Spiritual
Growth
1
Corinthians 3:1-2 And I,
brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal, even as unto babes
in Christ. 2 I
have fed you with milk, and not with meat (solid food): for hitherto ye
were not able to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able.
In the spiritual realm, as
well as in the physical, everyone loves a baby. But the joy that fills the
hearts of loving parents is turned to bitter sorrow and disappointment if
their babe fails to grow. The latter condition is as unspeakably sad while
the former is joyous.
Just so it is in the realm of
the spirit. The “carnal”
(fleshly) Christian is one who is “yet
carnal” (1Cor 3:3 below) and
has failed to grow. He continues in a state of protracted infancy, still a
lover of “self” and the
things of “this world (Gk. aion,
age),” the things of this corrupt age. Paul says such a one must be
kept exclusively on a babe’s milk diet because, though perhaps a saved
Christian for years, he is still unable to “bear,”
or digest, solid food, still also
unskillful in the Word” and needing to be taught the elementary
things.
Retarded spiritual growth is
evidenced in many ways, all of which come under the heading of carnality
or fleshliness. The Corinthians, so sternly rebuked for their carnality
by the Apostle Paul, are said to have been careless about morals (I Cor.
5:1), puffed up (1 Cor. 4:18; 5:2), inconsiderate of each other (I Cor.
6:1-7; 8:1,9,12), stingy (2 Cor. 8:6-11; 11:7-9). While possessing the “Spirit
of Christ,” they yet walked in accord with the desires of their sinful
“flesh.”
One of the most marked
indications of retarded spiritual growth is self-interest and divisive
strife, as seen in the case of the Corinthian believers (below). They were
spiritually small and petty, so that the Apostle had to write to them:
“For
ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and
strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? “For while one
saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?”
(I Cor. 3:3, 4)
Thus Peter’s exhortation to “newborn
babes” to “desire the pure
milk of the Word” that they may “grow
thereby,” is prefaced by the words: “Wherefore laying aside all
malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings”
(1 Pet 2:1). The carnal nature is
not appropriate soil for
spiritual growth.
The “pure
milk of the Word” is the food and sustenance for all believers for
their everyday diet. But eventually then they may progress to the “meat”
or the solid food of the Word of God that they may grow thereby. It is a
shame that the members of “the body
of Christ” today are so poorly fed by the religious systems of the
church at large. Their appetite has become so tainted with the artificial
sweeteners of false “feel good” teaching that attracts and feeds the
fleshy soul-self. They are starved of the nourishing truth of “the
Word.” It is “the god of the
world” (Satan) attracts men, including believers, with and to the
things “of this world.”
2
Corinthians 4:4 In whom “the
god of this world” (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe
(trust) not (in the Lord), lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Ephesians
2:2 Wherein
in time past ye
(believers at
Ephesus
) walked according to the course of this world, according to the “prince
of the power of the air” (Satan), the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience:
The
wisdom to be gained of the Lord via His written Word is able to save us
eternally and also save our lives daily in such a way that we may live with
rest and peace in our hearts
1
Corinthians 3:19 For
the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God. For it is written, He
taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
1
Corinthians 2:6 Howbeit we
(Paul and his associates) speak wisdom among them that are perfect
(complete): yet NOT the
wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come
to nought:
