1 Pedro 2
Steven Cole · Citado em PreceptAustin
1 Pedro 2:2
Cole adds that… Dishonest merchants in that day would add water to their milk to make more profit. This was “deceitful” milk. Peter tells us to long for the pure, not-deceitful milk. (1 Peter 2:1-3 Sermon) Adolos contrasts with the second attitude in 1Peter 2:1 where Peter exhorts Christians to get rid of guile (dolos). Jamieson - Irenaeus says of heretics. They mix chalk with the milk. The article, “the,” implies that besides the well-known pure milk, the Gospel, there is no other pure, unadulterated doctrine; it alone can make us guileless Peter's point is that God's Word is pure and has no additives. This food of the Word has not the slightest admixture of anything evil in it. The word is commonly used in this sense of corn, wheat, barley, oil, wine, and farm products. William
1 Pedro 2:2
Cole explains tasting the Word this way… The image of milk and of tasting the Lord’s kindness brings up the fact that the Word is not just to fill your head with knowledge. It is to fill your life with delight as you get to know the Divine author and enjoy Him in all His perfections. Taste points both to personal experience and enjoyment. I can’t taste for you, nor you for me. We can only taste for ourselves. To taste something, we’ve got to experience it up close. You can see and hear and smell at a distance, but you can only taste something by touching it to your tongue. You can only taste God’s Word by drawing near to God and personally appropriating the riches of knowing Him. Once you like the taste of something, you don’t just eat it to live; you live to eat it. You want it as often as you can get it. God’s Word is that way for all who have tasted His kindness. Wayne Grudem… To drink the milk of the Word is to ‘taste’ again and again what He is like, for in the hearing of the Lord’s words believers experience the joy of personal fellowship with the Lord Himself. George Sweeting The Bible is literally God speaking to you. It is God's instrument in salvation (1Peter 1:23-note, James 1:18-note) and God's instrument for growing mature Christians (1Peter 2:2). It is the blueprint for the Christian. Thomas Watson The Scripture is both the breeder and feeder of grace. How is the convert born, but by “the Word of truth”? (James 1:18-note). How doth he grow, but by “the sincere milk of the Word”? (1Peter 2:2) Tertullian God’s purpose and promises to man are for the benefit not of the soul alone but of the soul and the flesh. Martin Luther Nothing is more perilous than to be weary of the Word of God. Thinking he knows enough, a person begins little by little to despise the Word until he has lost Christ and the gospel altogether. John Henry Jowett… “As newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk.” [1Pe 2:2] Having tasted of the grace of the Lord, and freeing yourselves from the embittering presence of sin, adopt an exacting diet—“long for the spiritual milk which is without guile.” Feed upon the loftiest ideals. Suffer nothing of adulterating compromise to enter into your spiritual food. Nourish yourselves upon aspirations undefiled. Do not let your wine be mingled with water. Do not permit any dilution from the suggestions of the world. “Long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation.” [1Pe 2:2] It is the unadulterated food that ministers to growth. It is the high ideal which lifts men to the heights. The loftiness of one’s aim determines the degree of one’s growth. In these matters my spiritual gravitation is governed by my personal aspirations, my spirit pursues the path and gradient of my desires. Here, then, is the threefold preparation of the individual for a family life of intimate and fruitful fellowship—a personal experience of grace, the expulsion from the life of all uncleanness, and the adoption of a rigorous and uncompromising ideal. The whole preparatory process is begun, continued, and ended in Christ. In Christ the individual is lodged, and in His grace, which is all-sufficient, he finds an abundant equipment for the spacious purpose of his perfected redemption. (Epistles of St. Peter) Pure Milk - Recently it was discovered that some milk producers in China had been diluting cow’s milk and adding the industrial chemical Melamine. This chemical was added because it artificially enhanced protein readings. Several infants died and others became seriously ill. Such adulteration is not new. Other countries have been adding Melamine to animal feed for at least 40 years for the same purpose, resulting in the death of animals. Another kind of adulteration is when people add to God’s Word, “the pure milk of the Word” as Peter described it (1Pe 2:2). The word pure means “unadulterated” or “uncontaminated.” The early church had to deal with those who considered circumcision necessary for salvation (Acts 15:1). That idea was rejected because it was not in accordance with the Word of God, which says that salvation is by grace alone. Peter encouraged his brethren in the Lord: “Why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples? … We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved” (Acts 15:10, 11). The Lord has given man His Word, His will He has made known; Let man not try to change that Word With words that are his own. —D. De Haan God’s Word needs no additions or subtractions. Frenchman Michel Lotito has an iron gut. For some reason Lotito likes to eat metal. In the past twenty-five years, says writer Rosie Mestel, Lotito has eaten eleven bicycles, seven shopping carts, a metal coffin, a cash register, a washing machine, a television, and 660 feet of fine chain. Lotito says it wasn’t easy eating his first bicycle: “I started with the metal and moved on to the tires,” he recalls. “It was really difficult to stay that extra day to finish off the rubber. Metal’s tasteless, but rubber is horrible.” Now Lotito swallows pieces of tire and frame together. But none of that can compare with his biggest meal: a Cessna. That’s right, Lotito has eaten an entire light airplane, 