The Taste Test
Ruining our spiritual appetite and finding the feast.
If you eat a massive bowl of cheap, sugary sweets right before Sunday lunch, you won't be hungry for the actual feast. You will feel full, but you'll be full of junk. You will have completely ruined your appetite for the good stuff.
Spiritually, we do this constantly. We lose our appetite for the Word of God and deep, authentic community because we are snacking on the cheap, toxic junk food of the culture around us.
🍽️ The Spiritual Appetite Tracker
Click on the "junk food" toxins that Peter warns us about in chapter 2. Watch what happens to your spiritual appetite (and the color of this page) as you consume them.
Your Appetite for the Word of God"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 2:2-3)
Stripping Off the Relational Toxins
In 1 Peter 2:1, Peter tells us to "rid yourselves" of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. The original Greek word here literally means to strip off dirty clothes—like taking off soot-stained overalls after a long day in the workshop.
Notice that these aren't just private, hidden sins. They are community-killers. Gossip and envy taste sweet for a second, but they rot the community from the inside out. If you are consuming slander and harboring envy, your appetite for God will disappear. You must strip it off.
The Primal Craving
"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." — 1 Peter 2:2-3 (NIV)
Peter says our desire for the Word of God shouldn't be a casual, religious habit. It should be a desperate, primal craving—like a newborn baby waking up at 3:00 AM because it physically cannot survive without nourishment.
How do we get that appetite back? Peter gives us the secret in verse 3: You have to taste that the Lord is good. You don't fix a bad diet just by obsessing over the food you aren't allowed to eat. You fix it by acquiring a taste for something far superior. When you truly taste the grace, mercy, and goodness of Jesus Christ, the cheap thrill of gossiping about someone else suddenly loses its flavor.
Your Challenge This Week
What have you been snacking on this week? Have you lost your appetite for the Word of God because your mind is full of the world's outrage, envy, and deceit?
The Fast: Identify one specific relational toxin from Peter's list (malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, or slander) that you are struggling with. Fast from that specific behavior this week, and replace that "junk food" with a slow, deliberate reading of the Psalms to reawaken your spiritual tastebuds.