Got Milk? - Pt 3

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 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 2:1-3 ESV).

So, if Peter tells us to “desire it,” perhaps we need to know what “it” is! Our reading is from the English Standard Version. It does not say "milk of the word" as in other translations. That's accurate, however, it is a bit limiting. This “spiritual milk" is not merely the Word of God. It is something more specific. Look at the reading again with some explanations inserted. It says, “Like newborn babes [who were born by the Word of God], long [the way babies do] for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if [that is, since!] you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” (vv. 2-3). Do you see the connection between the intense longing or craving for the "spiritual milk" in verse 2 and the tasting of the kindness of the Lord in verse 3? Put them together: "Long for the spiritual milk, since you've tasted the kindness of the Lord." So it seems to me that the “milk” is the milk of God's kindness. That is what we are commanded to long for. This does not raise a contradiction. Where did the readers taste the kindness of the Lord? The answer is: in the gospel, the Word of God (v. 25). They were born again by that kindness through the Word of God. So the spiritual milk is the kindness of the Lord experienced through the Word of God. Or you could say, the spiritual milk is the Word of God revealing or transmitting the kindness of the Lord. You were born again by that Word, namely, by the powerful kindness of God in that Word, and now go on longing for that Word and for the day-by-day experience, “tasting” of the kindness of the Lord through his Word. If the Word of God is powerful enough to create new Christians through new birth, then the Word of God is powerful enough to create desire in our souls. Again I say: Don't be a spiritual fatalist. The power at work within you just to bring you to life is like the power that raises the dead (cf. Ephesians 1:19-20). Can it not create desire just like it created you? Trust it. To paraphrase Bunyan's poem that I quoted yesterday: Run, John, run, the law commands But gives us neither feet nor hands, Far better news the gospel states: It bids desire and then creates.