2,500 pounds of aluminum, steel, vinyl, Plexiglas, and rubber. With a meal like that he cuts the metal into pieces about the size of his fingernail and consumes about two pounds a day. Most people would agree that Michel Lotito has an unhealthy appetite. When we first come to Christ, we have appetites just as unhealthy. New believers need to change their appetites from what is not food at all to what is true food for the soul. In the 1994 Winter Olympics, held in Norway, twenty-three-year-old Tommy Moe of the United States won the gold on the men’s downhill. It was “a beautifully controlled run,” said William Oscar Johnson in Sports Illustrated, “on which he held tucks and thrust his hands forward in perfect form at places where others had stood up and flailed their arms.” After his victory, Tommy Moe explained his thought processes. “I kept it simple,” he said, “focused on skiing, not on winning, not on where I’d place. I remembered to breathe—sometimes I don’t.” The winner of the gold medal in the Olympics had to remember the most basic of basics: breathing! He kept it simple. Likewise as we seek to have a strong walk with God, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know where we win or lose. Spiritual strength depends on the basics. We need to make sure we’re breathing the things of the Spirit. (Larson, Craig Brian - 750 engaging illustrations for preachers, teachers & writers) (Bolding Added) Of the word (spiritual, reasonable) (3050) (logikos from logos = reason) describes that which belongs to the reason or is agreeable with reason or thus is reasonable or rational. Some lexicons define logikos as true to real nature. BDAG says that logikos was a favorite word with Greek philosophers as it referred to that which had been carefully thought though. TDNT adds that logikos means belonging to speech (a sense that is foreign to the NT) or belonging to reason. The UBS Handbook Series explains that logikos can be rendered in three ways: (1) “Of the word” that is, the word of God, or the Gospel, referred to in the previous section (1Pe 1.23, 24, 25). Some scholars and translations opt for this alternative (for example, Barclay “the pure milk that flows from the word of God”; Kelly “the milk of the word”). (2) “Rational,” which is the common way the term is used in classical Greek literature, particularly among the Stoic philosophers. (3) “Spiritual.” Most commentaries and translations follow this interpretation. The milk spoken of is a figure referring not to physical milk which nourishes the body, but spiritual milk, which is nourishment for one’s spiritual existence. This is further explained in the last part of the verse: the readers are to drink of this spiritual milk in order that they may grow up and be saved (literally “grow up into salvation”). (The United Bible Societies' New Testament Handbook Series) This verse literally reads the logical unadulterated (sincere, pure) milk with no Greek word for "word". The context however indicates that Peter is clearly referring to the Word of God as
1 Pedro 2:2
Cole - The literal translation of verse 2 is that we should long for “the pure, spiritual milk.” The word “spiritual” also means “rational” (Greek = “logikos,” from “logos”). The only other time it occurs in the Bible is in Romans 12:1, where Paul says that presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to God is our “spiritual (or rational) service of worship.” He means that it is a spiritual thing to do, since we don’t do it literally (as a burnt offering), but rather spiritually by yielding ourselves to the will of God. And, it is the reasonable thing to do in light of God’s great mercies to us. Thus the term is purposefully ambiguous. Peter uses it to show us that he’s not talking about literal mother’s milk, but rather about the spiritual milk of the living and abiding Word of God (1:23). This spiritual milk is rational--it is grasped with the mind. Thus Christianity is essentially rational, but not rational in the worldly sense, but rational in a spiritual sense. Human reason must be subject to the written revelation God has given of Himself in the Bible. But you cannot know God without using your mind, since He has revealed Himself in the propositional revelation of the written Word. (Getting Into the Word) Rienecker has this note on milk writing that "The many-breasted goddesses of the heathen religions who were to sustain and nourish life were widespread in the ancient world. The rabbis also compared the Law to milk" (New Linguistic & Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament) Irenaeus, an early church father, wrote that heretics "mix chalk with the milk". (= not pure). Tertullian, another early church father, said that… "The Word is to be desired with appetite as the cause of life, to be swallowed in the hearing, to be chewed as cud is by rumination with the understanding, and to be digested by faith" William
1 Pedro 2:2
Cole writes… In his book, A Quest for Godliness [Crossway Books], subtitled “The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life,” J. I. Packer reports that a Puritan preacher named Laurence Chaderton once apologized to his congregation for preaching for two hours. They responded, “For God’s sake, sir, Go on, go on!” Ah! Every preacher’s dream! At 82, after preaching for 50 years, Chaderton decided to retire. He received letters from 40 clergy begging him not to, testifying that they owed their conversion to his ministry of the Word (p. 57). Packer states (p. 98): Puritanism was, above all else, a Bible movement. To the Puritan the Bible was in truth the most precious possession that this world affords. His deepest conviction was that reverence for God means reverence for Scripture, and serving God means obeying Scripture. To his mind, therefore, no greater insult could be offered to the Creator than to neglect his written word; and, conversely, there could be no truer act of homage to him than to prize it and pore over it, and then to live out and give out its teaching. Intense