I am sure the majority of you have watched the television commercials advertising milk with the catchy little slogan that says, “Got milk?” Maybe you recall the commercials of years gone by that said, “Milk, it does the body good.” What you can pick up from these slogans is that milk is good for a person’s physical health. Milk is high in calcium, which is vital for having strong bones, and strong bones are necessary to support the muscles and nervous system of the human body.
Spiritually speaking, “milk does the soul good” as well. However, I am not talking about the milk that comes from a cow, but I am speaking of what Peter calls “the pure milk of the Word” (1 Peter 2:2). The words of the Bible are likened to milk, and they are as essential to our spiritual growth as milk is to the growth of the human body. Just as a cow’s milk is good for the body, the milk of God’s Word is good for our soul, because the Bible contains a message that leads us to find eternal life in Jesus Christ. If you desire physical life then drink cow’s milk; however, if you desire spiritual life then drink the milk of God’s Word.
I encourage you to pay close attention this morning, for if you don’t then this message might slip right “past your eyes” (pasteurized). I urge you to listen closely as we look at three prominent passages of Scripture on the milk of God’s Word, for to miss the message that God wants us to receive could result in “udder chaos” (utter chaos) in our relationship with the Lord.
Young Christians Must Desire the Word (1 Peter 2:2-3)
2 As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
In Psalm 34:8 we read, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in him.” Anyone who has ever given God a try and who has truly tasted the love of Jesus Christ will know that God is living and real. Jesus said in John 7:17 that, “Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own” (NLT). Jesus confidently declared, “If you will just give the Lord a try you will see that He is real and desirable.” Anyone who attempts to taste of God’s goodness will be blessed, for that person will receive eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).
In John 3:3 we read that when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we are “born again.” We begin our new life in Christ as an infant begins his new life in the world. If you have recently accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior then you are a newborn baby and you will soon desire to be fed. Peter urges us to “desire the pure milk of the Word” (v. 2). He likens to Word of God to milk, because the Word is as essential to a Christian’s growth as milk is to an infant’s growth. For just a moment let’s look at the importance of a mother’s milk to her baby.
A mother produces [milk that contains] antibodies to infectious agents that a newborn might be exposed to. If a mother breast-feeds her newborn, a process known as diathelic immunity takes place, in which the baby receives the necessary antibodies to fight infection. During the first seventy-two to ninety-six hours after childbirth, breast milk contains colostrum, which carries immuno-globulins that greatly enhance the newborn's immunity against disease. Babies deprived of colostrum have considerably higher rates of viral and bacterial infections.(1)
Just as a mother’s milk helps a baby’s immune system defend against infection, God’s Word will help newborn Christians defend against the infectious attacks of Satan. The Devil is like a virus that is out to find a weak host to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 warns that our “adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Satan becomes angry when someone gives their life to Jesus Christ, and he will try to attack that person while they are still weak in their faith, attempting to make them stumble and fall. He wants new Christians to give up on God before they start growing in Him. Warren Wiersbe says, “Man’s wisdom is no match for Satan’s cunning. Our only defense is the inspired Word of God.”(2)
Some Christians Remain As Infants (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
Similar to Peter, Paul spoke of how young Christians should drink spiritual milk; however, he expressed that there comes a point when they must grow up and eat solid food. The purpose of infants drinking milk is for their growth and health. For Christians, drinking the milk of the Word should produce spiritual growth and health. However, when Paul arrived on the scene at Corinth he noticed that people were doing some things which revealed that they had failed to grow spiritually. In the Corinthian church were envy, strife and divisions – things not befitting a mature group of believers. They had not moved from milk to meat.
When a child is born, their digestive system is such that milk is the only thing they can handle. As they continue to drink the milk, they begin to grow and before you know it they want more milk. All of a sudden they come to a point where milk will just not satisfy their hunger. It won’t satisfy their needs any longer so you start to put some cereal in the milk, and as they grow their appetite increases until the point where milk with cereal won’t satisfy either, and the mom finally says this child is ready to start eating real food or meat. In order to grow and mature the child must move from milk to meat. Milk is a great start but a prolonged diet of milk will equate to starvation.(3)
The term “milk baby” is used by certain social services professionals when referring to infants and toddlers, who have only been given milk, when they should have been given solid foods. This form of nutritional neglect results in the baby gaining excessive weight, while lacking the nutrients that his developing body so desperately needs. Milk is vital to children during infancy, but as they grow, solid food is required for adequate growth and development. Likewise, in God’s Word, we see that there is a time in our lives for spiritual milk, and then a time for spiritual [meat or bread].(4)
If you had a child who would only drink milk and they were not growing, then your concern for your child would possibly grow to the point of outrage. This is the state of mind in which we find Paul as he writes to the church at Corinth.(5) He returned to the church that he had started just a few years earlier, and when he arrived on the scene the people had not grown spiritually. If we are experiencing divisions and strife within the church among fellow Christians, then this is a good indicator that some people have not made an attempt to grow in a deeper relationship with Christ. They are still just on the surface level. They continue drinking what babies drink because that is all they are – big babies.
