Tawa Baptist

Sanctuary

Scripture: 1st Peter 3:13-17

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Sanctuary
  • Transparency
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Before we start I just want to say ‘thank you’ to the mystery person who put peanut brownie cookies in my letterbox last Monday. That was a winsome thing to do. They were delicious and I appreciated the connection with the sermon.

Today we continue our series in first Peter, focusing on chapter 3, verses 13-17. Part of the purpose of Peter’s letter is to encourage Christians who were suffering for their faith in Jesus. At the time Peter was writing, the church in Asia Minor was probably not subject to full on persecution but Christians were a marginalized minority, viewed with suspicion. There was social pressure to hide one’s faith in Christ. Believers were apparently misunderstood, maligned and slandered. In a culture where reputation was everything, the church’s reputation was getting a beating.

In today’s passage, and the verses that follow, Peter talks about how the Christian community is to handle itself in that context.

From 1st Peter chapter 3, verses 13-17, we read… 

13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hopethat you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience,so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will,to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Two words which give us a handle on this passage are sanctuary and transparency. We are to find sanctuary in Christ and we are to be transparent (or open) about our hope in Jesus.   

Sanctuary:

Last Monday, while someone was putting peanut brownie biscuits in my letterbox, I was at Zealandier, also known as the Karori Bird Sanctuary. As most of you probably know Zealandier has a special fence around it to keep predators out. The idea is to provide a secure environment which is attractive to birds. One which is filled with the kinds of trees native birds like to feed off.

In some ways Zealandier is to native birds what Christ is to Christians. Just as native birds find sanctuary at Zealandier, so too we Christian believers find our sanctuary, our security, our home and our nourishment in Christ. To be a Christian is to be in Christ. We thrive in Christ, just like native birds thrive in the Karori Sanctuary and just like branches thrive when connected to the vine.   

In verse 13, of chapter 3, Peter says: Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?

There is sanctuary, there is security, in doing good. If you do something bad, something which is outside of a Christian lifestyle, then you invite unnecessary risk and harm into your life. Sort of like a bird that chooses to make its nest outside Zealandier invites the threat of cats and other predators.   

In verse 14 Peter goes on to say: But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.

These words echo the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:10 where the Lord says: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It might seem contradictory to us that we are blessed if we suffer for doing what is right, because suffering for any reason does not feel good, it hurts. Being blessed is not measured by a subjective feeling though. Being blessed is an objective state of being.

If someone asks you to do something difficult it is actually a complement. It says, ‘I trust you to handle it.’ And that’s how Peter sees it.  For him it is a privilege, or a sign of God’s favour, to suffer for Christ (if that is God’s will).

Verse 16 also picks up the idea of finding sanctuary in doing good. Peter writes about, keeping a clear conscience,so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

It is never pleasant to be the subject of rumour and malicious talk. It feels unfair and something in us wants to cry out, ‘It’s not true’. But we know that the louder we protest in our own defence, the more guilty we appear. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: ‘The lady doth protest too much, me thinks’.

We heard last week that true humility means not responding to people’s insults but trusting God to vindicate us. One sanctuary, or safe place we take refuge in, when we are slandered, is a clear conscience. We can find strength and security in knowing we are not guilty of the things our adversaries accuse us of.

We also find sanctuary in the knowledge that God is just and all knowing. He will defend us in his good time. That’s what Peter means when he talks about his readers’ enemies being ashamed of their slander. It’s not that we wish our enemies to be embarrassed. Rather, we want the truth to win out in the end, because the truth is in everyone’s interests.

Following this train of thought, verse 17 reads: For it is better, if it is God’s will,to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  

Peter’s point is that his readers’ present suffering, for doing good, is not a sign of God’s punishment or displeasure but rather a sign of his blessing, his favour. If we suffer for the sake of righteousness, we stand to receive a reward.   

