1 Peter 2:1-3 Why laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, all evil speakings,… I. THE GREAT END TO BE SOUGHT AFTER. "That ye may grow." The newborn babe is a fit emblem of the Christian. lie is one who has in him the principle of a higher life, and therefore the capacity of growth. 1. In what is it the Christian is to grow? In all that constitutes the new nature which he has received of God. (1) The foundation of the Christian life is laid in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. (2) On this there must be a superstructure of virtue and moral goodness reared, and the advancement of the one must keep pace with that of the other. 2. This growth is a gradual process. We must be prepared for fluctuations and vicissitudes in our spiritual condition. 3. Whenever this growth takes place it will be discernible. Not directly, or in itself. A child grows without being in the least degree sensible of it. Nor can even the keenest onlooker see the child grow. The fact that it has grown is discovered from the comparison of what it is now and what it had been at some period more or less distant in the past. Even so it is with Christian growth. II. THE MEANS BY WHICH THIS GREAT END IS TO BE SECURED. 1. The truth of God is revealed to us as being adapted to nourish the life of God in the soul. 2. We are to desire God's Word in order that we may grow thereby. It is very possible to desire Divine truth for other reasons and other ends than this. It is quite possible to desire to read Holy Scripture because we have been accustomed to do so, or because this wonderful book is very pleasant to read, and touches every part of our intellectual nature.But we must use it intelligently, perseveringly, to secure the great end. 1. Have we any right to call ourselves babes in Christ, children of God, born again? If not, then simply we cannot grow. Dead things, stones, cannot grow. 2. Ought not the necessity of growing to be more deeply felt, and the duty on which it depends to be more faithfully discharged? (W. L. Alexander, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,WEB: Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, |
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