Many of us who have / had little children, love them watch to grow. I can tell from my experience of raising two daughters - now they are teenagers. When they were born, I used to watch their feet and measure with my palm and as they grew, I used to admire them on how they grew every day, as they started from Milk to solid food, from crawling to standing up. As they started walking, then speaking, then running around, even today I admire them as they grow as teenagers - the way they talk / behave etc.. I praise God for all the good things of my life, Children are a blessings from God. I recall many times my wife checking with the pediatrician to check if the growth was normal, they used to measure the head, length of the body and weight to plot a graph to say how much percentile the baby has grown and if they are in the right track to grow. Like wise it’s a tragic thing for a parent when the child does not grow up as well, it’s a great suffering for the parent to have their kids not growing up.
Same thing is true spiritually, As we come to the Lord, we are babes in Christ family, our father Jesus longs and adores us as we grow spiritually, he enjoys every spiritual actions of us as we grow in his presence. It begins when you get saved and put your faith into Jesus, Once we are believer the growth clock starts, it does not stop there. In the growth process there are stages that God wants to take us through till we meet him. No one can claim they are fully grown up, till they meet the Lord to conform that we are in the image of Christ Jesus. In this path, many of us refuse to grow, to make a choice and say, “I am not going to do what you tell me, God. I am not going to grow” that is sin.
God gave me the wisdom to understand this when I learnt new things as I read 1 Corinth 3
'Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? ' 1 Corinthians 3:1-4
A time for every thing
'Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. ' 1 Corinthians 3:1
Paul point backs here there is a time to be a babe in Christ “I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.” He is pointing back to a time in the past when he was with them and he could not speak to them as like a spiritual men. Hebrews also says the same, we need pastors and teachers to teach the word of God as “elementary truths of God’s word “ 'In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ' Hebrews 5:12
He reaffirms that in verse 2. He says, “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.” He uses an analogy that’s easy to understand. Now in the spiritual life, we are born with everything that we need, God touches and gives all the Spiritual DNA to us. We just don’t know how to use that. Till we know how to use these gifts, we are being fed by God with Milk food.
Milk (Verse 2a) - We need to understand this clear, It doesn’t mean that Paul taught them one thing then (when they were early believers) and taught them something else later on. No, he always taught the whole counsel on the word of God. Back then he didn’t go into the depth and to the detail with what he taught them because they couldn’t handle it. They were brand new babies. He stayed on the surface. It was the same teaching, he just didn’t have the freedom to go as deep as he would like to go with it that what he refers in Verse 1 “as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.”
Solid Food (Verse 2b) - Solid food has to do with the “word of righteousness”, you have to get over to understand the word in depth to grow further. This is acquired when people meditate the word of God to understand the righteousness of God. Remember we did not choose God, God chose each of us in sin-filled state, filled with lot of bad things in us, In this we start with milk and God wants us to grow to become an apostle of God.
When we say apostle, we may wonder thats only for pastors and people who know the Bible deep.
Its not that God choose only pastors to be the only ordained people to serve, the beauty of Christ is, he uses ordinary people like you and me to be his apostles, all the disciples he chose did not have any education scholarship like how many of us think we have to be, but they were all given the solid food by Jesus to be the apostle of God to preach and do many works in the kingdom of God. We are being deceived by satan that growing up needs Bible college lesson and it’s only for pastors to do.
There are many people who don’t grow up as they attach themselves to a preacher or to any one Christian denomination and they are emotionally wrecked because they don’t know how to live in the fullness of what God has given to them. Thats the reason they don’t grow or due to this attitude they have impaired their growth. They don’t want to meditate the word to get the righteousness of God.
I am not saying we don’t need pastors or leaders or church denomination, we do need pastors or senior People in Christ for us to guide us to become the people who will feed Milk in early life of christ, as we get the knowledge, with the help of the Holy spirit we need to meditate the word to acquire the righteousness of God, that paves way for the spirit to lead us and make us also an apostle for God’s work in us.
Clinging to someone or something
'You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? ' 1 Corinthians 3:3-4
Paul says this about the problem of you being spiritual babies. “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?”
