Message from Scripture: 10/08/2021

 

Our message from Scripture today comes from 1 Pet. 2:1; “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.”

 

The story is told of a man who one day decided to save money on his cattle’s feed. Every day, he would add increasing amounts of sawdust into the feed. Because the process was gradual, the cattle didn’t notice any difference. The plan was working well, until the animals started getting sick and died. Why? Because, in the end, the sawdust had no nutritional value. It might have filled the animals, but it also caused their deaths.

 

In a similar fashion, if we only fill our lives with the things of the world, we will ultimately become worldly-minded, and in the end it will lead to our spiritual demise. Peter told his readers they needed the pure milk of the word if they wanted to grow in their salvation. The word pure Peter uses is only used here in the New Testament. It means without deceit or fraud; the absence of what is false.

 

What Peter is trying to tell us is, if we live without the influence of God’s word, of that which is spiritual, we’re left with only sawdust, the influence of the world that may seem filling, but has no real substance to offer us what we need to mature in Christ. This is so important, Paul commanded the Christians in Corinth, “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Cor. 14:20). Without spiritual insight, it’s far too easy to be deluded by sin. The only true source of spiritual discernment is what is offered by God through His word.

 

Today, make some quiet time to let God speak through His word, the pure word that offers us spiritual insight and godly living. Let go of the trash the world offers, and find God’s rich blessings. If our Lord could use the word to overcome temptation (Matt. 4), think of what it can do for us. God bless.

 

Robert