The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 92

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 2.-Jnfants' food. There has just been a reference to regeneration as effected by the incorruptible seed of the Word. The metaphor is carried on in these words, which speak of the nourishment and growth of the regenerate. 'l'here does not, how- e,,er, appear to be any limitation of the injunction of our text to Christians in an early stage. For all stages of the Christian life on earth the food which nourishes is the same. All should be growing, and the most mature is still, when his.attainments are contrasted with what he will be in the future, and when the brief span of earthly life is measured against eternity, but as a new-born babe. So we have here the universal food; the appetite which all should cultivate; and the growth which all may attain. I. THE TRUE J'()(PD OF THE CIIRISTIAN SOUL IN ALL STAGES. It is impossible to preserve the force of the Greek in an English translation. The two ailjectives which qualify "milk" are both ambiguous. That rendered "sincere" in the Authorized and .. without guile" in the Revistd Version is evidently suggested by the mention of guile in the previous verse, and may either mean "guileless" in the sense of having no by-ends to serve, or more probably" unadulterated." The other epithet may either mean .. belonging to a word," or (as it means in Rom. xii.1) "spiritual," that is, figurative, not material The latter is no doubt its meaniug here. But tbat spiritual, unadulterated milk is certainly the Word of God, and probably the expression was chosen because of the very ambiguity. At all events, Peter's thought is plainly that the Christian soul's true food is the Word, which is :1t once the i11strument of regeneration and the support of life. Of course, he intends by" the Word" the truths which that Word brings to men. We are more accustomed to speak of Christ as being the Food of the soul. Is it possible that Peter here is speaking as his brother John would have spoken, and has floating before his mind in this context the thought of that Incarnate Word who liveth for ever, and in his holy humanity was without guile ? This is improbable, and not necessary in order to give full force to the tex.t. "The Word of the truth of the gospel" is the life of our so11ls, because it proclaims and brings to us Christ, who is truly their Life. The only way by which he can e11ter the soul to give and to sustain :i. better being is by means of the truth concerning him received and meditated on. Physiologists tell us that milk contains all the constituents needed for healthy life. 'l'he truth as i, is in Jesus has no admixture of deleterious matters, is unspoiled by rnen's errors, and has in it all which the soul needs. As much cannot be said of nny other " word." II. THE APPETITE WHICH ALL CHRISTIA NB SHOULD CULTIVATE. "Long for,, is nearer tl,e iuteusity of the original than "desire." There is no bodily craving more nhemeot aud tyrannous than that of hunger. \Ve all know how an infant crieR for food. Such keenness of appetite ought to mark every Christian, But the very fact tLat tl,is hunger has to be enjoineJ is a sad confession. "Infants do not need to be told to seek tl,e mothe1'i; breast." But we, alas! have to acknowledge languid indiffer• cnce and often positil'e distaste for the wholesome food which God gives. So this ai,petite has to be cultivated. And that it may, other appetites have to be restrained 11.ud starved, We are like children who eat sweetmeats, and so do not care for our on. II. 1-25.J THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 87