Published: April 6, 2025 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 12 | Scripture: 1 Peter 2:1-3
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Okay, we're in First Peter. We're moving to chapter 3 this morning or chapter 2,
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sorry. But I'm going to read from uh chapter 1 verse 22 down through the third verse of chapter 2 again to to set the
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context. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed which
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is perishable but imperishable, that is through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all of its glory like the flower of
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grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall off. But the word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the word which was preached to you. Therefore,
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putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may
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grow in respect to salvation if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, I ask has been prayed that you
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would by your Holy Spirit speak to us through the exposition of the word. We pray that by these things we truly
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would receive what not only Peter here, but the Apostle Paul and others in the scriptures call us to to grow up. Grow
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up in salvation. grow up in our ability to walk in the body of Christ, grow up in our knowledge of you. And so we ask, Father, that you would teach us, you
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would build us, that not us, but you would receive the glory. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
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newborns. Peter speaks of new birth um a number of times. I don't know whether to call it a theme or a concept in Peter, but he stresses new birth. In chapter 1 verse three, we read that that
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God has caused us to be born again to a living hope. And in what we have just read verse 23 of chapter 1. For you have
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been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and abiding word of God. And now he says like newborn
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babes long for the pure milk so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. The reader's new life is generated by
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God's living and abiding word. Verse 23 of chapter
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1. And it is to be characterized by brotherly affection. Verse 22. A sincere love of the brethren characterizes brethren characterizes those or who are in the new life. It is
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part of our moral transformation. But new life as Peter sees it here is is not just a
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beginning. There is a lifelong imperative in verse two of chapter 2. Long for the pure milk. Long or could
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be translated crave the true pure milk. New birth requires sustenance to support
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new life. Um, we have a number of newborns in our congregation to the point where we've annexed the library during worship time
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as the as the nursery and many of the mothers and that is obviously what Peter is talking about here is breastfed milk mothers
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supporting giving sustenance nourishment to their newborns by their the mother's milk. It It is a figure of speech. It is
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a a simile. And for those of you who are sort of half listening in eighth grade, remember that a simile is using the word like or as to
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compare one thing to something of a different kind. And it makes it more descriptive or more vivid. For example, we would say that someone is brave as a
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lion or lion or as crazy like a fox or here you who have been born
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been born again be like a newborn babe. It's one that we can all relate to that mother giving
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sustenance, giving food to her newborn. And we understand, mothers tell me they
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understand the understand the cry, the cry, the craving, the desire, the longing for that sustenance, that
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food that nourishes them, that they feed on, and they become healthy. They become lively. they
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become they grow up in Peter's words and that that very subst sustenance of sustenance of life that is long for and needed is
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milk. Now most of your translations will translate Peter's verse two long for the pure milk of the
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word. But there's a problem because the word for word is not in this word. The word for word is logos
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and that is not what Peter writes. He writes a word that is a cognate of that word. It's word. It's loakon. And in fact what he says
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is loakan adulas gala which means something that is hard to understand. Our English translation our
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English words just I don't think capture it. It's gless milk. But the
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But the locon is only written in the New Testament in one other place and that is Romans 12 verse one and I'll read it to
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you. I urge you, brethren, Paul writes, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your loan of
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worship, your spiritual service of worship. He doesn't use the word word there. The our English translators do not. And so the question is, what does
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this mean? Is it right that the pure milk is of the word? the
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scriptures. We have to go perhaps to extra biblical writing to understand. My understanding even of Romans 12 is that the word means rational that which is true to the real
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and essential meaning of something. So Paul can say it is your spiritual service of worship that which comports with worshiping
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God. the Christian instruction, whether doctrine or ethics that promotes moral growth, I think is what Peter and Paul have in mind
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there in verse two when he says, "Long for the pure milk." It could be translated the true pure
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milk that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. It's a conformity to the reality of the new birth in Christ as
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instituted by his resurrection. In Peter's culture, the application obviously has reference, as we've already said, to breastfed
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mother's milk. mother's milk. and historians that I um read some of in the commentaries said that at this time we and we examine the culture of Peter's
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time that the there was a belief that the moral character of the child depended on the quality of the
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mother's milk that the mother herself imparted the quality to the breast's milk. So if if an infant's mother could not nurse for whatever reason, could not or would
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not be not be breastfed, they would use a wet nurse, but the wet nurse had to be approved. The her character must be
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evaluated. So I I believe with those things we can see that that Peter's emphasis here is on the quality of this milk. I mean again loan could simply
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mean this is a metaphor but I don't think we have to even Peter's readers or us. I don't think we have to go like newborn baby. Oh yeah that's a metaphor and now you're reminding me that that's
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a metaphor. I I think what Peter is saying to us is there is a purity, a truth to what the Christians
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need in order to be nourished, in order to grow.
