Growing Up

There is something universally relatable about the desire to grow up. As children, we could not wait to be older, stronger, more capable. We drank our milk, took our vitamins, and counted the days until we felt like we had finally arrived. But growing up, as most of us have discovered, is rarely as clean or as fast as we imagined it would be. It takes time. It can be uncomfortable. And sometimes, just when we think we have made progress, we find ourselves right back where we started.

The same is true of spiritual growth. The Christian life is not a single moment of transformation that immediately produces a polished, mature believer. It is a process, one that requires honesty about where we fall short, a return to foundational truth, and a willingness to be built into something greater than ourselves.

In 1 Peter 2, the apostle Peter opens with a striking command. Before he talks about growth, he talks about removal. He calls believers to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander (1 Peter 2:1). These are not abstract vices that belong only to the outside world. Peter is writing to the church. He is speaking to people who already believe, people who have already been transformed by the gospel. And yet he names these sins plainly, without softening the blow.

What ties all five of these together is a common thread: they are all ways we harm one another. Malice is ill will toward others. Deceit is taking advantage of people through untruth. Hypocrisy is performing a version of ourselves for personal gain. Envy is resentment over what someone else has. Slander is using words as weapons. Each one damages relationships. Each one tears down the community that God is trying to build.
Paul echoes a similar concern in 2 Timothy 3:2-4, where he describes a long and sobering list of the characteristics of people who have turned away from godliness. The warning is serious. These are not small issues to be overlooked. They are patterns that, left unchecked, will hollow out the life of a believer and fracture the unity of a church.

After the command to put these things away, Peter does not leave us without direction. He immediately points us toward what we need: pure spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:2). He writes that just as newborn infants long for milk, we should long for this nourishment so that we may grow up into salvation.

This image can be misread. It might feel like an insult, as if Peter is calling us immature and telling us to grow up. But read in context, this is not a rebuke. It is a gift. It is Peter pointing us back to the most essential thing: the gospel of Jesus Christ. The pure spiritual milk is the good news itself, the truth that God loved the world, that Jesus died and rose again, that we are forgiven and made new.

Paul uses the same imagery in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, addressing believers who were struggling with sin and division, reminding them that they needed to return to the basics. The writer of Hebrews makes a similar point in Hebrews 5:12, noting that those who have drifted need someone to teach them the foundational truths again.

There is a temptation among maturing believers to think they have moved past the gospel, that they are ready only for deeper theological discussions and no longer need the basics. But the gospel is not a starting line we leave behind. It is the ground we stand on every single day. When we forget it, we become vulnerable to the very sins Peter warned us about.

Here is where the passage becomes genuinely breathtaking. Peter does not just call us to avoid sin and return to the gospel. He tells us what God is actually doing with us.

In 1 Peter 2:4-5, he describes Jesus as a living stone, rejected by people but chosen and precious to God. And then he says that we, as believers, are like living stones being built together into a spiritual house. We are not isolated individuals trying to manage our own spiritual lives. We are being assembled, fitted together, built into something that can only exist when we are in community with one another.

This is why the sins of malice, envy, and slander are so destructive. They do not just hurt individuals. They tear apart the very structure God is building.

Peter goes further in 1 Peter 2:9, describing believers as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. The purpose of all of this is clear: to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We are not built up for our own comfort or reputation. We are built up so that God would be glorified through us.

Peter closes this section with a practical charge. In 1 Peter 2:11-12, he urges believers to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against the soul, and to keep their conduct among unbelievers honorable. The reason is both simple and profound: when people who oppose the faith see the good deeds of God's people, they will one day glorify God because of what they witnessed.

This is the full arc of spiritual growth. We put off the things that destroy. We return to the nourishment of the gospel. We are built together into something that reflects God's character. And we live in a way that points the watching world toward the God who showed us mercy when we deserved none.

We were once not a people. Now, because of what Jesus has done, we are. That is not a small thing. That is the whole story.

This week, choose at least one of the following:

• Identify one item from the list in verse 1 -- malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, or slander -- that you know is active in your life right now. Bring it honestly before God in prayer each morning this week and ask him to replace it with something that reflects mercy.
• Spend time each day in the gospel. Read one of the four Gospels slowly, treating it as the spiritual nourishment Peter describes. Notice how returning to the story of Jesus reorients your perspective on your own struggles.
• Think of one person in your church community with whom you have had tension or distance. Take a step toward reconciliation this week, even if it is only a small one.
• Reflect on your conduct in one specific area of your life -- your workplace, your neighborhood, your family -- where unbelievers are watching. Ask yourself honestly whether your behavior there points toward God or away from him.