1 Peter 2:1-3 Why laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, all evil speakings,… I. HEALTHY APPETITE: or, in other words, an earnest desire for spiritual nourishment. 1. It is of prime importance that we have a real craving for spiritual truth, for Christ will benefit us only as we appropriate Him. 2. We should further cultivate a discriminating taste. The babe's taste guards it against unwholesome food; it covets nothing but the mother's milk. So ought we to acquire a sensitive palate in respect of spiritual things, a palate able to discriminate between the precious and the vile. Is not the vitiated taste of many hearers of the gospel a symptom of a long-standing disease? 3. We should further habituate ourselves to desire strong meat, to digest well the great fundamental doctrines of the gospel. This then is the first requisite of orthodoxy, namely that we possess vigorous, healthy digestive organs. Gospel truth must be mixed with faith in them that hear it; that is to say, they must possess healthy organs, able to supply the spiritual secretions necessary to convert what we read and hear into part and parcel of our spiritual life. II. HEALTHY FOOD; or, in other words, God's truth as contained in Holy Writ. 1. The milk of the Word. The great verses of the Bible are like so many breasts, from which we are to suck in the spiritual aliment necessary to our well-being. Do you know what it is to eat words, and especially God's words? The process is as real as eating bread and meat, and the results are much more abiding. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them": he converted them into an integral part of his spiritual nature. 2. "The milk of the Word," or rational milk. Rational milk in contrast to the rites and ceremonies both of the Jewish and heathen religions. Christians are to live more by mind and less by the senses. 3. "The sincere — unadulterated — milk of the Word," that is to say, milk free from all deleterious admixtures. III. HEALTHY GROWTH. "That we may grow thereby unto salvation." In this Epistle salvation is used technically for salvation in the future, salvation full, complete, perfect. Now what does this growth unto salvation imply? 1. For one thing it implies growth in knowledge, for spiritual enlightenment is an essential factor in salvation. 2. Growth unto salvation further implies growth in holiness. "Having laid aside all sin, and all malice, and all evil speaking." Other religions forbid particular sins; but whilst prohibiting one class of sins, they tolerate other classes. Mahometanism, for instance, prohibits drunkenness; seldom does a Mahometan get intoxicated. But whilst prohibiting drunkenness it licenses adultery. And by thus flinging away sin from us our spiritual palate will gradually recover its normal, healthy tone; we will relish the unadulterated milk of the Word more than our ordinary food and drink. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,WEB: Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, |
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