1 Pet. ii. 1 — 3. Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the ivord, that ye may grow thereby ; if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
A STRANGE opinion has obtained amongst some, that there is no such thing as growth in grace. But the whole tenour of Scripture, from one end of it to the other, proclaims the contrary. We will go no further than to the passage before us, and to the context connected with it. In the beginning of his epistle, the Apostle had spoken of Christians as " begotten by God the Father to a lively hope3." To stir them up to walk worthy of their high calling, he says to them, " Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, as obedient children ; not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in your ignorance ; but, as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation ; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holyb." This injunction he enforces by a great variety of arguments. He urges, first, the consideration, that God the Father will judge them according to their works0; then, that they have been redeemed by God the Sond; and then, that they have been born of God the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the preached word, which unalterably inculcates and requires holiness6. From these premises he deduces the exhortation in our text : " Wherefore, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby ; if so be ye have tasted, (or as it should rather be translated, since ye have tasted,) that the Lord is gracious." Here the idea is kept up of their being children of God, though children but
a 1 Pet. i. 3. b 1 Pet. i. 13—16. c 1 Pet. i. 17.
d 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. e 1 Pet. i. 23—25.