First Peter 2:1-5 Growth of a Spiritual House

Alright, so as Roy noted, we've got a typo on our cover slide there. We're not in Chapter 3 yet. We're in Chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. And I've titled this, Growth of a Spiritual House, which will make sense as we go. So, what is our context? Last week, As we were kind of wrapping up the end of chapter one, I went through several things that I saw as being themes, sort of Peter's major themes, things that he brings up in chapter one, and we'll continue to see throughout the epistle. So I've just summarized them here. We've got five points. There's an emphasis on the fact that as believers we are temporary residents in this world.

And there's also a view to our future hope. Now you can see how those are quite connected, right? And then there's also this contrast between what is precious and what is perishing. And again, that's connected, that ties in, because the things of this earth are temporary and perishing. And the things that are in Christ Jesus are precious. And then we have this explanation of the suffering and trials of the believer, which again, is related to our temporary stay on this earth.

And that one's sort of a lengthy point there because it's related to the, Peter kind of draws out the importance of our faith being tested and tried, and the results of that. And then there's a focus on the new life that we have as believers. So the new life that we have here and now, and the hope that we have in the future as well. So that kind of gives us a lot of our main ideas, our main themes that Peter's dealing with and we want to have in our minds as we continue on through this epistle. And so now moving into chapter two, in the first five verses, we're going to see pretty directly I think three of these themes. We're going to see the new life that we have as Christians. We're going to see a contrast between what's precious and what's perishing. And we're going to see our future hope. Now, when we talk about our future hope, I wanted to draw your attention to a word that Peter uses in chapter one, and it's going to show up here again in the beginning of chapter two.

And we just want to deal with that here so that our minds don't jump to the wrong idea. Because a lot of times we see a certain word, and we automatically think a certain way about it. So that word is salvation, or soteria. What do we think of when we hear that word, right away? We think of being born again, right? Putting your faith in the gospel, being born again, being saved from sin's penalty, right? And that's valid, for sure.

But we want to pay attention to how Peter is using this word, because he introduced it back in chapter 1, verse 5. We'll back up to verse 3 and just kind of get a running start into that. He says, "...blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance..." That word, obtain, you see when it's in italics, this is NASB, that means it's not actually there. You could say, "...unto an inheritance." which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." So the way that Peter's introduced the word salvation is actually in the future tense. This is salvation that is related to our inheritance reserved in heaven. for us as believers.

So this is really related to the future hope theme that we've talked about. So I just want to keep that in mind. I thought I'd put that right up front so that when we get to that in verse 2 this morning, we know a little bit better what we're talking about. So let's just read verses 1 through 5 of chapter 2 and then we'll kind of take them apart.

Peter writes, therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

There's a lot in there. There really is. And I realized by the time I got to the end of this lesson, we're not going to be able to do justice to all of it, unfortunately. But that's OK. That's often the way Bible study goes. And sometimes we have to be satisfied with that, that we can glean some things from it, trusting that the Lord will give us more and more over time. But we're going to begin with verses 1 through 3. And we really have to take those all together, even though that's a large chunk.

That's really one sentence. And it's a long sentence with a lot of modifying kind of phrases and things in there. But can you identify the main thought in the sentence, kind of the core of it that everything else is sort of built around and structured around and modifying? Very good. That's exactly what I pinpointed to.

So we have long for the pure milk of the word. And everything else. is built around that, right? So, let's kind of break that apart line by line and we'll kind of see how all these other things are structured around that. So, first we have therefore. It gives us the basis for this command along with the pure milk. And then we have this putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. And I said that that gives us maybe the prerequisite or the environment in which this command is fulfilled.

We're going to take that apart. There's a lot to deal with in that phrase there. But then we have this simile, like newborn babies. And so that's describing the kind of longing that we are to have. It's supposed to be that kind of longing, like newborn babies. And then, of course, we have that imperative command itself. long for the pure milk of the word."