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The adjective guilas I think adds to that thought because it describes the excellent quality of the milk for Christians. It is milk like no
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other. It is pure as that which has no vice but only
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virtues. And again I would say that in reading Peter do not read Hebrews where the writer to the Hebrews there is comparing those who ought to be eating solid food but they're still
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drinking milk. That's not what Peter has in view in view here. He's not contrasting these concepts. And he's not contrasting the
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immature Christian with the mature Christian and saying, well, these are the ones who have have drunk the pure milk versus those. What he is saying is
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this is for all Christians for all time long for the pure true milk. All readers from
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newborns, newborns in Christ to the old-timers, they are in new life. And the exhortation applies to
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them all. As in Psalm 119:20, the psalmist there writes, "My soul is crushed with longing after your ordinances at all times."
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to cease to cease longing. And again, don't want to be too graphic, but if your child stops eating,
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stops longing, there's a problem. And spiritually, if we stop longing, there will be spiritual starvation and decay.
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And notice and that's why I read back from verse one uh chapter 1 verse 22 through here. Notice the context. It's the community of believers
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that's in the context here. Is it possible for Christians to crave the true pure milk in isolation?
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It's been some years ago that I read the biography of Arthur W. Pink, but it amazed me when I got to the section later in his life. He had been a
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pastor in a little town called Spartanberg for a while and then I think also in Australia if I remember correctly and then he and his wife moved
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later in their lives they moved to a little island somewhere off the coast of Scotland I think and they didn't attend church and and I've benefited from many
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of his books and his writings and he continued to publish and to have correspondence with other believers but he was not in fellowship and And I see and again from my study and as I told my
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wife last night trying to understand that one little word in the context of what Peter writes here. I can't see that it's limited to
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the word. It is possible that you can be in the word seven days a week and never attend church and say that you you love God and
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you're getting your nourishment. But I think Peter broadens this out. I when I read Romans 12, where does Paul
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go after he says that? And I won't try to quote it, but he's saying what is acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of
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worship, and do not be conformed to this world. Peter's going to talk about that in verse one of this chapter. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind
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that you prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. The the word is part of that. But but our fellowship our our
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understanding of living as new life in Christ as believers together in includes the word and must be in the frame of of
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the word. But there also must be teaching. There also must be discussion. There also must be wrestling with that
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together. And Peter addresses them as the community of believers in verse one. Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. It's one of those participles.
