Try It! You'll Like It!

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

1 Peter 2:2-3

My parents had all sorts of things they taught me about eating. “Don’t talk with food in your mouth.”  “Don’t chew with your mouth open.”  “Don’t play with your food.”   “Eat this.  It’s good for you.”  That was a sure signal I didn’t want to eat whatever it was.  Then there were the times when mom would make something new.  I’d often turn up my nose.  I was very suspicious of new foods.  Inevitably they would urge me, “Come on Wayne.  Try It!  You’ll like it!”   Peter says much the same thing in the second chapter of his first letter.  “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  As we get close to fall when Sunday School and Bible classes begin anew, He is urging us to add a healthy helping of God’s spiritual milk – His word – to our diet. “Try it!  You’ll like it.”

Changing diet is never easy!  A few years ago the doctor diagnosed me as a Type 2 diabetic.  What did that mean? I asked him. He said, “It means you have to change your diet.  You have to cut back on sugar.  You have to watch how many carbs you eat.  You have to eat less of a lot of the things in your diet.  You need to lose weight.  And you can’t just do this for a couple of months.  You need to change your diet permanently.  I have not done a good job.  Changing diet is not easy. 

The same is true spiritually.  There are things going on our lives that are not good for our relationship with God… not good for our spiritual health.  Peter lists some of those things. “Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”  Malice – that has to do with harboring evil intentions in your heart – holding a grudge, harboring resentment, wishing or even working to cause harm to someone.  Deceit involves treachery.  A good example is when Judas, pretending to be a friend, betrayed Jesus with a kiss.  Hypocrisy is pretending to be one thing when you are really another - loudly condemning gossip, then repeating some gossip. Envy is jealousy – the young lady who resented the fact that all her friends were getting engaged but she wasn’t.    Slander is what gossip is all about.  It is all about spreading information about someone, true or false, in order to destroy that person’s reputation.  Can you see how a study diet of such things could do great harm to your soul, to your friendships, to your church, to your faith in God? 

God in His word provides a much healthier diet.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation… A diet rich in God’s word has much to recommend itself to us.  For one thing the milk of the Gospel is pure.  Literally the word “pure” means “not deceitful.”  In Peter’s day merchants would water down the milk in order to make it more profitable.  That was “deceitful milk.”  In the word of God, you get pure milk.  You get the whole truth. In His Word God holds up a mirror so that you and I can see the truth about ourselves, about our sinful condition, about our need for a savior.  But He doesn’t stop there.  In the Gospel He holds up Jesus. He shows you how much He loves you.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus He gives us the full picture of His unconditional, no strings attached love.  He waters nothing down. 

Second Peter tells us that the milk of the Gospel is “spiritual milk.”    People are fond of telling you that they are “spiritual” not religious.  I am not sure what people mean by that.  The Bible though is clear.  To be “spiritual” is to have a faith relationship with God in Jesus Christ.  To be spiritual is to know in your heart that God loves you, forgives you, and has claimed you as His own because of Jesus.  That’s the relationship God invites you to in Word.  Here He invites us to commune with Him, to hear the voice of His spirit, to offer Him our prayers.  This is “spiritual milk.” 

Finally, the milk of God’s word is nourishing.    “By it” He writes, “you may grow up into salvation…”  Peter is comparing God’s word to the “mother’s milk” that nourishes a young baby.  God has designed a mother’s milk as the perfect food for newborn babies. It will immunize her baby from many illnesses.  It nourishes her baby for growth.   In the same way He has designed this word to provide all that we need to grow up in our faith.  Although there comes a time when babies are weaned, not so for us and the word. We need to drink freely of the milk of God’s word our entire lives.  There is not graduation from God’s word.  Paul told young Timothy,  But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 

So as the Fall approaches… as Sunday School and Bible classes begin anew – take this advice from my parents, “Try It!  You’ll like it.”  “Try God’s Word.  You’ll like it.”  More to the point, “Try the Word.  You will crave it.”  That’s the literal translation of this text.  Like newborn infants, crave… intensely desire the pure spiritual milk.  Peter says that we should be as motivated as a newborn babe is when he is hungry.  It doesn’t matter if it’s 3 a.m. If they’re hungry, they let you know about it and don’t stop letting you know about it until they get what they’re after!  A Pacifier won’t fool them.  They want to be fed.  That’s how strongly God wants us to desire the pure spiritual milk of His word.  Amen!