long for the pure word

1 PETER 2 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. ² Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, ³ now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness. ¹

If you know and love Jesus you need to be done with sin and evil behavor Just stop it. We r now filled with the Lord Jesus and he is going to change our lifestyles and everything because we are new in him. If we are not growing we need the milk of the bible in us everhy day. A new born is only going to take milk so if your new in Jesus then read and let the Lord give you basics but you need to try to get the word into you. He will lead you into deep things in the word to. You know the Love of Jesus you need to gry out for more.

Long for the bible

Long for—word.—ἐπιποθεῖν denotes intense and ever recurring desire. While the regenerate experience a longing after the word of God, by which they had been begotten, similar to the desire of newborn babes for their mother’s milk, Ps. 119:31, 72; 19:11, still the hereditary sin which yet cleaves to them renders it necessary that they should be constantly urged to the diligent use of the divine word in order to partake of it.—Milk, in opposition to solid food, 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12; 6:1, signifies the rudiments of Christian doctrine, not only its simple representation adapted to the capacity of the weak but also the more easily intelligible articles of Christianity. In this place, however, where no such antithesis exists, the figure comprises the sum-total of Christianity, the whole Gospel. Milk is the first, most simple, most refreshing, most wholesome food, especially for children; so is the word of God, cf. Is. 55:1. The most advanced Christians ought to consider themselves children, in respect of what they are to be hereafter. “Christ, the crucified, is milk for babes, food for the advanced.” Augustine. Clement of Alexandria suggests the partaking of the incarnate Logos.—λογικόν is best explained by the Apostle’s peculiarity to elucidate his figures by additional illustrations, cf. ch. 1:13, 23. It is milk contained in and flowing from the word, spiritual milk, which, as Luther explains, is drawn with the soul. The rendering ‘reasonable’ is against the usus loquendi of the New Testament, and equally inadmissible in Rom. 12:1. [Alford renders ‘spiritual’ after Allioli and Kistemaker.—M.] The nature of this milk is further defined by ἄδολον, which means unadulterated, pure, cf. 2 Cor. 4:2; 2:17. [ἄδολον seems rather to be in contrast with δόλον in v. 1.—M.] It is consequently doctrine that is not compounded with human wisdom and thus rendered inefficacious. For the word of God has the property that it exerts purifying, liberating, illuminating and consoling influences only in its purity and entireness. Irenæus says of the heretics: “They mix gypsum with the milk, they taint the heavenly doctrine with the poison of their errors.”²

That is the way we should always approach evil. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). In order to repent, we must turn from every form of sin.

Do you realize how many of our problems would be resolved if we took that counsel seriously? If we would only flee from sin, our lives would be so much more full and blessed. Sin deprives us of God’s best, and yet often we play games with sin. We try to get as close as possible without being burned. But sin is never without consequence. What we sow, we reap. “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption” (Gal. 6:8).³

do not get junk of the world but get the longing for the bible

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Peter closed the first chapter of his epistle by saying we should love one another fervently because we’re members of the same family. Just as we were all conceived by the incorruptible Word of God, as newborn babes, we’re to continue in the Word of God.

If you’re a parent, you know how newborn babes crave milk. In the middle of the night, they want milk. When you’re trying to study, they want milk. Every few hours they want milk. Peter says we’re to be the same way. He doesn’t say if we’re newborn babes, or when we’re newborn babes, but rather we’re to continue all the days of our lives as newborn babes, craving the sincere milk of the Word.

If we are all in the Word together, the result will be unity. If you don’t believe me, take a look around. This group of people would never get together for any other reason except the Word. We have different interests, political inclinations, ideas, philosophies, and backgrounds. However, as we study the Word, we are knit together in unity.

That is why we are to lay aside the slow-burning anger of malice, the trickery of guile, and the divisiveness of hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking. The degree to which those attributes exist in our lives will be the degree to which our hunger for the Word will be diminished.

No matter how good the meal my wife, Tammy, prepares for me, if I stop off at McDonald’s on the way home and score a couple of Quarter Pounders with large fries—and super-size the whole deal—when I get home, I won’t be interested in what she’s made.

When people stop reading or studying the Word, it’s because they’re eating the junk food of the world. That’s why Peter says, “First lay aside the junk and then you will desire the milk of the Word.”

milk

“As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word.” Instead of “sincere” milk, I translate it pure milk or spiritual milk. Just as a hungry baby reaches for the bottle, a believer is to desire the Word of God.

I remember when our little grandson was born. Because his father was over in Turkey at the time, his mother brought him into our home. We had him with us those first few months, and every now and then it was my task to give him his bottle. I want to tell you, that little fellow went into high gear when he saw that bottle of milk. He started moving his hands, his mouth, his feet—he was reaching out for it with every part of his body. At that time I was still the pastor of a congregation, and I thought, I wish I had a congregation that would reach out after the Word of God like that!

My friend, without a hunger for the Word of God you will not grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. You will not develop as a Christian—you will always be in your babyhood. We must remember that a little baby and a full–grown man are both human beings, but they are in different stages of growth and development. The little one needs milk so he can grow up to become a man. Now, how does a Christian grow? He grows by studying the Word of God. There is no growth apart from the Word of God.

I receive letters from many pastors who tell me that they are wet nurses for a lot of little babes. As one pastor said, “I spend my time burping spiritual babies!” Those babies should grow up so they wouldn’t need a pastor to pat them and burp them all the time. And they would grow if they desired the pure milk of the Word.

It is my conviction that the “pure milk of the word” means the total Word of God. We don’t grow spiritually by lifting out a verse for comfort here and there. We need the total Word of God to grow. We need a full, well–balanced diet. Of course, we start out with milk, but the day comes when we want a porterhouse steak, a good baked potato, a green salad, and maybe some black–eyed peas on the side. And you get all the spiritual nutrition you need in the total Word of God.⁴

1 Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (1 Pe 2:1–3). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

2 Lange, J. P., Schaff, P., Fronmüller, G. F. C., & Mombert, J. I. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: 1 Peter (p. 31). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

3 Cedar, P. A., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1984). James / 1 & 2 Peter / Jude (Vol. 34, p. 134). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

4 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (1 Peter) (electronic ed., Vol. 54, pp. 47–48). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.