If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
To have tasted that the Lord is gracious is to have personally experienced His goodness, grace, mercy and love as a known spiritual reality. The gracious One so known is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory and Prince of life, equal with God, who clothed divinity with humanity in compassion to pay the price of redemption. Those who have so tasted lay aside all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking, and as newborn babes desire the pure spiritual milk of the Word that they may grow thereby. Such tasting belongs with coming to Christ as to the living stone, rejected by men but chosen of God and precious, the sure foundation and chief cornerstone, and being built up with Him as living stones into a spiritual house and holy priesthood. This experience is gained through faith, humbled seeking, obedience to the truth and feeding on Scripture under the Holy Spirit, and it is shown in a changed life, grateful praise, and declaring His saving goodness to others.
Meaning of Tasting Graciousness
To have tasted that the Lord is gracious is to have personally experienced His goodness, grace, mercy, and love as a real spiritual experience known by experience. Those who have so tasted desire the sincere milk of the word, the pure spiritual truth of the gospel, that they may grow thereby, and the power of that tasted truth is shown in a changed life and character. They put away malice, deceit, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, and coming to Christ as to the living and precious Stone, Jew and Gentile who believe are built up with Him as living stones into a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Christ so found is precious to believers though He is a stone of stumbling to the disobedient who reject the word, and those called from darkness into marvelous light show forth His praises, speaking with gratitude and praise to encourage one another while their pure words may convict unbelievers, a description that belongs to a class whose lives are shaped by that experience and calls even those educating youth to cultivate the heart and partake of the fruit of their work.
The gracious Lord who is tasted is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, the Son of the infinite Father, one equal with God and the Prince of life, whose compassion for the fallen race led Him to clothe His divinity with humanity as a Pattern and to pay the price for redemption. Tasting Him means personally experiencing the love of Christ that He puts into the hearts of His disciples, learning of Him with a comprehension that is enlarged in this life and will be still more fully opened in the eternal ages. That tasted love makes believers steadfast and persevering, so that their Christian life speaks louder than words and demonstrates the power of His love in a world of selfishness and sin. It requires laying aside all malice, following in His footsteps, desiring the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby, and imitating Jesus by sharing His interest, zeal, self-denial and self-sacrifice, being partakers with Him in His sacrifice, work and self-denial, practicing His virtues, living in daily consecration to God, and acting a part in bringing many sons and daughters to God and hundreds to the truth, which puts believers in a place of usefulness instead of lack, carelessness or indifference.
Tasting is pictured as feeding on Christ, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, an experience that must become real in the life and not remain merely professed. Probationers in this world who come to Christ in full assurance of faith are given in this tasting a proof and foretaste of the rich blessings He has in store. This calls for copying the simplicity of Christ, making the Word of God the study book as the source of true knowledge, drawing strength by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings, desiring the sincere milk of the word to grow thereby, coming to Christ as the living stone to be built up as lively stones into a spiritual house, with lives changed through conversion revealing Christ in spirit, words, and actions.
The verse is great encouragement given in the Word, one of the words of hope and courage found all through the Scriptures. Tasting that the Lord is gracious belongs to following on to know the Lord, with the promise that those who follow on shall know that His goings forth are prepared as the morning. Those who have experienced His gracious care can trust Him to open the way for the work He has appointed them, including preparing a people for the day of the Lord, an experience that calls them to lay aside evil conduct, desire the word, and grow in faithfulness to their assigned work.
Through faith and personal experience of the Word under the Holy Spirit's teaching, Scripture becomes food for mind and soul by which people come to know that the Lord is good. Tasting His goodness means experiencing His goodness and mercy, and remembering that experienced goodness and mercy gives a tempted person reason to trust Him as Guide and Protector and accept His saving help rather than yield to temptation.