From the second part of verse 14 Peter says: “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

This is a reference to Isaiah 8, where the Lord (Yahweh) says to the prophet:

12 “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. 13 The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread. 14 and he will be a sanctuary;

In the context of Isaiah 8, the people of Judah were afraid of being invaded and overrun by their enemies. But the Lord’s message to Isaiah was, do not be afraid like the people. I, the Lord God Almighty, am in control. Fear me. Revere me. Regard me as holy and I will be a sanctuary for you. 

Peter’s first century readers may have been tempted to give in to fear of their neighbours. After all the Christian church was vulnerable; it was a marginalised minority in a potentially hostile environment. Peter’s message to them is do not be afraid of your pagan neighbours. The Lord Jesus is in control. Revere him. Notice how Peter equates Jesus with Yahweh, the Lord.  Peter is saying that Jesus is our sanctuary.  

To revere Jesus as Lord, in our heart, is to keep Jesus in the center of our lives – to orientate our whole lives around Christ and his teaching.  

There is a Baptist pastor from the South Island by the name of Andy Edwards who has worked in pastoral ministry for 30 years. Andy writes, “My biggest desire, which is my biggest challenge, is being ‘present’ to God, myself and others… and in this journey I have found slowing down and stillness to be the precondition of presence.”  

Stillness is the precondition of presence. I like that.

When I was at Zealandia last Monday, I found myself on the top of a ridge on the Lakeview Track, which overlooks the upper dam. As often happens in the bush I could hear many birds all around but I could not see any. So I sat down on a bench beside a couple of feeding stations. Just sat quietly in stillness, not really expecting anything to happen.

Within two minutes a male saddleback and a male bell bird turned up and started feeding on the sugar water. (You can tell the males because they usually have brighter feathers than the females, which is sort the opposite of the human species.) These birds were about a meter away and they stopped there to feed for a good five minutes, although I wasn’t really keeping track of the time. It was a beautiful moment; a moment of genuine sanctuary.

To revere Christ in our hearts includes being present to Jesus, present to ourselves and present to others. Stillness is the precondition of presence. Now obviously we cannot be still all the time. Much of the time life requires us to be active and on the move. But we need to stop and be still sometimes in order to revere Christ and be present to him.

Fear, anxiety, worry, conspiracy, these are the predators that rob the human soul of stillness. When we revere Jesus in our hearts, we find sanctuary from fear and a certain stillness for our soul, so that we may be nourished by the presence of God.

Transparency:

Zealandier is not like a zoo. It is not a cage where the birds are trapped inside. There is a fence to keep rats and cats and possums out but there is no roof to keep the birds in. Zealandier is transparent. It is open to the public and the birds are free to come and go as they please. The transparency of the sanctuary actually encourages native bird life in the greater Wellington area. 

Being in Christ is like being in a sanctuary that has a definite boundary fence or code of conduct, but it also has a gate to give access to the public and it has no roof, it is open to be shared.  

In verse 15, after having told his readers to revere Christ as Lord, Peter writes: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hopethat you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…

So far, throughout this series, we have heard Peter encouraging his readers to be a winsome witness and let their distinctive Christian lifestyle do the talking. Here, in verse 15, Peter says be prepared to speak words of explanation as well.

The idea is that we Christians are to be open and transparent about our hope in Jesus. We are not to push our beliefs down people’s throats. (That would not be respectful or gentle.) Nor are we to keep our faith locked away like an animal in a cage. Rather we are to be prepared to speak when invited.

Peter had to learn this the hard way. On the night when Jesus was betrayed and arrested Peter was not prepared. He was standing outside warming himself by the fire when those with him asked if he was with Jesus. Sadly, Peter denied this three times without gentleness or respect.

But Peter found redemption. Later, after Jesus’ resurrection, when Peter was brought before the same Council who condemned Jesus, Peter was prepared to speak words of reason, with gentleness and respect. 

Okay, so what might you say if someone asks you why you are a Christian? Well, I’m not going to give you a script to follow. It does not work to recite someone else’s words. That just sounds like a telemarketer trying to sell you something. What we say has to be real and genuine. You have to find your own words and your own way of getting the message across.

