WWUTT 1456 As Infants in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)

The Corinthians as Infants in Christ

The Apostle Paul wanted to address the Corinthians with some deep spiritual truths, some heavy doctrinal things, but he couldn't because they were still infants in the faith and needed to grow up when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Coming back to our study in 1 Corinthians, we start off chapter three this week and I will begin by looking at the first nine verses. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 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 a human way? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

He who plants and he who waters are one and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. God's building. So back at verse one here, Paul comes back to an issue that he confronted in chapter one.

Spiritual Maturity Versus Natural Thinking

So in 1 Corinthians 3 .1, I brothers could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. Now that's an important distinction there because in chapter two, he had been making the argument that the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. So what is the church in Corinth? What are these people that Paul is addressing? Are they naturally minded or are they spiritually minded?

So he lays down that argument about the spiritually minded versus the natural mind in chapter two. That 16 verses was making that argument, natural versus spiritual mind. So is he claiming that the church in Corinth is naturally minded as though they do not have the spirit of God at all?

Well, as he clarifies in chapter three, verse one, I could not address you as spiritual people so they don't have the spirit. And then he goes on, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ, so they do have the spirit of God because they're Christians but they're not thinking with the spirit of God.

They're still very immature. They're newborns in Christ Jesus. They are born again. So Paul is not addressing this people as fallen. He's not addressing them as unbelievers as though they are still pagans and not saved, but they are very immature.

They have become born again. They have heard the gospel. They have believed it. Paul does truly believe the spirit of God is within them, but they are new at this. They've just become newborn babes in the faith.

Just as somebody is born in the flesh, an infant, and must grow, and must mature, and must be fed, and must learn. So it is with anybody who is born of the spirit. Somebody who is born again by the spirit of God is born again a newborn.

They are newborns in the faith. When the apostle Paul talked with Timothy about the qualifications for an overseer, we have this in 1 Timothy 3, one through seven, he mentions in verse six that of the qualifications of an overseer, of a pastor in a church, he must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

So someone who is to be a pastor has got to be seasoned in the faith. They've been a Christian for some time. They have been mentored, and have even been a mentor. So they've at least attained that sort of maturity in their Christian walk, that they are, they've been mentored by others, and they mentor others.

So you might even include them among the older men as talked about in Titus chapter three, which may not necessarily be, I'm sorry, not Titus three, Titus two. It may not necessarily be that the older men there are older in age, although those who are the most mature will be older in age.

After all, we have newborns to the faith that can be in their 70s, in their 80s, right? I think I just saw a picture on Twitter recently of an old woman in her 90s being baptized. I wanna say that it was, the caption to this photo was she was 99 years old, and had just become a Christian and got baptized.

If a person who is 99 can get saved, anybody can come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord can draw anyone to himself, no matter their age. So praise God for that. And what a moving thing it was to see that photo.

A woman who is 99 years old has come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as savior. And yet, though 99, she's an infant. She's a babe in the faith, which has to be just the coolest experience. I can't even imagine that.

Being 99 years old and meeting Jesus for the first time, she's gotta feel 99 years young. I am old in my body, but I am brand new to the faith. That's gotta be awesome. And not too far away from meeting Jesus face-to-face, from seeing him face-to-face, and all by the grace of God.

It is only by God's grace that any of us come to salvation. But yet, she gets to be a babe in the faith. It gets to feed on those truths that you and I may have been walking in for years, and she's now hearing them for the first time.

She's receiving milk, not solid food. We have this talked about in other places. One of the most prominent spots is in Hebrews 5, verse 11, where you see a kind of rebuke there of the Hebrews, just as Paul is making here of the Corinthians.

So in Hebrews 5, 11, it says, "'About this we have much to say, "'and it is hard to explain "'since you have become dull of hearing. "'For though by this time you ought to be teachers, "'you need someone to teach you again "'the basic principles of the oracles of God.

"'You need milk, not solid food. "'For everyone who lives on milk "'is unskilled in the word of righteousness, "'since he is a child in the word of righteousness.'". Verse 14, "'But solid milk is for the mature.'".

Sorry, I messed that up. "'But solid food is for the mature, "'for those who have their powers of discernment, "'trained by constant practice "'to distinguish good from evil.'". Walking in the faith requires constant practice.

