Got Milk? - Pt 4

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).

One last thing in these verses: we should note that the Word is also powerful for destruction. The first verse of our reading describes the destructive side of the Word of God: "Therefore, putting aside [get rid of, destroy] all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.” One of the ways the Word of God creates desire for the milk of God's kindness is by destroying desire for other things. Peter lists some of these things:  Malice: a desire to hurt someone with words or deeds.  Guile: a desire to gain some advantage or preserve some position by deceiving others.  Hypocrisy: a desire not to be known for what really is.  Envy: a desire for some privilege or benefit that belongs to another with resentment that another has it and you don't.  Slander: the desire for revenge and self-enhancement, often driven by the deeper desire to deflect attention from our own failings. The worse light we can put another in by slander, the less our own darkness shows. Malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, slander are things we must put away, destroy. This is the other side of longing for the spiritual milk of God's kindness in the Word. If you want to experience desire for God's Word; if you want your desires to grow; if you want to taste fully the kindness of the Lord, realize that as our satisfaction in God's kindness rises, the controlling desires of malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and slander are destroyed. And the reverse is true: as you resist them and lay them aside, desires for God grow stronger and more intense. Peter's point is: don't think that they can flourish in the same heart. Desire to taste and enjoy God's kindness cannot flourish in the same heart with guile and hypocrisy. So fight against spiritual fatalism from both sides: fight to destroy the desires of guile and hypocrisy; and fight to taste the kindness of the Lord in his Word. The result will be "you will grow in respect to salvation" (v. 2b). Literally: "you will grow into salvation." Salvation is reached by growth. To be sure, God gives the growth, but growth is necessary. Do not fall into the spiritual fatalism that says, "I can't grow; I can't change; and I don't need to." Throw that idea away like an old smelly garment, and seek God with all your heart for help in desiring his Word, and let us grow up together to salvation.