Are We Growing?
1 Peter 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.
Peter the Shepherd
Peter was called as a fisherman to become a fisherman. He had a business fishing for fish. Then he became an evangelist fishing for souls. But Peter learned that he had feet of clay and he failed the Lord. He denied that he knew him three times while the Lord was being unjustly charged with crimes in the palace of the high priest. After the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord met Peter and asked him about his love for Him. Peter now knew his weakness and as such he could identify with the weaknesses of others. At this juncture, the Lord commissions Peter to become a spiritual shepherd. He wants him to feed and to tend His followers who are seen as sheep. So Peter starts as an evangelist and ends up as a shepherd. This is often the case even today. Those who see souls brought to the Savior want to see them grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord. Their concern for the newly saved often makes shepherds out of them. In Peter’s case, he wrote two letters that grew out of his love for those newly saved.
Genuine Faith
1 Peter 1:7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Peter knows that the faith of those to whom he is writing is genuine. One way that is seen is that they are willing to endure trials. He says in 1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.” He knows that they have been born again. They have turned their back on their own reasonings and ambitions and have trusted the Lord to save them and keep them. He says in 1 Peter 1:23 that they have “been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”
While his readers have genuine faith, they still need to be fed the milk of the word so that they might grow. In the Bible, great faith doesn’t have to do with the intensity of our believing but it has to do with our ability to depend on more and more promises. When we are first saved, we know that Christ died for our sins. Then we understand that he “cares for us.” We begin to put him first with regard to decisions in life even when those decisions are contrary to the logical reasoning of the world. (See Matthew 6:33). Heaven becomes more important than our lives on this earth. We begin to understand what it means to be sojourners and pilgrims. 1 Peter 2:11, Peter writes, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” A sojourner is a temporary resident and a pilgrim is one who is traveling to a holy place. That holy place for the Christian is heaven.
Conclusion
In 2 Peter 3:18, Peter admonishes his readers to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” In the first epistle he wants them to desire the sincere milk of the word so that they may grow. That means that we start out as spiritual infants but we should mature. With maturity comes a settled peace about the truth of Scripture. It also brings about a realization that this life is not what is important. We are just passing through. On that journey, we need to remember that we are to be a “holy people,” that is, a special purchased possession that the Lord wants to set apart for Him and Him alone. He wants us to be living stones in the living organism called the church. He does not want us to be dead weights with regard to the work of building the church.
He also prepares us for the fiery trial that often comes in the life of a Christian since in Satan is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).
Questions that need to be Answered
Have we been born again? Is our faith genuine?
Are we growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus?
Are we living as though we are citizens of this world or are we living as sojourners and pilgrim?
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of June 4, 2017