Project Description

2015/09

A Word To Women

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word
that ye may grow thereby”
(1 Peter 2:2)

What lessons there are to be learned from the contents of our larders!  I don’t imagine that there is a single reader who won’t have milk in her fridge. Milk is one of the most nutritionally complete foods available. It is the thing that new-born infants cry for, and in the early months of their lives it provides all the sustenance they require. It is tribute to the Lord’s creative power that milk would supply perfect nutrition both for mankind and for all the mammals created. The Promised Land was described as ‘flowing with milk and honey’.

Milk is needed for growth. Infants who are well nourished seem to grow almost from day to day.  Milk, in spiritual matters, refers to the Scriptures. Just as a new-born child is hungry for its mother’s milk, so a newly born Christian is hungry for the word of God. We have all heard of how a child bonds with its mother in those early hours of life, and, similarly, the Christian bonds with her Heavenly Father as she reads the Bible and learns more about the Lord. We expect growth in the young Christian as she grasps new truths and experiences the help of the Holy Spirit guiding her into truth.

Milk is needed for development. The infant is helpless and immature physically. Milk provides just the right balance of nutrition to allow organ development.  In God’s word there is everything that we need to develop spiritually. It has the perfect balance of encouragement and rebuke, exhortation and warning, example and precept, doctrine and practical teaching. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
Milk is needed for maintaining a healthy body. As the child grows, other foods will be introduced gradually into its diet. Regardless of age, milk provides calcium, iron and vitamin D and is generally good for us. While a young Christian will have a particular hunger for God’s word, all Christians should continue to feed daily from the Scriptures. We need to meditate on (digest) what we read and be obedient to what we are taught so that we remain spiritually healthy.

Milk is portrayed in a very positive way, for the most part, in Scripture; however, there is a warning given in Hebrews 5:12,13: “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.”  It is not enough to scan favourite parts of our Bibles, perhaps the Psalms or the Gospels, we need to study all of God’s Word. We learn much as we sit under the ministry of God’s word each Lord’s Day. However, God expects us to search the Scriptures for ourselves as well. The writer of Hebrews laments that the believers had not progressed to a mixed diet, but still depended on milk for their sole spiritual food. There are many challenges to our faith in our ever changing world. It is only with a thorough knowledge of God’s word that we can discern the truth and defend our faith.

Olive Maxwell.