1 PETER 2:1–3

“DESIRE THE SINCERE MILK OF THE WORD”

1 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.

— 1 Peter 2:1–3, KJV

Once again Peter begins with “Wherefore.”

That means we should not put a chapter wall between 1 Peter 1:25 and 2:1.

Peter has just said:

“the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

Then he continues:

“Wherefore…”

The chapter number was added centuries later. Peter's argument never stopped.

These three verses grow directly out of what he has just said about new birth, the enduring Word, and fervent love for one another.

That context helps us understand what Peter means by “milk.”

“LAYING ASIDE”

Peter says:

“Wherefore laying aside…”

The Greek verb apotithēmi was commonly used for putting something off or laying something aside, including clothing.

The picture is vivid.

There are behaviors that no longer belong on people who have been born again.

Take them off.

Lay them aside.

But notice something important.

Peter does not begin his list with the spectacular sins that normally attract public attention.

He begins with sins that destroy relationships.

That makes sense because he has just commanded:

“love one another with a pure heart fervently.”

If Christians are going to love one another that way, some things have to go.

“ALL MALICE”

First:

“all malice”

The Greek kakia is a broad word for wickedness or ill will.

In this context, malice is especially appropriate: the desire or willingness to harm another person.

It is the opposite of the love Peter has just commanded.

Notice the word “all.”

Peter gives no protected little corner where Christians may keep resentment against people they particularly dislike.

All malice.

Lay it aside.

“ALL GUILE”

Next:

“all guile”

The Greek word is dolos.

It means deceit, trickery, or dishonesty—often involving an attempt to gain an advantage over another person.

Peter will shortly use the same word when describing Jesus:

“neither was guile found in his mouth.”
— 1 Peter 2:22, KJV

That gives us Peter's contrast.

The old life manipulates.

Christ did not.

Those who follow Christ should increasingly resemble Him.

“HYPOCRISIES”

The word originally had connections with acting or playing a role.

Peter is talking about pretense.

That connects directly with what he said in 1:22:

“unfeigned love of the brethren.”

“Unfeigned” means unhypocritical or genuine.

So the progression is straightforward:

Love one another genuinely.

Therefore:

Get rid of hypocrisy.

We cannot practice genuine love while constantly pretending to be something we are not.

“ENVIES”

Envy is especially destructive in a Christian community.

Envy does not merely say:

I would like to have what you have.

It resents another person's good.

Someone else receives recognition.

Someone else has more money.

Someone else has greater ability.

Someone else's family seems more successful.

Someone else is listened to.

Someone else receives praise.

And something inside us says:

Why them instead of me?

Peter says:

Lay it aside.

A community built from living stones cannot remain healthy if the stones are jealous of one another.

“ALL EVIL SPEAKINGS”

The Greek word is katalalia.

It refers to speaking against others—slander, backbiting, disparaging speech.

Again notice:

“all evil speakings.”

And again notice how relational Peter's list is.

Malice — wanting harm.

Guile — deceiving.

Hypocrisy — pretending.

Envy — resenting another's good.

Evil speaking — tearing someone down with words.

These are not five unrelated sins.

They belong together.

They destroy the kind of community Peter has just described.

WHY THESE FIVE?

Go back one verse before the chapter division.

Peter had commanded:

“love one another with a pure heart fervently.”

Then:

“Wherefore laying aside…”

That connection explains the list.

Peter is not randomly naming bad behavior.

He is identifying things that make fervent Christian love impossible.

You cannot sincerely love someone while maliciously trying to hurt him.

You cannot love someone while deliberately deceiving her.

You cannot love someone while pretending.

You cannot love someone while resenting his good fortune.

You cannot love someone while destroying her reputation behind her back.

Peter's argument is remarkably practical.

“AS NEWBORN BABES”

Now comes the familiar image:

“As newborn babes…”

This is sometimes interpreted as though Peter were telling his readers:

You are spiritually immature babies.

But is that what Peter actually says?

Not necessarily.

In fact, the context points in another direction.

Peter has just said:

“Being born again…”
— 1:23

Then only a few sentences later:

“As newborn babes…”

The newborn-baby image follows naturally from the new-birth image.

If you have been born again, Peter says, be like newborn babies in one particular respect:

Crave nourishment.

Peter does not say:

Act like babies.

He says:

“As newborn babes, desire…”

The comparison concerns their appetite.

PAUL ALSO TALKS ABOUT “MILK”—BUT DIFFERENTLY

This is where reading one passage through another can cause trouble.