And then he continues on, and he gives the purpose clause. I believe it's the Hena clause, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. So that's the purpose of all this, that you might grow. And then there's this conditional clause at the end, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

So let's begin at the beginning, therefore. So what does the word therefore refer back to? We know that therefore reaches back and says Carolyn's smiling, I'm just waiting for her to say something. Yeah, okay, thank you. So, yeah, why is it there? What is he reaching back to? Any thoughts on that? That the word endures, good, yeah. Any other thoughts?

I mean, we could say that this is everything that he's written up to this point, right? And I think that's correct. It also, I think, a little bit more specifically refers to what he just said. Which is, of course, it's all connected. I mean, when someone writes something, they should be connecting all their thoughts together. But what he just said, kind of back in verse 23, he made this statement, For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but the imperishable, or as Mike said, the enduring Word of God. Right?

And then the last two verses are Peter kind of telling us about the imperishable quality of the Word of God. So, I see this as fairly closely connected to that thought that you've been born again through the living Word of God. And now Peter wants to build on that. And so the idea is that since you've been born again through the Word of God, now it's time to grow. Because he's building off of that same birth picture or image. Like newborn babies, grow up. Eat and grow.

So look at the next phrase there. And I've got a question about this. It says, and this is NASB. which is a great translation. See, I'm always teaching out of the NASB, and then I always critique it, and sometimes I think, boy, you're gonna think the NASB's terrible, but every translation, translation is a difficult thing. It's very hard to precisely, you know, and always accurately, you know, render everything. And here I just, we're gonna ask some questions about the translation.

So the NASB says, putting aside. So my question is, are you putting aside all these things, or have you put them aside? Well, I mean, that might sound like a strange question, because not just the NASB, actually, but every translation that I looked at except Young's Literal had it as putting aside. And the word putting aside, just the root word, is apatissimi, apatissimi.

And that's a, the word here is, if we translate it in present tense, the way that it has been in most translations, it sort of combines it with the imperative to long for the milk of the word. that, okay, putting aside these things long for the milk almost blends it into, this is kind of part of the command, part of the action.

But what's interesting is that the Greek here is actually in the aorist tense. Now, aorist is a little bit difficult because we don't have an exact parallel in English, so sometimes I think we're fumbling a little bit when we deal with the aorist tense because we've grown up in the English language. But the aorist tense emphasizes a point of fact really unrelated to time, which is kind of hard for us because we donít have a tense like that in English. This is just a point of fact. very consistently, we translate the heiress tense as a past tense in English, because if something's a fact, it's just, it exists as a fact, well, we can kind of talk about that in the past tense in English.

So if we were to translate it that way, then we would have, oh, sorry, I was gonna comment, I'll get back to that. Therefore, having put aside, okay? therefore putting aside, that's an English present tense, compared to therefore having put aside. That makes a lot of difference in English, doesn't it? Sorry, I forgot to comment on the breakdown of the word there. It's a compound word, apa, which is a preposition for away or off, and then tithimi, which is to lay.

So Miles, you're probably going to get this. Is he asking us to depend upon something that's happened or to do something? Exactly. That's the question. That's the question. And I jumped over something in my notes. That's why I got kind of mixed up there in my slides. But this word, apathythemia, gives us actually the mental idea of taking off a garment and laying it aside. which is actually exactly the word that's used in Acts 7 at the stoning of Stephen when people are taking off their garments and laying them at the feet of Paul. That's the word that's used. So, you know, taking it off and laying it aside, apathytomy. Okay, so that's the question. Is this something that has been done or is this something that is yet to be done or that we are supposed to do? So which way should we take this?

So, on the one hand, we have to understand that as believers we have a judicial standing, but we also have an experiential walk. So on the one hand, there's what God has done judicially, what he's accomplished in our crucifixion, death, and our resurrection life, which provides freedom from the controlling power of sin. On the other hand, we have a moment-by-moment walk in that freedom which depends on faith in what God has done.

So we can say that we have already put aside these things. We have. But we can also say that we still need to put aside these things in our day-to-day walk, which is by faith. But, remember that the only way that we can put these things aside, in that experiential moment by moment, is by faith in what God has already accomplished, or already done. That He's judicially set us free from the power of sin. So, I personally lean towards translating it in the English past tense there. Therefore, having put aside. This is something that has been done. This is something that you can count on.

