1 Peter 2:So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.
On the old Hee Haw tv show a person would come to the town doctor and say "Hey doc. It hurts when I do this. To which the guy playing the doctor role would hit them with a plastic bat and yell out "Well, don't do that!!" That little skit sure makes everything seem more and more simple doesn't it? If you do something and it has a bad result, don't do it! Peter in Chapter 2 says "get rid of all evil behavior!" As believers we have come to realize what is evil and what is good and the truth is simplistic at it's core. You don't have to read very far in your Bible to get a good lesson on the good and the bad, so the choice comes back to us and what will we do with it? As Peter continues on he gives a solution to the whole thing in verse 2. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. If there is a full experience of salvation there must be a partial experience of salvation as well.
That may be what you are experiencing right now in your walk with God, a partial experience of salvation. Peter goes on in verse 2 and 3 to say "Cry out for this nourishment!" This is an active "crying out" that each of us must do to experience the full experience of salvation. A man who many had been praying for was lost and needed Christ. Our prayers were answered when he came to Christ by faith and received eternal life and new life in Christ. A few days went by after he accepted Christ and in the very next worship service at the time of decision here he comes down the aisle with three other men walking with him to the front of church. He proceeded to tell the Pastor that those three men had accepted Jesus and wanted to be baptized when he got baptized. The surprised pastor later said to one of their church members "Boy, he got a full dose!" The full experience of salvation was a shocker to all who saw the result of it. The result was this man sharing his experience with three of his friends and led them to Jesus. He had not even been baptized himself!!
So when Peter offers a full experience of salvation that is filled with a taste of the Lord's kindness that is offered through His grace, it should mean something. And it does...... If you have been born again, you are different. Amazingly different!! Listen to what Peter goes on to say in the following verses. 4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.
5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced." 7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.”
Now come on!!! Who could refuse an offer like this from the maker of the universe? I don't believe anyone can, but yet sometimes we forget the wonderful full experience of salvation that has happened in our life and we miss the power of the experience and almost minimize it to the point of weakness. Like the guy who brought his friends to Jesus after he accepted Jesus we cannot help but tell others about this great salvation and in that moment we realized the full experience and here is what a full experience looks like. 1. A changed life. 2. A shared faith. 3. A growing faith and fellowship with other believers. 4. A life that is called and God-focused. When people see these changes in your life they will try to find out what happened and you will be a conduit for God's truth and grace. This is an offer no one can refuse, so accept it and let God come alive in your life in the fullness of the experience of salvation.
The Pilgrimage continues.....
David Warren
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