veneration for Scripture, as the living word of the living God, and a devoted concern to know and do all that it prescribes, was Puritanism’s hallmark. … the Bible, if you take it straight, tells you the honest truth about yourself. It exposes the very thoughts and motives of your heart so that you have no where to hide (He 4:12, 13-notes He 4:12; 4:13). It is not uncommon, after I preach, to have someone come up to me and ask, “Did anyone tell you about what I went through this past week?” When I assure them that no one told me anything, they say, “It seemed like you knew everything and you were aiming that sermon directly at me.” It isn’t me; it’s the Bible! We tend to deceive and flatter ourselves. But the Word of God cuts through the deception and lays out the honest truth so that we can deal with our problems. I must warn you that there are legions of so-called evangelical churches where the Word of God is being watered down by upbeat preachers who want to be liked and who want to make everybody feel good about themselves. But that’s like going to a doctor who doesn’t talk about sickness, but who gives his patients sugar-coated pills that make them feel good without dealing with the root cause of their problems. As the Lord said to Jeremiah, “They have healed the wound of My people superficially” (Jer. 6:14). The Bible declares that the root cause of our problems is our sin. By confronting our sin and presenting God’s remedy for it, the Bible brings lasting healing. So I try to preach the Bible in its pure, not deceitful form, because then it confronts us with where our lives have gone astray and shows us God’s way to get back on the path. (Getting Into the Word) Starving the Soul - 1 Peter 2:2 - There is probably nothing more unpleasant than a hungry newborn baby. With no way of informing the parent of his need for food, he loudly wails and screams until a warm bottle of milk is rushed to his crib. His anguished crying soon turns to contented bliss when he sees the food coming toward him. Then with tremendous force, he slurps down the liquid until there are only a few drops left. The older the child grows, the less he will need milk. Yet, all his life, even as an adult, there is a need for this vital substance. It may not be 100% of his diet as it was during the first few months of existence, but without it, he would suffer from malnutrition. Our spiritual development is the same way. When we first trust Christ, there is a hunger to learn more about the things of God. But, we can only digest simple things, the "milk" of the Word. Then, slowly, our spiritual teeth grow and can handle the meatier aspects of Christianity. The more mature we become, the less dependent we are on milk. However, like the human body, our spiritual bodies still cannot survive without a daily intake of the basic nutrition of God's Word. Sometimes when problems arise in our life, it is because we've neglected to feed our soul. That is when we need a large dosage of the essentials to restore our spiritual health. The new nature cannot survive without a daily dosage of spiritual food. (Robert Neighbour) Billy Graham - Just as our bodies need food, so our souls need spiritual food. Without it we become malnourished and weak, susceptible to every temptation and unable to do the work God calls us to do. Where do we find this spiritual food? In the Bible, God’s Word. The Bible reveals Christ, the Bread of Life and the Water of Life. If we fail to partake of this spiritual nourishment, we will lose our spiritual vitality. People in some parts of our world do not enjoy the freedom we have to read the Bible. But most of us cannot hide behind that excuse. The problem for most of us is not getting a Bible, but using a Bible—actually picking it up and reading it. Don’t be content to skim through a chapter merely to satisfy your conscience or some long-established habit. Rather, read the Bible as if your life depended on it. Meditate on it, memorize it, and hide it in your heart so it permeates your whole being. A small portion well digested is of far greater spiritual value than a lengthy passage hurriedly scanned. (Hope for Each Day) Birth is only the beginning for a newborn baby; that child isn’t meant to be a baby forever, but to grow and become strong and eventually reach adulthood. The same is true for us. When we first come to Christ, we are “spiritual newborns”—but we aren’t meant to remain that way. God’s plan is for us to grow strong in our faith and become mature in our understanding of His will. We must take steps to grow spiritually strong, and we do this by consuming the “pure spiritual milk” God has provided for us. And what is that milk? First, God has given us the Bible; through it we learn about Him and His will for our lives. God has also given us the privilege of prayer and fellowship with other believers. If any of those—God’s Word, prayer, fellowship—is missing, our growth will be stunted. Are you growing in your faith? If not, why not? Make God’s “pure spiritual milk” part of your soul’s diet every day. (Hope for Each Day) John
1 Pedro 2:3
Cole observes that "For Peter, Christ is the Lord (as 1 Pe 2:4-note makes clear). Since this is a quote from Psalm 34:8 (from Septuagint (LXX - see Spurgeon's note on verse 8), it shows that Peter believed Christ to be God (“Yahweh” for the psalmist). Psalm 34 must have been Peter’s favorite--he quotes from it again in 1 Peter 3:10; 3:11; 3:12 (see notes). Also, the theme of Psalm 34 is roughly the same as that of 1 Peter: “If in distress you seek the Lord, He will deliver you from all your troubles, for ‘though the afflictions of the righteous are many, the Lord will rescue them out of them all’” (J. N. D. Kelly, A Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and Jude [Baker], p. 87). (1 Peter 2:1-3 Getting Into The Word) The Septuagint (Greek) of Ps 34:8 reads "geusasthe (from geuomai) kai idete hoti chrestos o kurios makarios aner os elpizei ep auton." 1Pe 2:3 reads "egeusasthe (from geuomai) hoti chrestos o kurios."
