1 Peter 2:1-3
Notes
Section Outline
Here (vv. 1–3) Peter sets forth ways in which the suffering believer should act. He mentions first attitudes and behaviors that ought to be abandoned and then those that ought to be adopted.
therefore is only one more instance of this problem. The flow of thought from the last chapter is continued into the second. This word signals the approach of a conclusion in the form of an exhortation reached from what has been said before.
relates to what has just preceded, namely, the new life that believers enjoy by God’s grace. They have been begotten by God (v. 23) by means of his word, and hence they are exhorted to lay aside all in their lives that quenches love for one another.
Peter has made it clear that the Christian is capable of putting off old behavior patterns (cf. 1:18) and how to do so; there is, then, no excuse for failure.
The word all appended to several of these items in Peter’s put off list means “every sort of.”
Why did Peter begin with the call to put away evil attitudes and actions? Probably because such things destroy love, and responsibility to love was the main idea in vv. 22–25.
The sins listed tear at the social fabric of the church, ripping away the threads of love that keep them together.
malice: badness, viciousness, the desire to harm others;
imposture: guile, trickery, lit., catching with bait;
hypocritical ways: misrepresenting true intentions, attitudes, etc.;
envy: displeasure over another’s good fortune;
evil speaking about others: especially behind their backs.
The Gr. word for evil is used 11 times in the NT to indicate that wickedness which comes from within a person (cf. v. 16;
Ill-will toward one another destroys the harmony befitting the community of believers.
Guile and hypocrisy are closely related, for in both cases deceit and falseness have entered the community.
“Sincere love” (v. 22) is to be the goal of believers, and deceit and hypocrisy introduce pretense and disingenuousness so that the trust necessary for love vanishes.
Envy is also contrary to love, for instead of desiring the best for others, it hopes for their downfall or prefers the advancement of oneself to the joy of others.
Slander is not limited to spreading false stories about others but also involves disparaging others.
This longing for milk is compared to the craving for milk of “newborn babies” (hōs artigennēta). The reference to “newborn babies” recalls the notion that Christians are “begotten” (anagennaō) by God (1:3, 23), and here the result of that begetting (i.e., new life) is brought to the forefront.
Some scholars conclude that the readers were new Christians since they are compared to newborns. Such a judgment is mistaken, for the readers are not identified as infants in the faith.187 They are compared to infants who have a longing for milk. They are not defined as new converts. Peter used an illustration, explaining one way in which all Christians should be like newborn babies. Achtemeier rightly comments, “The assumption that all the readers addressed in the vast area of northern Asia Minor would be recent converts all but defies the imagination.”
The word “crave” is a strong one, used of the ardent desire believers should have for God in the Old Testament (LXX
2:2 long for the pure milk of the word. Spiritual growth is always marked by a craving for and a delight in God’s Word with the intensity with which a baby craves milk (cf.
We should observe, however, that the central command in this paragraph is the injunction to long for the “pure spiritual milk” (v. 2).
Spiritual “milk” is a metaphor that refers to the divine sustenance drawn from the gospel.
The use of milk as a figure of speech in this place does not correspond to its use in
The reference to “milk” (gala) in
The word logikos is translated by the NIV and understood by many to mean “spiritual.”193 Usually, however, in Greek literature the term refers to that which is rational or reasonable. It is not equated with the term “spiritual,” even though it overlaps with it (cf. T. Levi 3:6; Philo, Spec. Laws 1.16; Epictetus, Discourses 1.16). Peter probably opted for the term to clarify that the milk he had in view was the word of God.
Peter used logikos to define milk here, so that the readers will understand that the milk by which they grow is nothing other than the word of God. The means by which God sanctifies believers is through the mind, through the continued proclamation of the word. Spiritual growth is not primarily mystical but rational, and rational in the sense that it is informed and sustained by God’s word.
Pure milk is milk that has not been thinned down by the addition of water or some other substance.
in order to overcome those sins listed above, one should yearn to find out what God has said about them in the Word and how to replace them.
What one needs is biblical sustenance in its purest form. The alternatives to those forbidden attitudes are found only in Scripture, which also explains how they may be put on.
Over the years the evil one has employed two basic ways in which to weaken the church: murder and mixture. While the former sometimes has been successful (think of the destruction of the church in North Africa by the Muslims) the latter has been preeminently so. This mixture of error with truth, this dependence on God’s Word plus something else has destroyed many lives and weakened the impact of the church.
The evidence that one has been begotten by the Father through the word is that believers continue to long for that word and become increasingly mature.
The words used here contain an allusion to
We should note at the outset the theme of the psalm. When the righteous are afflicted and suffering, they can be confident that God will deliver them from all their troubles.
Peter wanted the readers to contemplate whether they have in fact experienced the kindness of the Lord, and he was confident that the answer would be affirmative.
Believers should long for the Lord if indeed they have tasted or experienced his kindness.
Longing to grow spiritually comes from a taste of the beauty of the Lord, an experience of his kindness and goodness. Those who pursue God ardently have tasted his sweetness. Christian growth for Peter is not a mere call to duty or an alien moralism. The desire to grow springs from an experience with the Lord’s kindness, an experience that leaves believers desiring more.
In times of suffering and need, one must be able to endure, to stand and withstand the pressures all around. He will find that hardiness that he needs to do so, Peter says, only in God’s Word, which he needs to imbibe full strength. To get a good taste of biblical milk means to understand how good it is (
