Growing up 1 Peter 2:1-3
Growing Up
1 Peter 2:1 – 3
MP: We must long for the spiritual milk of God’s word to grow up into mature disciples.
Connection/Tension
Are you frustrated by the slowness of growth and change in your life or its complete absence?
Some of us have seasons where we first start to follow Jesus where growth comes quickly. Sometimes seasons like that return. Yet, many of us settle into seasons where not much seems to change- it feels like a long slog where not much is happening.
Are any of you there this morning? Is anyone tempted to despair? Is anyone so dissatisfied with yourself this morning it’s a threat to your continued faith?
I wish I was less envious of other people’s intellect, speaking abilities, or relatability- all things my heart tries to ground its identity in, and how this tendency keeps me from loving and growing as I could.
For those of us with me, Peter has a word for us this morning about the slow, steady growth God wants us to have and the hope that should bring.
Context
Peter has filled his first letter with family language so far. He begins by referring to God as “Father” (1:2) and then believers as those who were “born again” (1:3). Then, in the passage pastor Mike preached last week, he refers to a Christians as “brothers” – or siblings. Now, in our passage, we are infants who are growing up (2:2). The whole “church as family” is not a small thing in the Bible- we find references to it everywhere.
Revelation
2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
What word does our passage begin with? “So.” This is a logical word which is the same as “therefore.” It means that this verse is a consequence of what came before.
What came before? Pastor Michael preached last week about a “sincere brotherly love” that flows out of our new birth (1:22). So, then, why does Peter go here? Why do these follow?
Because, as Schreiner points out, these are all the opposite of brotherly love. And when I hear the word “brotherly” in 1:22, it immediately brings my mind to the first story about brothers in the Bible- Cain and Abel. And if you compare that story to these descriptions here, to me it seems like almost all these words map onto Cain and his decisions to kill his brother he acted with “malice,” “deceit,” and “envy” at least.
How does that comparison help us understand what’s going on here? Genesis is a story of God creating people as humans and a snake distorting them to functionally live as something less than human. To live with “malice…” is to live a less than human life and to need the image of God resorted in you (I don’t mean at the level of value, but of function).
In what way are these things a way of living a less than human life? God made humans to depend on him and to depend on one another (i.e. “it’s not good for man to be alone,” Gen 2:18).
These things in this verse are strategies or ways of not needing anyone or anything. “Malice” is a spite you feel towards others when they are seen as competition to obtain what you think you need. If you are on your own in this world, you must defeat other people to survive. So, you will feel cruelty and malice towards them.
Next, you will live with “deceit and hypocrisy.” One meaning of this is the more obvious application that you tell lies to advance beyond others. However, I wonder how many of you struggle to share what you are going through with others or to share what you are feeling or experiencing because it may make you seem weak in their eyes.
Hypocrisy is “acting” as if something is the case that is not so- it can be presenting an outward facade of contentment, triumph, or joy, when that’s not actually the case. Again, when other people seem like competition, it can feel threatening to show weakness and appealing to act like you have none and to be a hypocrite before others.
Then, “envy” comes from having an emptiness inside that you want to fill with what others have, so you thirst to have what they have or to be them. The difference envy and jealousy is that one definition of jealousy is a righteous insistence on what rightly belongs to you whereas envy is wanting what rightly belongs to another. And lastly, “slander” is like “malice” but applied to our speech about others.
Does anyone else ever get a feeling of coldness towards someone who is better than you at something you put your identity in? It could be appearance, it could be social likeability, or whatever. What you are feeling is the same coolness of malice and envy that was in Cain’s heart towards his brother and that coldness must die and the warmth of the gospel must replace it if we are going to “love one another earnestly from a sincere heart.”
So, how should we go about that? The verb we see in this verse is the wonderful command to “put away.” In Jesus, in the gospel, we can “put away these destructive patterns of behavior and feeling because in Jesus we have access to a new pattern of behavior and feeling.
Has anyone else noticed that the command to receive something new in verse 2 “desire” only comes after the command to expel something first? Why do we see that order? Because God wants to displace something old in our hearts with something new. This requires removing the old first. Christianity is a religion not of just getting rid of or denying, but of creating space for God to fill you with something better.
Yet, the first step to receiving something better is to empty out and remove, or in this case, to “put away.” So, if you want to become something new, the first step is to confess what is old and renounce it.
So, if we see then that the first step to become new is to turn from something old, then then next step is to receive something new in its place, which is what we see in our next verse,
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
Become Like a Baby
Okay, so what we just iterated is that the way to change is not to just empty your soul and leave it a vacuum- that’s not sustainable. But rather, fill it with something instead. We are trying to leave behind a life of malice, deception, and envy. What kind of person is not like these things- who does not feel them or practice them? A baby! Have you ever seen a malicious baby? Nope- they don’t know what it is. Ever seen a deceptive baby? Nope, they are clear about what they want. Babies still share in our sin nature, but they are a picture of innocence in their peacefulness and their unashamed dependence. Babies teach us to some degree what spirituality is supposed to look like and we are supposed to become like them before God.
