As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
As newborn babies crave milk, believers are commanded to crave the pure teaching of God's word so that they may grow spiritually. That sincere milk is the pure, uncorrupted spiritual truth of the gospel, the food for mind and soul that nourishes, enlightens, and shapes character when it enters the life. This hunger follows having tasted that the Lord is gracious, and it belongs with laying aside all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speaking. Desiring it means an earnest craving for communion with the Lord shown in diligently searching the Scriptures as for hidden treasure and bringing what is found into daily practice. Growing thereby means growing up into Christ in all things toward His full stature, purified in obeying the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren and made Christlike in character.
Milk, Babes, and Desire
The command is to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all evil speaking and slander, and then as newborn babies to desire and long for the pure teaching of God's word as they desire milk, so as to grow spiritually thereby. This longing belongs with that putting away and follows and grows from having tasted that the Lord is gracious and good.
The sincere milk is the pure spiritual truth of the gospel, imbibed by every truly converted soul. It is food for the mind and soul, the bread of life which is spirit and life, God's means of communication with man. It nourishes the soul, enlightens the mind, satisfies the soul's hunger when its truth is received and obeyed, purifies the life, produces genuine love for others and faith that works through love, and must be received, lived out and brought into daily practice to enter the life, ennoble the mind, sanctify the agent, make him a co-worker with divine agencies, uphold God's holy law, melt the heart into tenderness and contrition before the Saviour's love, remove inherited and cultivated traits, and shape character into fitness for a place in God's building. Receiving it is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, which is eternal life to all who believe.
The newborn babes are those made new, reborn, newly converted to Christ, infants in Christ. They are babes in the truth and newborn children who need spiritual nourishment, careful nurture, watchful attention, help, encouragement, instruction in their duties, kind treatment, visits and prayer, and teaching suited to them at the right time, so that they are not left alone after conversion lest faith be confused, but grow up into spiritual maturity in Christ and become strong as the Word nourishes them rather than remaining spiritually immature.
The desire is an earnest hunger and craving like a newborn's for milk, with the hunger of newly born children eagerly wanting the pure spiritual nourishment. It is a wholesome appetite for the Word that shows the way of life, which is a privilege whose absence is cause for alarm, craving communion with the Lord and ever more of the sweetness of His words once His graciousness has been tasted, and hungering to understand it verse by verse rather than reading with indifference. Spiritual life like physical life must be sustained by nourishment, the body by food and the spirit by the bread of life, so the sincere milk must be earnestly desired that the Christian may grow.
The milk to be desired is the pure, uncorrupted teaching of the Word, not words of worldly wisdom, maxims of men, or theories of human beings. It must not be mixed with error or used to support theories that do not truly teach it.
Surrounding Words and Setting
The craving for pure teaching belongs together with putting away all malice and deceit and guile and hypocrisy and envy and slander and evil speaking, which are the products of the carnal mind and the unsanctified heart. After that laying aside, believers as newborn babes are to desire the sincere milk of the word, which is the pure spiritual truth of the gospel imbibed by every truly converted soul, so that by receiving it they may grow spiritually. Receiving it is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, which is eternal life to all who believe, and its power is demonstrated in a transformed life and character that makes a person fit for a place in God's building.
That desire follows and grows from having tasted that the Lord is gracious and good, and by following on to know the Lord believers shall know His goings forth are prepared as the morning. The tasting comes first, then the laying aside of malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings, then as newborn babes the desiring of the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby, full of hope and courage and great encouragement from God in His Word. Feeding on the Word of God in this way gives a wonderful experience.
That feeding leads to coming to Christ as the living stone disallowed by men but chosen of God and precious, and as living stones being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The house is built on the elect precious chief cornerstone laid in Zion, in whom the believer shall not be confounded, while to the disobedient who stumble at the word He becomes the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense. Those built up are a holy and royal priesthood, a chosen generation, a holy nation, and a peculiar people called out of darkness into His marvelous light to show forth His praises and offer acceptable spiritual sacrifices by Jesus Christ, abstaining from fleshly lusts that war against the soul and living honestly before unbelievers so good works lead others to glorify God. Growing thereby means growing up in this building upon Christ, and with abundant opportunities of eating the bread of life a person might have become all this and formed a firm, Christlike character.