With these things in mind, try to remember this acrostic. L.O.V.E. Love. Love is the main point of the gospel message. Jesus came to show us God’s love.

L stands for listen. Love listens. If someone wants to have a conversation about your Christian faith, then try to listen to what they are really saying. Listening is both respectful and gentle. Listening earns us the right to be heard and it helps us to understand the other person better.

Which brings us to the O in ourL.O.V.E. acrostic. O stands for others. If someone asks you to give account for the hope you have, you need to understand it’s not about you, it’s about them. What do they need from this conversation? We learn what others need by listening and asking questions.

What you say does not need to be long but it does need to be clear. Don’t use Christian jargon or big theological words that make the other person feel small. Because that is not gentle or respectful and it does not communicate God’s love. The Christian faith is reasonable. It is logical. It makes sense. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and ask, ‘what sense are they making of what I’m saying?’.

V is for vulnerable. Make yourself vulnerable, without going overboard, and without making anyone else vulnerable. Do not speak down to the person. Do not patronize. Come alongside. Share from your heart as much as is helpful. There is a risk with sharing something deeply personal, like our hope in Jesus. We risk rejection.

But that is the way of Christ. Jesus did not coerce people. He challenged people, yes. And his words disturbed people. But he spoke from a place of vulnerability. He did it without defending himself, with his arms open and his heart exposed.

There is a certain stillness in making ourselves vulnerable for the sake of the other person. Even when people cannot understand the content of what we are saying, if we say it with vulnerability, so that the other person knows they are standing on holy ground, a feeling of stillness settles on the conversation and a door to God’s presence is opened.

E is for experience. When it comes to sharing your faith, experience is your friend. People cannot argue with your experience. I like to talk about the goodness of God and the meaning God gives to life because that is real in my experience. One of the reasons I am a Christian is because Jesus makes this world a better place. He makes ugly things (ugly situations) beautiful.

He makes pain bearable.

He comes alongside me when I am lonely and shows me his scars so that, without words, I know I am understood. I am not alone.

He does not lie to me and, for those who have been let down and lied to a lot, that is huge. That is gold.

There is a purity to Jesus that I love and am terrified of at the same time.

These are my words. You need to find your own words based on your experience of God.

When you are in a conversation think L.O.V.E. Start by listening. Remember it is not about you. It is about the other person. Be prepared to make yourself vulnerable but not too vulnerable. Share don’t scare. And speak from your own experience.  

So how might we prepare ourselves then? How might we find the words we need to articulate our hope?

We need to take time daily to soak in the Scriptures and be present to what the Holy Spirit might be saying.

We also need to think about our faith and sometimes to wrestle with the gnarly bits. When you boil it all down, what is it you actually believe to be true in simple language.

And how does that square with the Scriptures, with your own experience and the experience of other believers?

In verse 15, when Peter talks about the hopeyou have… the you is plural, not singular. So it is both your hope personally and our hope collectively. Hearing what other Christians believe and how they have made sense of the gnarly bits helps us in forming what we believe. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. But you do have to own it. It has to be real for you and that takes a process.  

Hope here refers to future salvation. Hope therefore is having faith (or trust) that, even though the present may be difficult, we have something good to look forward to in the future.

That hope may be the hope of resurrection and seeing Jesus face to face.

It may be the hope of being reunited with loved ones who have passed on.

It could be the hope of seeing justice done, of God vindicating the righteous and righting wrongs

It may the hope of seeing a friend or family member share our faith in Christ

Or it may be the hope of being set free from the limitations and burdens and pain we carry in this life.

You know the hope you carry inside you. You know the hope that carries you.

I do not pretend to be good at hope. Like Jonah I tend to think the worst. But, like Jonah, I also know God is more gracious than I am. Which is why God does not quit me and I cannot quit him. And so I find hope in God’s character, his goodness.   

