LEARNING DAILY

 

1 Corinthians 3:2b-3, And you are still not ready, for you are controlled by your own sinful desires. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your own sinful desires? You are acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord. (NLT)

 

Many years ago, I was given a cassette tape titled Grow Up Baby Christian; it dealt with 1 Corinthians 3. Here Paul deals with Christians who refuse to mature in spiritual things, thinking it is enough to remain in the basics of Christianity. He calls them “babes in Christ” or carnal. As in our normal growth as humans we should be moving out of childhood/adolescence thinking into adult, mature thinking. Now, we can debate this for a long time; let’s agree that is normal progression for most of us. The blog this morning comes from events happening in my life that refer to this.

 

In the Christian life, Believers should desire more and more spiritual maturity – to know more and more about living the way God desires His people to live. We are to walk on the narrow way to His kingdom and eternal life. Paul writes we should be desiring the meat of the Word and desire to get off the milk of the Word. Growing. Maturing. But, because of envy, conflict, and divisions among them they are behaving like those who have not given themselves to follow Jesus Christ. I encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 3 to see exactly what Paul was writing

to understand the full picture.

 

We all understand that there is a division between those who know Christ and those who do not. Those who accept Him as Savior and Lord are considered to be spiritual because they think the thoughts of God and strive to follow Him on the narrow way. There could also be a distinction made within those who are spiritual. When we accept Christ, we realize He has died for our sins – all of them. However, you know we retain our sinful nature. We are to deny ourselves and resist the temptations the enemy brings against us. That is the war we wage daily. As we resist and deny ourselves and crucify the flesh, we grow in our spiritual maturity. Here’s the big word for this process – sanctification. That is an ongoing process until we reach perfection in heaven.

 

The problem is not all Christians make the required effort to overcome the sinful nature; they remain as ”babes in Christ” or carnal; they are still saved by their profession of faith in Christ’s finished work. Paul is addressing this with the Corinthians. It is still a problem to address today. Baby Christians need to grow up! They must not try to do things as the world does them; they cannot continue to live as those in the world in some areas of their life while still wanting to remain a part of Cod’s people. Babies are only concerned about their own needs, not caring about the needs of other. Babies or immature people are jealous over the success of others and do not want to be outdone by others. They seem to be at the forefront of every fight instead of being people of peace. And they are not producing spiritual fruit in their lives.

 

I have been faced with remembering whose I am due to circumstances. I have been made to face the conditions of my heart – am I really a mature Christian or am I going to walk as a “babe in Christ”? I have decided I am not going to be consumed by the distractions of the flesh; instead walk by faith and trust that God is in control of all situations. Isn’t that what I have been telling you for so long? I need to walk in my own words, huh!