The surrounding words connect this growth with having been born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the living and abiding word of God, and with being purified in obeying the truth. That obedience sanctifies through the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren and loving one another with a pure heart fervently, unto earnest sanctification of soul and body and spirit by obedience to all of God's commandments. In no other way can followers of Christ be cleansed but through receiving and obeying His word, which lets Christ as the great Healer purify, sanctify, and redeem the whole physical and spiritual nature and reveal His presence in believers.
The verse belongs to the teaching on the priesthood in 1 Peter 2:1-5, by which believers who become acquainted with individuals bring them to God and present them before the Father, asking Him to let His light shine into heart and mind and soul and to give wisdom so they can offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. It belongs also to the instruction in the first two chapters urging believers to live godly lives. It is part of the high standard to be lifted before God's people in every place, giving a most precious representation of what Christians may be if they will only hear and obey, to be read and studied with all powers of intelligence by fathers and mothers and practiced with watchfulness and prayer, with its meaning expressed in words and actions, warning against lifting up the soul unto vanity and following unsanctified ideas detrimental to healthful piety, and calling to daily obedience by which spiritual life is maintained.
Feeding on the Word
Desiring the milk means conversing with God through the Scriptures, praying for light, opening the heart to the Saviour, and seeking truth as hidden treasure. It is diligent, persevering searching of every part of the field of revelation for the unsearchable riches of Christ, sinking the shaft deep into the mines of truth to find precious jewels in their proper framework in the plan of redemption. This requires putting the mental powers to the tax with willingness to comprehend, stretching every spiritual power, and seeking wisdom from God in faith with a humble, meek, lowly and teachable spirit hungering to understand the Word verse by verse rather than reading with indifference. Some portions are easily understood while others demand patient digging like a miner for veins of precious ore hidden beneath the surface, and those who so search receive impressions of the Holy Spirit flashing heavenly truth into mind and heart. Receiving the Word with resolve to practice it and bringing it into daily practice continually, not just once, brings light and understanding and leads to conversion and a changed life.
The milk is God's means of communication with man, the bread of life which is spirit and life, and feeding upon it is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. That eating and drinking is eternal life to all who believe, by which believers become partakers of the divine nature and receive Christ Himself, whose life and character are formed within. It is feeding upon the divine Word as the divine element the soul needs, in contrast to words of worldly wisdom, maxims of men, or theories of human beings. Those who claim to accept truth yet take only the most accessible treasures and settle down feeling rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing instead retrograde and backslide with a perverted idea of Christian character, rather than advancing and following on to know the Lord.
The Word is to be made the real essence of education in all schools, as the divine element needed to secure healthful development of all the spiritual powers. When brought into the experience it gives strength, wisdom, integrity, sanctified strength, and moral power. It is nourishment for the Christian, the source of true knowledge, and the means God has provided for gaining light, understanding, and overcoming spiritual dearth. That means is to be used actively rather than waiting idly for a miracle to bring growth.
Its truth must enter the life and shape the character, and deep searching of Scripture develops the reasoning powers and prepares believers for useful service and for defending truth and righteousness. Growth comes through longing for the pure teaching of God's Word as newborn children long for milk while laying aside malice, deceit, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking.
Growth and Its Fruit
Growing thereby means growing up into Christ the living head in all things, toward the full stature of Christ, manifesting His divine attributes to the world. It is becoming Christlike in meekness and humility, and it depends on having spiritual life. It is growth in perception, in likeness to the character of Christ, in development of character, and in knowledge and wisdom. It comes by learning more day by day and gathering each ray of light received, which prepares for facing spiritual opposition and understanding God's will.
Receiving the sincere milk is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, which is eternal life to all who believe. When its truth is received and obeyed, the Word satisfies the soul's hunger and purifies the life, producing genuine love for others. Brought into daily practice it ennobles the mind, sanctifies the human agent, makes him a co-worker with divine agencies, and upholds God's holy law as the standard of life practice. It opens such a view of the Saviour's love that the heart is melted into tenderness and contrition. Lived out, it produces faith that works through love, purifies the soul, and helps remove inherited and cultivated sinful traits.
Its power is demonstrated in a transformed life and character that makes a person fit for a place in God's building. Its truth must enter the life and shape the character, and deep searching develops reasoning and prepares for useful service and for defending truth and righteousness. The soul is nourished and grows in grace when it receives truth with understanding and personally lives out its principles, and in this way the Word is a remedy for spiritual sickness. Understanding Scripture in this way helps believers remember its promises in times of trial, find comfort, and strengthen faith in God, and the enduring word is preached through the gospel. The verse gives great encouragement from God in His Word, full of hope and courage.
