Peter begins this passage of scripture with the word “therefore” (1Peter 2:1-3). “Therefore” draws a conclusion or an inference from something that has just been said or in this case, written. It probably looks back to the command in chapter one verse twenty-two: “love one another fervently.” Because we are to love one another, we must, therefore, lay aside certain attitudes or actions that are unloving. We must lay aside from our lives malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. It is only as we put aside these sins that Peter commands us to desire the word of God that we might grow spiritually.

We must desire the word of God as newborn babies desire the pure, unadulterated, milk from their mother’s breasts. Peter metaphorically refers to God’s word as pure, spiritual, milk. He commands us who have already tasted that the Lord is good to continue desiring this milk. We experienced our first taste of the Lord’s goodness when we were saved, or as Peter puts it in 1:23, when we were born again through the word. Since we were born again through the word of God, we should continue to desire the word because it is only through the reading, meditation, memorization, study, and application of the word of God that we can grow spiritually.