Eve was deceived by the deceiver of the world. Sin in the heart deceives the sinner. Riches deceive from what is truly valuable. God is never deceived; He sees straight through. And we must put deceit away if we want to receive the word of truth.

I’ve observed before that we’re never commanded to read the Scripture. We’re commanded to hear it, to meditate on it night and day, and to do it. But listening or, for those of us with our own copies, reading is only a necessary step in the process. From the inside we’re to “long for the pure spiritual milk (of the word).” Crave it like a newborn craves milk. It’s one of the few things worth getting fussy about. “I need the Word now!”

The Word is good. The Word of the Lord tastes good (1 Peter 2:3), which we know from the Word. The Word gives our spiritual lives energy and nourishes growth in salvation (1 Peter 2:2). We believe that man lives by the Word of God, and we must get rid of some things before we come to eat it.

“Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1). In English this sounds like an imperative, and it is necessary. But in Greek the verb in verse 1 is a participle that depends on the main verb, the imperative in verse 2, “desire.” “Having put away” in verse 1 is the condition.

We’re instructed to get rid of every kind of lying, and we could also see the irony. Are we coming to receive truth while full of falsehood? Do we have duplicity in our hearts and yet want something pure? Jacob wanted God’s blessing through the word of his father, but he had to deceive his father to get it? It ought not be so.

Let us not be deceived by sin, or sin by deceiving. Instead let us taste and talk about the truth.