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.”

“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.

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 (ὑποκρισεις) 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.

“Newborn babes” is from the Greek word brephos (βρεφος), 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.

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

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.”

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.