Peter finishes verse two in the second chapter of his first letter to the church with the words,
"Desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby."
The sins he has been describing in the previous verses are like children's diseases that retard growth and threaten life. Peter said put them all away and get healthy, and then proceed to live on the sincere milk of the Word. That word "sincere" is a tough one. Peter used a Greek word. We have "sincere" in our King James Bible, and the translators have had a tough time with it.
A student and translator ran into this word "sincere" and gave the best explanation I have ever heard. He explained that "sincere" could apply to milk. While he was visiting in Athens, Greece, he noticed coming down the street a milk wagon pulled by a burro, and on the side of the milk wagon was a sign written in Greek.
Being a Greek student, he was able to read it. The sign said, "such and such milk company, we sell only sincere milk." He got it in a second. He knew what it meant. It meant unadulterated milk. No extra water in this milk. That is what Peter meant when he used that old Greek word.
He said,
"Feed yourself on the unadulterated Word."
Do not water it down. Take it full strength. That is, let the Word of God say to you all it says. Do not simply pick out the happy verses. It would be shocking to go through some Bibles and find how we underline only the happy verses.
We must take all the Word of God and not water it down. "Desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby." Our growth is to be by the Word, and it will be the exact proportion to the diet we follow. We must eat the Word and obey the Word, and then we will grow thereby.
Thank you for reading.