So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:1-3, ESV)

Sometimes the simplest phrases have the most profound impact. Peter does not use many words in this short passage, yet what is said is phenomenal. The translation may read, “Therefore having
put aside…” Those who are in Christ are given the authority to put malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander out of their lives; to make these things part of an irretrievable past.

The problem is that we rarely do so. It is too much “fun” to involve the body of Christ in such evil things and so we spend our energies engaging in that which ought to only be addressed in the rear view mirror. The things we discarded at the last “life stop.” We taste the kindness of the Lord and call it “sweet” only to return to the soured swill of sin.

The Scripture literally says “grow up to salvation.” We as “newborns” must be about the business of growing up. We already leave the day of the diaper, the day of the lidded cup, the day of the hand-hold, the day of the supervised visit, the day of the chaperoned driver, the day of the curfew, so we may be adults.

I want to grow up, I don’t want to stay a kid, for the Lord is good and his goodness should be reflected in a maturing me.

May it be so.