(2)
Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 2:1-4, 6-8
First Peter 2:1 and 2 say, “Therefore, putting away all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word, that by it you may grow unto salvation.” In the foregoing message we pointed out that we need to do two things. First, we need to put away all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envyings, and evil speakings. Second, we need to long for the guileless milk of the word so that by it we may grow in life. As we have seen, the genuine growth in life is the increase of the measure of life.
According to Peter’s word in 2:2, by the pure milk of the word we may grow unto salvation. The Greek word rendered “unto” also means resulting in. To grow in life results in salvation. Salvation here, as the result of growth in life, is not initial salvation. God’s full and complete salvation has a long span — from regeneration, including justification, to glorification (Rom. 8:30). At regeneration we received initial salvation. Then we need to grow by feeding on Christ as the nourishing milk in the word of God unto full salvation, unto maturity for glorification. This will be the salvation of our soul, which will be revealed to us at the unveiling of the Lord Jesus (1 Pet. 1:5, 9-10, 13). However, according to the context, “unto salvation” here refers directly to “being built up a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices” in verse 5, and to telling out “the virtues of Him” in verse 9.
If we grow unto salvation, we shall experience salvation from malice, guile, hypocrisies, envyings, and evil speakings, the five negative things spoken of in verse 1. To be saved from malice, guile, hypocrisies, envyings, and evil speakings is not accomplished by effort of our own. This cannot be done by self-improvement, adjustment, or correction. On the contrary, to be saved from these negative things is an inward matter.
As an illustration, suppose someone has bacteria that cause disease in his body. These bacteria are in his blood and in the fibers of his being. What would be the use of trying to solve this problem by washing the person with a strong soap? This could do nothing more than cleanse the outer layer of his skin. But that cleansing would not be effective against the bacteria in him. In order to deal with the bacteria, that person needs to receive an antibiotic. He also needs to take in the proper nourishment for his physical body so that it may grow. This growth will help to heal him of his illness. In like manner, it is by the inner growth unto salvation that we are saved spontaneously from the “germs” of malice, guile, hypocrisies, envyings, and evil speakings.
Fifty years ago, it was difficult for me to overcome my temper. But now after more than fifty years’ experience with the Lord, I can testify that it is difficult for me to lose my temper. Some may say that it is because I am now an elderly man that I no longer have a problem with my temper. Such a suggestion is not accurate. Actually, a person’s temper usually increases with age. For this reason, older people are often critical of others and impatient with them. Naturally speaking, the older we get, the more of a problem we shall have with our temper. In the Lord and before the Lord I can testify that the older I get, the less temper I have. The reason for this change is that over the years I have experienced growth in life unto salvation from my temper. This is an illustration of the fact that, in a practical way, we all need to grow unto salvation.
The salvation in verse 2 is not salvation in the initial stage or in the stage of consummation; it is salvation in the progressing stage, in the stage of transformation. It is correct to understand this verse as saying that we need to grow unto transformation. Of course, the word transformation is not used here. Nevertheless, salvation in this verse implies transformation. Regeneration is in the stage of initial salvation; transformation, in the stage of progressing salvation; and glorification, in the stage of consummation. We are not in the initial stage or in the stage of completion. We are in the progressing stage of salvation; that is, we are in the stage of transformation.
Transformation is different from a mere change. Transformation involves a change from one form into another form. However, it involves an inward change in nature or constitution, not simply an outward change in form. For example, suppose a person is ill, and his complexion does not look healthy. He may try to improve his appearance by putting some kind of coloring on his face. I do not like that kind of skin coloring, for it makes me think of the work of a mortician, who tries to make the face of a dead person appear as attractive as possible. Today both disciples of Confucius and many Christians are involved in outward works of self-improvement, works that can be compared to those of a mortician. Such an outward change is altogether different from living, inward transformation.
Recently, I was somewhat ill. But day by day my wife served me nourishing food. Eventually that food made me healthy and restored a healthy color to my face. When my wife saw my complexion, she was happy. There was no need for me to color my face, because the healthy color came out of the inward nourishment. I ate, digested, and assimilated nourishing food. The nourishment was transmitted into my cells, fibers, and even into my skin, and caused me to have healthy skin color. This is an illustration of transformation.
Peter charges us to long for the guileless milk of the word that by it we may grow unto transformation. We do not grow unto outward correction or outward adjustment or outward improvement. On the contrary, we grow unto inward transformation by life and in life.
Nourishing food will cause transformation only when it is given to something living and organic. If you try to give nourishment to something lifeless and inorganic, that thing would become corrupt and unclean. It is impossible for something lifeless to receive help from nourishing food. Obviously it is useless to try to feed a dead person. No doubt, the guileless milk in the word can feed us and nourish us. However, it can only feed and nourish those who are living and organic. Without life, there would not be anything in us to cooperate with this nourishment.