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Having put Having put aside is the word. And he's telling you, look, you have been cleansed. You have the new birth. The the word of God, living and abiding word
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of God. It is living and it gives you life and it is abiding. It is enduring. You have been cleansed from these things. That is a reality. Peter reminds his readers first
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of all what your conversion means. It's new life in Christ. But he also brings them on to that second part. He warns them against the sins from which you've
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already been delivered. He talked about that your feudal way of life in chapter one. You've been brought into this new life in the community of
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believers. And this idea of putting off, I think, is very consistent throughout the scriptures, not just in the New Testament, the idea of taking off a
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filthy garment. We read even in Zechariah, the angel speaking of and to Joshua, the high priest, remove the filthy garments from him. Again he said to him, "See, I
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have taken your iniquity from you and will clothe you with festal robes." That's what has happened to us in the new life. We've h we have put off the
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old and yet he says those evils that you have put aside, they are part of that old life. They need not be entered into
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again. The evils that he talks about here are the opposite of what he talked about in verse 23 two of the previous chapter. That strenuous love for one another,
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that that stretching out love for one another, the earnest love for one another. These things are in opposition to that. And there are those who see and
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hear three groups led by in your your versions the all all malice as one group all guile and hypocrisy and envy and
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another group and all slander. I have worked with those and moved them around in my mind and on paper and there's a lot of overlap and I don't want to be a
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burden in explaining these things but all of these things are poisonous to the social communal life of
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the church. Again, it's the context of you are in a new life. And that means not only you, but people with you, your body that you're
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in, and they're not easy to put off. I know I'm a sinner and I sin in these, but know that in Christ, you have
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been delivered from the power of these things by the power of the gospel. And yes, they do pertain to our relationship with other
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people and they do
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to Christ. John in his letter says, "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one
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who does not love his brother. See, he's he's bringing it down now. He he's telling us, look, you h you have new life. You are in Christ, but you're
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also in a body. Having put away these things, don't bring them back again. The terms, and I'll try to be brief with these because again, I think
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they overlap in their meaning. All malice is probably better translated by baseness. It's a It's a meanness. It means all good fornoess, if
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that is a word. Disgracefulness. It's ill will toward
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all. And it can go to extremes, ill will in the body of Christ can go from callous indifference to holding a grudge. And that's the kind of the overarching
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umbrella for all of these things is that ill will within the church and and guile has a craftiness to that. There there's a cunningness to the idea of guile and
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it's meant to deceive and mislead others. The commentators remind us that the the word guile comes from a bait for fish. you you're trying to do something
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to your fellow man, your fellow believers, and the goal is to hurt them. And your goal is to gain an
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advantage by advantage by them, and it hurts the body. And hypocrisy, we talked about that idea of of the actor wearing the
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mask. But but here in Peter I in this context I think the word that describes it is it is insincerity it's and or an inconsistency
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perhaps would be a better word. An inconsistency between belief and practice. An inconsistency in in what you have in your heart and what you
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display on the outside, the inner and the outer the outer life. And it can deceive others as an actor deceives actor deceives others. But it also can be a great
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selfdeception. Thank you very much. The commentator Daniel Doriani, sometimes I'm not enamored of his the
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way he explains some doctrine, but sometimes he kind of drills down to kind of where I live. His definition of
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envy is a knowing sorrow we feel when someone else has what we think we
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deserve and nobody is untouched by it. Everybody is hurt because we if we are envious, we are tormented because we
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want it. And our hope is to destroy the happiness of someone
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like a mathematical formula. If you combine malice and malice and envy, it equals deceit and
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slander. Deceit is dishonesty in using in again this context of being in a body. Dishonesty in words. It's when we shade or hide the truth, usually straight to someone's
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face. My mom would ask, "Did you clean your room like I asked you to?" And I could say, "Yes, mom, cuz I cleaned my room the way I wanted it clean, but not
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the way she asked me to." And we think we're okay with that to shade the truth. But sometimes it moves on to
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slander, and that's just bold lies delivered as the truth. And usually it's behind someone's
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back. And so we have deceit and slander. Doriani asks even though Peter didn't put it in his list, but there's another group kind of in between deceit and
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slander. He writes the gossip sometimes tells the truth but delivers it to the wrong person. Do you see how these things hurt
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the church? He's saying put these aside. Yes, the church is full of sinners. Sorry, but we are. We We were deceivers. We were hypocrites. We're
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slanderers. But as believers, we're supposed to grow up and tell the truth more and more. As Paul says in Ephesians 4, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him
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who is the head, even Christ. We are to speak only such a word as is good for edification. And the Lord is the agent here because he
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is using the nourishing milk to make us grow up into salvation. Again, Peter's first call is
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to the gospel. You must be born again and you must obey the truth. But his second call is to the family of God, telling the truth and putting off
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all deceit and
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verse three. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, as I say, Peter is alluding to Psalm 34:8 here. Oh, taste and see
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that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. It's it's as if David is a prophet looking ahead to Peter's day and to our day.