Surrounding Call and Imagery
Those who have tasted are to lay aside all malice and deceit and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, and as newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word, the pure spiritual truth of the gospel, that they may grow thereby by feeding on the Word of God in a wonderful experience. This experiencing of goodness belongs to a life built on Christ and shown in conduct, with its power revealed in a changed life and character. Having tasted belongs with coming to Christ as to a living stone, disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious, rejected by people yet the sure foundation of the church, who is Jesus and not Peter. Those who come are built up with Him as living stones, Jew and Gentile who believe, into a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Christ laid in Zion is the elect precious chief cornerstone in whom belief brings no confusion; He is precious to believers, but to the disobedient who stumble at the word He becomes the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense. Believers are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people called out of darkness into His marvelous light to show forth His praises. Those who have experienced His grace recognize the value of Christ and of the humble people God chooses for His work even when worldly judgment discredits them. Growing up into Christ their living head in all things means manifesting His divine attributes of mercy, justice, humility, and love with devotion to God and spiritual life in Jesus Christ developed, rather than magnifying self, working selfishness, and growing earthward. The priesthood means believers bring people they become acquainted with to God and present them before the Father, asking Him to let His light shine into their own heart and mind and soul and to give wisdom so they can offer sacrifices God accepts through Jesus Christ.
Those who have tasted form a class distinct from the world that eats and drinks and marries as in the days of Noah until the Son of man is revealed. As strangers and pilgrims they abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and keep honest conduct among the Gentiles, so that those who speak against them as evildoers may by their good works glorify God in the day of visitation. The verse stands in a call to lay aside faultfinding and in a description of the believer's right position in a chapter to be closely studied, pressing those who claim the greatest truths ever committed to mortals to practice all they profess so the truth fits and qualifies them for the kingdom of God. With 1 Peter 2:1-12 it sets the high standard to be attained, to be read and practiced with watchfulness and prayer, giving a most precious representation of what Christians may be if they hear and obey, warning those lifting up their souls unto vanity. It calls for maintaining spiritual life by daily obedience to all the commandments of God, bringing the law of heaven into everyday experience, evidencing receiving Christ and partaking the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, while engaging in constant spiritual warfare in this world of sin. It is a high and holy principle for those carrying forward the work of God in these last days, concerning things of eternal interest that are not discerned by all men but by few, bringing joy and comfort to everyone who loves God sincerely.
How Graciousness Is Experienced
Tasting that the Lord is gracious comes through experience, and not necessarily through having every desire fulfilled, for a person may come to know His goodness through affliction. In the school of affliction this tasting gives the sense of His presence, shut in from the world and face to face as Moses knew Him, with a heavenly Companion through pain and suffering. He mingles blessing with suffering and sustains mind and voice and usefulness for service, so that affliction becomes a most precious period.
Those who have tasted are called not only to taste but to feast on His goodness through constant communion with Him. This means casting the helpless soul upon Him, coming as one is, and trusting Him as Helper. It creates a spiritual appetite that craves more of Him and of the sweetness of His Word and never loses desire for more.
Tasting requires a mind held to its task instead of wandering, and temperate living that makes understanding possible. Such temperance gives hunger of soul for righteousness and brings closeness to the One God has chosen. Teachers must lay aside malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speakings to be prepared to partake of this precious food.
Tasting means humbling oneself before God and seeking Him with all the heart, having accepted Christ and experienced new birth through Him. Souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which lives and abides forever. Disciples are cleansed in no other way but by receiving and obeying the truth.
It belongs to earnest sanctification of soul, body, and spirit through obedience to all of God's commandments. This is the purifying, sanctifying, redeeming work of Christ as the great Healer. His presence revealed in obedience makes earthly homes bright and beautiful, and fits people as holy and undefiled subjects for His mansion above, members of His royal family and children of the heavenly King.
Diligent, humble study of Scripture brings rich truths to the seeker who desires the Word. The enduring word preached through the gospel nourishes the soul, enables spiritual growth, and nourishes faith amid trials. Unprofitable reading can weaken that desire for the Word and hinder growth.