And in light of the fact that we have died to the power of sin, we're free to grow in respect to salvation. So, in other words, what Peter is saying is, move on from the babyhood of having been freed from the power of sin, and begin to grow in what God has for you as His child.

Yes, Jim? Is this speaking individually or corporately? Good question. So... If it's individual, I would say, yeah, you're probably right, it's past tense. But if it's corporately, he's probably speaking present tense. Explain, flesh out a little bit more. Well, like in the Weymouth translation and the HDSP, it says, rid yourself of all malice. It's something we need to do as a church. You know? If we see it happening, we need to confront it right away. Okay, so you're thinking kind of in the corporate sense.

I take this to the individual because... He tells you to long for the milk of the word that by it you may grow. Now that is in the plural, you all may grow, but I can give that instruction to all of you in the body of Christ because you all individually need to have a longing for the word and growth in it. I guess in my mind whether he's referring to the whole body or you as an individual, the imperative is the same.

I mean, I know what you're saying, and this is kind of the difficulty, and I think this is why a lot of people, basically all the translators have put it in the present tense, because they say, well, I look around the church and we sure need to rid ourselves of all these things, because they see the experiential walk of envy and slander and all these things that go on in the church.

But those things go on in people who have been judicially freed from that. And so that's where, again, there's the reality of it, we would call it positional reality, that you've been freed from sin, and then there's the need to, by faith, reckon yourself dead indeed to sin, and walk in that freedom. But I take it as Peter is saying, hey you guys, you've been freed from all this, therefore, on that basis, you can begin to walk and grow.

Yes, Carolyn. Is this along the same lines as we have been saved, we are being saved, we will be saved? Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of a common way of expressing the, you know, we're freed from the power of sin, or the, sorry, the penalty of sin, right? And see, that's when we get to the second one. steer away from that expression a little bit because it says we are being saved, but that being saved is actually done as well. You are freed from the power of sin, but you're learning to walk in the practical reality of that, the outworking experience of that because of what's been done already. It's finished as well.

So, Roy, yeah. I have a parallel passage that may help us in looking at this in Ephesians 4. beginning of verse 22 there it says this is how you learn to Christ that in reference to your former manner of life I'm going to translate it the way it is in the Greek you have laid aside the old self which has been corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit that you are being renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you have put on the new self. This is how we have learned Christ, in this way, in Ephesians. And I think it sort of parallels this passage, doesn't it?

Yeah, absolutely. There's that, and I think there's a couple others. I looked at a few of them. Same word and same aorist tense participle, putting aside or having put aside. And there it's pretty clear, isn't it? This is something that's a done deal. With foundation. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, let's keep moving or let's, Bob, did you have, I saw Bob pop up. I thought maybe he had a question. Zoom. Yeah, quick comment. Yeah, please.

Ephesians 4 really relates to the criticism of the body in terms of the walk that is not consistent with our new life in Christ. You have not so learned Christ. I mean, it's used in a negative sense there, Roy, but it's a great passage that parallels what Miles is teaching. Thanks. Yeah, Mike. Why is this just talking about sins? because there's other sins that are just as bad. All right. So that brings me to my next point. We've got a sin list, or sometimes people call them a vice list. And I decided we're not going to deal with these one at a time, because we often do that. We do word by word kind of study. And we could pull each of these apart and talk about in depth what do they really mean. But what are these things? If you just take them as a list and say, what does that describe? What is that all about?

That's normal sinful man. That's just a characterization of fallen sinful man. They describe what in sometimes the workplace we call SOPs. Anyone ever use that term at work? Standardized Operating Procedures. This is the SOP of the fallen man. And this isn't a complete list. It's kind of like the fruit of the spirit. This is just a kind of characterization. I mean, I look at it.