Having the simplicity of little children hanging upon the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour fortifies believers. Those who do this have the angels of God around them as a wall of fire, with the righteousness of Christ going before them and the glory of God as their rereward. Their tongues are sanctified and their thoughts and minds dwell upon heavenly themes to impart that knowledge and light to others, and they continually advance in making the most of their responsibilities.
Hindrances and Counterfeits
A taste for fictitious reading creates an unhealthy appetite that weakens desire for the Word, makes that desire feeble, and stunts and weakens spiritual growth and the healthy growth of the soul. Reading novels and worthless, unprofitable magazine material does this harm because the Word is food for the mind and soul that nourishes the soul and enables growth, teaching young and old to set an example of righteousness. Desire for the Word belongs with putting away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander and evil speech, and is reason to reject fictitious reading and to examine and change habits that hinder religious growth. A wholesome appetite for the Word that shows the way of life is a privilege, and its absence is cause for alarm.
Those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious reject evil speaking, gossip, nonsense, folly, and backbiting as harmful spiritual food. Such speech leaves no appetite for the sincere milk, for longing for the pure teaching of the Word as newborn babies long for milk belongs with growing spiritually and with feeding on Christ and speech that edifies rather than grieves Him.
Entertaining fables turns believers away from the nourishment that brings spiritual growth. Contentious disputes over matters of minor importance are not suitable nourishment for the church, while the precious truths of Scripture are food for the hungry soul by which God's people grow. Teaching must present the truth as it is in Jesus without mixing it with personal ideas, traditions, or suppositions that obscure God's precepts, and the Word must not be mixed with error or used to support theories that do not truly teach it. Sentimental attachment is like froth beside the pure milk of the word and does not promote growth in grace or character. Discretion is needed to give spiritual babes the milk rather than strong meat, with instruction suited to their understanding at the right time.
Believers are not to remain spiritual dwarfs or remain satisfied with milk only. Those who have experienced the new birth are like infants in Christ who must feed on the pure milk of God's Word so they can grow and become strong as the Word nourishes them. Turning from sin and ceasing to dwell on others' faults, they are to desire the Word like newborn children desire milk and thereby grow instead of remaining spiritually immature. They must seek its meat and become strong in Christ.
Teaching and Nurturing Others
Those who open the Word to others must first eat and digest the sincere milk of the word themselves in order to grow thereby. That growth means laying aside all malice, guile, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking, which are products of the carnal mind and unsanctified heart. It requires keeping watch over self, fighting battles with self, weeding the fungus growth of deformity and weakness from heart and character, refusing to let unsanctified impulses control mind and judgment, correcting one's own faults, and not mingling self with the work but eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of man. Where this cleansing is neglected and self is mingled with the work, rivalry and wrong influence result and labor for others is made of little effect. Then the Spirit is not cherished, Satan enters through envy, jealousy, suspicion, and criticism, and labor costing much money, anxiety, and hard work is made of little effect, and no one who continues to reveal these fruits will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Those who teach must use discretion, giving spiritual babes the milk of the word rather than strong meat before they are ready. They are to give learners instruction suited to their understanding at the right time, presenting the truth as it is in Jesus. That presentation must not mix Scripture truth with personal ideas, traditions, or suppositions that obscure God's precepts.
New believers as babes in the truth need careful nurture so they can grow in faith and experience and not be left alone after conversion lest their faith be confused. They need watchful attention, help, encouragement, instruction in their duties, kind treatment, visits, and prayer. The church should take them to heart, care for them, teach them, encourage them, visit them, and pray with them and for them.
Longing for nourishment as newborn babes differs from expecting to be nursed like sick babies. Healthy spiritual babes long for the sincere milk, feed on the Word for themselves, grow strong in spiritual life, and carry love and sympathy and burden for lost souls for whom Christ gave His life. By contrast sick babies must be nursed to keep the breath of life in them, depending on others to sustain them while neglecting to serve, expecting all attention and all labor of ministers for themselves, feeling no burden for souls and complaining of those who watch and hunt for souls. The verse is applied as a call to give up the position of teacher and become a learner, and doing so offers some hope for the soul.
