Junk Food Addiction

Pastor Don Carpenter / General

Not From Around Here: The Complicated Life of a Sojourner / Repentance; Read; Bible

 Several years ago, park rangers in the Grand Canyon National Park had to kill over two dozen mule deer, because they became hooked on junk food left by visitors to the park – things like potato chips, cheese curls, and candy.

Once they got a taste of the sugar and salt, the deer developed an extreme addiction and went to any lengths to eat only junk food. As a result, the animals ignored the food they needed, leaving them in poor health and on the edge of starvation. Their junk food cravings caused them to lose their natural ability to digest vegetation. One park ranger called the junk food “the crack cocaine of the deer world.” (Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Spring 1995, www.PreachingToday.com)

So it is when we ingest thoughts of sweet revenge, bitter treachery, sugar-coated hypocrisy, sour envy, and acidic slander. Such a diet keeps us from hungering for the things of God.

As we continue our series “Not From Around Here: The Complicated Life of a Sojourner”, we discover that Peter has turned his focus from the beauty of being Born Again, to the Beauty of the Word that wrought that Saving faith within us.

1 Peter 1:23 KJV

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

This evening’s text comes from chapter 2.

1 Peter 2:1–3 KJV

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

These three verses are one sentence that refers back to verse 23 of chapter. Since we have once tasted the pure Word of God, but later developed an appetite for spiritual junk food, we need to put away the garbage and once again develop a craving for the pure milk of the Word. We need to break our Spiritual Junk Food Addiction.

You Once Had A Healthy Appetite.

1 Peter 2:3 KJV

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament 8. The Believer-Priest’s Spiritual Food (2:1–5)

The “if” is a fulfilled condition. They as newborn babes had tasted the Word of God, and had found in it that the Lord was gracious. The word “gracious” is the translation of a Greek word used in Luke 5:39 where it is translated “better.” The word means literally, “excellent.”

 • Remember the Convicting Power of the Word

 • Remember the Enlightening power of the Word.

 • Remember when you used to get truths you could use from preaching and teaching.

 • You once had a taste for grace.

Get Rid of the Junk Food that Has Spoiled Your Spiritual Appetite.

1 Corinthians 3:1–3 KJV

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 

For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

1 Peter 2:1 KJV

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament 8. The Believer-Priest’s Spiritual Food (2:1–5)

“WHEREFORE” goes back to the fact of the new life imparted (1:23), and argues in 2:1–3 that therefore a new kind of experience is demanded of the believer. “Laying aside” is from a participle that has imperative force. In view of the fact that divine life has been imparted to the believer, it is imperative that he “put away once for all” any sins that may be in his life. The preposition prefixed to the verb implies separation. The believer is commanded to separate himself from sin. This act of separating himself from sin must be a once for all action, as the tense of the participle suggests. There must be a complete right-about face.

 • Malice = any kind of wickedness

 • Guile = “To catch with bait” – Craftiness

 • Hypocrisies – judgement from behind a mask- the true identity of the person is covered up… impersonation or deception

• Envy – Jealousy

 • Evil Speakings = speaking down – the act of defaming or slandering

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament 8. The Believer-Priest’s Spiritual Food (2:1–5)

Peter then singles out five sins that the recipients of this letter were guilty of. The Greek word translated “malice” refers to any kind of wickedness. “Guile” is the translation of a word which in its verb form means “to catch with bait,” and in the noun which Peter uses means “craftiness.” The word “hypocrisies” is the transliteration of the Greek word hupokriseis (??????????) which means literally “to judge under,” as a person giving off his judgment from behind a screen or mask. The true identity of the person is covered up. It refers to acts of impersonation or deception. It was used of an actor on the Greek stage. Taken over into the New Testament, it referred to a person we call a hypocrite, one who assumes the mannerisms, speech, and character of someone else, thus hiding his true identity. Christianity requires that believers should be open and above-board. They should be themselves. Their lives should be like an open book, easily read. The word “evil speakings” are in the Greek text “speaking down” a person, referring to the act of defaming, slandering, speaking against another.

Develop a Healthy Craving For The Word.

1 Peter 2:2 KJV

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament 8. The Believer-Priest’s Spiritual Food (2:1–5)

“Newborn babes” is from the Greek word brephos (??????), used only here in the New Testament in its metaphorical sense. Luke uses it (2:16) of the babe in the manger. In classical Greek it was used of a babe at the breast. Peter probably took the figure from Isaiah 28:9, “Whom will he teach knowledge? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.” The recipients of this letter are called just-born infants, speaking of the recency of the Christian life in their case.

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament 8. The Believer-Priest’s Spiritual Food (2:1–5)

The Greek word translated “desire” speaks of an intense yearning. That which they are exhorted to have is an intense yearning for milk. The word “sincere” is from the same Greek word translated in 2:1, “guile,” but with the Greek letter Alpha prefixed which makes the word mean the opposite to what it meant before. It is guileless milk, thus unadulterated. It has nothing added to it. The Word of God has no ulterior motives like so many human teachings, but has for its only purpose that of nourishing the soul

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament 8. The Believer-Priest’s Spiritual Food (2:1–5)

 The word “milk” here does not refer to that part of the Word of God which is in contrast to the meat or solid food of the Word as in Hebrews 5:13, 14, but to the Word of God in general. The words “that ye may grow thereby” could also be rendered “in order that ye might be nourished up.” There is a phrase in the Greek text not brought out in the translation, “resulting in your making progress in your salvation.”

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament 8. The Believer-Priest’s Spiritual Food (2:1–5)

The prerequisite to the act of intensely yearning for the Word of God is the act of once for all putting sin out of our lives. Sin in the life destroys the appetite for the Word. The Christian who tries to find satisfaction in the husks of the world, has no appetite left for the things of God. His heart is filled with the former and has no room for the latter. A healthy infant is a hungry infant. A spiritually healthy Christian is a hungry Christian. This solves the problem of why so many children of God have so little love for the Word.

Once you have broken the addiction to spiritual junk food, you will be able to re-train your appetite for Healthy Food found in the Word of God.

 A man in Kansas City was severely injured in an explosion. Evangelist Robert L. Sumner tells about him in his book The Wonders of the Word of God. The victim’s face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He was just a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible.

 Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille. Much to his dismay, however, he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been destroyed by the explosion. One day, as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, I can read the Bible using my tongue. At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had “read” through the entire Bible four times.

 How many of you can say you’ve read through the Bible four times—with two good eyes? This man had a craving—and even losing his eyesight wouldn’t prevent him from reading God’s Word.

Source: From a sermon by Larry Wise, Craving Soul Food, 2/24/2010

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 4:49 PM April 1, 2020.