1 Peter 2:3

1 Peter 2:3. if indeed ye tasted that the Lord is good. A condition is added which represents the previous charge as one which is applicable indeed only to those who have a particular personal experience (expressed as tasting). but obviously applicable to such, and certain to recommend itself to them. The sentence puts the condition as one which may be held to be made good, = if, that is to say (and that I take for granted), ye tasted. The tense (a simple historical past, not ‘have tasted,' as both A. V. and R. V. give it) describes the experience as one belonging definitely to the past, and points, therefore, to what they found the Lord to be when they first came to know Him. The adjective has not so specific a meaning (although it approaches that) as is implied in the ‘gracious' by which both the A. V. and the R. V. render it. Neither has it here the sense of ‘sweet,' as if the Lord Himself were viewed as the ‘rational unadulterate milk,' and declared now to be as milk ‘sweet' to the taste in the sense in which meats and drinks are pronounced ‘sweet' or ‘good.' It designates moral goodness under the twofold aspect of attractiveness and kindly disposition or active beneficence, as distinguished from other adjectives which describe goodness on the side of its sterling worth and its gentleness. The idea, therefore, is that if, as Peter assumed it to be the case, they had found Christ Himself to be good in their own first inward perception of what He was, they could not but hunger for that living Word of the Gospel by which they had received Him and life with Him, and make such use of it that their life should be a growing life and themselves children, dwelling in brotherly love, and advancing in meetness for the children's inheritance. It is not necessary (with many interpreters) to limit this goodness of the Lord to the active beneficence of which the providing of this preached Word was the special proof. The source of the verse shows the sense to be more general. For Peter seems to have in mind here the 34th Psalm, one of the eight Psalms which are referred by their inscriptions to the painful period of David's life during which he was a fugitive from Saul. The particular words which he reproduces are those in which the Psalmist calls on God's saints to make proof for themselves of that kindness of Jehovah which throws the shield of angelic protection round them, words on account of which the early Church made this Psalm its Communion Psalm (see Delitzsch in loc.). In order to adapt it to his present purpose, Peter makes certain changes on the sentence, dropping the imperative form, and giving the single term ‘taste' instead of the two terms ‘taste' and ‘see,' by which the Psalm expresses the spiritual experience which leads to spiritual perception. And what is said of the Jehovah of the O. T., Peter applies thus to Christ without further qualification. If they had once tasted this goodness, they must have the appetite, and that would keep their life from being stunted. If they had once known what the Lord Himself is, they could not but long for that Word which is His preacher, that they might have an ever-deepening experience of His goodness.

1 Peter 2:4-6

It is supposed by some (Schott, etc.) that the previous section has already had in view the future of the Church, and not of the mere individual, its import being that by a right use of the Word the members of the Church should increase in love as a brotherhood, and the Church itself advance towards its glorious end. In that case, the verses which now follow would be a mere extension of the former paragraph. Up to this point, however, Peter has dealt rather with what concerns the individual believer's own ripeness for the inheritance of the saints, and now he speaks of what relates to the realization of the idea of the collective body, the Church. With the change of view there comes a change of figure. The conception of a life growing passes over into that of a building increasing. At the same time the Word or Revelation, which is the means of the life with its growth, gives place to the Lord Himself, who is the foundation of the structure with its increase, and the idea of union with Christ Himself as the first and the last thing in the regenerate life, which was but dimly conveyed by the preceding statement, is now exhibited in all its breadth. The description which is now commenced of what believers are meant to be in their collective capacity as the Church of God, is continued for some time, and carried into the details of their relations to the ancient Church of God in Israel (1 Peter 2:7-10), to the world and civil society (11-17), and to various orders of life.