GROWING UNTO SALVATION
BY DRINKING THE MILK OF THE WORD
First Peter 2:2 says, "As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation." For our physical growth, we need to drink milk. Likewise, for our spiritual growth, we need to drink the divine milk from the Word. Every morning we need to drink a cup of milk from the Word. If you will do this, you will see the blessing. You will be healthy and will be a tree of life growing. This tree will bear fruit, and all the fruit will nourish your wife, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors, your colleagues in your office, or your classmates in your school. You will become the tree of life to all the people in your community. Today, America needs this. America needs Christ to grow in the neighborhoods, in the schools, in the offices, and among the families and the in-laws.
We should not merely attend the church meetings; we need to grow that we may be a tree of life to nourish today’s communities in America. I am very grateful to the Lord that I live in America. Here I have the full liberty to speak what I want to speak for the Lord. I am grateful for this, but whenever I look at today’s situation, I am saddened because of the shortage of Christ. Needless to say with the unbelievers, even with the believers there is the shortage of Christ, the lacking of the growth of Christ.
Peter said that if we drink the milk of the word, we will grow unto salvation. We should not think that we are fully saved and have no need of any further salvation. Such a concept is wrong. We still need to be saved every day, even every minute, from our temper, from our sorrows, and from our anxiety. We need to be saved from many things. I am a quick person. It is easy for me to lose my temper. When I was young, my temper was a trouble to me. But later on I learned that I can be saved, and I have been saved through the drinking of the milk of the word. Drinking the milk of the word causes us to grow unto salvation from our anger, our temper, our anxiety, our worry, our fear, and our trembling. Every day we need a daily salvation. We need today’s salvation in our daily walk.
GROWING UNTO MATURITY BY EATING THE SOLID FOOD
Among today’s Christians it is difficult to find one who is mature. Many Christians are still childish. In their joking with one another we cannot sense God. Also, they are too free in having contact with the opposite sex. It is no wonder that there is fornication even among Christians. A sister should not speak lightly to a brother. For a female to speak lightly is to sell herself cheaply. A sister must keep her female dignity (1 Tim. 2:9-10). This female dignity protects her from many sinful things. Furthermore, in order to avoid falling into sin, a sister should not get too near a member of the opposite sex. Our need is to grow unto maturity, to be matured. Even one who is still a teenager in his physical age can be a mature believer in Christ. I have seen some young people like this.
We need to grow unto maturity to know God, to know the Bible, to know the church, and to know today’s situation and condition in a mature way. We should not be childish. In order to grow unto maturity, we need to eat solid food (Heb. 5:14; Col. 1:28). Drinking milk is for babes. Every day we need to drink a cup of milk from the Word. We also need to take some solid food from the Word. In the Bible words such as "God so loved the world" (John 3:16) and "Husbands, love your wives" (Eph. 5:25) are like milk. In contrast, those portions of the Word concerning God’s creation of man in His image and according to His likeness, His preparing a human spirit by breathing His breath of life into man’s nostrils, and His putting man in front of the tree of life, a figure of God Himself as life, are solid, like diamond. Nevertheless, we need to eat these portions. We need spiritual teeth that can eat such solid food, and we also need a spiritual stomach to digest such words. We need to grow unto maturity by eating the solid food.
(The Organic Union in God's Relationship with Man, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