Also, for Peter to turn to the image of a baby here makes a lot of sense. How does Peter describe becoming a Christian? As a new birth. Birth implies that someone has entered the season of life that we call “newborn.”
When you become a Christian, it’s like your whole lifecycle of development starts all over. You may be 60 years old and you just became a Christian and have gone through all the stages of human development. Yet, since you were not walking with Jesus, your soul would not have grown and matured in crucial ways. So spiritually, you start all over as a newborn.
Starting over in some ways could feel deflating, as in “I came this far and I need to start over?” Yet, it’s good news. Why? To become a baby indicates the start of something new[1]. At any stage in life, you can receive from God a whole new set of potential and purpose just like a new baby. Someone’s life is never stuck or hopeless. At any point, they can start completely new with God and grow into something brand new spiritually even if their body never grows again in this life. To become “like newborn infants” is to exchange stagnancy and despair with new possibility and life!
Are you feeling hopeless this morning about the story and trajectory of your life? Do you feel like defeat and shame are inevitable? God is responsible for the miracle of your birth and life, and the one who began it all can begin it all again. He can renew your identity, purpose, and destiny.
Long for Pure Spiritual Milk
“Okay,” you might say, how does that happen? Peter says, “long for the purse spiritual milk.” The word “long” means to have a deep desire. Not a small desire, not a normal desire, but a deep desire. My year old son has deep desires. He does not feel shame about these desires, neither will he relent until they are met. Do you long like a newborn does?
Some of us have suppressed or tried to turn off our deepest desires and longings because life has taught us not to hope and we fear disappointment. We like to act like we don’t need anything because it makes us feel strong and secure not to need. We try to drown them in distraction or vice. We replace deep satisfaction with sensuality. We settle for temporary things when we want permanent things. We look for in physical things what we can only obtain in spiritual things. It’s like we are dying of thirst and jamming gravel in our mouths trying to make the feeling stop.
And Peter is saying to us, “like a new born infant, you must long for the nourishment of God!”
Long for what?
Yearn for what?
Peter says, “the pure spiritual milk.” What is that? Most likely it’s an image of what Peter has already been speaking about at this point in the letter – “the good news that was preached to you” (1:25).
The gospel- the good news about Jesus Christ that we find in the Bible, is the pure spiritual food that alone enables growth into Christian maturity. If you don’t eat gospel, you don’t grow.
Is not a mothers milk a wonderful image of Jesus and the message about him in the Bible?
First, every baby needs it. It’s universal. No baby grows without it just as no human spiritually grows without Jesus’s word. Peter was correct when he said to Jesus in John 6, “you alone have the words of life. Where else shall we go?” Only Jesus forgives sin.
Second, it adapts to meet every baby’s needs. There are glands on the mother that can detect what the baby needs and her body will adjust the composition of the milk accordingly. Does that blow anyone else’s mind? In the same way, the message about Jesus in the Bible meets us in the way we need. This is what I mean- some of us feel excessive loneliness, so the promise of Jesus’s presence is especially sweet. Some of us feel overwhelming guilt over a past decision we made, and so the promise of full forgiveness is a special treasure. I promise you this morning, whatever the ailment of your heart, whatever its lack, the pure spiritual milk of Christ is what you’re longing for and what will meet your thirst. Our core value of the year is “Be with the Father” because we all want to grow in this very thing!
One man who modeled desperation for this book is the 18th century evangelist John Wesley. He wrote this,
I want to know one thing the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has [come down] to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me.”
Here is a man yearning for pure spiritual milk. Some of you may be wondering “How can I start yearning for Jesus and the Bible like that?”
1. Repent of your sin and “put away” the old things (v. 1)
2. Begin to read the Bible and pray in response instead (v. 2). Often, the way you build an appetite for something is experiencing it. I didn’t know I desperately loved oysters until I first slurped one down. Peter is even going to see “if you’ve tasted…”
That you May Grow Up
This verse also answers the question, “why do we yearn for pure spiritual milk?” The answer is a little strange, “that by it you may grow up into salvation.” That’s the purpose for which we drink this milk, growing up into salvation.
Now, many may be wondering, what does that mean? I think salvation could mean our final state of holiness after Jesus has brought us home. If you think of it that way, you have the whole life span of the Christian- from infancy and new birth all the way to maturity and life with Jesus forever.
In the middle of that is where you are, growing up. Your mission today is not to be a holy or gifted as anyone else in this room, but to move one step more in your holiness and exercising your gifts than you were the day before. No matter how old or how young you are; no matter how long or how short you have been following Jesus; your daily mission is to grow. There are not some people in this room who have arrived and some people who haven’t, rather we are all fellow travelers on the same path and those further along must help those who are taking their first steps.
