Pure Milk of the Word

[Steve Belttari]

     I am an avid reader and have a lot of knowledge, but according to God's Word, I am a babe in Christ who still needs the pure milk of the Word to grow.  Over the last few weeks I have been thinking a lot about 1 Pet 2 vs 1-3:

 

     "Therefore. laying aside all malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy and slander.

     As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.

     If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

 

Over the years, I have indeed grown in God's Word and have tasted that the Lord is gracious, but I have yet to lay aside,

 

     Malice:  Desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another.

The ill will that I feel towards some people doesn't always come out in the open, but it is there.

     Guile:  Deceitful cunning, duplicity, strategem, trick.

I've always prided myself on how clever and tricky I can be, but the Lord is not impressed.

     Hypocrisy:  The false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.

My knowledge of the scriptures makes me appear more spiritual than I really am, I'm still a babe in Christ.

     Envy:  Painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage.

It doesn't matter how many advantages that I have had in life, I always covet the advantages of other people that have been more successful than me.

     Slander:  The utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another's reputation.

I do this without realizing it sometimes, because of the evil that is in my heart.  The evil can only be replaced by the pure milk of the Word.

[Steve Belttari]

We can be negatively affected by those around us, that is why it says in 2 Cor 6 vs 14 not to be unequally teamed with unbelievers. If we do this God will take care of us as a father, "having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God"(2 Cor 7 vs 1). To encourage myself in this, I like to sing psalm 142 vs 7 to myself, I also like to do this psalm with a harmonica, it goes like this:

Set me free from my prison
(harmonica solo)
That I may praise your name
(harmonica solo)
Then the righteous will be gathered about me when they see of your goodness to me
(harmonica solo-finale)

I imagine God blessing me and surrounding me with Christians when I sing this psalm.

Valia said:

Yeah, that makes more sense to me the way you interpreted it. The more we are nourished by God's word, the less we feel tempted to give into those behaviors and the less we are affected by others who behave like that. I know what causes me to fall a lot of the time is when I see other people exhibiting greed, malice, envy, jealousy, etc. and for some reason it causes me to fall prey to those things as well.

[Juanita]

Valia said:

Yeah, that makes more sense to me the way you interpreted it. The more we are nourished by God's word, the less we feel tempted to give into those behaviors and the less we are affected by others who behave like that. I know what causes me to fall a lot of the time is when I see other people exhibiting greed, malice, envy, jealousy, etc. and for some reason it causes me to fall prey to those things as well.

Good self-observation. We are supposed to help people who are falling & it says in Gal. to be careful that you don't fall when you try to help someone else.

[Valia]

Yeah, that makes more sense to me the way you interpreted it. The more we are nourished by God's word, the less we feel tempted to give into those behaviors and the less we are affected by others who behave like that. I know what causes me to fall a lot of the time is when I see other people exhibiting greed, malice, envy, jealousy, etc. and for some reason it causes me to fall prey to those things as well.

[Steve Belttari]

Hmmm, I will have to reflect on your interpretation. The way I see it, "laying aside" seems to suggest that we already have been affected by the harsh realities of the world, so we need to be nourished by the pure milk of God's Word to be cleansed of its negative effect on us.

Valia said:

Maybe I'm totally wrong. but here's how I interpret that verse: Babies do not have malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, or slander because they haven't yet experienced the harsh realities of the world, and all the tempting things the world has to offer. I think what the verse is really saying is that we should be like babies, untouched by the cruelness of the world, but growing through God who does not exhibit any of those behaviors.

[Valia]

Maybe I'm totally wrong. but here's how I interpret that verse: Babies do not have malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, or slander because they haven't yet experienced the harsh realities of the world, and all the tempting things the world has to offer. I think what the verse is really saying is that we should be like babies, untouched by the cruelness of the world, but growing through God who does not exhibit any of those behaviors.