All those things are very real, but we could expand that list quite a lot, right? So, the whole point is that we're freed from operating according to that kind of system, the kind of man that has that nature. Well, when I look at Hebrews 12, what? Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us. So there is a difference here. As be as sins. Oh, sin versus sins. Well, I mean sins are what? Nothing more than the outworking of sin. Right? So that's the connection. So, now let's look at verse 2. What is Peter's simile in verse 2? We mentioned that at the beginning.

Like newborn babies. And now he's not saying that you are a baby believer, though you might be. Right? But our hunger for the word is supposed to be like that of a newborn. And of course we, you know, Paul talks about, you know, you're still babies, but Peter's talking to all believers here, and we are still to continue to have a hunger like babies. And, you know, if you've ever been around a newborn baby, you know exactly what this is all about, right? That's pretty much all they think about, is eating. Eating, sleeping, wake up and just want to eat again. So, you know, yeah, nothing wrong with that.

Especially when it comes to the Word of God, right? So if we're going to grow, we need to have that kind of hunger for the Word. And you know what's interesting is the Lord often gives us the situations that are intended to stimulate that kind of hunger, right?

But what's the problem is we often go running after some other solution. We've got all kinds of solutions of our own. We've got man's wisdom. We've got escapisms, things we can go to for entertainment and distraction, rather than going to the Word of God with our need.

So, what is the significance of milk? It's interesting that Peter would compare the Word of God to milk. Now, like we said, there's a connection to being born again. You're being born again, now you need to feed on milk. Milk is an incredible creation.

If you ever worked in livestock husbandry, then milk is really significant. That was always the big question. We raised sheep for 10 years and sometimes the sheep had enough milk for the lambs, sometimes she didn't, especially if she had quadruplets or more and we would have to pull lambs off so she could feed her own and then of course you have to put those ones on milk replacer because they still need the nutrition. But there's some interesting things about that.

Bob is probably just getting really excited right now about metabolism and everything else. But there's more than just nutrition in newborn milk. You can get milk replacer, which has all the same nutritional value as milk. And you can feed that to a newborn, but there's something really, really vital that's lacking.

And it's IGGs, which is, Bob, what's IGG short for? Immunoglobulins? Yeah, that's an immunoglobulin. There are five classes, but that's one. I was impressed, Ben, and I turned down one, too. That's great. But you're a little short on your IGG. How much subversion do you want? Yeah, how far do we want to go up?

All I intend to say by that is that not only is there critical nutrition, but there's also critical protection in milk. And I think that's something very similar to the word of God. It provides not only spiritual nutrition for growth, but it also provides critical protection against dangerous lies that would harm us. So I'm sure we can draw a lot more out there, but there's a lot of interesting parallels, I think.

So let's move on. What does it mean to grow in respect to salvation? Now, if you have the King James or New King James, you don't have that phrase, because this is a textual variance. And that's okay, because again, you don't have the in respect to salvation, that portion. Like I said, that's okay because the thought is still the same. But this is where we come back to that word salvation that Peter introduced in chapter 1.

And he said Peter's not using the word to talk about being born again. He's talking about this salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. So this is future salvation. This is the future blessing, the future inheritance laid up for believers. And what would it mean to grow in respect to that salvation? And the Greek, this is literally just a preposition, into, to grow into that salvation. And I just, the thought came to mind, I don't know if this happened to you, but when you were 12 years old or around that age, did your mom ever buy you a pair of shoes that were two sizes too big? Right? And what did she say? You'll grow into them.

And in a similar way, we are growing into who we are in Christ. We're already united to Him. He is our life. But all along this journey, we're learning about Him. We're learning who He is, what His life is like, and we're growing up into the life that we already have in Christ. And when the growing is done, We'll be revealed together with Him in glory, the finished product of God's grace. We're growing into that. Yeah, that's what we're growing into.

Roy, did you have a comment? Just a little subtlety there. It's up to the salvation. It isn't growing up. It's the idea of advance or progress. into, but towards what? Into Christ, growing into who we are in Christ. So, then we have this if. And so, have we?