How do you know that a person is mature in this faith when they have been doing it for a long time? Not simply saying that they believe it for a long time, like I was baptized 10 years ago, so you know that I am a more seasoned Christian.

I'm a mature Christian in this faith. Not if they haven't been walking in it. It takes more than I was baptized 10 years ago. They have to have a constant practice of it, growing in it. Peter says in 2 Peter 1 .5, "'For this very reason, make every effort "'to supplement your faith with virtue, "'and virtue with knowledge, "'and knowledge with self-control, "'and self-control with steadfastness, "'and steadfastness with godliness, "'and godliness with brotherly affection, "'and brotherly affection with love.

"'For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, "'they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful "'in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.'". James says in James 1 .2, "'To count it all joy, my brothers, "'when you meet trials of various kinds, "'for you know that the testing of your faith "'produces steadfastness, "'and let steadfastness have its full effect, "'that you may be perfect and complete, "'lacking in nothing.'".

Back in Romans 5, verses one through five, Paul said, "'Since therefore we have been justified by faith, "'we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. "'Through him, we have also obtained access by faith "'into this grace in which we stand, "'and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

"'Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, "'knowing that suffering produces endurance, "'and endurance produces character, "'and character produces hope, "'and hope does not put us to shame, "'because God's love has been poured into our hearts "'through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.'".

What do we see in these passages, in 2 Peter 1, in James 1, in Romans 5? We see this progression, we see this maturity in faith, walking in faith, clinging to Christ, even in the midst of suffering and of persecution, and something is being produced in us as we lean all the more on Jesus, as we turn all the more to Christ, as every day we look to him for our sustenance and our growth, we are grown, we are matured.

We grow up into the head who is Christ, as Paul talks about that in Ephesians 4, and we as a body of Christ help one another do that. We grow each other in the body of Christ, being knit together in love.

This is a growth that happens not just individually, but it happens in the church. Paul is encouraging that among the Corinthians here as well. He's not just rebuking individual people, he's saying to the whole church, they need to grow up.

They need to mature. Now, we also have statements in scripture though, like Jesus saying that you must have faith like a child in order to enter the kingdom of God. What do we make of a statement like that?

Well, it simply means that we need to rely on our father who is in heaven. We need to come before our father as children, fully dependent upon their parents. We can't get anywhere without our parents, right?

Children would languish and die, if not for somebody older who's able to provide for them and help them to grow and be nourished and learn and mature and things like that. We are dependent upon our parents to learn those things until we're able to do it on our own.

So we must be that way with our heavenly father, only we're always children before the father. We are the children of God. So we never get to a place where, hey, I'm good, I can do this on my own. No, we're coming to Christ daily.

We're relying upon our heavenly father every day for the sustenance that we need. Hence why Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew chapter six, our heavenly father, give us this day our daily bread, for we need to be fed every day.

We're asking not just for the basic needs in our bodies to be met, but we're asking for the spiritual food that comes only through Christ, who is the bread that has been sent from heaven. Now, Peter in first Peter two, he also talks about milk here as well.

So he says in first Peter two one, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, those things that divide, those things that come from the flesh, those things that come from the carnal man so that we may live as spiritual people.

He goes on in verse two, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Well, hang on a second here.

Peter is telling us that we need the spiritual milk. Paul is saying, you must have solid food. He says in first Corinthians three, and then we read it also in Hebrews chapter five, to not be on milk anymore, but we need solid food so that we may have our powers of discernment grown, that we may test what is good and what is evil.

We must grow up in these spiritual things. So how is it that Peter says that we're supposed to stay with the milk? Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation.

Well, this is the same as what Jesus said about being a child and you must have faith like a child in order to enter the kingdom of God. So there are things about our growth that is always gonna be dependent upon the basic things.

You always need to remember the gospel as I've shared with you many times before. You never, never, never, never, never graduate from the gospel. You will always need the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not just something you heard and hey, I believe it.

And so now we're moving on to better things. There is not a better thing. Everything that you learn will flow from the teaching of the gospel, but you always need the gospel. Understanding that we are sinners that deserve the wrath of God.

