Proper growth is essential for good health. Hundreds of books have been written to help people know how to have good health. All these books are concerning physical health. One book has been written to help with spiritual growth and that is the Bible.
Other books are said to be for this purpose, but only one is from God.
Notice the following things about having proper spiritual growth.
The Apostle Peter wrote, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby (I Peter 2:2). The people to whom Peter was writing had been and were suffering from persecution. They needed strength, both from the word of God and from other Christians.
Peter serves as a perfect example of a Christian who knew how to encourage and uplift others. Peter encouraged the Christians to remember to act like Christ and not like Satan.
Those in the world were saying and doing things that Christians could not and should not do or say.
The words that Peter penned are still needed to be heeded in our day.
Christians need to “desire the sincere milk of the word” that they may grow spiritually. Without having a steady diet of spiritual food, the possibility of “perishing from hunger” exists.
The Christian who is not growing spiritually is dying spiritually. God wants His children to thrive and only by following God’s word will this happen.
The desire Peter talked about means to want for or to seek after.
Just as a baby counts feeding time as an important event, so should the child of God count the time when the Bible can be studied. As one begins to take in the spiritual nourishment, the appetite for things spiritual should increase. More and more a desire to know more about God and His great works will take place.
A steady diet of the word of God will help one to realize the need for God in one’s life each day. Parents desire that their children have the right food so that proper growth occurs. It is also important that children of God feed upon the proper food. One must be careful when choosing a Bible.
Some so-called Bibles of the day are mere paraphrases, which only tell what a man thought the Bible said, while others mistranslate the original text. The two most reliable translations are still the King James Version and the American Standard Version of 1901.
Desiring the word is something that must last a lifetime. Many times, older people simply stop eating, and their body gives up, for lack of nourishment. The same can be true in the spiritual sense. One must continue to feast upon God’s word no matter what our age. Sadly, some Christians forget this fact and in their later years lose sight of their goal. They fail to partake of the words of life and just as the dying body turns cold, so does their zeal for God.
Study of the word produces faith (Rom. 10:17), repentance (Luke 13:3), leading one to be willing to confess Jesus as the Son of God (Matt. 10:32), and then a desire to have one’s sins washed away by baptism (Acts 2:38).
All Christians need to heed Peter’s admonition, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby:” (I Peter 2:2).