1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
8 and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.” (1 Peter 2:1-3)
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
When we read 1Peter 2, we cannot help but to ask what is spiritual milk. Newborn baby craving for milk is very understandable. Peter wants us not just crave for ordinary milk of babies. For ordinary milk is easy to obtain. Milk unto salvation is not manufactured on earth.
Peter uses the words pure spiritual milk. This milk is for the spirit or the milk has spiritual quality. Peter wants us to know without truly satisfied by the spiritual fullness, our spiritual life will wither. As we crave for satisfaction, we need to be careful with the milk we choose. For a newborn baby, craving is a given. What this newborn baby is craving is more important.
Then Peter proceeded to described how Jesus was not respected nor accepted. Then Peter asserted that Jesus has become the foretold “cornerstone” by picking the builder rejected stone. The reason why Jesus was rejected is pretty simple. First, He was poorly “packaged.” Second, His teaching was not to human’s liking (only to God’s liking). Simply put, Jesus is not the kind of savior we would expect or prefer. But Jesus is of spiritual nature, the God ordained his teaching a spiritual given. The pure spiritual milk for our craving is just not to the human’s liking for God is spiritual.
In recent years, American churches are very fond of “applicational” sermons. It means all sermons have to point to a solution. Sermons will provide solutions to everyday lives. Interpretation of the scripture is to bring an instant application and solution to the problem in our lives. It is reasonable to expect the scripture will help us to solve our problems in this life but this understanding is also inadequate. If the scripture is only for the purpose of providing instant help, it is only milk but not spiritual milk. When Jesus first came to us, the Jews was looking forward to “milk.” They would expect the Messiah to ride on a tall horse, to lead a great army to overthrow the Roman Empire. They expected the Messiah to build the next Israel Empire. Yet Jesus only gave them a crucified Christ who can slowly change the hearts of people. Though Jesus brought a much deeper and permeating change to this world, it is still not the change Jews had had expected. Christians indeed were brought closer to God but they did not bring an immediate tangible result. The spiritual milk may not bring an instant desirable result. It also demands from us what we do not necessary like. Love thy enemy is not exactly palatable. Jesus’ appearance reminds us of the passion passage in Isaiah. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Is 53:2b) But God made Him the instrument of salvation. “…by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.” (Is 53:11b) As we look deeper and clearer this undesirable package, we find no instant solution to our problems, but will lead to salvation.