The passage is given as Scripture to study and practice in overcoming harmful appetites and habits. A person must look to Jesus and trust the grace He gives to overcome, rather than rely on moderation or self-control alone. This tasting calls for copying the simplicity of Christ, making the Word the study book as the source of true knowledge, and drawing strength by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. Probationers who come to Christ in full assurance of faith are given in this taste a proof of the rich blessings He has in store.
Growing by the Word
Having tasted that the Lord is gracious is the ground for continued spiritual growth, for those who have experienced His goodness and grace desire the sincere milk of the word and grow thereby. The Word nourishes the soul and enables that growth, and feeding upon the Word of God gives a wonderful experience. Unprofitable reading can weaken desire for the Word and hinder this growth.
Those who have tasted are not to remain babes in Christ but are to feed on the Word and become strong. This growing thereby is into a firm, Christlike character and toward reaching the fullness of Christ, laying aside all malice and deceit and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. Judas had abundant opportunity to eat the bread of life and receive this life-giving nourishment, and might have become a living stone in the spiritual house, disallowed of men but chosen of God and precious, built up with others as lively stones into a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, but he did not.
Such growth includes refusing careless, unkind words that hurt others. It rejects evil speaking, nonsense, folly, gossip, and backbiting as unfit and harmful spiritual food. Instead it chooses words that build others up.
Changed Life and Witness
The power of the pure spiritual truth of the gospel is shown in a changed life and character, for tasting that the Lord is gracious is experiencing His goodness and growing through the truth desired. Lives changed through conversion reveal Christ in spirit, words, and actions, as those who eat His flesh and drink His blood in real experience of His grace desire the sincere milk of His word and grow spiritually. The love tasted is Christ's own love put into the hearts of His disciples, and those who have tasted it learn of Him with an ever-enlarging comprehension that will open still more fully in the eternal ages. That tasted love makes believers steadfast and persevering, so that their Christian life speaks louder than words and demonstrates the power of Christ's love in a world of selfishness and sin.
Those who have experienced His goodness and mercy are to speak with gratitude and praise, encouraging one another in Christian experience. Their pure words can also convict unbelievers. What has been tasted is to be declared to others by sharing the experience of coming to Christ and telling of His graciousness and saving power. Everyone who bears His name is called to share in this work whether ordained or not, for knowing His saving power makes them eager to speak of it and help others under the working of God's Spirit. Those who have tasted this goodness know Him as good, and with hearts softened by Christ's love they are called to work for those around them, especially the sick and suffering. Having accepted Christ and personally experienced the Lord's goodness, they become missionaries ready to work where they are or answer a call to regions beyond, with no time to become self-centered but with ever-enlarging sympathy and hearts beating for others as laborers together with God looking beyond self. Tasting His goodness, mercy, and love is a personal experience that calls a person to work for souls, so that those who have received it cannot be excused from helping others. This includes cultivating the heart in educating youth and becoming partakers of the fruit of that work, as part of the class whose lives are shaped by personally experiencing that the Lord is gracious.
Their testimony is to make Him known intelligently, expressing faith and helping those in the shadow of death and those living in spiritual darkness. Believers may declare that they know the Lord is gracious and that Jesus loves them, and believing this brings a cheerfulness that represents Christ, while speaking faith helps strengthen faith. This grace is reflected in how believers treat one another, for those who have tasted put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking and desire the sincere milk of God's word that they may grow. They are not to hold grudges or condemn one another, but to deal openly and kindly with wrongs, seeking correction without criticism or harshness.
Having tasted means having experienced the love and sacrifice of the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, the Son of the infinite Father, one equal with God and the Prince of life, whose compassion for the fallen race led Him to pay the price for redemption and to clothe His divinity with humanity as a Pattern. It requires laying aside all malice, following in His footsteps, and desiring the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby. Tasting requires imitating Jesus, sharing His interest, zeal, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, being partakers with Him in His sacrifice, work, and self-denial, practicing His virtues, and living in daily consecration to God. By acting a part in bringing many sons and daughters to God and hundreds to the truth, believers are put in a place of usefulness instead of lack, carelessness, or indifference.
