“I thirst to be made more thirsty still”
Download discussion questions: 1 Peter 1:22-2:10
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I encourage you to look at the passage in 1 Peter before you read this Blog entry. What do you see in the text yourself? What questions come to your mind? How would you interpret what the writer says? After even a few minutes examining and thinking about the text you will be much better prepared to evaluate the comments in the Blog.
One notable feature of this section of Peter’s first letter is his use of multiple images and figures of speech interspersed with quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures. We spent at least part of our time together exploring how the different illustrations express his ideas.
Stones
Peter includes an assortment of descriptive pictures: seeds and grass and flowers (1:23-25), infants and milk and tasting and growing (2:2-3), and later race, nation, people (2:9-10). But our group agreed that the dominant image throughout the passage is stone: living stone, precious stone, building stones, cornerstone, rejected stone, stumbling stone, offending stone.
Someone observed that the phrase “living stone” is used twice, once as a singular description (2:4) and then immediately as a plural expression (2:5). The clear implication is that just as Christ (the “living stone”) was rejected and suffered, we believers, His followers, (“living stones”) can expect similar misunderstanding and negative treatment by others. Peter’s encouragement emphasizes that the sufferings of Jesus were part of God’s sovereign plan in their intimate Father-Son relationship (“chosen and precious in the sight of God” in v. 4). Likewise, we are equally in God’s providence as we are being built up into a community of believers to please God (“to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” in v. 5). One person pointed out that a single stone on a foundation is not any kind of a building. Only as multiple stones are combined to fit together resting on the cornerstone does the building become usable.
Love Fervently
A question came up about the “therefore” at the beginning of chapter 2. A cliché of inductive Bible study (but a valuable guideline) is the question, “What is the ‘therefore’ there for?” How is what follows connected to what has just been written? In this instance, the ‘therefore’ is followed by several specific behaviors to reject.
Therefore, ridding yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander… (1 Peter 2:1)
Is Peter simply giving some good, generic advice? Or does the ‘therefore’ clearly connect those faults with the case he is making for living through difficult times of suffering?
As a member of our group suggested, Peter is beginning to explain his previous command, “love one another fervently from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). In a previous discussion we noted the intensity of the word “fervently” in Jesus prayer in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44) and in prayers for the imprisoned Peter (Acts 12:5). Here, Peter himself summarizes specific obstacles to that fervent love. The ‘therefore’ makes it clear. Eliminating those relational sins is the consistent consequence of the new birth (1:23) and a critical necessity for fervent love.
We discussed how easy it is to read over that list and excuse ourselves because we really aren’t all that malicious, deceitful, hypocritical, envious or slanderous. But Peter’s instruction is not a matter of degree. He repeats the word “all” multiple times. Someone commented how deceit can just be “bending reality” to see things the way we want to, and another person mentioned that malice can be an attitude that is not expressed out loud. Any of those relational sins in any degree preclude “fervent love.”
Loving fervently requires attention to those relational sins (and any others), especially in a context of suffering “various trials” (1:6) like those faced by Peter’s audience. Distressing circumstances, suffering, persecution can all turn us inward in self-protection. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander can happen and even feel justified because of what we are going through. Relationships that ignore those attitudes or behavior will not result in fervent love.
A Matter of Taste
Peter includes an interesting condition for spiritual growth in challenging circumstances. Fervent love (1:22) is made especially difficult because of relational sin (2:1) in times of suffering. We are to desire or long for spiritual nourishment so that we can “grow up to salvation.” We took that last phrase about growing up to salvation to mean maturing to more fully experience God’s plan for us. (The phrase is sometimes translated “grow up into (εἰς, eis) salvation, perhaps like a child growing into clothes so they fit perfectly.)
This is where Peter inserts an “if:”
So that you may grow up to salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is kind,
(1 Peter 2:2b-3)
But why the condition? Is Peter introducing uncertainty about spiritual growth? How does this relate to the issues of malice, deceit, etc., that he has just disallowed?
Peter wants the readers to contemplate whether they have in fact experienced the kindness of the Lord, and he was confident that the answer would be affirmative.[1]
That contemplation is particularly important during times of trials or persecution. Without regular reminders (“tastes”) of God’s goodness, the difficulties overwhelm us, and God’s goodness recedes in our thinking. Peter wants his readers to continually return to the theme of God’s goodness, to have regular “tastes” through Scripture, through fellowship, through worship, through reading, through natural beauty, etc.
And it gets better. In addition to the various figures of speech and images mentioned at the beginning of our group, Peter includes a subtle play on words that his original audience would have appreciated (or even delighted in) more than we can at first reading. The word-play is built on the term χρηστός (chrēstos) usually translated[2] “kind/kindness” (LEB, NASB, NLT) or “good/goodness” (CSB, ESV, NIV), and occacionally “gracious” (ASV, KJV, YLT).
