1 Peter 2:2, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”
Everyone loves babies because they are cute and adorable to look at and their smiles can melt anyone’s heart. However, taking care of babies takes hard work and dedication. My wife has raised and nurtured all of our children by feeding them, changing their dirty diapers and comforting them when they cry. She will forever be my hero for everything she has done for our children- including birthing every one!
My gifting as a father kicks in around the time they turn one. I’m then able to help them walk, talk, know right from wrong and even teach them simple things like their ABC’s. As a result, my wife and I make a great team- she does most of the care when they are babies and I do the life lessons when they’re toddlers. By God’s grace, I have helped all our children be walkers by twelve months old and potty trained by two years old.
Now imagine if when my kids turned one year old, I said to my wife, “Let’s not give them real food but rather keep them on the bottle until they are in the third grade.” Or, “I don’t want to potty train them or teach them to walk until their twelve years old.” If other parents found out about this kind of parenting they would probably call child services on me! However, the same is true today in many churches, the leaders are not teaching the baby Christians to “grow up” in their salvation and be mature disciples.
Many people in the church who’ve been saved for years still need their dirty spiritual diapers changed everyday!
Make a decision today to grow up in your salvation by craving the Word of God just like Peter mentioned in today’s passage- but don’t stay there, grow up and mature so you can eat the meat of God’s Word. A wise man once said, “Every Christian needs to go from the milk to the meat of God’s Word.” Think about Christian maturity like this; it’s cute when babies burp but it’s gross when adults do it. And it’s one thing to change a baby’s diaper; it’s another thing to change a teenager’s! The author of Hebrews wrote, “12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14).
Therefore, I challenge you to grow up spiritually by following 2 Peter 1:5-9, “5 Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”
Reflection
Are you growing daily in your walk with God?
Action
- Decide once and for all that you wont stay a “baby Christian,” but rather will always be a “growing disciple.”
- Grow daily in your salvation by adding to your faith- goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.
- Start today and grow up!
One Year Reading Plan
Exodus 12:14-13:16, Matthew 20:29-21:22, Psalm 25:16-22, & Proverbs 6:12-15. Click here to read online.