1 Pedro 2:3
Cole concludes his sermon Getting Into The Word on 1 Peter 2:1-3 with these words… The image of milk and of tasting the Lord’s kindness brings up the fact that the Word is not just to fill your head with knowledge. It is to fill your life with delight as you get to know the Divine author and enjoy Him in all His perfections. Taste points both to personal experience and enjoyment. I can’t taste for you, nor you for me. We can only taste for ourselves. To taste something, we’ve got to experience it up close. You can see and hear and smell at a distance, but you can only taste something by touching it to your tongue. You can only taste God’s Word by drawing near to God and personally appropriating the riches of knowing Him. Once you like the taste of something, you don’t just eat it to live; you live to eat it. You want it as often as you can get it. God’s Word is that way for all who have tasted His kindness. Conclusion - J. I. Packer (A Quest for Godliness, pp. 47-48, 97-98) tells of a Puritan preacher in the 1620’s named John Rogers who bore down on his 500 hearers for neglecting the Bible. First he personated God to the people, telling them, “I have trusted you so long with my Bible … it lies in such and such houses all covered with dust and cobwebs; you care not to listen to it. Do you use my Bible so? Well, you shall have my Bible no longer.” And he took the Bible from the pulpit and seemed as if he were going to carry it away from them. But then he spun around and personated the people to God. He fell on his knees and pleaded earnestly, “Lord, whatever you do to us, take not your Bible from us. Kill our children, burn our houses, destroy our goods, only spare us your Bible! Don’t take away your Bible!” Then he personated God again to the people: “Say you so? Well I will try you a while longer; and here is my Bible for you. I will see how you will use it, whether you will love it more, observe it more, practice it more, and live more according to it.” At this point, according to Thomas Goodwin, who was there and who later became a powerful preacher in his own right, the entire congregation dissolved in tears. Goodwin himself, when he got outside, hung on the neck of his horse weeping for a quarter of an hour before he had the strength to mount, so powerful an impression was upon him. If you don’t have a craving for God’s Word, there could be several reasons. Maybe you’ve never tasted the Lord’s kindness in salvation. You need to believe that He died for your sins and that He offers His salvation to you as a free gift. Take it! And start feeding on the Bible. You may not have a craving for God’s Word because of sin in your life. Someone has said that God’s Word will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from God’s Word. Confess and forsake it! And get back into the Bible. You may have ruined your appetite by feeding on the junk food of this world. “Hunger makes a good cook,” as the saying goes. If you don’t sense your great need for God and His Word, it may be because you’ve filled up on junk like television. Shut it off! Or, maybe you’ve been filling up on the junk food being sold at Christian book stores under the label of Christian, but which waters down the pure Word of God with modern man’s wisdom. Such junk food makes you feel full, but it doesn’t nourish the soul. Don’t waste your time reading it! There are some excellent Christian books that will help you to understand and apply God’s truth. They’re well worth reading. But above all else, read your Bible! Hunger for God’s truth. Drink it in like a nursing infant. You’ve got to have it above all else if you want to grow in your salvation. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (1) How can a person know if a preacher is giving out pure or watered down milk? (2) Must every Christian become a student of the Word in order to grow? What if a person just isn’t a reader? (3) How can these relational sins (1Peter 2:1-note) hinder desire for God’s Word? (4) Should we read the Word only when we’re motivated or even when we don’t feel like it? Why? (1 Peter 2:1-3 Getting Into The Word) (Bolding added)