That On Which To Set The Heart

But there is something on which the Christian must set his heart. He must yearn for the unadulterated milk of the word. This is a phrase about whose meaning there is some difficulty. The difficulty is with the word logikos ( Greek #3050 ) which with the King James Version we have translated of the word. The English Revised Version translates it spiritual, and in the margin gives the alternative translation reasonable. Moffatt has spiritual, as has the Revised Standard Version.

Logikos ( Greek #3050 ) is the adjective from the noun logos ( Greek #3056 ) and the difficulty is that it has three perfectly possible translations.

(a) Logos ( Greek #3056 ) is the great Stoic word for the reason which guides the universe; logikos ( Greek #3050 ) is a favourite Stoic word which describes what has to do with this divine reason which is the governor of all things. If this is the word's connection, clearly spiritual is the meaning.

(b) Logos ( Greek #3056 ) is the normal Greek word for mind or reason; therefore, logikos ( Greek #3050 ) often means reasonable or intelligent. It is in that way that the King James Version translates it in Romans 12:1 , where it speaks of our reasonable service.

(c) Logos ( Greek #3056 )is the Greek for word, and logikos ( Greek #3050 ) means belonging to the Lord. This is the sense in which the King James Version takes it, and we think it is correct. Peter has just been talking about the word of God which abides forever ( 1 Peter 1:23-25 ). It is the word of God which is in his mind; and we think that what he means here is that the Christian must desire with his whole heart the nourishment which comes from the word of God, for by that nourishment he can grow until he reaches salvation itself. In face of all the evil of the heathen world the Christian must strengthen his soul with the pure food of the word of God.

This food of the word is unadulterated (adolos, Greek #97 ). That is to say, there is not the slightest admixture of anything evil in it. Adolos ( Greek #97 ) is an almost technical word to describe corn (American: grain) that is entirely free from chaff or dust or useless or harmful matter. In all human wisdom there is some admixture of what is either useless or harmful; the word of God alone is altogether good.

The Christian is to yearn for this milk of the word; yearn is epipothein ( Greek #1971 ) which is a strong word. It is the word which is used for the hart longing for the waterbrooks ( Psalms 42:1 ), and for the Psalmist longing for the salvation of the Lord ( Psalms 119:174 ). For the sincere Christian, to study God's word is not a labour but a delight, for he knows that there his heart will find the nourishment for which it longs.

The metaphor of the Christian as a baby and the word of God as the milk whereby he is nourished is common in the New Testament. Paul thinks of himself as the nurse who cares for the infant Christians of Thessalonica ( 1 Thessalonians 2:7 ). He thinks of himself as feeding the Corinthians with milk for they are not yet at the stage of meat ( 1 Corinthians 3:2 ); and the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews blames his people for being still at the stage of milk when they should have gone on to maturity ( Hebrews 5:12 ; Hebrews 6:2 ). To symbolize the rebirth of baptism in the early church, the newly baptized Christian was clothed in white robes, and sometimes he was fed with milk as if he was a little child. It is this nourishment with the milk of the word which makes a Christian grow up and grow on until he reaches salvation.

Peter finishes this introduction with an allusion to Psalms 34:8 . "You are bound to do this," he writes, "if you have tasted the kindness of God." Here is something of the greatest significance. The fact that God is gracious is not an excuse for us to do as we like, depending on him to overlook it; it lays on us an obligation to toil towards deserving his graciousness and love. The kindness of God is not an excuse for laziness in the Christian life; it is the greatest of all incentives to effort.