Peter begins 2:2 with the words “As newborn babes.” The word “newborn” indicates a living organism. A newborn babe is living and organic. As such newborn babes, we need to drink the guileless milk of the word. Then the milk will afford us living, organic nourishment. Spontaneously the life within us will work together with the nourishment of the milk so that we may grow. However, if we did not have a living, organic element in us through regeneration, the nourishment in the milk of the word would not have any effect, for there would not be any cooperation on our part.
In 1:23 Peter says that we have been regenerated. In 2:2 he urges us to be as newborn babes longing for milk. Both regeneration in 1:23 and the newborn babes in 2:2 point to the same matter — regeneration with the divine life. This regeneration is the base for our growth in life and for the purification of our inner being. We all have within us the divine life that we received in regeneration as the basis of all spiritual growth. In order to grow and be purified, we must have this base. Therefore, as newborn babes, we should long for the guileless milk of the word so that by it we may grow unto transformation.
In verse 3 Peter continues, “If you have tasted that the Lord is good.” The Lord can be tasted, and His taste is pleasant and good. If we have tasted Him, we shall long for the nourishing milk in His word. The Greek word rendered “good” in this verse also means pleasant, kind.
Peter was certain that the ones to whom he was writing had been regenerated. But he was not sure that they had tasted the Lord. For this reason he says, “If you have tasted that the Lord is good.” It was certain that the believers were newborn babes, but as verse 3 indicates, some of them may not have tasted that the Lord is good. Today millions of believers have truly been regenerated, but a great many have never tasted that the Lord is good.
Let us use an example to show how someone may be regenerated and yet not have tasted that the Lord is good. A middle-aged lady had been saved for two years. She had been redeemed and regenerated. After visiting our meetings a few times, one day she stood up to give a testimony. She said that her husband had lost his job, and they were unable to pay the rent. Furthermore, their son was sick. She went on to say that she prayed to the Lord about the situation. She praised the Lord that He gave her husband a better job, provided a better place for them to live, and even healed their son. She declared, “Hallelujah, the Lord Jesus is living and able!”
Let us consider this testimony carefully and ask if it is the testimony of a person who has tasted the Lord. I would say strongly that this is not the testimony of one who has tasted that the Lord is good. Years ago I would have felt differently about this, and I would have said that this woman surely has tasted that the Lord is good. Actually, in her testimony she said, “How good the Lord is to me! He is real, living, and good. We prayed, and He gave us a better job and a better house, and He healed our son. Hallelujah! The Lord is good.” But although she spoke of the Lord’s goodness, this is not the testimony of tasting that the Lord is good.
What, then, would be a genuine testimony of tasting the Lord? Suppose the same sister testified something like this: “My husband has lost his job, we have lost our dwelling place, and our son is ill. The more we pray, the more trouble we seem to have. But, brothers and sisters, I can testify that the more difficult our situation is, the happier I am inwardly. Oh, how I enjoy the Lord! I have experienced a little of what Paul experienced when he asked the Lord to take away the thorn and the Lord refused, saying that His grace was sufficient for Paul. The Lord caused Paul to enjoy His grace. He put him into a particular environment so that he would have to enjoy grace. He did not take away the thorn. On the one hand, Paul suffered the thorn. But on the other hand, he was experiencing the Lord’s sustaining grace. In our case, it has been several months, and still the Lord has not done anything for us outwardly. But I can testify that I have been enjoying Him as my grace. When my mother learned of our situation, she said, ‘What is this? Where is your Jesus? Is He real and living? Why wouldn’t He do anything for you? You should go to Buddha instead.’ But no matter what she says to me, I keep on enjoying the Lord’s grace.” This is a testimony of tasting the Lord.
The tasting of the Lord is not in outward miracles. Rather, it is in the inward nourishment of life. No matter what kind of environment we may be in or what kind of circumstances we may have, we are sustained by the Lord. We can say with Paul, “I can do all things in Him who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13). We can stand the test of both riches and poverty, of both pleasant circumstances and difficult, because we do not care for the outward situation but for the inward nourishment. This inward nourishment is the genuine tasting of the Lord. In these verses Peter indicates that if we have tasted that the Lord is good, we shall surely long for the milk in the word.
In verse 4 Peter goes on to speak of Christ as a living stone: “To whom coming, a living stone, having been rejected by men, but with God chosen, held in honor.” The Greek word rendered “coming” can also be translated approaching, drawing near, coming forward.
