Paul, in I Corinthians 3:1-2 describes the Christians in the church at Corinth as, “babes in Christ.” This is where we all begin in our walk as Christians. Jesus even tells Nicodemus in John 3:3, that he “must be born again.” When we become Christians, we are starting a new life. We are in our infant stage each day learning something new about Jesus and how to love him and walk with him. In the beginning, we are like the newborn baby totally dependent on someone else to help us to understand this new way of living. Even though we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to understand scripture, we still need help. Paul informs those of the church at Corinth that when he had taught them before, he had to speak to them about the life of a Christian in its’ infant stage. The Christian newborn teachings would be teachings of salvation, repentance, and faith. These teachings would be the milk of the word. It would be easy to digest and understand.
I 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. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.”
Paul handles his address to them carefully. He starts out by calling them, brethren. In other words, I recognize you as my brothers and sisters in Christ. He doesn’t imply they have fallen away from God, but he then proceeds to tell them you are still acting like babies. You are not maturing at the rate that you should. Paul tells them he can’t even speak to them about spiritual things because they were still acting and thinking on a carnal level. The word carnal in verse 1 in Greek is sarkinois, it implies fleshly, or weakness of spirituality, but the word carnal in verse 3 is sarkikos and involves the dominance of the lower nature of man and it is antagonistic to the spiritual man.
Paul is basically telling them they have not grown the way they should in the time period they have been Christians. He has not given them the “meat” of the word because they were not strong enough to handle it. Paul is concerned that they tend to be fleshly minded. They were dealing with things with the same mindset and knowledge that they had before they became Christians. He wants them to determine their actions based on their spiritual walk with the Lord. To make decisions based on God’s word and leadership of the Holy Spirit.
This should be a wake-up call to us that are saved. There should never be a time when we are standing still as Christians. We are either moving forward through obedience, by applying scripture to our daily lives, or we are becoming stagnant, and falling back by not studying, praying, and making an application. Our thinking and acting need to be consistent with who we say we are. We are Christians, created in the image of God and saved by the blood of Jesus. We are to be like Christ. We are to apply the commands and principles of the Bible to every area of our lives, not just what we do on Sunday morning, or when those teachings fit our comfort zone, but even in the minute details of our lives.
In many Christian churches today there has been gross negligence to teach the whole counsel of scripture because of fear of some leaving the church or conflict from the community. This type of selection of teaching has allowed babes to stay babes and the more mature to become desensitized and allow sin to creep into the church. After a while, the sin becomes accepted and scripture is twisted to support what the church is doing. At this point, the church is on dangerous ground. As they go further and further from the truth they are risking getting to the point that God can write Ichabod over the door. It means “the Glory has departed.” Not growing the way God intended for us to grow sends us on a slippery slope down the wrong path.
I can only imagine the frustration of Paul, or of godly Pastors today, who strive to teach the whole counsel of God but are seeing very little maturity among members of the church. When we are unspiritual in dealing with others or with God, we are acting like babies that are capable of no more than drinking a bottle of milk.
The answer to the problem of being a babe in Christ is to grow up! We do this by studying, praying, and simply following what Jesus said was the two greatest commands
Matthew 22:37-39 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
When we practice these two verses everything falls into place. When we love God above everything else it will control our actions and our attitude. This will also make it easier to keep the second part of that command. When we love God, we love the things he loves. He loved mankind so much he made a way to be forgiven and gain eternal life. Loving our fellow man as thyself requires us to be selfless instead of selfish. This is the first step in growing up in Christ. We forget about ourselves and seek to please God more than anything else. Are you growing? What areas of your life can you point to and see that you have grown in the past six months? It is important that you check your life and judge yourself.
