‘Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil talk, in the same way as newborn babes do, long for the unadulterated milk of the word, that by it you may grow unto salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.'
Having been begotten by God to a glorious future through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, they are now to respond by putting away anything that defiles them, and, ‘in a similar way to newborn babes', they are to long earnestly for the genuine, unadulterated milk of the word. Peter had often seen young babes desperate for their mother's milk, and wants his readers to be the same about the word. He knew that when a newborn baby wanted its milk no one was left in any doubt. The emphasis is not on the fact of his readers being ‘newborn babes' but on the fact that they should have the same thirst for the milk of the word as hungry newborn babes have for the milk at their mothers' breasts. The idea is that having been begotten by the seed of the word (logos - 1 Peter 1:23) they should now be thirsting after the milk ‘which the word offers' (logikos).
The idea of milk as representing God's life-giving word to men may well be taken from Isaiah 55:1-2, where drinking wine and milk represent avidly hearing the word of the Lord in order to find and sustain spiritual life. Compare also Joel 3:18. Here in Peter, unlike in 1 Corinthians 3:2 where there is a stated distinction, the milk is seen as sustaining for all. Compare how the commendation of Canaan had been that it was a land flowing with milk and honey for all.
However, we have here a typical Petrine contrast (compare 1 Peter 1:14-15; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 Peter 1:23-24; 1Pe 2:4; 1 Peter 2:10; 1 Peter 2:20; 1Pe 3:3-4; 1 Peter 4:15-16; 1 Peter 5:3 and note Acts 3:13-15; Acts 5:30), and so initially, in contrast to receiving milk they are to put away (take off):
· ‘All wickedness' - the thought here is of the wickedness of the Christless world seen as a whole. They are to turn their backs on that world and all its ways and doings, and rid themselves of all its wrongful and debilitating influences. They are not to ‘love the world, or the things which are in the world, for if any man loves the world the love of the Father is not in him' (1 John 2:15). They are to be a separated people.
· ‘All guile, and hypocrisies, and envies.' Here the governing ‘all' brings these three together. These are the inner sins that could very much creep in and defile believers, and hinder their love for one another. Notice the plurals. They cover a variety of sins in a variety of people. Firstly they include deceitfulness and trickery, and the failure to behave truly and honestly. In contrast the Christian must be totally straight, and must ‘let your yes be yes, and your no be no, for whatever does not come of these is evil' (Matthew 5:37). Secondly these sins include continually ‘putting on an act' and pretending something which is not in fact genuinely true in their inner lives. It is sad how many who call themselves Christians are only playing a part and putting on an act (it is especially sad for them, for they give themselves false hopes). They draw near to God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him (Matthew 15:7-8). They have never really turned to God from sin. They forget that while they may deceive us they cannot deceive God. And thirdly these sins include being filled with envy and jealousy at the success or wealth or status of others. This was the sin that caused so much disgruntlement among the disciples themselves (e.g. Mark 9:33-34; Mark 10:41; Luke 22:24) at a time when their eyes should have been fixed on other things, and they should have been thinking more of what their Master was facing (He had told them often enough). It is a sign of pure selfishness. It is one of the most destructive things in many Christian churches. It is the very opposite of the humility that Christ calls for (Matthew 20:25-27; Luke 22:26; Philippians 2:3)
· ‘All evil talk.' Literally this is ‘all evil-speakings'. The fact that Peter separates this out and provides it with its own ‘all' demonstrates how important he saw it to be. There are so many ways in which the tongue can do damage. Nothing can destroy the unity of a church like gossiping, disparagement, talking behind people's backs, false or distorted rumours, unkind or harsh words, and unnecessary criticism. As James could say, the tongue is set on fire of Hell (James 3:6). We need ever to remember that for every idle word that a man speaks, he will be called on to give account of it in the day of Judgment (even though it has been forgiven). It is better not to speak at all than to speak slightingly of Christ by speaking slightingly of one who is His. (Compare Acts 9:4-5).
