You Were Infants

ByJim Stephens

Reading: 1 Corinthians 3; Proverbs 24

1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to mature Christians. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. 2 I had to feed you with milk and not with solid food, because you couldn’t handle anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still 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 desires? You are acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord. 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I prefer Apollos,” aren’t you acting like those who are not Christians? (1 Corinthians 3:1-4 NLT)

What does Paul say are the signs of spiritual infancy?
• Controlled by your own sinful desires
• Jealousy and quarreling
• Personality preference cults

12 You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. 13 And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life and doesn’t know much about doing what is right. 14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right. (Hebrews 5:12-14 NLT)

One maturity-marker is the ability to think beyond our own wants and needs and care about what’s good and helpful for others!
• Infants are cute, cuddly, and delightful. But infants are all about their own immediate needs, desires, and preferences. And their own immediate comfort!
• Mature people have room for others in their hierarchy of needs, wants, and preferences. Mature people care for and help others.

There’s a time factor here, friends! Healthy believers are infants for a season, then become mature and maturing Christians for life!

Prayer:

Father, May my friends and I fully live and fully experience each season of life and each stage of maturity. And please help us not to get stuck in spiritual infancy when it’s time to be living mature and maturing lives of caring for others! Amen!