Paul told the Corinthians:

“I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it…”
— 1 Corinthians 3:2, KJV

There, milk is associated with spiritual immaturity.

Hebrews uses a similar contrast:

“For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.”
— Hebrews 5:13, KJV

So it is easy to bring that meaning into 1 Peter.

But Peter does not use the image in exactly the same way.

This is an excellent example of why context matters more than simply finding the same word elsewhere in the Bible.

In Corinthians and Hebrews, the contrast is:

milk versus solid food.

Peter makes no such contrast.

His picture is:

a newborn baby's intense desire for milk.

That is different.

WATCH A HUNGRY BABY

Peter chose an image almost everyone can understand.

A newborn baby does not casually consider whether milk might be nice.

The baby wants it.

When hungry, almost nothing else matters.

Peter wants that kind of appetite among God's people.

Not:

I suppose I should read some Scripture because Christians are supposed to.

But:

I want God's truth.

I need it.

I am hungry for it.

That is the force of the picture.

“DESIRE”

The Greek verb epipotheō expresses strong longing or yearning.

Interestingly, Peter is redirecting desire.

In 1:14 he spoke of:

“the former lusts in your ignorance.”

Those were former desires.

Now there is a new desire.

Conversion does not make human beings creatures without desire.

It redirects desire.

The old life had its cravings.

The new life should have a different hunger.

“THE SINCERE MILK OF THE WORD”

The KJV phrase is:

“the sincere milk of the word.”

This requires some explanation.

The Greek adjective logikos is difficult to reproduce with one English word.

It is related to logos, and depending on context can carry ideas such as rational, spiritual, or pertaining to the word.

That is why English translations differ here.

The KJV's “of the word” fits the immediate context especially well because Peter has just spoken repeatedly about God's enduring word in 1:23–25.

So although we should acknowledge the translation question, the connection is strong:

Peter has just said they were born again through God's enduring Word.

Now these newly born people are to hunger for the nourishment God provides.

“SINCERE” DOES NOT MEAN EMOTIONALLY SINCERE

Our modern use of sincere can mislead us.

The Greek word is adolos.

Remember the word for guile in verse 1?

dolos.

Now Peter describes the milk as:

adolos.

The prefix makes it negative:

without deceit,

unadulterated,

pure.

That is a beautiful wordplay that English readers can easily miss.

Peter says:

Lay aside dolos — deceit.

Desire the milk that is adolos — without deceit.

In other words:

Get rid of deceit.

Crave what is pure.

THAT FITS TEXT B4 TRADITION PARTICULARLY WELL

If Peter calls for pure nourishment, then we should want Scripture without our own ideas secretly mixed into it.

That does not mean interpretation is unnecessary. Interpretation is unavoidable.

But it does mean we should continually ask:

Did Peter actually say this?

Or:

Have I mixed something into Peter that I brought with me?

That is the difference between trying to understand the text and merely using the text to confirm what we already believe.

“THAT YE MAY GROW THEREBY”

Peter's purpose is growth.

New birth is a beginning.

It is not the end.

A healthy newborn does not remain the same size.

Neither should someone who has been born again remain spiritually unchanged.

Peter expects growth.

But notice the means of growth:

“the sincere milk…”

Growth does not come merely from the passage of time.

Someone can be a Christian for decades without necessarily becoming mature.

Time alone does not produce spiritual maturity.

Nourishment matters.

WHAT DOES CHRISTIAN GROWTH LOOK LIKE?

Peter has already begun answering that question.

Growth means increasingly:

thinking clearly,

hoping fully in God,

living holy lives,

turning away from former desires,

loving one another sincerely,

laying aside malice,

laying aside deceit,

laying aside hypocrisy,

laying aside envy,

and controlling destructive speech.

Biblical growth is not simply knowing more Bible facts.

Knowledge matters enormously.

But if greater biblical knowledge produces greater pride, greater harshness, or greater contempt for other people, something has gone wrong.

Peter connects nourishment with transformed character.

“IF SO BE YE HAVE TASTED”

Verse 3 says:

“If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

Again, “if” does not necessarily mean Peter doubts their experience.

The thought is closer to:

Since indeed you have tasted…

Peter is appealing to something they already know.

And he is almost certainly echoing Psalm 34.

“O TASTE AND SEE”

Psalm 34:8 says:

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”
— Psalm 34:8, KJV

Peter writes:

“ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

That connection is important because Peter will continue drawing from Psalm 34 later in the letter.

In 1 Peter 3:10–12 he quotes Psalm 34:12–16 extensively.