Have we tasted the kindness of the Lord or not? And that word kindness is an interesting word. It can be translated gentle or kind. And what's interesting is we've got the only Let me see, I'm just checking my notes. I wrote down that the only other two places where this word is applied to God have to do with his kindness toward unbelievers. So that's Luke 6, 35 and 36, where it says, But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men be merciful just as your father is merciful so their kindness and mercy are tied together and extended towards, you know, ungrateful evil men.

And then we have Romans 2.4 which is in Paul's section where he's talking about the gospel and he says, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness, same word, and tolerance and patience. So again we have some synonyms kind of used there or you know associated words at least, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance.

So again, This is about God's gentle drawing. The kindness of the Lord is something that every born-again Christian has tasted of. We heard the gospel message and we received God's free gift extended to an unworthy sinner. Really, Paul tacks this on at the end of this long sentence as a way of saying that this is directed to you as a believer.

You have tasted the kindness of God. Now, don't stop feeding on the Word. Because, again, you tasted that kindness. Now, feed on it. In the same way that God, in kindness, extended the Gospel to you, He has, in kindness and gentleness, given you His whole Word that by it you may grow. I know we are moving kind of quickly, but we still have two verses left. There is a lot that could be said about the kindness of the Lord. Like I said, we are really leaving a lot unsaid this morning.

We have in verses 4 and 5 this precious stone. Who is that? Who is the precious stone? Pretty clear, this is the Lord Jesus, right? This is Jesus Christ. And Peter says that we've come to Him. Now, Jesus used the phrase, come to me, as well. So, John 6, 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. So, what's interesting is that Jesus, by making that parallelism, or that, you know, it's kind of that Hebrew way of talking, right?

And he puts kind of the same thing back to back, in a little bit different way. But what he does is he says that this coming to Jesus is all about believing in him. Because we might say, whoever comes to me, and your disciples are like, well we've followed you all over, you know, the place. But that's not the coming to him that he's talking about. He's talking about believing in him. And so we have, as Christians, we have come to Jesus through faith in the Gospel. That's what it means to have come to Him.

But we see in verse 4 that Jesus was rejected by men, right? And that's, you know, most people don't see the precious value of who Jesus is, right? They often lump Him in with other good religious teachers. But they don't see, really, who Jesus is and what he did for them. And that's really a major theme of the Gospels, the four Gospels, is that Jesus was rejected by men, right?

He came to his own, and his own received him not. Sometimes that's applied directly to the Jews, and that's probably true, but it's also, he came as a man. The Word became flesh. And then he came to his own, flesh, and they did not receive him. And so all mankind, really, as a whole, has rejected the Lord Jesus.

And we see that Jesus is a living stone. Again, so much we could probably unpack out of that, but I mean just the simple thing is that, well, He's not a dead stone. He's a living stone. And then verse 5 says that you also as living stones. So those who have come to Him by faith are also living stones. Again, that theme of new life, the new life that we have in Christ. We've really been taken for being dead stones. We are dead and trespassed as this is, and we've been made alive in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that as He is a living stone, so we are living stones.

And whose life is that? Of course, it's His life. We share the life of Christ. We have the same kind of life as Jesus has, because His life is our life. Right? He is our life. And then we see in verse 5, God's building project. So it says, you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house. Now that of course makes us think of a building, a spiritual house.

Right? And that is the word, oikos. It makes me think of a temple, or a spiritual house. That's okay. I knew that our Bible was chiming in. But we see this, you're being built up into a spiritual house, and we might think, okay, we're being built into a temple. Now, we do know from other New Testament passages that the church is described as the temple of God.

But this could also refer to a household or a family. And actually, in chapter 4 of 1 Peter, it's used that way. It says, for it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. And household there is the same word, exact same word, oikos, which means house. So house can be house or household. We see that all throughout scripture. So here, in 2.5, is this referring to the house, a temple, or the household, or family, or a spiritual family?

And that kind of gets you thinking along the lines of a priesthood, right? Which is in the next phrase. So it fits really well to take house there as a spiritual household. because he goes right into saying, for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So as a church, that's our purpose. This is God's building project. He's building up a spiritual household, a holy priesthood, in order to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. So what would constitute acceptable sacrifices. What is that referring to? Sacrifices they were to offer up. Does it remind you of any other passages?