Unity, Speech, and Calling
Feeding on the pure milk cures dissension and strife and cultivates brotherly love, tenderness of heart, unity, Christian fellowship and repentance. It puts away unchristlike hereditary and cultivated traits, with malice, guile, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking laid aside so that growth may come. That growth follows Jesus, who in pitying tenderness seeks to save sinners from their sins rather than condemn them, and therefore forbids harsh criticism and condemnation of fellow believers. It is reflected in kind, honest dealings with others rather than criticism, resentment and harsh dealing. Only in humbled, repentant unity of purpose can the Holy Spirit be revealed, Christian fellowship be kept, and united labor convict and convert souls.
Receiving the word calls for speech that edifies rather than grieves Christ, leaving no appetite for evil speaking, gossip, nonsense and folly as harmful spiritual food. Words of praise and encouragement can help others in their Christian experience as believers come to Christ the gracious Lord and living stone to be built into a spiritual house and offer spiritual sacrifices through Him. Tasting that the Lord is gracious means having learned that the Lord has care for His servants, including His colored servants, and trusting Him to open the way to do the appointed work of preparing a people for the day of the Lord. That work is given to all, with each believer to stand in his lot and place. That graciousness is discovered not by having all one desires but by passing through the school of affliction, where pain and suffering shut in with the sense of His presence teach the preciousness of tasting Christ and the benefits of communion with God.
Desire for the milk comes through daily consecration to God, imitating Jesus Christ as Pattern, and becoming a partaker with Him in His interest, zeal, work, self-denial, self-sacrifice and sacrifice to bring many sons and daughters to God and practice His virtues. For Christ is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, the Son of the infinite Father, one equal with God, the Prince of life, who clothed His divinity with humanity and out of compassion for the fallen race paid the infinite price for redemption. Judas had abundant opportunities to receive this life-giving Word as the bread of life, which when received and lived out produces faith that works through love, purifies the soul and removes inherited and cultivated traits. He could thereby have formed a firm, Christlike character and become built up as a living stone in the spiritual house, a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
There is a class separate from the careless world that ate, drank and married in Noah's day and will do so when the Son of man is revealed, which with the hunger of newly born children eagerly wants the pure spiritual nourishment so they may grow by it. Having tasted that the Lord is gracious, they come to Christ as a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious to God, and as living stones are built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. They abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul and live honestly before unbelievers so their good works will lead others to glorify God. The verse means earnest sanctification of soul, body and spirit by obeying the truth and all of God's commandments, purifying the soul unto unfeigned love of the brethren and loving one another with a pure heart fervently as those born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God. This lets Christ as the great Healer purify, sanctify and redeem the whole physical and spiritual nature and reveal His presence in believers, fitting them as holy and undefiled subjects for His mansion above, members of His royal family and children of the heavenly King, instead of following the scheming attractions of the devil.
Those in great responsibility fail this growth when they magnify themselves and dishonor God, grow earthward, regard self as important, attach selfishness to their work, turn from Bible principles to finite judgment, and treat position as liberty of speech and power to plan contrary to God's will, since position cannot sanctify the heart or develop character. They must choose to be worked by the Holy Spirit rather than self, make Christ their righteousness and honored memorial cornerstone, and cherish and act His lessons of humility, mercy, justice and the love of God. Growing thereby means growing up into Christ the living head in all things, manifesting His divine attributes, showing devotion to God and developing spiritual life in Jesus Christ, and as lively stones coming to the living stone disallowed of men but chosen of God and precious, being built up a spiritual house, an holy and royal priesthood, a chosen generation, holy nation and peculiar people called out of darkness into marvelous light to offer acceptable spiritual sacrifices by Jesus Christ, while to the disobedient who stumble at the word Christ becomes the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense. The verse gives instruction on the manner of God's workers' labor: the relation between physicians and brethren should be what God designed, with medical missionary work bound up with the gospel ministry and not made the body, with God's people separate from contaminating worldly counsels, with medical workers molded after Christ's similitude, standing on truth, respecting pure gospel principles, and laboring unitedly with church and ministers in soul-saving work. It is part of the high standard to be lifted before God's people in every place, to be read, studied with all powers of intelligence by fathers and mothers, and practiced with watchfulness and prayer with its meaning expressed in words and actions, warning against lifting the soul to vanity and following unsanctified ideas detrimental to healthful piety, and calling to daily obedience by which spiritual life is maintained.