To have tasted that the Lord is gracious is to have personally experienced His goodness, grace, mercy and love as a known spiritual reality. The gracious One so known is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory and Prince of life, equal with God, who clothed divinity with humanity in compassion to pay the price of redemption. Those who have so tasted lay aside all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking, and as newborn babes desire the pure spiritual milk of the Word that they may grow thereby. Such tasting belongs with coming to Christ as to the living stone, rejected by men but chosen of God and precious, the sure foundation and chief cornerstone, and being built up with Him as living stones into a spiritual house and holy priesthood. This experience is gained through faith, humbled seeking, obedience to the truth and feeding on Scripture under the Holy Spirit, and it is shown in a changed life, grateful praise, and declaring His saving goodness to others.
Meaning of Tasting Graciousness
To have tasted that the Lord is gracious is to have personally experienced His goodness, grace, mercy, and love as a real spiritual experience known by experience. Those who have so tasted desire the sincere milk of the word, the pure spiritual truth of the gospel, that they may grow thereby, and the power of that tasted truth is shown in a changed life and character. They put away malice, deceit, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, and coming to Christ as to the living and precious Stone, Jew and Gentile who believe are built up with Him as living stones into a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Christ so found is precious to believers though He is a stone of stumbling to the disobedient who reject the word, and those called from darkness into marvelous light show forth His praises, speaking with gratitude and praise to encourage one another while their pure words may convict unbelievers, a description that belongs to a class whose lives are shaped by that experience and calls even those educating youth to cultivate the heart and partake of the fruit of their work.
The gracious Lord who is tasted is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, the Son of the infinite Father, one equal with God and the Prince of life, whose compassion for the fallen race led Him to clothe His divinity with humanity as a Pattern and to pay the price for redemption. Tasting Him means personally experiencing the love of Christ that He puts into the hearts of His disciples, learning of Him with a comprehension that is enlarged in this life and will be still more fully opened in the eternal ages. That tasted love makes believers steadfast and persevering, so that their Christian life speaks louder than words and demonstrates the power of His love in a world of selfishness and sin. It requires laying aside all malice, following in His footsteps, desiring the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby, and imitating Jesus by sharing His interest, zeal, self-denial and self-sacrifice, being partakers with Him in His sacrifice, work and self-denial, practicing His virtues, living in daily consecration to God, and acting a part in bringing many sons and daughters to God and hundreds to the truth, which puts believers in a place of usefulness instead of lack, carelessness or indifference.
Tasting is pictured as feeding on Christ, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, an experience that must become real in the life and not remain merely professed. Probationers in this world who come to Christ in full assurance of faith are given in this tasting a proof and foretaste of the rich blessings He has in store. This calls for copying the simplicity of Christ, making the Word of God the study book as the source of true knowledge, drawing strength by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings, desiring the sincere milk of the word to grow thereby, coming to Christ as the living stone to be built up as lively stones into a spiritual house, with lives changed through conversion revealing Christ in spirit, words, and actions.
The verse is great encouragement given in the Word, one of the words of hope and courage found all through the Scriptures. Tasting that the Lord is gracious belongs to following on to know the Lord, with the promise that those who follow on shall know that His goings forth are prepared as the morning. Those who have experienced His gracious care can trust Him to open the way for the work He has appointed them, including preparing a people for the day of the Lord, an experience that calls them to lay aside evil conduct, desire the word, and grow in faithfulness to their assigned work.
Through faith and personal experience of the Word under the Holy Spirit's teaching, Scripture becomes food for mind and soul by which people come to know that the Lord is good. Tasting His goodness means experiencing His goodness and mercy, and remembering that experienced goodness and mercy gives a tempted person reason to trust Him as Guide and Protector and accept His saving help rather than yield to temptation.
