1 Corinthians 3:1-3

Scripture: 1 Cor. 3:1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

1 Cor. 3:2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

1 Cor. 3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in in a human way?

Teaching: After making the point that the Corinthians had the same access to the wisdom of God, God’s own mind, at the end of chapter 2, Paul confronts the Corinthians with their apparent disinterest in knowing the deeper things of God. The Corinthians were a believing church who had the Spirit, but they had not grown in Christ at all since Paul had left them. They were still boasting in which apostle delivered them the Gospel and jockeying for worldly renown amongst themselves. Paul addresses them with a stark metaphor here: they are infants in Christ, and just as with infants, he can only feed them at this time with milk (not solid food). The metaphor is that the milk is spiritual truth, but because the Corinthians have not matured (grown into it as a baby does into manhood/womanhood), Paul cannot teach them the deeper things of God. Just like if one tries to give an infant anything other than milk, the infant will choke, so, too, could Paul not give the Corinthians anything past the basics of faith in Christ.

What evidence does Paul cite for this conclusion? The Corinthians behavior. In verse 3, Paul notes that there is still jealousy and strife among them, and that they are “behaving in only a human way.” Paul could see by their behavior that, while they were in Christ and indwelled by the Spirit, they had not matured in Christ to reflect His character outwardly. They were Christians who still lived the same flesh-driven life that they had before coming to faith. They had not yet begun to demonstrate the spiritual changes that had taken place within them because they had not yet elevated spiritual truth above fleshly desire in their lives. They had not yet begun to live as the new creation they were in Christ, but rather, continued to live as the old, fleshly creation they had been saved from by Christ. Remember our working definition of spiritual maturity: the degree to which who you are in Christ is who you are in the world today. The Corinthians were spiritually immature because who they were in the world that day was not reflective at all of whom Christ had made them to be.

Takeaway: We’re told by the world not to “judge a book by its cover,” however, Jesus tells us to discern by one’s fruit (Matt. 7:16-20). Paul discerned the Corinthians were spiritually immature by their behavior because it is a fair barometer to such a judgement. Just as one would not teach calculus to a child who hasn’t learned arithmetic, Paul says he did not give them anything but Gospel (basic spiritual truth/milk) in his time with them. And somehow, years later, Paul still cannot give them anything but the same. God has so much for us in His Word to edify and strengthen us in our walk with Christ, but if we cannot grow in Christ, following the lead of the Spirit over the flesh, then what use is more teaching if we are not being changed by what we have already received and understood? We can know the Bible front to back but if we do not allow its words to shape and guide us, what use is it? Spiritual immaturity is not a state to live in. Christ died so that we would also crucify our flesh and instead, walk in the new life that He gives us. Today, whether you have been following Christ for a day or decades, ask yourself honestly: what do my behaviors show about my spiritual maturity? Am I reflecting the new life that Christ has given me? A Spirit-led, spiritually mature life, is the "abundant" life that Jesus speaks of in John 10:10. He says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (John 10:10). When we physically turn from the same sin, vice, and fleshly desires that by faith we have been spiritually set free from, we begin to reap the abundant life that Christ gives us both now and eternally.