We are talking about the need to be transparent about our faith; to be open about our hope in Jesus. Those of us who were at the church forum last Wednesday saw a wonderful example of transparent hope when Katie & Dan shared with us their sense of call to become youth pastors.

Dan & Katie were quite open with us about the journey they are on. This openness (this transparency) created a moment of stillness, I felt. There were a couple of things Dan said in particular, which I won’t share with you because it is Dan’s story and it is for him to share. But the gentleness and respect and vulnerability with which they shared created a stillness which opened the door to presence. I have asked Dan & Katie to share with us next Sunday morning.

Conclusion:

We started today’s message hearing about the situation of Peter’s first century readers, how they were misunderstood, maligned and socially marginalised. Our situation in 21st Century New Zealand is not identical to theirs but there is some overlap.

The church in New Zealand today is not persecuted but we are aware of a growing disconnect between what Christians believe and what the wider society, we live in, believes. I don’t think we have it as hard as some of Peter’s readers did but we also do not have it as easy as we once did. It seems Peter’s letter is becoming more and more relevant to us.

We need to maintain our sanctuary in Christ. And that means taking time to be still and wait for the presence of Jesus.

We also need to be transparent about our hope in Christ. And that means being prepared to speak with words of love.   

Let’s stand now and sing, Jesus, be the center…

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What was the situation of Peter’s first century readers? How is that similar (or different) from our situation today?
  • What practical things can we do to find and maintain sanctuary in Christ?
  • Why do we need to take time to be still? How does stillness help us to be present to God, ourselves and others? Do you have regular patterns of stillness in your weekly routine? If not, what would need to change to create space for stillness?
  • Why do we need to be transparent about our hope in Christ?
  • What would you say if someone asked you to talk about the reason for your hope?  
  • Discuss / reflect on the L.O.V.E. acrostic. Which aspects do you need to work on? (e.g. listening, others, vulnerability, experience.)
Tawa Baptist

Milk

Scripture: 1st Peter 1:22-2:3

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Converted to love
  • Born to last
  • Feed on God
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When I was in my teens I was asked by a mate to do some hay making. Being a city boy I didn’t realise what I was in for. I started the day with breakfast of a couple of Weetbix and a piece toast, before heading off to work in the field.

Unfortunately, it had rained a little the night before so the hay was a bit damp. And lifting a wet bale of hay onto the back of a truck takes more energy. By lunchtime I was feeling a bit depleted. My breakfast of two Weetbix and one piece of toast was not enough to sustain me for the heavy lifting of the whole day. I needed a more substantial breakfast.

Today we continue our series in the letter of 1st Peter. Last week we heard how the Christian believer is to relate with God – that is with holiness and reverent fear. Today’s passage shifts the focus to living in right relationship with other Christian believers. From 1st Peter, chapter 1, verse 22 through to chapter 2, verse 3, we read…

22 Now that you have purifiedyourselves by obeyingthe truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply,from the heart. 23 For you have been born again,not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

2 Therefore, rid yourselvesof all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slanderof every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,so that by it you may grow upin your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.    

In a nutshell, Peter is saying here: you have been converted to love and born to last, therefore feed on the goodness of God.

You see, loving people can be hard yacker. Like hay making it involves heavy lifting. It is only by feeding on the goodness of God that the work of love is sustained over a lifetime.    

Converted to love:

Imagine you are walking in the wilderness, through native bush. This is not just a casual day walk. This is one of the great walks, lasting nearly a week. Two days into the journey, someone steels your food and your tent. So, by day three, you have not eaten for a while and you’ve been sleeping rough. Now you are tired and hungry.

As you follow the path you come to a river. There is no bridge. If you continue on the path you are on, it will lead you beside the river to who knows where. (They stole your map and compass as well.)  Just then you see people on the other side of the river, cooking sausages. You have a choice. Either you stay on your side and carry on walking beside the river until you reach the sea, or you cross over to join the people for dinner.

