Growing Up In The Lord

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul, in a spirit of loving reproof, told them that they were babes in Christ. He told them that he was only able to feed them with milk, that they were unable to digest meat. He told them the reason for this unfortunate state of affairs was that they were carnal as evidenced by the strife and division that existed in their church. Some said they followed Paul, others followed Apollos, Cephas, or Christ. By all appearances there were four denominations existing in Corinth which ran counter to God’s will that all spoke the same thing, that there should be no division, that they all share the same doctrine and judgment. They understood that Jesus had died for their sins and that he was raised from the dead, but they didn’t quite grasp the fullness of what that resurrection meant for their lives.

 

But then Paul went on to say that there are certain brethren to whom he was able to feed real meat, namely the ones who did not engage in arguments about who to follow as a source of truth. They knew that the only source for truth is the scriptures, not this man or that man. They too understood that Jesus died for their sins, but, unlike the carnal Corinthians, they were also open to learning about a secret that God had kept hidden up His sleeve until He revealed it to Paul. It is that secret that is the meat that can nourish all Christians and make them fully understand the true greatness of the new birth and the power it conferred upon them to do all the work Jesus did and even more. According Romans 16:25, an understanding of this secret is the only way any Christian can be fully established in the faith and grow up in the Lord.