A living stone is one that not only possesses life, but also grows in life. This is Christ for God’s building. Here Peter changes his metaphor from the seed of the vegetable life (1:23-24) to the stone of minerals. The seed is for life-planting; the stone is for building (2:5). Peter’s thought has gone on from life-planting to God’s building. As life to us, Christ is the seed. For God’s building, He is the stone. After receiving Him as the seed of life, we need to grow that we may experience Him as the stone living in us. Thus He will make us also living stones, transformed with His stone nature so that we may be built together with others a spiritual house upon Him as both the foundation and the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16).
The Greek word translated “held in honor” also means precious. It differs from the word found in 1:19. There it denotes preciousness in essence. Here it indicates preciousness as recognized and held in honor.
In verses 6 through 8 Peter has more to say concerning Christ as the stone. Verse 6 says, “Because it is contained in Scripture: Behold, I lay in Zion a chosen stone, a cornerstone held in honor, and he who believes on Him shall by no means be put to shame.” This indicates that Christ is a stone chosen by God as the cornerstone for His building (Eph. 2:20). In Ephesians 2:20 Paul speaks of “Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” In that verse, as here, Christ is referred to not as the foundation, but as the cornerstone, because the main concern is not the foundation but the cornerstone that joins together the two walls, one of the Jewish believers and the other of the Gentile believers. When the Jewish builders rejected Christ, they rejected Him as the cornerstone (Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7), which would join the Gentiles to them for the building of God’s house.
In 2:7 Peter continues, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness; but to the unbelieving, A stone which the builders rejected, this became the head of the corner.” In Greek the word for “preciousness” is a kindred word to honor in verses 4 and 6. The very Christ chosen by God as a stone, even a cornerstone held in honor, is the preciousness to His believers. But to the unbelieving He is a rejected, despised stone.
The “builders” in this verse were the Jewish leaders in Judaism (Acts 4:11), who were supposed to build the house of God. They rejected Christ to the uttermost. The Lord predicted this to them (Matt. 21:38-42).
Literally, “became” means “became unto.” Christ became the head of the corner in resurrection. In his early preaching Peter had already declared this to the Jews (Acts 4:10-11).
Verse 8 says, “And, A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; who stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.” This verse reveals that the reliable Christ (v. 6), being rejected, became a stumbling stone, at which the rejecting Judaizers stumbled (Matt. 21:44). The relative pronoun “which” refers to the Jews’ disobedience with the result of stumbling.
In verse 4 Peter makes a leap from the milk of the word to the living stone. There does not seem to be a bridge or any other kind of connection between the milk and the stone. First, Peter indicates that the Lord is the milk and the word for nourishment. Then he goes on to speak of Him as the living stone.
According to verse 4, we need to come to Christ as the living stone. But what is the way to come to Him? We come to the Lord by drinking the milk of the word. Have you ever realized that when you are drinking milk from the word, that is your coming to the Lord? What is the milk in the word? That milk is the Lord Himself. Therefore, when we drink the milk, we come to the Lord. Do you have some other way of coming to the food you eat? What is your way of coming to the food? Do you not come to it by eating it? We all come to the food by eating it. The same is true with respect to coming to Christ as the living stone. In verse 4 the word “coming” is equal to drinking. Therefore, when we drink the milk, we come to the Lord.
We have pointed out that Peter seems to leap from the milk-Christ to the stone-Christ. This implies that the milk becomes the stone. How can this be? With us, this is impossible, but it is not impossible with the Lord, because He is all-inclusive. As the all-inclusive One, Christ is milk, and He is also the stone. We are not able to exhaust all the aspects of Christ. He is the milk, He is the bread, and now we see that He is the stone. According to 2:6-8, Christ is not only the stone for building, but also the stone for stumbling and grinding. Even as the stone Christ is all-inclusive: He can build us, or He can cause us to stumble, and even grind us.
We need more experience of Christ as the milk and the stone. In the morning we should drink Christ as milk from the Word. Then during the day the process of transformation should take place within us. In the evening we should come to the church meetings and fellowship with the saints. This is building. Here we see that in the morning Christ is milk, and in the evening He becomes the stone. During the day the milk does a transforming work within us to produce a stone.
Those who do not experience Christ as milk may like to be scattered or independent. The elders may visit them and encourage them to come to the meetings. However, these saints do not want to attend the meetings. One such brother once said, “As long as certain persons are in the meeting, I do not want to attend. I don’t want to see their faces. I don’t like to attend the meetings simply because they are present.” But after a time the Lord did something in this case. This brother repented of his attitude toward the particular ones involved. Then he began to have a desire to drink the milk of the word. Because of his drinking the milk, he longed to come to the church meetings. Eventually he was fully reconciled with the saints for the sake of the building.
First the Lord is milk to nourish us. Through the nourishment in the milk of the word, transformation takes place. Then we have the building, where the Lord Himself is the stone. This is the reason that in chapter two we first have the milk and then the stone.