Surrounding Call and Imagery
Those who have tasted are to lay aside all malice and deceit and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, and as newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word, the pure spiritual truth of the gospel, that they may grow thereby by feeding on the Word of God in a wonderful experience. This experiencing of goodness belongs to a life built on Christ and shown in conduct, with its power revealed in a changed life and character. Having tasted belongs with coming to Christ as to a living stone, disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious, rejected by people yet the sure foundation of the church, who is Jesus and not Peter. Those who come are built up with Him as living stones, Jew and Gentile who believe, into a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Christ laid in Zion is the elect precious chief cornerstone in whom belief brings no confusion; He is precious to believers, but to the disobedient who stumble at the word He becomes the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense. Believers are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people called out of darkness into His marvelous light to show forth His praises. Those who have experienced His grace recognize the value of Christ and of the humble people God chooses for His work even when worldly judgment discredits them. Growing up into Christ their living head in all things means manifesting His divine attributes of mercy, justice, humility, and love with devotion to God and spiritual life in Jesus Christ developed, rather than magnifying self, working selfishness, and growing earthward. The priesthood means believers bring people they become acquainted with to God and present them before the Father, asking Him to let His light shine into their own heart and mind and soul and to give wisdom so they can offer sacrifices God accepts through Jesus Christ.
Those who have tasted form a class distinct from the world that eats and drinks and marries as in the days of Noah until the Son of man is revealed. As strangers and pilgrims they abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and keep honest conduct among the Gentiles, so that those who speak against them as evildoers may by their good works glorify God in the day of visitation. The verse stands in a call to lay aside faultfinding and in a description of the believer's right position in a chapter to be closely studied, pressing those who claim the greatest truths ever committed to mortals to practice all they profess so the truth fits and qualifies them for the kingdom of God. With 1 Peter 2:1-12 it sets the high standard to be attained, to be read and practiced with watchfulness and prayer, giving a most precious representation of what Christians may be if they hear and obey, warning those lifting up their souls unto vanity. It calls for maintaining spiritual life by daily obedience to all the commandments of God, bringing the law of heaven into everyday experience, evidencing receiving Christ and partaking the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, while engaging in constant spiritual warfare in this world of sin. It is a high and holy principle for those carrying forward the work of God in these last days, concerning things of eternal interest that are not discerned by all men but by few, bringing joy and comfort to everyone who loves God sincerely.
How Graciousness Is Experienced
Tasting that the Lord is gracious comes through experience, and not necessarily through having every desire fulfilled, for a person may come to know His goodness through affliction. In the school of affliction this tasting gives the sense of His presence, shut in from the world and face to face as Moses knew Him, with a heavenly Companion through pain and suffering. He mingles blessing with suffering and sustains mind and voice and usefulness for service, so that affliction becomes a most precious period.
Those who have tasted are called not only to taste but to feast on His goodness through constant communion with Him. This means casting the helpless soul upon Him, coming as one is, and trusting Him as Helper. It creates a spiritual appetite that craves more of Him and of the sweetness of His Word and never loses desire for more.
Tasting requires a mind held to its task instead of wandering, and temperate living that makes understanding possible. Such temperance gives hunger of soul for righteousness and brings closeness to the One God has chosen. Teachers must lay aside malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speakings to be prepared to partake of this precious food.
Tasting means humbling oneself before God and seeking Him with all the heart, having accepted Christ and experienced new birth through Him. Souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which lives and abides forever. Disciples are cleansed in no other way but by receiving and obeying the truth.
It belongs to earnest sanctification of soul, body, and spirit through obedience to all of God's commandments. This is the purifying, sanctifying, redeeming work of Christ as the great Healer. His presence revealed in obedience makes earthly homes bright and beautiful, and fits people as holy and undefiled subjects for His mansion above, members of His royal family and children of the heavenly King.
Diligent, humble study of Scripture brings rich truths to the seeker who desires the Word. The enduring word preached through the gospel nourishes the soul, enables spiritual growth, and nourishes faith amid trials. Unprofitable reading can weaken that desire for the Word and hinder growth.