What are we growing into? “Salvation” means that you are approaching your final state of what you will finally be like when you are with God forever. We begin to become now what God has already destined us to be.
Do any of you feel temptation for despair over your Christian walk or who you are this morning? Are your failures overcoming you? Are you old patterns clinging to you?
I want to preach to you this morning, Fear Not! God did not plan for you to become like Jesus overnight. The command here is not to “change all at once” but to “grow,” that is, like a child learning to walk, talk, and live. God is as patient with you as any parent in this room is with their little one (or should be). One of the things that Jesus demonstrated on the cross was the complete patience of a Father who is committed to your growth and patience as you move in that direction.
I don’t expect Silas to suddenly start running around my house. I’m just looking for him to take a step, and when he does, my heart will rejoice.
So, I want to ask you this morning, instead of obsessing about some standard you’ve set for yourself you are not meeting, what’s the next step in your growth God wants you to take?
For some of you, it’s going to look like loving your brothers and sisters more than competing with them. For others, it will be something else.
The way to become like Jesus is not to change all at once but to have “a long obedience in the same direction” taking your spiritual walk one step at a time and to keep moving in the direction of heaven- to keep growing into the full human lives God originally intended for us.
Maturity
And one other word on maturity: The essence of maturity is that you become more able to feed others and give them life. Milk represents receiving life from someone else outside yourself. As Christians, we are never supposed to move beyond that- we never stop needing God to nourish us or our brothers and sisters. This is why no matter how mature we grow, we never grow out of being infants, we never grow out of needing, which again is why Jesus said we must “become like little children.”
Yet, someone who is mature is not just someone who eats but someone who feeds others as well. As a parent, I am not responsible for just my own food, but my family. And spiritually, I’m not just responsible for my own growth, but for yours.
I had something happen to me for the first time last week- I watched someone I baptized baptize someone. That means all of us who are involved in that process are growing towards maturity- either beginning to eat and be nourished or helping other people do the same.
One way to ask whether you’re mature is whether you are nourishing the faith and growth of others. Are other people growing to become more like Jesus because of your influence in their lives? If the answer is “no,” one question to ask is, “what’s one opportunity I have to help someone I know to either come spiritually alive or to start growing?”
Is not Jesus defined by the reality that he deeply nourished himself alone with God and nourished the multitudes who came to him in desperation?
This is why yearning is essential for salvation, because you can’t give away what you don’t possess. Or, as Jonathan Edwards put it, “the tree that drinks the most bears the most fruit.”
Then Peter finishes,
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Now Peter gives the condition for being able to grow in God like this. We can see it’s a condition because of the word “if.” In other words, if you are going to yearn for spiritual milk and to grow, then this needs to be true- you need to have tasted that God is good. If you don’t now how good he is, you won’t long for him.
Christianity is a religion that is not primarily about knowing things about a person, it’s about experiencing him (both are good, one is ultimate). We have taste buds that delight in food to instruct our souls what it’s like to experience and delight in the Lord.
There are some of you who may be here this morning who don’t know what to make of Christianity and Jesus. Your sitting back and evaluating what you see and hear. I want to invite you this morning to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Take bold steps forward towards experiencing him. Open your Bible each day; pray that God would meet you; ask another Christian to help you understand; dive into this community and get to know Christians. Sometimes you must belong before you believe; you must taste before you trust.
I also want to speak to some of us believers out there who excel at performance and routine yet experience little- God wants you to experience him. Jesus said “blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” If you are struggling to experience the Lord, spend some time meditating and praying before you read your Bible that God would awaken you to how much you need him, how much your soul thirsts for him, how you are lost without him. Ask him to do it for you, so that all of us together, tasting that God is good, can grow up into salvation. These things are already true of you, you just need God’s help to become aware of them. And maybe some of you here have never read the Bible before. I would invite you to open it to the gospel of Mark in the NT, as God to reveal himself, and read it.
God is committed to growing us up into what Jesus would be like if he were us. He is so committed that the Father made Jesus “taste death for everyone” (Heb 2:9). What Jesus tasted was death so that what we can taste is the goodness of the Lord. In other words, he experienced what we ought to have so we can experience what he deserved. The biggest price in the world was paid so that people like you and me can “taste that the Lord is good.” So, let’s take a step in that direction this morning, not hesitantly, but confidently that God will do great things and change the whole experience and trajectory of our lives.
Instead of the old and harsh competitiveness, let us long for spiritual milk as babies and grow into the loving brotherhood of Jesus like never before.
[1] Calvin called the old manner of life “ancient” in contrast with the new life of the infant, https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom45/calcom45.iv.iii.i.html.
