Good Milk, Bad Milk

“For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that it, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:13-14)

I am reminded of a lactose-intolerant friend, to whom I’m supposed to do Bible study with on the book of Hebrews. Until today, we still haven’t met up to do it. My attention is brought to the word “milk”. Consider this:

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” (1 Peter 2:1-2)

The former passage describes “milk” as a negative, whereas the latter passage describes “milk” as a positive. How can this be so? I am tempted to easily explain it away scientifically. Milk is good to those who are not lactose-intolerant, whereas milk is bad to those who are lactose-intolerant. Ok, lame humor. Bad for interpretation of Scriptures too.

“Milk”, in Hebrews, is an analogy compared to “solid food”. According to this comparative analogy, “milk” is bad, because being content with just milk goes not augur well for a person’s spiritual growth. We are called to progress on to “solid food”, and, through our habitual “reason of use”, develop a spiritual maturity that will enable us to “discern both good and evil.”

One good benchmark of spiritual maturity is to see how a person makes good judgment calls on issues concerning morality. Doing that requires a great depth of understanding of the word of God. How can we reason with a person that it is wrong to smoke, drink, or eat food offered to idols, if that person has not grasped the concept of sacrificial love, which behaves with the other brother in mind?

A deep level of maturity is also required to “discern both good and evil”, in the context of discerning correct doctrine from incorrect ones. How can we ever reason with a person that Christ is the fulfillment of the law, when that person has no idea of law, or worse still, no idea of who Christ really is in His deity and His purpose?

“Milk” is used as an analogy in 1 Peter, but with a different flavor. “Milk” is now used as a symbol of purity, in contrast to malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, which, if I may add, is a “corrupted” type of food. We are called to crave purity from the word of God, the same way a baby craves for pure milk. This is in line with the teaching: “in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature” (1 Corinthians14:20).

Scientifically, there is no such thing as good milk or bad milk. The culprit lies in the defective enzymes in lactose-intolerant poor things. Spiritually, milk can be good, and it can also be bad. It depends on how the word “milk” is used.