June 2, 2025 -- I Peter 2:1-3 -- Do you KNOW that the Lord is good?

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So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
I Peter 2:1-3 ESV
 
Long for pure spiritual milk. Peter is making the contrast between longing for the former sins of malice and deceit and hypocrisy versus the longing passion for pure spiritual milk. Verse three is almost casual, but it is the key. Anyone who has tasted that the Lord is good will crave more and more of His goodness.
 
Earlier in this letter, Peter noted that the elect people of God have a living hope (1:3)—this world is not all there is. They crave pure spiritual milk because they know there will be a day when sin is no more, and the sweetness of Jesus will fill all their senses.
 
Peter notes that believers by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation to be revealed at the last time (1:5). The struggle is real. There are tearing hurts and slashing hardships which wound you now. Despite these believers like ravenously hungry little infants near the mother’s full breast turn this way and that seeking to nurse. As urgently, hungrily, as infants believers knowing the Lord is good, turn from past sins and nuzzle for pure spiritual milk.
 
Believers know all the various trials test the genuineness of their faith (1:6-7a). So, believers know by the presence of the Holy Spirit within them, that Jesus is better than all the things they used to use to sooth their greedy longings. Pure spiritual milk: bible reading, prayer, listening to sermons, the sweet Christian counsel of friends, these are all better than your best day when you were gorging on sin.
 
Fellow believer, have you tasted that the Lord is good? Do you know the sweetness of singing hymns and psalms and spiritual songs to God knowing that He alone is worthy of your praise?
Do you know the sweetness of spending time going to church, not because you must do so, but because you long to do so. I fear this is evidence of the fact that many believers have not tasted that the Lord is good. They drag themselves to church, maybe once on a Sunday, and think the Lord should be satisfied with that. It is the other way around. If you know Jesus, then your souls long to meet with Jesus surrounded by the people of God. The Holy Spirit within you stirs a craving to be with the people of God, receiving the word of God as a means of grace.
 
If what you’ve been reading doesn’t really describe you, perhaps it is time to evaluate, have you been returning to old sinful ways? Are you harboring malice? Are you allowing deceit to cloud your vision? Are you a hypocrite, stating you love God, but your true longings are oriented towards the old patterns of sinfulness and sating your senses with sensuality? The prayer today is from the Psalms. A beautiful prayer to recall the goodness of the LORD.
 
Prayer
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his Name together!
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him,
and delivers them.
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 34:1-8 ESV
 
https://youtu.be/DciMh_ciwkk?si=Q4NcO9BglScUTHTk Psalm 34 (Taste and See)
 

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