1 Corinthians 3:1-8 “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as a people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “ I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned through each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one…”
In the first three verses, Paul tells the Corinthians that they are spiritual infants and have only been fed milk, not solid food. I wonder how far this analogy can be taken? The first question that comes to mind is; how long can milk sustain life? Mothers generally start introducing solid food to their babies when they are about 5 months old. They need to be fed and the food is only slightly more thick than milk at first, but soon the milk no longer satisfies and the child craves solid food. By 9 or 10 months the child can feed himself, though the food needs to be broken into bite size pieces and he often makes a mess and needs to be cleaned up. Many American churches do a fair job feeding the infants milk, but they neglect to feed the maturing Christians solid food. Books with timeless depth, ideas and theology that encourage believers to study and seek the Lord in relationship
proportional to our knowledge and value of Him often lie dusty on our shelves while self-help best sellers turn a profit. I find myself asking the same questions I found in 1 Corinthians 3 as I peruse the latest Christian bookstore catalogue. Are we still of the flesh? Are we not being merely human? Remember church, “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” When we sell our own ideas with an occasional quote from the Bible, it’s little wonder idle babble and schisms exist among us. We think nothing of comparing ourselves among ourselves when the foundation of our doctrine is merely human. Christian unity will not be achieved through contagious trends or mass marketing, only by the Spirit of God. And fruit of the Spirit thrives at the expense of our flesh. It’s interesting to muse what degree of expressed Christian unity might be demonstrated among the church if pride, popularity and profitability were not so hellishly tempting.
Milk, Meat and Christian Unity
May 4, 2009 by erinchristine
Erin. I like you 🙂 These are some excellent thoughts, and they resonate with me greatly. It’s been so long in Christianity that people have been fed almost solely milk that most people don’t even realize that they are craving more. I was listening to John Bevere awhile ago and he made the excellent point that, unlike the physical body which complains when hungry, the Spirit simply goes quiet as it starves.
Interesting thought then…if our Spirit isn’t asking for more or working in us in some way (convicting, challenging, approving, etc) then odds are that it is starving.
One encouragement in this dark day is this; I have seen many young people turning from the lasse faire entertainment of books labeled “christian” and yet with no real meat in them and instead picking up their Bibles, books by men like Spurgeon, Owen, Calvin, Mahaney, Piper, and the like. May that hunger for solid food grow, and may we grow as we partake!
-Benjamin
By the way, I love these last few lines…
“…fruit of the Spirit thrives at the expense of our flesh. It’s interesting to muse what degree of expressed Christian unity might be demonstrated among the church if pride, popularity and profitability were not so hellishly tempting.”
Very well written.
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I really enjoyed your viewpoint and perspective on this. Very good job. 🙂
TJ