The passage is given as Scripture to study and practice in overcoming harmful appetites and habits. A person must look to Jesus and trust the grace He gives to overcome, rather than rely on moderation or self-control alone. This tasting calls for copying the simplicity of Christ, making the Word the study book as the source of true knowledge, and drawing strength by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. Probationers who come to Christ in full assurance of faith are given in this taste a proof of the rich blessings He has in store.
Growing by the Word
Having tasted that the Lord is gracious is the ground for continued spiritual growth, for those who have experienced His goodness and grace desire the sincere milk of the word and grow thereby. The Word nourishes the soul and enables that growth, and feeding upon the Word of God gives a wonderful experience. Unprofitable reading can weaken desire for the Word and hinder this growth.
Those who have tasted are not to remain babes in Christ but are to feed on the Word and become strong. This growing thereby is into a firm, Christlike character and toward reaching the fullness of Christ, laying aside all malice and deceit and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. Judas had abundant opportunity to eat the bread of life and receive this life-giving nourishment, and might have become a living stone in the spiritual house, disallowed of men but chosen of God and precious, built up with others as lively stones into a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, but he did not.
Such growth includes refusing careless, unkind words that hurt others. It rejects evil speaking, nonsense, folly, gossip, and backbiting as unfit and harmful spiritual food. Instead it chooses words that build others up.
Changed Life and Witness
The power of the pure spiritual truth of the gospel is shown in a changed life and character, for tasting that the Lord is gracious is experiencing His goodness and growing through the truth desired. Lives changed through conversion reveal Christ in spirit, words, and actions, as those who eat His flesh and drink His blood in real experience of His grace desire the sincere milk of His word and grow spiritually. The love tasted is Christ's own love put into the hearts of His disciples, and those who have tasted it learn of Him with an ever-enlarging comprehension that will open still more fully in the eternal ages. That tasted love makes believers steadfast and persevering, so that their Christian life speaks louder than words and demonstrates the power of Christ's love in a world of selfishness and sin.
Those who have experienced His goodness and mercy are to speak with gratitude and praise, encouraging one another in Christian experience. Their pure words can also convict unbelievers. What has been tasted is to be declared to others by sharing the experience of coming to Christ and telling of His graciousness and saving power. Everyone who bears His name is called to share in this work whether ordained or not, for knowing His saving power makes them eager to speak of it and help others under the working of God's Spirit. Those who have tasted this goodness know Him as good, and with hearts softened by Christ's love they are called to work for those around them, especially the sick and suffering. Having accepted Christ and personally experienced the Lord's goodness, they become missionaries ready to work where they are or answer a call to regions beyond, with no time to become self-centered but with ever-enlarging sympathy and hearts beating for others as laborers together with God looking beyond self. Tasting His goodness, mercy, and love is a personal experience that calls a person to work for souls, so that those who have received it cannot be excused from helping others. This includes cultivating the heart in educating youth and becoming partakers of the fruit of that work, as part of the class whose lives are shaped by personally experiencing that the Lord is gracious.
Their testimony is to make Him known intelligently, expressing faith and helping those in the shadow of death and those living in spiritual darkness. Believers may declare that they know the Lord is gracious and that Jesus loves them, and believing this brings a cheerfulness that represents Christ, while speaking faith helps strengthen faith. This grace is reflected in how believers treat one another, for those who have tasted put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking and desire the sincere milk of God's word that they may grow. They are not to hold grudges or condemn one another, but to deal openly and kindly with wrongs, seeking correction without criticism or harshness.
Having tasted means having experienced the love and sacrifice of the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, the Son of the infinite Father, one equal with God and the Prince of life, whose compassion for the fallen race led Him to pay the price for redemption and to clothe His divinity with humanity as a Pattern. It requires laying aside all malice, following in His footsteps, and desiring the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby. Tasting requires imitating Jesus, sharing His interest, zeal, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, being partakers with Him in His sacrifice, work, and self-denial, practicing His virtues, and living in daily consecration to God. By acting a part in bringing many sons and daughters to God and hundreds to the truth, believers are put in a place of usefulness instead of lack, carelessness, or indifference.