As newborn babies crave milk, believers are commanded to crave the pure teaching of God's word so that they may grow spiritually. That sincere milk is the pure, uncorrupted spiritual truth of the gospel, the food for mind and soul that nourishes, enlightens, and shapes character when it enters the life. This hunger follows having tasted that the Lord is gracious, and it belongs with laying aside all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speaking. Desiring it means an earnest craving for communion with the Lord shown in diligently searching the Scriptures as for hidden treasure and bringing what is found into daily practice. Growing thereby means growing up into Christ in all things toward His full stature, purified in obeying the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren and made Christlike in character.
Milk, Babes, and Desire
The command is to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all evil speaking and slander, and then as newborn babies to desire and long for the pure teaching of God's word as they desire milk, so as to grow spiritually thereby. This longing belongs with that putting away and follows and grows from having tasted that the Lord is gracious and good.
The sincere milk is the pure spiritual truth of the gospel, imbibed by every truly converted soul. It is food for the mind and soul, the bread of life which is spirit and life, God's means of communication with man. It nourishes the soul, enlightens the mind, satisfies the soul's hunger when its truth is received and obeyed, purifies the life, produces genuine love for others and faith that works through love, and must be received, lived out and brought into daily practice to enter the life, ennoble the mind, sanctify the agent, make him a co-worker with divine agencies, uphold God's holy law, melt the heart into tenderness and contrition before the Saviour's love, remove inherited and cultivated traits, and shape character into fitness for a place in God's building. Receiving it is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, which is eternal life to all who believe.
The newborn babes are those made new, reborn, newly converted to Christ, infants in Christ. They are babes in the truth and newborn children who need spiritual nourishment, careful nurture, watchful attention, help, encouragement, instruction in their duties, kind treatment, visits and prayer, and teaching suited to them at the right time, so that they are not left alone after conversion lest faith be confused, but grow up into spiritual maturity in Christ and become strong as the Word nourishes them rather than remaining spiritually immature.
The desire is an earnest hunger and craving like a newborn's for milk, with the hunger of newly born children eagerly wanting the pure spiritual nourishment. It is a wholesome appetite for the Word that shows the way of life, which is a privilege whose absence is cause for alarm, craving communion with the Lord and ever more of the sweetness of His words once His graciousness has been tasted, and hungering to understand it verse by verse rather than reading with indifference. Spiritual life like physical life must be sustained by nourishment, the body by food and the spirit by the bread of life, so the sincere milk must be earnestly desired that the Christian may grow.
The milk to be desired is the pure, uncorrupted teaching of the Word, not words of worldly wisdom, maxims of men, or theories of human beings. It must not be mixed with error or used to support theories that do not truly teach it.
Surrounding Words and Setting
The craving for pure teaching belongs together with putting away all malice and deceit and guile and hypocrisy and envy and slander and evil speaking, which are the products of the carnal mind and the unsanctified heart. After that laying aside, believers as newborn babes are to desire the sincere milk of the word, which is the pure spiritual truth of the gospel imbibed by every truly converted soul, so that by receiving it they may grow spiritually. Receiving it is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, which is eternal life to all who believe, and its power is demonstrated in a transformed life and character that makes a person fit for a place in God's building.
That desire follows and grows from having tasted that the Lord is gracious and good, and by following on to know the Lord believers shall know His goings forth are prepared as the morning. The tasting comes first, then the laying aside of malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings, then as newborn babes the desiring of the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby, full of hope and courage and great encouragement from God in His Word. Feeding on the Word of God in this way gives a wonderful experience.
That feeding leads to coming to Christ as the living stone disallowed by men but chosen of God and precious, and as living stones being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The house is built on the elect precious chief cornerstone laid in Zion, in whom the believer shall not be confounded, while to the disobedient who stumble at the word He becomes the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense. Those built up are a holy and royal priesthood, a chosen generation, a holy nation, and a peculiar people called out of darkness into His marvelous light to show forth His praises and offer acceptable spiritual sacrifices by Jesus Christ, abstaining from fleshly lusts that war against the soul and living honestly before unbelievers so good works lead others to glorify God. Growing thereby means growing up in this building upon Christ, and with abundant opportunities of eating the bread of life a person might have become all this and formed a firm, Christlike character.
