1 Peter: God’s Pilgrim People in a Hostile World – Growing in the Word

Peter Barnes | 1 Peter 2:1-3

SERMON  NOTES
GROWING IN THE WORD
1 Peter 2:1-3

1. We must put off all evil.

– 2:1. Peter begins verse 1 with a ‘So’ (ESV) or ‘Therefore’ (NIV). This is the negative side of 1:22. For put off/put on pattern, see Rom.13:12; Eph.4:22, 25; Col.3:8; James 1:21.

(a) all malice. Actually, it is a more general word, like ‘evil’.

(b) all deceit. Mark 11:27-33.

(c) hypocrisy. Matthew 23:28.

(d) envy. To envy someone is to be mean-spirited.

(e) all slander. Matt.12:34; Leviticus 19:16; Proverbs 16:28; 17:9.

This putting off is decided, but progressive; it takes place over time.

2. We are to be nourished unto salvation.

– 2:2. The context is not critical as in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 and Hebrews 5:12-13. The image here is of a baby craving for proper nourishment.

– the milk is to be ‘spiritual’. The NKJV turns it into a noun: ‘the pure milk of the word’. The word (logikos) is also in Romans 12:1.

– there should be no additives, like the Book of Mormon or Gal.5:2, 4. Nor dilutions, what C. S. Lewis called ‘Christianity and water’.

3. We should experience that Christ is good.

– 2:3. The ESV and NKJV have ‘if’, but the NIV has ‘now that you have tasted ….’ ‘To taste’ is ‘to experience’ – Mark 9:1.

– what is said about Yahweh in Psalm 34:8 is applied to Christ in 1 Peter 2:3.