It's day 8 of reading 1 Peter Together. Remember, the challenge is to read the entire book every day and spend a few minutes extra meditating on the verses I highlight here on the blog. Today we'll look at 2:1-3
2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 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.
Peter continues with the theme of obedience by listing five things that believers should put away - all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. These five things are, of course, not the only behaviors that Christians should avoid, but Peter is continuing the thought he began in the previous few sentences. Christians are to love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander have no place among people who love each other.
Instead, believers should be like newborn infants, craving pure spiritual milk, that they may grow into salvation. In John 3, Jesus famously told Nicodemus that a person must be born again to see the kingdom of God. In the preceding sentences Peter told the believers that they were born again through the word of God, and that is the pure spiritual milk he is instructing them to long for. Just as a baby needs milk to grow into a mature and healthy human, a Christian who has been born again needs the word of God to grow into spiritual maturity. There is no Christian growth without a steady diet of God’s word, which, in his loving kindness, he has given to us in the Bible.
John Bunyan once said, “Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.” There is much truth in that statement, and it is at least equally true that reading/hearing, studying, and knowing the word of God will keep a man from sin, and that sin will keep a man from the word of God. Peter’s instruction is put away sin, and crave the word instead.
Here are your questions for today.
Do you find your life characterized by any of the five sins Peter mentioned? If so, what needs to change?
Do you crave the word of God like a newborn baby craves milk?
Why is the word of God so important in the life of a believer? Why does Peter tell them to crave the living and abiding word, not prayer, fellowship, or other aspects of Christian living?
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