Crossing the river would not be easy. It would take some effort and involve risk. The water is cold, the current is swift and the river is deep, so you would have to ditch your pack and swim.

Someone on the far bank of the river sees you and calls out for you to come over. You catch a whiff of the sausages and decide to take the plunge. What have you got to lose? Except your pack, which is kind of pointless now your food and tent have been stolen.

A couple of minutes later you are on the other side, dripping wet and shivering. The small group of trampers welcome you with a hot Milo and a dry towel. You have never met them before but they are friendly and kind and they are headed in the right direction. They know the way back to civilization.   

This little story is an allegory to Christian conversion. Christian conversion is both an event and a process. Conversion is an event that happens at a particular point in time, when we make a conscious decision, but it is also a process that happens over time.

The conversion event in my story was when the tramper crossed the river. He made a conscious decision to leave the path he was on and go in a different direction. He did this because he saw people on the other side calling him over. Crossing the river was not easy. It required him to leave his pack behind.

But the weary tramper did not convert into nothing. He converted into a community that cared for and accepted him.

Of course, the story of conversion does not end there. The trampers were on a journey out of the wilderness. The process of conversion was not complete until they had finished the journey and made it back home to civilization.     

In verse 22, when Peter writes, you have purifiedyourselves by obeyingthe truth, he is talking about Christian conversion. The ‘truth’ Peter’s readers have obeyed here is the gospel truth concerning Jesus. Peter’s readers have heard the good news about Jesus preached and they have believed it. Someone has called to them from across the river and they have left the old path they were on, ditched their baggage and crossed over to the other side. They have accepted Jesus as their Saviour and Lord and joined the camp of his people.

Conversion may refer to the transition from one religion to another, but it can also refer to moving deeper into one’s own religion. I expect most of Peter’s Gentile readers would have converted from paganism to Christianity. While his Jewish readers had moved more deeply into their own religion. Because Jesus, the Messiah, is Jewish. He is at the heart of Jewish faith.

Some of you may have converted to Christianity from another religion. While others may have become Christians without having any sort of religious background.

Many of you have grown up in a Christian home and gone to church with your parents since you were a child. You may find it hard to identify a particular point in time (a conversion event as such) because you grew up immersed in the church. Nevertheless, there is probably a point in your journey where the Christian faith deepened from being something you went along with, because that’s what your parents believed, to something you owned for yourself and integrated into your life. That moving deeper is an event within the process of Christian conversion.

The point Peter is making in verse 22 is that we are converted to love one another. Christian conversion is not just that point in time when we admit intellectual agreement with certain doctrines (although it does include that). Christian conversion is the process of growing in our love for God and his people.

The kind of love Peter has in mind here is genuine, sincere, unpretentious love. Deep love, from the heart. Love from the core of our being, from the inside out. This kind of love is not just a warm fuzzy feeling (although it may sometimes include pleasant feelings). The love in view here is expressed in righteous relationships based on God’s character. Christian love is very much an action as well as an attitude. An action informed by the way God loves us in Christ.

To put it more plainly loving one another requires the heavy lifting of self-control and patience and forgiveness and turning the other cheek and that sort of stuff.    

Those who have been on the journey for a while will know that the process of conversion often involves a number of events (or river crossings) as we move to a deeper love of God and his people. With each crossing we must leave something behind but we also hopefully find a warm cup of Milo waiting for us on the other side.

We are converted to love and we are born to last.

Born to last:

Tuesday, the 1st of September, marked the beginning of the season of spring. Some of you may have daffodils popping up and coming to flower in your garden. Many kowhai trees around Tawa are in full glory. The intense yellows are a beautiful distraction.

As much as I enjoy the visual symphony of spring, I am also aware that every daffodil and kowhai flower and cherry blossom is pregnant with sadness. They only last a few brief weeks, perhaps less if the wind picks up, and then they are gone.  

