MILK AND SOLID FOOD

MILK AND SOLID FOOD

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? —I Corinthians 3:1-4

The apostle Paul is addressing Corinthian Christians but he says they “are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.” Now we know from Hebrews 5:13-14 that “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.” Paul said the Corinthian Christians were still infants in Christ, still on milk and not ready for solid food. As infants Paul said that they were still acting worldly which was seen, in context, with the “jealousy and quarreling among them.”

Part of their worldliness was over who those Corinthian Christians were following. Jealousy and quarreling among them apparently had to do with who they were following. Some said they were followers of Paul. Others said they were followers of Apollos. Still others said they were followers of Cephas and some that they were followers of Jesus (I Corinthians 1:12).

To some degree doesn’t that sound like today’s denominationalism? I’m a Paulist or I’m an Apollosite or I follow Cephasism or I’m a pure Jesus follower. Sounds like I’m a Baptist or Presbyterian or Lutheran or Methodist or Catholic or Pentecostal or Congregationalist… I wonder what God would say to us through Paul today… Would He say that we are acting like infants, worldly and in need of milk and not solid food? Hmmm…

Dear Father, Your desire is for unity and yet it is unity on what You have to say and not what man has to say. May we stick to Your Word above all things because it is what You have to say that is important. Then let us live that out according to Your will, purposes and plan in the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Jesus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkunT7BYCqw