Let’s jump back into 1 Peter today, we’re starting the second chapter. 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 1.

Almost 30 years ago, in California there was a popular beverage that was losing some of its popularity—sales were down 3% year over year. there was an ad campaign that you might remember, because they were so simple and so effective. It was two words, white text on a black background… usually accompanied by a celebrity… anyone know what I’m talking about yet? Got Milk?

One of the most effective and memorable ad campaigns of all time. Almost 80% Americans given day

We are talking about milk today, but a different kind of milk this morning… what Peter calls the milk of the word. Let’s read together, 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 1.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good.

1 Peter 2:1–3

This is the word of the Lord.

So we’re going to look at this Scripture today in reverse order—we’ll start with verse 3 and work our way to verse 1. And if you look at verse 3 again, you’ll see why we’re doing that:

“if you have tasted that the Lord is good”

So why go 3-2-1 instead of 1-2-3? Because 3 is a conditional clause that makes what happens in the other two verses even possible. You have to have tasted that the Lord is good. In other words, you have to have been given that new birth.

There are some analogies that are only used once in Scripture, and then there are others that are used consistently, over and over again. Those analogies are especially worth thinking more about.

And this is an analogy that is used repeatedly to describe our experience of God and his word… taste.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!

Psalms 34:8

They are more desirable than gold—than an abundance of pure gold; and sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb.

Psalms 19:10

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry… I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.”

John 6:35, 51

You think about taste… what a gift taste is! Some many glorious things we experience are through taste. From a cold slice of watermelon on a hot day, to that first cut of steak hot off the grill, we have been given this incredible sense of taste.

Or how about one of my favorite things in the entire world, peach cobbler a la mode. Very few things in the world can compare.

Anyone ever said something like this, “No seconds for me, I’m saving room for…” Why? Because you’ve gotten a taste. You know how sweet it is, how good it is, how satisfying it is. And it makes it easy to turn down lesser things.

That’s what being a Christians means. You don’t just have a new set of intellectual beliefs. You have new tastes. Your palate has been expanded to a whole new food group, and—miracle of miracles—it is both the most nourishing and the most satisfying. That’s how you know it’s not of this world!

Have you tasted that the Lord is good?

“pure milk”

Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation

1 Peter 2:2

This analogy of milk is used by Paul and the author of Hebrews too, but in both those cases they’re talking about milk as opposed to meat. Peter doesn’t take the analogy that far here. It’s a positive, not a negative. He says “Be like newborn baby”, not “ya’ll are like a bunch of babies”. That’s more the message of the other two places, but this one is calling us to desire the word like a newborn baby desires milk.

And boy, do they desire it. Morning, noon, or night, they will let you know in no uncertain terms exactly what they want.

I wonder if the wee hours of the morning are called that because that’s when wee little ones want to eat the most sometimes. And they will make it clear to everyone in the house, maybe on the block, that they desire milk. Why? Because for an infant, milk is not a fringe benefit. It’s absolutely necessary for life.

And they don’t want anything else. You ever try to give a baby something else when they want milk? Maybe stick your pinky finger in their mouth to get them to stop crying for a second or two? It might work for a second or two, and then they will be twice as mad, because they’re not getting what they desire, pure milk.

That baby isn’t going to be satisfied with 2% or skim, either. That’s because babies are smart, who in their right mind would be happy to drink skim milk, anyway? I wanted milk, not milk-flavored water!

That’s exactly what the word “pure” here gets at. It’s a word merchants would use in those days when they were selling milk, wine, some other liquid that was often watered down. If you went to the marketplace and saw this Greek word, “adolos”. This was the top of the line, high quality stuff, not watered down, no additives.

My grandparents on the Wilson side had a dairy farm between Enfield and McLeansboro, right off Dolan Lake. And sometimes if I was at the barn with my grandma, she would grab an old plastic cup they had at the barn, she would open the spigot at the bottom of the milk tank, and she’d get me an ice cold glass of fresh milk. One of the best things I have ever tasted in my life.

Follower of Christ, the main command in these verses is to desire that—the pure milk of the word.

There are a lot of places where you can get the word of God today… pasteurized, homogenized, watered down, mixed with a lot of extra ingredients, until you’re left with something resembling milk.

But don’t you notice, it has a wang to it? Ever read a devotional or an article and go, “That’s got a weird aftertaste!”

What you need, what you’re commanded here to desire is the pure milk of the word. Undiluted. Unadulterated. Unchanged.

