Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, (2) As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (3) If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (4) To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, (5) Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
This Chapter opens with an exhortation to the Church, from what went before. The new-birth, being confirmed in all its blessed properties, and the spirit being born into that incorruptible life, which liveth and abideth forever, the people of God are here very properly called upon to testify the certainty and reality of these things, and that in a double manifestation. First, by laying aside all that evil conversation, and those evil actions, which marked the unregeneracy of their nature, while in that state. And, Secondly, in being alive to those holy desires after Christ, which are the evident tokens of the new-birth. I admire the beauty, as well as elegance of the Apostle's figure, in considering the new-born child of God as a babe in Christ. For, in the first awakenings of the spiritual life, every child of God, in his attainments, can be considered no higher. And a very blessed testimony it is of the new birth, when the child of God desires the breasts of consolation; hungers and thirsts after Christ, and is longing more for the knowledge of Jesus, and communion with Jesus, than the babe of nature testifies its health and cries for its daily food. And, indeed, under the presumption which the Apostle makes, and which is the sure consequence of being born again, the soul hath tasted that the Lord is gracious; this spiritual sense, which belongs only to the regenerate, makes the child of God exceedingly anxious to drink deeper into the glorious truths of Christ and his redemption. For the soul hath now felt somewhat of the plague of his own heart, hath had some views of the glories of Christ, and the suitableness of Jesus to his wants, as a poor sinner; and thus having known some-what of his own emptiness, and Christ's all-sufficiency, the earnest longing of the soul is for the being satisfied with the breasts of consolation, and to milk out and he delighted with the abundance of Christ's glory, Isaiah 66:10-11
There is an uncommon degree of beauty in the expression, to whom coming. The words imply, not one act, but a constancy of action. It is as if he meant to say, always coming; and for this plain reason. All our springs of spiritual life are in Christ. And the stream doth not depend more upon the constancy of supply from the fountain, than the new-born child of God (yea, and the eldest believer, and, if possible, with increasing need), doth upon the momentary supplies from Christ. Reader! do you know anything of this in your own attainments? Blessed and happy are you if you do. Very sure I am, that it is a secret but little known in the present day. The greater part of professors, yea, and too many of God's dear children also, are calculating the state of grace in which they stand, more by their own feelings, than by what they are receiving from Christ's fulness. They live like bees in the winter, in their own hives, upon their own substance, and thereby make to themselves a wintery dispensation, instead of coming out to the sweet light, and life, and everlasting fulness of the Sun of Righteousness. Whereas the Holy Ghost here teacheth the Church a more excellent way. By always coming to Christ, every day, and all the day, under a conscious sense of our own emptiness, and Jesus's all sufficiency, we receive out of his fulness grace for grace, John 1:16. And it is a sweet life. They only know the blessedness of it, who so use Christ, as God in his rich mercy hath appointed him. For my own part, I love to feel my wants, and poverty, and leanness that I may carry all to Christ, and make an exchange for his fulness, riches, and soul-renewing comforts. And very sure I am, that if I did not feel these things, but were puffed up in my own fleshly mind, the throne of grace would not be often visited by me. Oh! how truly blessed it is, When God the Spirit gives the soul a feeling sense of her poverty; then points to Jesus, who is all fulness to supply; then leads the soul to Christ, and Opens a communication with Christ, for the supply of every want, and the enjoyment of his all-suitableness and all-sufficiency. Oh! the loveliness of the Apostle's words, to whom coming!
The figure of a stone, and a living stone, in allusion to Christ, is uncommonly striking and just. As the first and last in the spiritual building, his Church, Christ is the Rock of Ages. And to intimate both the eternity of his nature, and the source of life to his people, he is Called a living stone, having life in himself. And I leave the Reader to form his own conclusions, under grace, whether the very expression doth not carry with it the fullest conviction of the Almightiness of his person; for otherwise, the very term living stone, would be inadmissible. And I beg the Reader not to overlook the striking contrast between God's esteem of Christ, and Man's, by nature. Disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious! What can be more decisive, in proof of the natural enmity of the human heart by the fall! And what more blessed to a child of God, of having been taken out of the quarry of nature, and being built upon Christ, when become living stones, deriving life from Him, and offering up through Him, and in Him, the Spiritual sacrifices of praise for redeeming love, coming up with acceptance before God upon the altar Christ Jesus?