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David experienced life as a stranger among the Philistines is the context of that that psalm. And the psalm becomes this it and I didn't discover it but
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it's an acrostic of thanksgiving that David is giving for deliverance from that situation where he was the resident
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alien where he was the stranger and Peter seems to say are you like
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David? Do you recall what it was like to first experience the Lord? Did you find him kind? Did you
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find him good? Did you find him forgiving? Did you find him bestowing on you what you needed to grow and be healthy in the body of
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Christ? I don't know. I didn't look it up. Maybe I should have. food and drink companies, especially in America, cuz we have imported exported I don't know what
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the tariffs are going to do, exported billions of gallons of Coca-Cola around the world, but food and drink companies spend billions of dollars a year trying
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to get you to taste their product. Why? because they want you to crave the taste of their product and buy more and
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more of it and keep on craving it. The sense of taste and I think it was mentioned this
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morning in Sunday school when we talked about communion. The sense of taste is probably the most in intimate of our five senses. Is it not?
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We can see things. We can touch things. We can smell things. But food and drink you put inside your body. You ingest
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it. And by referencing Psalm 34, I think Peter says, "Craving the true pure milk is to crave the experience of the Lord." Have you tasted him? Have you seen what
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he have you tasted what he is like? The experience is internal. The experience of communion
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together I think is a part of that. Have you tasted the kindness and goodness of the Lord? the Lord? Tasting the Lord's kindness to David was
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coupled with his hope because he saw in that that there was hope for deliverance. There was hope for deliverance from shame, from affliction,
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from want. And I think Peter echoes that. We we saw in verse 13 of chapter 1, set your hope fully on the grace of God. And in verse 17, conduct yourselves
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in fear during your life as strangers. Again, let me read those verses, but I think Peter echoes them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed
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is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. For to those who fear him there is no want.
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See Peter is not mincing words. Peter says there is a sustenance to our life. There is a nourishment to
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our life that we ought to crave. And if we've tasted the kindness of the Lord, we will crave it even
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more. God in Christ begets us to a new life. And God in Christ also sustains us in that new life. Yes, milk includes the preaching of the word. It is alive. It's living
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and active. The writer to the Hebrews says, it does something to the hearer. But as one author
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said, believers taste the Lord in their conversion experience, but there is more to be had. I it's not that we we just
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taste the illustration I think is in our passage that Chuck is looking at in Acts chapter 2 and let me read it in your hearing because there there is something
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happening when people hear the word there is a power there is as one author says it's like a blood transfusion and yet they they went on seeking more and
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more being nourished ish by the word and that which comes from the word. Let me read it. Now when they heard this Peter's preaching, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest
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of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift
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of the Holy Spirit. for the promise is for you and your children, for all those who are afar, and me as many as our Lord will call to himself." And with many
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words he solemnly testified and kept exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse this perverse generation." So then those who had received his word were baptized, and
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that day they were added about 3,000 souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of
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bread and to prayer. There's the nourishment. There's the context. He's gathering of the people of
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God. As I say, this is not a babes in Christ versus mature in Christ comparison. This is your life. This is your new life. And he says, "As
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believers, we don't wait for salvation. We grow towards it." How many believers do you know who who seem to
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where we're just marching marking time here? We're just waiting until the Lord comes again. Peter is saying, "No, no. Crave the pure true milk that by it you
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may grow in respect to salvation. We crave the Lord by experiencing him in worship. We crave the Lord when we put
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off the old nature and adopt the new attitudes and attitudes and behaviors. And there's something in the Greek Greek that tells you that that the author is saying stop doing something.
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But that's not what Peter is saying here. It's not so much a stop slandering, stop your malice and your deceits and your hypocrisy, but it is the positive. But
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crave the pure true milk that by it you may grow up in respect to salvation. Let
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pray. Our father, we do thank you for the word. We thank you that from that word we are able to see Christ. We are able to
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able to understand who we are and the fact that we are not just isolated individuals but we are members of the body of Christ and that these
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things that we read are for our new life in that in that body. And we ask that we would live them in a manner that is worthy of that
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calling and live in a manner that we grow up and we respect one another and we honor you. We ask that you would do these things. We ask that you would
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allow us to come together even now to break bread together as we experience the communion of the saints as we remember Christ's death and burial and
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re resurrection and look forward to his coming again. We ask in his name.