Evangelism

² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2-3)

Spiritual life and maturity does not just happen. First, it must begin. It begins with what the Bible calls “new birth” (John 3:3). Just as a person needs to be born physically in order to begin his life here on earth, he also needs to be born spiritually, or by the Spirit, in order to begin his new life in the kingdom of God. Through the Spirit of God, a person receives a new kind of life, an eternal kind of life, which is from God. Life is a force that enables us to relate with others who also have that kind of life, as well as to do certain things within a certain context. Physical life, therefore, enables us to relate with physical things and with people, and to do certain things within the physical universe. The eternal kind of life, however, enables us to relate with God, and with the things of God, and also with His people. It enables us to do certain things within the kingdom of God, which is spiritual in nature. Although all of us are born physically, not all of us are born spiritually. We need to desire that. Jesus said, “You must be born again (or from above).” (John 3:7) At the same, being born again or being born from above is not the end. Peter says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk.” In other words, once a person has experienced what it means to be spiritual reborn or restarted, he or she must seek to grow. Spiritual milk includes all those nourishment that can help a spiritual person to grow: the word of God, fellowship, worship and prayer (Acts 2:42).