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1 Peter 2:2-3
2 As [hos] newborn [artigennetos] babes [brephos], desire [epipotheo] the sincere [adolos] milk [gala] of the word [logikos], that [hina] ye may grow [auxano] thereby [en] [autos]:
3 If so be [ei per] ye have tasted [geuomai] that [hoti] the Lord [kurios] is gracious [chrestos]. KJV-Interlinear
2 like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. NASB
Now here, Peter is not calling believers, newborns, but is referring to the attitude that newborn babies have when they taste their first milk, and crave for more.
Certainly when a person initially believes in Christ, they are newborn with respect to their spiritual life. They may in fact be eight years old, or fifteen, or fifty, or ninety years old. Regardless of your physical age when you first believe in Christ, you will be a newborn believer at that moment.
And as a newborn Christian, you will need to grow up in order to mature, just as people grow up physically and mentally, in this world.
But the difference between a newborn believer, and a newborn infant, is that the believer is old enough to understand the issues of salvation, whereas the infant knows virtually nothing. And yet the infant knows milk, hunger, and what he wants relatively quickly in his (or her) very young life.
The infant does not have to understand any of it, he is merely driven toward what he needs and therefore wants.
The believer, who hears the gospel, and the doctrines of spiritual growth, should behave like the newborn infant, in that he should (one would think) crave after the knowledge and opportunities that the spiritual life offers.
Once the infant tastes the milk, he craves it. Once the believer hears doctrine, does he crave it?
Have you ever heard of an infant who rejected his milk? Well, there are always exceptions because of medical problems, but I would bet that 999 out of a thousand infants will crave the milk, or baby foods, or whatever.
But, when it comes to believers, the numbers seem to reverse. Some go hot for doctrine, but then cool to indifference. Some do not even show much of an interest. And out of the same 999, perhaps only the one will crave doctrine, while the others will be defiant, fickle, or disinterested in various degrees.
Baby’s milk offers the foundation of a sound diet and the opportunity of much better foods in later life. Likewise, Bible doctrine in the beginning lays the foundation of a phenomenal life.
Once saved, you are only at the beginning of your spiritual life. The greater portion of your spiritual life comes with spiritual maturity. Therefore, long for the spiritual foods offered by God, so that you will be in a position to have and possess a ‘complete’ life, in the best sense of the word.