There is only a one-vowel difference (ε/ι) between the Greek words chrēstos (good or delicious) and christos (Christ), forming a play on words: the Lord is delicious (in the context of tasting) / the Lord is Christ.[3]
Other uses of the adjective form of the word describe the “good” quality of wine, flour, oil[4] or “wholesome food” that is “pleasant to taste.”[5] In Luke 5:39, Jesus uses the word to describe the quality of the old wine as “better,” or literally, ‘excellent.’[6] Just as a delicious appetizer makes us anticipate the meal, our taste of the Lord’s goodness stirs our desire for Him.
Peter’s antidote to spiritual lethargy or discouragement during trials is the delightfulness of the Lord and the guaranteed future He has for us (cf. Psalm 27:4, to behold the beauty of the Lord).
Longing to grow spiritually comes from a taste of the beauty of the Lord, an experience of his kindness and goodness. Those who pursue God ardently have tasted his sweetness. Christian growth for Peter is not a mere call to duty or an alien moralism. The desire to grow springs from an experience with the Lord’s kindness, and experience that leaves believers desiring more.[7]
Or in a shorter form
I thirst to be made more thirsty still.[8]
Longing
Which takes us to Peter’s command, the main verb of the sentence in verses 1-3, “long for” (ESV, LEB, NASB) or “crave” (NIV, NLT) spiritual nourishment.
How do you obey a command to crave or long for? How do you obey an order to desire? As someone commented, “I command you to desire kale” would be a problem. Is genuine desire merely an act of will power? Surely Peter means more than pretend or act like we desire spiritual nourishment.
Here again Peter uses a familiar illustration. Newborn infants (v. 2) long for nourishment because of their need. That need has a baby’s full attention. Nothing distracts a hungry baby. Only the nourishment of milk will satisfy.
Peter specifically mentions not just infants (βρέφη, brephē), but he particularly adds “newborn” (ἀρτιγέννητα, artigennēta, lit. “now born,”[9] used only here in the New Testament). Older children can (sometimes) be distracted (temporarily) with a toy or a game. Not so newborns! Our model for longing or craving is the newborn who has no distractions, who knows no other possible sources of satisfaction.
We struggle to follow Peter’s instruction to long for spiritual milk, at least in part, because we have so many other attractive alternatives, so many distractions. Peter prefaces his command with God’s promises of hope (1:3), inheritance (1:4), salvation (1:5) and inexpressible joy (1:8). Longing for spiritual nourishment is the appropriate response to those promises. God’s promises far outweigh the distractions, the other supposed sources of satisfaction.
But those earthly alternatives are much more immediate and even tangible. They offer so-called satisfaction, but they never deliver because they are such faint shadows of what we deeply desire.
Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.[10]
What do we turn to for pain relief? How do we deal with discouragement or disappointment? Where are we too easily pleased? Fewer distractions (like newborn infants) means increased attention to pure spiritual milk. And the taste Peter recommends (2:3) increases our appetite. Our thirst is “delighted yet not quenched.”[11] As our thirst grows, the tastes just get better.
The greater the thirst the more the drinking pleases.[12]
That thirst only grows as we become like newborns whose longing cannot be distracted by substitutes. Often our trials are the training methods God uses to remove distractions so our true thirst will grow. Denying pain, pretending all is well and settling for mud pies, only delays the joy of tasting that the Lord is good.
Be where you are! Live in your darkness, your confusion, your struggle, your failure. It’s your best chance for meeting God. He tends to meet us where we are, not where we pretend to be or wish we were. The degree to which you come clean and pretend about nothing is the degree to which you may discover your deepest thirst for God.[13]
That deepest thirst for God is key to growing up to our salvation (v. 2), maturing into the fullness of God’s calling. Wishing or even pretending to be mature stunts that growth. Soul care often means helping each other explore where we are to see how we might be comfortable with mud pies. May we continually remind each other of the imminent holiday at the sea.
[1] Thomas R. Schreiner, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude, Christian Standard Commentary (Nashville: Holman, 2020), 105.
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Peter%202%3A3
[3] Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2011), 136; [note that technically, the difference between χρηστός and χριστός involves the vowel η rather than ε – mw].
[4] James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1976), 693.
[5] Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), 2007 (2171 in PDF).
[6] Kenneth S. Wuest, First Peter in the Greek New Testament, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament; Volume II (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1973), 52.
[7] Thomas R. Schreiner, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude, Christian Standard Commentary (Nashville: Holman, 2020), 106.
[8] A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: Wing Spread Publishers, 1993), 20.
[9] John R. Kohlenberger III, Edward W. Goodrick, James A Swanson, The Greek-English Concordance to the New Testament With The New International Version (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 89.
[10] C. S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” in The Weight of Glory And Other Addresses (New York: HarperCollins, 2009). Kindle Edition, location
[11] C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introductions to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964), Kindle edition, location 1680.
[12] Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, trans. Jean Hollander & Robert Hollander (New York: Anchor Books, 2004), 467.
[13] Larry Crabb, Waiting for Heaven: Freedom from the Incurable Addiction to Self (Denver, Colorado: Larger Story Press, 2020), 87.