In verse 24 of chapter 1, Peter quotes from the prophet Isaiah: “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

This quotation comes from Isaiah chapter 40. It was originally intended as a message of comfort and encouragement to the Jews living in exile, following the fall of Jerusalem in the sixth century BC.

These Jews of the diaspora, these sojourners living in a foreign land, were disheartened and wondering where they stood with God. Did his covenant promises still hold true?

You see, the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon and other places the exiles were scattered, seemed invincible but they were actually like grass. Their glory was like the flowers of the field. Here today and gone next week. Yes, they looked spectacular now but they were pregnant with sadness. They would not last.

By contrast, God’s word (his promises to his people) would endure forever. And so Isaiah’s message to the exiles was good news. ‘Yes, the promises of God’s word do hold true. You are not forgotten in your loneliness and alienation. Despite the way things appear you still belong to God.’ 

Peter piggy backs off Isaiah. He appropriates Isaiah’s message and applies it to his readers. Peter addresses the Christians of the first century AD as exiles. As followers of Christ they have been oppressed and given a rough deal. But the Roman empire (as glorious and as mighty as it seemed at the time) was like grass. Here today, gone tomorrow.    

With this is mind Peter could say with confidence (in verse 23) that his readers have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

In other words, they were born to last. Born for eternal life.

Jesus referred to the word of God as a seed in his teaching. Notice the imagery of the seed here. A seed is something small and ordinary looking. A seed is often hidden and covered in dirt. A seed does not look like much but it is full of potential. Just as a seed carries the DNA of the plant, and a sperm carries the DNA of the father, so too the word of God carries the characteristics of God the Father. God is eternal and God is love. That is what the Christian convert is born to.

If we believe in Jesus, then we have been converted to love and born to last therefore, to sustain our life and our love, we must feed on the goodness of God.

Feed on God:          

Have you ever noticed the way nothing in God’s creation clashes? His colour schemes are constantly changing but they always fit. They always make sense. Whether it is a sunrise over the sea or sheep in the high country or flowers in spring or the moonlight over Wellington harbour, it always goes together.

There is a logic to the way God does things. That logic is not always evident at first but it reveals itself to those who are pure in heart and patient enough.

In verse 1 of chapter 2, Peter says: Therefore, rid yourselvesof all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slanderof every kind.   

We notice here that three of these five vices are about sustaining what is false. Deceit, hypocrisy and slander are enemies of the truth and therefore they undermine the genuine, sincere, unpretentious love Peter was just talking about in verse 22.   

Clearly all five vices do not fit people who have been converted to love. They actually work against loving one another. Likewise, these vices do not follow logically (they do not make sense) for those who have been born again through the living and enduring word of God.  We need to rid ourselves of them – cast them aside like leaving the old pack behind before crossing the river.

From verse 2 of chapter 2, Peter writes: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,so that by it you may grow upin your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

The main idea here is that Christian believers need to feed on the goodness of God. It is by feeding on the goodness of God that we gain the nourishment and strength to grow in our love for one another. 

Now there are a couple of things to clarify here. Firstly, Peter is not meaning to suggest that his readers are immature in their faith. There is no criticism here. Some of his readers may have been new converts but a lot of them would have been Christians for a while. In the same way that people of all ages drink milk, so too Christians at all stages of faith can feed on the goodness of God.

Although, elsewhere in the New Testament, milk is used as a metaphor for teachings suitable for immature Christians (e.g. Hebrews 5:12), no such negative connotation is found here. Rather, Peter sees milk as that which all Christians need in order to nurture and sustain their faith. [1]

The emphasis in the text is on craving God’s goodness.

We also need to clarify what is meant by milk? Many modern commentators take the view that milk is a metaphor for God’s word, as found in the Bible. But that is quite a narrow understanding.

Yes, reading the Bible and listening to sermons and going to Bible studies can and does nourish our faith & love but it is not the only way our faith & love is nourished. For example, your soul may be nourished by noticing the ways God has worked his purpose for good in your life and thanking Him for that. Spending time in nature, reflecting on the way God fits everything together, can also be milk to your soul.   