Instead of these things they are to seek thirstily for the milk ‘of the word' (logikos, i.e. ‘of the logos' - that is, of the word in 1 Peter 1:23) in its unadulterated form. They are to seek determinedly for the truth, like the Psalmists in Psalms 1:2-3 and Psalms 119. Having been begotten again by the powerful word of God, they are to long for that word continually to speak to them, mainly through the reading of the Scriptures and the preaching of the word. And they are to want it to do so in all its fullness without it being adulterated. They must let it speak to them as it is.
And the purpose of this is to be so that they might ‘grow unto salvation'. The picture is of development through drinking of the word which will cause them to grow more and more Christlike as their lives go forward, so that they are being prepared for the day when they will finally be perfected, in other words, for the day when they will ‘attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). As they behold Christ through His word they are to be changed ‘from glory into glory' by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18) until that day when they receive their final glorification (Romans 8:30), and are made like Him and see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).
We do not need to read a reference to baptism into Peter's words. Peter is not here pointing to a ceremony, however meaningful such ceremonies might have been for them, he is pointing to their living experience, and the main emphasis is not on the fact that they are newborn babes, but on the fact that they should be longing for the milk of the word of life. The reference to new-born babes (hardly applicable at the time to the spiritual state of all in the churches to whom he is writing) is simply illustrative of the desire and longing that they should have for the milk of the word. They are to long for the word in the same way as newborn babes long for milk.
But even if we were to see here the idea of Christians as being like newborn babes, the comparison would be with Jesus' references to His own as His ‘children' (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14; Mark 15:24; Luke 6:35; Luke 18:17; Matthew 5:45; Matthew 13:38; Matthew 17:25; Luke 11:13), and none of those references contain any emphasis on the thought of baptism. Rather they lay emphasis on attitude of heart. Compare also Jesus' words in John 3:1-6, where birth of the Spirit is prominently in mind, and where ‘of water' has in mind the refreshing rain of the Spirit as in Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:1-5 rather than baptism. Indeed, as we know, as far as the Gospels themselves were concerned the idea of literal baptism is ignored to such an extent that we do not even know whether, during Jesus' earthly ministry following the imprisonment of John, baptism was even practised. The impression is received that it had been left behind once Jesus had ceased working alongside John (John 3:22 to John 4:2). It is only sacramentalists who assume that the writers always have baptism in mind everywhere, basing their ideas on the emphasis of the later church (where all kinds of strange idea prospered, even among bishops), and we should note in this regard that, where detailed explanation is given, new birth is, in fact, always stated as being through the word (1 Peter 1:23; John 1:12-13; James 1:18; James 1:23) or through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3), never through baptism.
(We do not doubt the importance of baptism to the early church, nor that, when interpreted correctly, it adequately pictures these living truths. What we doubt is the excessive weight put on baptism as consciously lying behind everything that the early church taught. We treasure the experience of our own baptism, but we are not thinking of it all the time when proclaiming such truths as Peter proclaims here. Like Paul we came to Christ through faith, and through the Gospel, not through baptism - 1 Corinthians 1:17-18).
‘If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious (or good).' Compare Psalms 34:8 which in LXX uses the same words for ‘taste' and ‘good'. They have received the living word of God, and they have partaken of it and drunk of it. And if by doing so they have ‘tasted that the Lord is gracious (or good)', and the assumption is that they have, then they will want to go on doing so more and more. For here is the crucial test of all our hearts, how the word of God brings Jesus home to us. Does it make us appreciate Him and long to be like Him? Does it fill us with an awareness of His compassion and mercy? Does it make us desire Him, not with our emotions, but in our minds and our deepest thoughts. Does it make us want to set aside our sins? Does it make us see Him as He is? If we have, through His word, tasted that the Lord is gracious it will do all these things, and we will seek Him more and more, coming to Him as He is revealed to be in what now follows.