Romans 12. Romans 12. Yeah, Romans 12, 1 and 2. Right? And this is coming, remember, at the end of all of Paul's doctrinal kind of build-up. Everything we've been through, and we're just wrapping up here in the main service through, you know, chapter 5 through the end of chapter 8, about everything that God has done for us in the Lord Jesus, and everything that He's provided us with. in Christ and then we have 9-11 talking about Israel and this but then in chapter 12 Paul gets into the practical application of all of this doctrine and he says therefore on the basis of all that I urge you brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect." This is a very parallel concept. And again, we see some of the very similar themes that Peter had in chapter 1.

Don't be conformed to this world. You don't belong to this world. You belong somewhere else. You're an alien and stranger here. But for the time being, you live here in this world. And so, during your time here, you know, you are to be about this business, present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. So, this is a very parallel text. We also have in Titus 2, 11 through 14, um, very, very similar kind of thoughts.

For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior. Again, looking forward, future hope. Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people. This is holy priesthood, a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

So, there's no doubt that what pleases God is a righteous life. And that's what Peter said back in chapter 1, right? As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. Now sometimes, you know, we Maybe we under-emphasize the holy life or walk of a believer because we are so intent on teaching the truth that your holy behavior, your righteous walk, doesn't save you. But we have all of these passages over and over that what pleases God is this righteous walk, a holy walk in this world.

So the real question is, How do we go about that? How does that happen? Right? And it's the last words right there. Through Jesus Christ. It's all through Jesus Christ. And if we miss that, then we take these passages that we just looked at, and we just totally miss it. We say, oh, okay, the thing that pleases God is that I walk in a certain way, I live a holy life, I walk righteously, I do all these good deeds, I'm zealous for good deeds, And actually, that reminds me of Romans 10. I'll just flip there quickly. Because I can't not run overtime, so I may as well add something to my...

Paul writing about his Jewish brethren, he says, For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. So it's entirely possible that we have a zeal for good deeds, just like Paul writes about Titus, zealous for good deeds, but not in accordance with knowledge. We don't understand how God has provided for that kind of life, and so we run after that zealously in the flesh, trying to live a righteous, godly life. filthy rags. It's the, you know, righteousness of my own, right?

And so we've got to have that through Jesus Christ firmly in our minds before we go about living the Christian life. And through there is the preposition dia, which is the means by which it's accomplished. So we can offer up acceptable sacrifices through Jesus Christ, but not through our own effort. This is the life of Christ in us.

So our job is to depend on Him by faith. His job is to live His life through us. And that's what's acceptable to God. That's where that righteous life comes from, from Him. Through us, as we depend on Him by faith. But that is what's acceptable, pleasing to God. Jesus Christ is the beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased. And that's the amazing thing about being a Christian is that we have the opportunity by faith to have Him live through us every moment so that He's glorified and the Father is pleased.

So, any thoughts, comments, or questions? There's a lot there, isn't there? I mean, we could really, especially verses 4 and 5, you know, this spiritual house, holy priesthood, I mean, There's a lot more in that, isn't there? There's a lot involved there. Alright, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we love you and we thank you for your word. We thank you for your kindness toward us. We thank you that we have tasted of it and now we can feed upon that same kindness in your word that you have given us everything that we need for life and godliness. That you've provided everything for the kind of life that pleases you.

And it doesn't come from us trying to work it out in the sense of us doing it. But it comes through that simple faith dependence on you. in the Lord Jesus Christ, just like when we first tasted, when we first heard the gospel message and we received it as this is for me, this is your kindness extended to me, so we can receive further truth, more of this milk and and we can just receive it by faith and trust you about the things that you've done so that the life of your son is made manifest in us. And Lord, I do pray that we would each long for the milk. We often take the pressure situations that you put us into and run to gimmick solutions. But Lord, teach us that we can trust you, that your word is sufficient for every need and every trial and difficulty that we face. And that as we learn to depend on you in all those things, it's then that we grow into full knowledge of all that you've done and all that Jesus Christ is to us. We just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.