everyone who’s ever lived knows that a baby gets milk from its mother, and that it’s the best possible thing for the baby, filled with all the nutrients the baby needs to not only survive, but to thrive.
So, what is this milk we should crave? Other translations refer to it as “pure milk of the word”, because the original Greek includes the word ‘logikon’, from the same root as ‘logos’, “the word”. And as you probably know, this can refer to either Scripture (the word of God), or to Jesus himself (God’s living word). We “grow up into salvation” by feeding on God’s word. But does an infant wait patiently until nourishment is offered? No! We should “long for” (crave) the word in the same way that a baby cries out until it starts to be fed.
Now we know that every believer is on their own spiritual journey, and some are quite a bit farther along than others. But Peter’s analogy here isn’t related to the “age” of a Christian. No, he is referring only to the sense in which we all remain in the growth stage of our faith, until our salvation is made complete by way of our reunion with Christ, either through our own physical death, or upon his return.
But what about the uncertainty of verse 3? “If” we have tasted? Is Peter questioning our salvation? No, but he is calling us to examine ourselves. Have we taken the time to taste the goodness of the Lord? Have we opened his word to find the nourishment in store for us? If so, then surely, like a baby getting its first taste of mother’s milk, we won’t be satisfied until we’ve had our fill, and we will keep coming back again and again.
Prayer
God, thank you for your word. Thank you that it is sufficient to sustain us, to grow us, and to make us thrive, until that time when our salvation will be complete. Please give us the desire to taste it over and over again, that we may be filled with your goodness. Amen.
Author: Dave MacDonald
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