Verse 3 makes it clear that the spiritual milk Peter has in mind here is the milk of God’s goodness or kindness.

Verse 3 connects with Psalm 34:8 where the psalmist says: Taste and see that the Lord is God. Blessed is the person who takes refuge in him.

That word spiritual is also worth a closer look. What does it mean that the milk is spiritual? In the original Greek version of the New Testament the word spiritual is actually logikos. In ancient Greek literature logikos was normally translated as rational or reasonable; that is, fitting or making sense.      

This is quite different from the way we tend to think of the word spiritual. Many people today hold a false dichotomy when it comes to spiritual things. We tend to think that ‘spiritual’ means the opposite of physical. Something non-material and therefore not scientific or rational or understandable.

But that is not what the Bible means by spiritual. To be logikos or spiritual, in the New Testament, is to be ‘true to the real nature’ of something. [2]

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of an apple tree to produce apples. 

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a carpenter to measure twice and count once.

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of an accountant to reconcile and balance the books.

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a citizen to pay their taxes and abide by the laws of the land.

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a baby to crave its mother’s milk.

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a father to protect and provide for his children.    

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a Christian to copy Jesus by loving God and loving your neighbour.   

This means that being spiritual (or logikos) is about fulfilling the purpose for which God created us.

If God created you to be a teacher, then teaching is spiritual.

If God created you to be a stay at home mum or dad, then looking after kids, changing nappies, doing the washing and baking biscuits is spiritual.

If God created you to make music, then playing the guitar or the piano or the viola or the bass, for his glory and other people’s enjoyment, is spiritual.

If God created you to work with your hands, then making beautiful kitchens or wiring someone’s house or unblocking someone’s drain is spiritual.

If God created you to be a manager, then treating your staff with kindness and fairness is spiritual.

I could go on but you get the point. Being spiritual is not an aesthetic, it is not about appearances. Being spiritual is about being true to our real nature – the way God has made us.

In the gospels Jesus got upset with the religious leaders of his day because they were not logikos. They were not spiritual. They were not behaving in ways that were true to the spirit of God’s law. The opposite of logikos, the opposite of being spiritual, is being a hypocrite. A hypocrite is an actor; someone who is pretending to be what they are not.

In Romans 12:1 the apostle Paul tells the Christians in Rome that presenting their bodies as living sacrifices is their logikos worship (their spiritual worship). It is worship that is true and reasonable and fits with the new reality to which they have converted.

Conclusion:

So when Peter instructs us to crave pure spiritual milk he means, fill your boots with that which is fitting for a child of God to feed on. And what is fitting for a child of God to feed on? The goodness of God.          

If we feed on deceit. If we feed on malice or evil. If we feed on gossip and slander. If we pretend to be something we are not. If we keep replaying in our mind the hurtful things that people have said or done to us. Then we will be quickly drained of the strength we need to love one another.

But if we feed on what is true. If we feed on kindness and goodness. If we shut down gossip and slander. If we learn to be ourselves and live in our own soul. If we let go of our hurt and instead replay in our mind the many facets of God’s grace for us. Then we will be nourished and strengthened to grow in our love for one another. 

We have been converted to love and born to last therefore, to grow and sustain our life and our love, we must feed on the goodness of God.

May grace and peace be yours in abundance. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What do you normally eat for breakfast? Is this enough to sustain you for the day?
  • Reflecting on your own experience, what have been the significant events in the process of conversion for you?
  • What does Peter mean by love? How does this quality of love find expression in your community of faith?
  • Why does Peter quote from Isaiah 40? (in 1st Peter 1:24) How was Isaiah 40 relevant to Peter’s readers? Does Isaiah 40 resonate with you? If so, why?
  • What does the word logikos (spiritual) mean in the context of the New Testament? What does Peter mean by pure spiritual milk?
  • Take some time this week to feed on the goodness of God.

[1] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 132.

[2] Ibid, page 136.