Psalm 34 therefore seems to have been especially important to Peter's thinking.

WHO IS “THE LORD”?

Here is an interesting question.

Psalm 34 speaks of the LORD—Israel's God.

Peter says:

“if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

Then immediately in verse 4 he says:

“To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious…”

The person to whom they come is clearly Christ.

That creates a striking connection.

Peter takes language from a Psalm about the LORD and uses it in a context that flows directly into coming to Christ.

We should be careful about claiming more than the grammar establishes, but the connection contributes to the extraordinarily high view of Christ found throughout the New Testament.

Peter does not treat Jesus as merely another religious teacher.

“GRACIOUS” OR “GOOD”?

Psalm 34 says:

“the LORD is good.”

Peter's Greek word can mean good, kind, gracious, or pleasant.

The KJV gives us:

“the Lord is gracious.”

The point is experiential.

They have not merely heard someone claim that God is good.

They have tasted it.

Peter has already described that goodness:

God showed mercy.

God gave new birth.

God raised Christ.

God gave living hope.

God reserved an inheritance.

God redeemed them through Christ.

God gave them His enduring Word.

They have tasted God's goodness.

Peter says:

Now hunger for more.

THERE IS A BEAUTIFUL PROGRESSION HERE

Follow Peter from 1:22 through 2:3.

YOU OBEYED THE TRUTH

“obeying the truth”

YOU WERE BORN AGAIN

“Being born again…”

THE WORD GAVE YOU THE MESSAGE OF LIFE

“by the word of God…”

THAT WORD ENDURES

“the word of the Lord endureth for ever.”

NOW REMOVE WHAT DESTROYS LOVE

“laying aside all malice…”

CRAVE NOURISHMENT

“As newborn babes, desire…”

SO THAT YOU WILL GROW

“that ye may grow thereby.”

BECAUSE YOU HAVE ALREADY TASTED GOD'S GOODNESS

“ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

That is one continuous argument.

The chapter division can hide it.

AND NOW PETER CHANGES THE PICTURE

This is one of the fascinating things about the next verse.

Peter has been talking about birth.

His readers are like newborn babies who need nourishment.

But suddenly in verse 4 the metaphor changes completely.

Christ becomes:

“a living stone”

and Christians become:

“lively stones”

being built into:

“a spiritual house.”

Peter moves from:

BIRTH

to:

BUILDING.

From:

BABIES

to:

STONES.

From:

MILK

to:

TEMPLE.

And then he adds another image:

PRIESTS.

Peter piles one biblical picture on top of another because no single image is large enough to describe what God has made His people.

TEXT BEFORE TRADITION

This little passage gives us an excellent example of why we need to read Scripture in context.

Someone could take:

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk…”

find Paul's milk-and-meat language, and conclude:

Peter's readers were immature Christians who could only handle elementary doctrine.

But Peter never says that.

The immediate context gives us another explanation.

They have just been:

“born again.”

Therefore they should be like newborn babies in their intense hunger for nourishment.

Same biblical image.

Different context.

Different point.

This is exactly why we must resist the temptation to decide what a verse means simply because another verse somewhere else uses the same word or picture.

Read the paragraph.

Follow the writer's argument.

Then conclude.

QUESTIONS WORTH THINKING ABOUT

1. Why does Peter put malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking immediately after commanding Christians to love one another fervently?

2. Have we sometimes treated these “respectable” relational sins less seriously than Peter does?

3. Is Peter calling his readers spiritually immature babies—or telling newly born people to imitate a baby's intense hunger?

4. Why is it important that Peter does not contrast milk with solid food here?

5. What is the significance of Peter's wordplay between guile/deceit (dolos) and pure/unadulterated (adolos) milk?

6. Do we hunger to discover what Scripture actually says—or mostly look for passages that confirm how we've always understood things?

7. If we have been Christians for many years, are we merely older—or have we actually grown?

8. Does our increasing knowledge of Scripture produce the kind of character Peter has been describing?

NEXT DEEPER STUDY

1 PETER 2:4–8 — CHRIST THE LIVING STONE

Now we reach one of the richest Old Testament sections in the letter.

Peter is going to bring together Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22, and Isaiah 8:14 and apply them to Jesus.

And one particularly difficult statement is waiting for us in verse 8:

“whereunto also they were appointed.”

Does Peter mean certain people were appointed by God to unbelief, or is he saying that the consequence of rejecting Christ was appointed?

That is a place where we will need to slow down and let Peter's actual words set the boundaries.

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