When we come to Faith, we were chosen by God in imperfect state, so that we can grow out from the Sin. 'For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ' Romans 6:6, The old part of us is dead “our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with” Once we are in faith, we have the assurance God has taken away my old sinful life and I am clothed in the new life of christ by his mercy and Grace, In our early days we learn to yield to Christ, learn to surrender to him, walk more closely with him daily reading Bible irrespective of we understanding every word or not. Over a period we slow down where the old in us takes over and the new life takes a back seat.
The first sign of us not growing spiritually is we live according to flesh, the old is not gone like how Paul said in Romans 6:6, it continues like how Paul says in 1 Corinth 3 “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you” We fight for the causes of world.
The second sign of us not growing spiritually is we attach to person or a preacher or things of the world, also called idolatry things of life. We want the spiritual growth only thru the person or preacher. Here in Corinth church they were attached to say “I follow paul” and other says “I follow Appolls”, This needed only when we are in early state when we are new to christ.
When you grow in deep relationship with God, you don’t need to attach yourself to people because you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you. Understand that Christ is in you and you are complete in him and he is your sufficiency. But when we refuse accept that then I am preventing my growth. I am getting in the way of what God is trying to do in my life. Yes, He is in me to do his will, the will of God is accomplished with we cooperating and yielding to what God wants us to do. God will not do any forced growth in us.
Growth is not only commanded by God, it is enabled by His Spirit living in us. When a believer lives a life that is not growing in the Lord, that is sin before God. You are impairing what God the Spirit began in your life by your refusal to surrender to the Word of God.
How to grow out spiritually
'Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.' Hebrews 5:13-14
The word “not acquainted” means without skill in handling the word of righteousness. Remember God ordained each of us with this skills as we enter in faith with him. We don’t recognize the skill there in us, secondly we don’t do anything to build the skill as well.
We train our skills with the help of Holy Spirit, we listen to the word of God, seek the Holy Spirit to talk to us, we obey what the spirit of God tells to do, the spirit will discern the sins of your life from the past and get them rid from inside out to transform and mature
As you start yielding and allowing the holy spirit to work in you, God will allow the skills that he has given us to manifest according to his will.
God’s holy spirit will identify the skills that we have and use it accordingly to his perfect will 'And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. ' 1 Corinthians 12:28
The skills that God Identifies to become “all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.” for some it may be one skill or many, for some of us it may be one skill that God chooses to use us for. For me God has chosen to use me with the gift of writing (spirit of guidance). I don’t know what else he has planned for me, but one thing I can tell, every day he is teaching me and shaping me up according to his plan. I praise God for his glory in my life, there are many things he has transformed in me. Every day its a work in progress transformation, all glory to God for his work in me. For you it may be a different skill that God may choose to use. Remember we are all different parts but work for one body in Christ so the that His name be manifested and glorified.
'Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ' 1 Corinthians 12:12
Summary
Reflect back to see how long you are in christ. Are you 1 yr old christian or longer than that, if you are more than 1 year and lean on a “Person” to teach the spiritual maturity, you are like a grownup child physically exhibiting the Babe behavior in Christ.
Examine yourself what are the Idolator things that you are attached with thats preventing the growth of your spiritual life. Is it a person, is it yourself, is it your finances etc. Surrender that to God and ask him to remove the those things that are preventing the spiritual growth.
Always remember obstructing spiritual growth is a sin. Is it anger ? jealousy ? quarrels you have with others ? is it Pride ? is it the gossip’s you have ? It may be anything - Like how Paul says “For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? that may be obstructing your spiritual growth.
You can’t grow in Christ unless you yield and obey his word. If you have to get the solid food of “teaching about righteousness.” you need to spend time with God by meditating and praying, it cannot be just one min whatsapp forward reads or reading facebook posts or Insta posts. It’s dedicating time for God. You have to give time to God, remember it’s God who gives time to you everyday. Every body is given the same time, Yes we are quite busy with the worldly life priority, our work takes a lot of time, children’s duties take time, our health (Walking / Gym) priority takes time, school / college studying takes time. All these activities are a necessity. But its your attitude and your will, if you make time for God the rest of them will automatically align. If we take excuses by calling our world priorities we will never grow up. That is the reason why many who call themselves christians have never grown up spiritually and continue to be Babes in christ.
Remember God is going to ask you, what did you do with your time when I gave you so many chances. He may quote examples or instances of what opportunities he gave when we meet him. No better answers may save you from his wrath. Today is the day to wake up from the slumber and obey to his calling to break from being a babe and to start receiving solid food. Action is yours.
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