The surrounding words connect this growth with having been born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the living and abiding word of God, and with being purified in obeying the truth. That obedience sanctifies through the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren and loving one another with a pure heart fervently, unto earnest sanctification of soul and body and spirit by obedience to all of God's commandments. In no other way can followers of Christ be cleansed but through receiving and obeying His word, which lets Christ as the great Healer purify, sanctify, and redeem the whole physical and spiritual nature and reveal His presence in believers.
The verse belongs to the teaching on the priesthood in 1 Peter 2:1-5, by which believers who become acquainted with individuals bring them to God and present them before the Father, asking Him to let His light shine into heart and mind and soul and to give wisdom so they can offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. It belongs also to the instruction in the first two chapters urging believers to live godly lives. It is part of the high standard to be lifted before God's people in every place, giving a most precious representation of what Christians may be if they will only hear and obey, to be read and studied with all powers of intelligence by fathers and mothers and practiced with watchfulness and prayer, with its meaning expressed in words and actions, warning against lifting up the soul unto vanity and following unsanctified ideas detrimental to healthful piety, and calling to daily obedience by which spiritual life is maintained.
Feeding on the Word
Desiring the milk means conversing with God through the Scriptures, praying for light, opening the heart to the Saviour, and seeking truth as hidden treasure. It is diligent, persevering searching of every part of the field of revelation for the unsearchable riches of Christ, sinking the shaft deep into the mines of truth to find precious jewels in their proper framework in the plan of redemption. This requires putting the mental powers to the tax with willingness to comprehend, stretching every spiritual power, and seeking wisdom from God in faith with a humble, meek, lowly and teachable spirit hungering to understand the Word verse by verse rather than reading with indifference. Some portions are easily understood while others demand patient digging like a miner for veins of precious ore hidden beneath the surface, and those who so search receive impressions of the Holy Spirit flashing heavenly truth into mind and heart. Receiving the Word with resolve to practice it and bringing it into daily practice continually, not just once, brings light and understanding and leads to conversion and a changed life.
The milk is God's means of communication with man, the bread of life which is spirit and life, and feeding upon it is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. That eating and drinking is eternal life to all who believe, by which believers become partakers of the divine nature and receive Christ Himself, whose life and character are formed within. It is feeding upon the divine Word as the divine element the soul needs, in contrast to words of worldly wisdom, maxims of men, or theories of human beings. Those who claim to accept truth yet take only the most accessible treasures and settle down feeling rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing instead retrograde and backslide with a perverted idea of Christian character, rather than advancing and following on to know the Lord.
The Word is to be made the real essence of education in all schools, as the divine element needed to secure healthful development of all the spiritual powers. When brought into the experience it gives strength, wisdom, integrity, sanctified strength, and moral power. It is nourishment for the Christian, the source of true knowledge, and the means God has provided for gaining light, understanding, and overcoming spiritual dearth. That means is to be used actively rather than waiting idly for a miracle to bring growth.
Its truth must enter the life and shape the character, and deep searching of Scripture develops the reasoning powers and prepares believers for useful service and for defending truth and righteousness. Growth comes through longing for the pure teaching of God's Word as newborn children long for milk while laying aside malice, deceit, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking.
Growth and Its Fruit
Growing thereby means growing up into Christ the living head in all things, toward the full stature of Christ, manifesting His divine attributes to the world. It is becoming Christlike in meekness and humility, and it depends on having spiritual life. It is growth in perception, in likeness to the character of Christ, in development of character, and in knowledge and wisdom. It comes by learning more day by day and gathering each ray of light received, which prepares for facing spiritual opposition and understanding God's will.
Receiving the sincere milk is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, which is eternal life to all who believe. When its truth is received and obeyed, the Word satisfies the soul's hunger and purifies the life, producing genuine love for others. Brought into daily practice it ennobles the mind, sanctifies the human agent, makes him a co-worker with divine agencies, and upholds God's holy law as the standard of life practice. It opens such a view of the Saviour's love that the heart is melted into tenderness and contrition. Lived out, it produces faith that works through love, purifies the soul, and helps remove inherited and cultivated sinful traits.
Its power is demonstrated in a transformed life and character that makes a person fit for a place in God's building. Its truth must enter the life and shape the character, and deep searching develops reasoning and prepares for useful service and for defending truth and righteousness. The soul is nourished and grows in grace when it receives truth with understanding and personally lives out its principles, and in this way the Word is a remedy for spiritual sickness. Understanding Scripture in this way helps believers remember its promises in times of trial, find comfort, and strengthen faith in God, and the enduring word is preached through the gospel. The verse gives great encouragement from God in His Word, full of hope and courage.
Having the simplicity of little children hanging upon the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour fortifies believers. Those who do this have the angels of God around them as a wall of fire, with the righteousness of Christ going before them and the glory of God as their rereward. Their tongues are sanctified and their thoughts and minds dwell upon heavenly themes to impart that knowledge and light to others, and they continually advance in making the most of their responsibilities.
Hindrances and Counterfeits
A taste for fictitious reading creates an unhealthy appetite that weakens desire for the Word, makes that desire feeble, and stunts and weakens spiritual growth and the healthy growth of the soul. Reading novels and worthless, unprofitable magazine material does this harm because the Word is food for the mind and soul that nourishes the soul and enables growth, teaching young and old to set an example of righteousness. Desire for the Word belongs with putting away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander and evil speech, and is reason to reject fictitious reading and to examine and change habits that hinder religious growth. A wholesome appetite for the Word that shows the way of life is a privilege, and its absence is cause for alarm.
Those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious reject evil speaking, gossip, nonsense, folly, and backbiting as harmful spiritual food. Such speech leaves no appetite for the sincere milk, for longing for the pure teaching of the Word as newborn babies long for milk belongs with growing spiritually and with feeding on Christ and speech that edifies rather than grieves Him.
Entertaining fables turns believers away from the nourishment that brings spiritual growth. Contentious disputes over matters of minor importance are not suitable nourishment for the church, while the precious truths of Scripture are food for the hungry soul by which God's people grow. Teaching must present the truth as it is in Jesus without mixing it with personal ideas, traditions, or suppositions that obscure God's precepts, and the Word must not be mixed with error or used to support theories that do not truly teach it. Sentimental attachment is like froth beside the pure milk of the word and does not promote growth in grace or character. Discretion is needed to give spiritual babes the milk rather than strong meat, with instruction suited to their understanding at the right time.
Believers are not to remain spiritual dwarfs or remain satisfied with milk only. Those who have experienced the new birth are like infants in Christ who must feed on the pure milk of God's Word so they can grow and become strong as the Word nourishes them. Turning from sin and ceasing to dwell on others' faults, they are to desire the Word like newborn children desire milk and thereby grow instead of remaining spiritually immature. They must seek its meat and become strong in Christ.
Teaching and Nurturing Others
Those who open the Word to others must first eat and digest the sincere milk of the word themselves in order to grow thereby. That growth means laying aside all malice, guile, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking, which are products of the carnal mind and unsanctified heart. It requires keeping watch over self, fighting battles with self, weeding the fungus growth of deformity and weakness from heart and character, refusing to let unsanctified impulses control mind and judgment, correcting one's own faults, and not mingling self with the work but eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of man. Where this cleansing is neglected and self is mingled with the work, rivalry and wrong influence result and labor for others is made of little effect. Then the Spirit is not cherished, Satan enters through envy, jealousy, suspicion, and criticism, and labor costing much money, anxiety, and hard work is made of little effect, and no one who continues to reveal these fruits will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Those who teach must use discretion, giving spiritual babes the milk of the word rather than strong meat before they are ready. They are to give learners instruction suited to their understanding at the right time, presenting the truth as it is in Jesus. That presentation must not mix Scripture truth with personal ideas, traditions, or suppositions that obscure God's precepts.
New believers as babes in the truth need careful nurture so they can grow in faith and experience and not be left alone after conversion lest their faith be confused. They need watchful attention, help, encouragement, instruction in their duties, kind treatment, visits, and prayer. The church should take them to heart, care for them, teach them, encourage them, visit them, and pray with them and for them.
Longing for nourishment as newborn babes differs from expecting to be nursed like sick babies. Healthy spiritual babes long for the sincere milk, feed on the Word for themselves, grow strong in spiritual life, and carry love and sympathy and burden for lost souls for whom Christ gave His life. By contrast sick babies must be nursed to keep the breath of life in them, depending on others to sustain them while neglecting to serve, expecting all attention and all labor of ministers for themselves, feeling no burden for souls and complaining of those who watch and hunt for souls. The verse is applied as a call to give up the position of teacher and become a learner, and doing so offers some hope for the soul.