God has called churches and individual Christians to feed on the milk of His Word, and grow spiritually to enter Christian adulthood, in order to spiritually reproduce and make more new babies in Christ. As followers and disciples of Jesus we should be making new Christians, and helping to feed them with the milk of God’s Word. We don’t need to spend our entire life having someone feed us the Word. We should grow up and desire the meat of God’s Word instead of the milk. The milk is the introductory knowledge of God; however, the meat comes from hunting and searching. We gain the meat of God’s Word when we go on a deep quest for it, and only an adult will go on the hunt. Instead of crying out for more milk for ourselves, we should be feeding milk to new believers in Christ.
God’s Desire Is for Us to Grow Up (Hebrews 5:12-14)
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
“You know,” said the father of five while busy cleaning up the toys in the yard, “since I’ve been married, I’ve learned the meaning of those words in the Bible that say, ‘When I became a man, I put away childish things’.”(6) In 1 Corinthians 13:11 we read, “When I was a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” The Scripture clearly indicates that God expects believers to grow up and stop thinking like a child.
The writer of Hebrews, which some believe was Paul, said that the people should have been teachers themselves; however, they were still mere children who had not grown in the ways of the Lord. Instead of teaching others, they were always being taught, for they were still babies. They had refused to dive deeper into God’s Word, because they lacked the passion to know God more closely and intimately.
We see here that in order to grow up we must desire “solid food” (vv. 12, 14). The Word of God is milk to those who are young in the Lord, but it becomes bread and meat to those who deeply hunger to know God in an intimate way. When Jesus was fasting in the wilderness, seeking a closer relationship with the Lord, the Devil tempted Him to turn stones into bread; but Jesus replied, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:3-4). Jesus realized that God’s Word would sustain Him greater than any type of physical food; but notice how He said that the Word was greater than bread. Bread is a solid food; therefore, God’s Word is solid and substantial to those who seek to know Him.
A person can only handle so much milk before he or she will drown in it. There were two frogs that happened to jump into an open container of milk on a lady’s back porch. One frog said, “Woe is me, I can’t get out!” and then he sank to the bottom of the milk container and drowned. The other frog, however, started swimming in the milk. He just kicked and paddled away until he churned that milk into butter and hopped right on out! My point here is that when we only feed on milk, it’s because we have no desire to grow up. A Christian who doesn’t want to grow in a deeper relationship and understanding of God is complacent; and complacency will lead to spiritual death. However if we look for something much more solid, then we will be able to keep on hopping along through life.
Time of Reflection
I would like to conclude our message this morning with three questions. First, “Have you got life?” Have you tasted of God’s goodness and found that He is truly wonderful? Have you confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and tasted of the sweetness of unconditional love and eternal life?
Secondly, “Have you got milk?” If you are a new Christian, have you made an attempt to taste of God’s holy Word? Are you being fed and nourished spiritually by the words of the Bible, in order that you might grow strong and healthy in the Lord?
And thirdly, “Have you got bread?” Have you been a believer for many years, and you are still just feeding on milk? Have you refused to spend time with the Lord, the time you could have gained by reading His Word? If you have been a Christian for quite some time then you should have started eating solid food by now, by searching deeply for it through meditating on and pondering the truths that are contained within the pages of the Bible.
The Word of God is bread for which we should hunger. In John 1:14 we read, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Therefore, the bread which provides life is also found in knowing “the only begotten of the Father” – God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). I want to encourage you to partake of the bread of life today, and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
NOTES
(1) Mark J. Occhipinti, Does Milk Really Do The Body Good?, taken from the Internet May 2003 at http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/MILK.HTM.
(2) Warren Wiersbe, The Strategy of Satan (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1979), p. 27.
(3) Cedric Portis, “More Milk or Meat,” taken from the Internet May 2003 at http:// www.sermoncentral.com.
(4) John Werhas, “Babes in Christ,” taken from the Internet May 2003 at http:// www.ylfc.org/ministries/encore/1corinthians/1corinthians_15.html.
(5) Portis.
(6) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), p. 44.