I’m not anti-devotional. I’m anti some devotionals.

You have to be careful who’s voice you’re listening to and what they might be adding to the mix. A gallon of pure milk and a tablespoon of cyanide would kill all of us.

And honestly, as the one who’s responsible to care for your souls, I do try to keep up on this kind of thing, what’s popular at the moment, and I have some grave concerns for the moment we’re in. If you have any questions about them, I’d be thrilled to talk to you about them.

Even if your daily devotional is one of the best, most popular ever written, like My Utmost for His Highest, what you need first and foremost, what you are craving, is right here. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Oswald Chambers? Mark Batterson? Sarah Young? Rick Warren?”

I’m not saying God can’t use them. He can. He does. But even if every word they wrote was perfect, if we’re not careful, we can still fall into a sort of evangelical priesthood, where a few speak for God to us.

I’m not saying anything to you that I don’t have to fight against myself. Every week, and this one was no different, I have to discipline myself in this as I prepare to preach. Before I run to commentaries and word studies and reading/listening to other pastor’s sermons on these three verses, I needed to sit down with my Bible, notebook, a good fountain pen—actually more than one because I need different colors—and ask the Spirit to apply God’s Word to my own heart before I bring in the voices of other godly men and women.

You are filled with the same Spirit. You have the same Bible they have. The sustenance for your Christian life comes from the pure milk of the word. His voice, speaking directly to you, his child, through His word. Everything else is appetizers and desert. This is the main course. Don’t fill up on appetizers, and don’t have desert first.

Babies, they are ravenous eaters. I mean, you first give them that bottle or start to nurse them, and they are latched on for dear life. I mean just going at it, satisfying their deepest desire.

Anyone remember the cluster feeding days? Might as well clear your schedule, your main task for this day is going to be feeding that baby.

I know Kay’s looking at me thinking, “You’re talking like you have experience… who was feeding the baby?” I’ve observed it, okay?”

If you don’t have kids yet, cluster feeding is when babies will just kick it into another gear. I’m talking they want to eat every hour, especially in the evening. It’s when as a parent look down in wonder at this new life and go, “My gosh, kid, you weigh 8 pounds, and you’ve had 12 meals today, and had 17 diaper changes!”

And Kay’s thinking, “You were counting every time I changed their diaper?!”

Parents, what happens like clockwork after a baby cluster feeds for a few days? A growth spurt! They’re craving that nutrition because they’re trying to put on some weight. They’ve got some growing to do!

Do you remember when God first changed your heart, how you could not get enough of God’s Word? Like a baby who’s cluster feeding, you wanted to get just as much as you could. Because you knew you had lots of growing to do.

Why are we commanded to crave the pure spiritual milk of the word? Look at verse 2 again:

Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation

1 Peter 2:2

That’s why. We’re commanded to desire God’s word like infants because it is a primary means by which we grow up into mature disciples of Jesus Christ.

Did anyone grow up with hand-me-downs besides me? I was the oldest, but there were other families in our church with boys older than me so I always had lots of hand-me-downs.

It was always so exciting when got to open that garbage bag full of clothes to see what you got. But a lot of the time, the clothes wouldn’t quite fit yet, and you’d hear the dreaded words before they went into the closet, “You’ll grow into them.”

Peter says that our salvation is kind of like those clothes. Your salvation, that inheritance from chapter 1 that is “kept in heaven for you”, it’s a little big for you yet. You’ve still got some growing to do. And the nutrition you need for that growth will come from the pure milk of the word.

Christians don’t simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus’ name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son.

Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book

”rid yourselves”

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.

1 Peter 2:1

Does this seem like an odd list to anyone else at first glance. If I was going to list things in relation to God’s word, it would be “rid yourself of all laziness, pride, and all distractions.” Thankfully, I’m not the Holy Spirit, because He knows what keeps us from the word.

Notice how all of these are horizontal sins against fellow brother or sister. Your horizontal relationships will affect your vertical relationship.

After you have a fight with your spouse, I mean a big one—maybe because you weren’t helping with the diapers enough—after you storm off and slam the door, is the first thing you want to do open up your Bible and spend some time hearing from the Lord.

Nope, because you already know what he’s going to say, don’t you?

Application

1. Acquire the taste.

Some things are an acquired taste—like sparkling water.

2. Develop the habit.

If you eat ice cream at the same time every night… you’ll start desiring it.

3. Recognize your appetite killers.

If you fill yourself up on junk food…