Unity, Speech, and Calling
Feeding on the pure milk cures dissension and strife and cultivates brotherly love, tenderness of heart, unity, Christian fellowship and repentance. It puts away unchristlike hereditary and cultivated traits, with malice, guile, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking laid aside so that growth may come. That growth follows Jesus, who in pitying tenderness seeks to save sinners from their sins rather than condemn them, and therefore forbids harsh criticism and condemnation of fellow believers. It is reflected in kind, honest dealings with others rather than criticism, resentment and harsh dealing. Only in humbled, repentant unity of purpose can the Holy Spirit be revealed, Christian fellowship be kept, and united labor convict and convert souls.
Receiving the word calls for speech that edifies rather than grieves Christ, leaving no appetite for evil speaking, gossip, nonsense and folly as harmful spiritual food. Words of praise and encouragement can help others in their Christian experience as believers come to Christ the gracious Lord and living stone to be built into a spiritual house and offer spiritual sacrifices through Him. Tasting that the Lord is gracious means having learned that the Lord has care for His servants, including His colored servants, and trusting Him to open the way to do the appointed work of preparing a people for the day of the Lord. That work is given to all, with each believer to stand in his lot and place. That graciousness is discovered not by having all one desires but by passing through the school of affliction, where pain and suffering shut in with the sense of His presence teach the preciousness of tasting Christ and the benefits of communion with God.
Desire for the milk comes through daily consecration to God, imitating Jesus Christ as Pattern, and becoming a partaker with Him in His interest, zeal, work, self-denial, self-sacrifice and sacrifice to bring many sons and daughters to God and practice His virtues. For Christ is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, the Son of the infinite Father, one equal with God, the Prince of life, who clothed His divinity with humanity and out of compassion for the fallen race paid the infinite price for redemption. Judas had abundant opportunities to receive this life-giving Word as the bread of life, which when received and lived out produces faith that works through love, purifies the soul and removes inherited and cultivated traits. He could thereby have formed a firm, Christlike character and become built up as a living stone in the spiritual house, a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
There is a class separate from the careless world that ate, drank and married in Noah's day and will do so when the Son of man is revealed, which with the hunger of newly born children eagerly wants the pure spiritual nourishment so they may grow by it. Having tasted that the Lord is gracious, they come to Christ as a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious to God, and as living stones are built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. They abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul and live honestly before unbelievers so their good works will lead others to glorify God. The verse means earnest sanctification of soul, body and spirit by obeying the truth and all of God's commandments, purifying the soul unto unfeigned love of the brethren and loving one another with a pure heart fervently as those born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God. This lets Christ as the great Healer purify, sanctify and redeem the whole physical and spiritual nature and reveal His presence in believers, fitting them as holy and undefiled subjects for His mansion above, members of His royal family and children of the heavenly King, instead of following the scheming attractions of the devil.
Those in great responsibility fail this growth when they magnify themselves and dishonor God, grow earthward, regard self as important, attach selfishness to their work, turn from Bible principles to finite judgment, and treat position as liberty of speech and power to plan contrary to God's will, since position cannot sanctify the heart or develop character. They must choose to be worked by the Holy Spirit rather than self, make Christ their righteousness and honored memorial cornerstone, and cherish and act His lessons of humility, mercy, justice and the love of God. Growing thereby means growing up into Christ the living head in all things, manifesting His divine attributes, showing devotion to God and developing spiritual life in Jesus Christ, and as lively stones coming to the living stone disallowed of men but chosen of God and precious, being built up a spiritual house, an holy and royal priesthood, a chosen generation, holy nation and peculiar people called out of darkness into marvelous light to offer acceptable spiritual sacrifices by Jesus Christ, while to the disobedient who stumble at the word Christ becomes the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense. The verse gives instruction on the manner of God's workers' labor: the relation between physicians and brethren should be what God designed, with medical missionary work bound up with the gospel ministry and not made the body, with God's people separate from contaminating worldly counsels, with medical workers molded after Christ's similitude, standing on truth, respecting pure gospel principles, and laboring unitedly with church and ministers in soul-saving work. It is part of the high standard to be lifted before God's people in every place, to be read, studied with all powers of intelligence by fathers and mothers, and practiced with watchfulness and prayer with its meaning expressed in words and actions, warning against lifting the soul to vanity and following unsanctified ideas detrimental to healthful piety, and calling to daily obedience by which spiritual life is maintained.