This understanding of verses 1 and 2 comes from experience. Peter wrote these verses according to his experience. It was also through experience that I have come to understand Peter’s writing. More than fifty years ago, when I read this portion of the Word, I could not understand it, because I did not have adequate experience. But through the years I have had much more spiritual experience, and now I understand what Peter is saying. I believe that many saints also have this understanding of 2:1 and 2 according to their experience.
We should never read the Word in a natural way or in a careless manner. However, many Christians read the Bible in a natural way and take it for granted. But if we get into the depths of the Word, we shall be enlightened. Then we shall have a lot of inner feeling and also have the utterance to speak what we see.
According to Peter’s word in verse 2, we should long for the guileless milk of the word so that by it we may grow. To grow is a matter of life and in life. We received the divine life through regeneration, and we need to grow in this life and with this life by being nourished with the milk conveyed in the Word of God.
We should desire the guileless milk of the word not only to have a spiritual antibiotic, but also to receive nourishment so that we may grow. The guileless milk of the word nourishes us, and by this nourishment we grow.
Many Christians think that to grow is to gain more knowledge. After a new believer has been baptized, others may encourage him to attend some kind of Bible class. He may be encouraged to get more knowledge. However, he may not hear a word that helps him to realize that through regeneration he has received the divine life and that now his need is to grow in life. He may only be helped to learn the stories in the Gospels and then the stories in the Old Testament. Gradually, he may pick up more Bible knowledge, and some may regard this as growth. This concept of growth, however, is altogether contrary to that in the New Testament. According to the New Testament, growth is the genuine increase in the measure of life. Knowledge does not help us to increase in the measure of life.
How do children grow? They grow by receiving nourishment. If an infant has a healthy diet and daily is given nourishing food, gradually he will grow. This growth is the increase from all the food taken into him. Eventually, as a full-grown adult, this one will be a composition of what he has eaten. Perhaps at birth he weighed only six pounds. But when he is full-grown, he may be a man weighing one hundred eighty pounds. He has experienced the real growth in life, the growth that comes from eating healthy food, digesting it, and assimilating it into his cells so that it becomes the very fibers of his being. This is an illustration of genuine growth in life.
We need to desire the guileless milk of the word so that by it we may have real growth in life. True growth is the increase of the measure of life. If we are growing in life, the life element within us will increase, and there will be an increase in our spiritual stature (Eph. 4:13).