But by the grace of God, we've been given his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us so that whoever believes in him, we are forgiven our sins and given everlasting life with God. That's the beautiful good news of the gospel of Christ.

And we need that reminder every day lest we get puffed up with the conceit and too reliant on ourselves and not upon God who raises the dead. So there's always going to be as children of God, there's always gonna be that dependency we have to have upon our father.

We need to understand this in certain categories, right? But we read in 1 John 3, 1, that we are the children of God. Now we are, so we are the children of God adopted into this family by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So there's always those things that we are dependent upon the father for. You need the father today. You need the word of God given to you today, which I hope you understand. And that's why you would listen to a broadcast like this, which comes to the word of God and feeds you with the word of God so that you may grow up into maturity.

Paul says to the Corinthians, I brothers could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. They've not yet grown up in the spirit of God. They're not yet holding fast to Christ and receiving all things from him.

They're still kind of a natural man tendency there to wanna do things on their own. And the carnality that still exists there in the natural man is coming out from them in creating these factions, this I follow Paul and I follow Apollos mentality, the division that was existing there in the church in Corinth.

Paul says in verse two, I fed you with milk, not with solid food. For you were not yet ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, how is it that Paul can say this about the Corinthians?

How is it he can make this judgment and say of them that they're just not spiritual enough? Paul isn't even there. Who is this guy to say this to us when he's off in another place and he's writing from afar?

Well, because he knows of what's going on in that church, that there is jealousy and there is strife. These are fleshly things. Again, coming back to what Peter said in 1 Peter 2 .1. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, all of these things that you are doing, behaving as in such a human way.

You're behaving as though you're still in the flesh. And I see this every day, especially being on social media. I see people who are figureheads in evangelicalism. And by figureheads, I mean, they're names that you would recognize.

And yet I watch people who are supposed to have such maturity and are supposed to be leading others in the truth. And I see them actually causing division instead. Instead of drawing people to unity in the gospel of Jesus Christ, I watch people who are names, for lack of a better term, utilizing worldly philosophies and ideas and actually causing division in the church.

Even these people are supposed to be mature leaders and providers for the body of Christ who are supposed to be shepherds, who are shepherding the sheep to the good shepherd, the great shepherd who is Christ.

Instead, they're utilizing these worldly philosophies and causing divisions in the church. And even these supposedly mature persons, once again, need to come back to the basics of the gospel because they've forgotten them and think that we need these worldly philosophies and concepts in order to be corrected, which instead cause division.

It was the worldly things we were rescued out of by Christ. Don't return back to those things. They're of the flesh and they cause jealousy and strife among the people of God. And then we don't even look like the people of God anymore.

We look and act just like the rest of the world is acting. Remember what Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, 3. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, everything that comes from Christ, if we teach that, it grows people in godliness.

If we're grabbing onto other worldly ideas and teaching people according to that, thinking that that's gonna make a person more Christ-like, well, what Paul says about that, verse four, he's actually puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

He's saying, guys, you gotta listen to me because look at this idea that I've got, which is really gonna help us out since the things of God really are not enough. They're puffed up with conceit and understand nothing and they have an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which reduce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain, like worldly gain.

See, I've got this Christian platform now and I'm gonna use it to accomplish something for myself or to put myself over you. That's causing division. It's causing factions. And Paul will say later on in chapter 11, and in some sense, I do believe about these factions that exist among you for there must be factions so that those who are genuine might be revealed.

When we see these divisions get stirred up in the body of Christ, who is truly of Christ and who is not? You will notice by their fruit. You will know them by their fruit. Who is clinging to Christ and who is going after these worldly philosophies?

So Paul says, I had to feed you with milk and not solid food for you were not yet ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready for you are still of the flesh. There's still jealousy and strife among you.

Are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? So let us put away these things and not walk in them any longer, but long for the pure spiritual milk that by it we may grow up into salvation.

If indeed we have tasted that the Lord is good, amen. Heavenly father, we thank you for this good word and this reminder of the gospel that we need it every day. That we never graduate from the gospel, but we need to continually be fed by Christ.

Every day coming to our Lord to be grown in our hearts, to be drawn to Jesus, to have less of ourselves and more of Christ. And knowing the words of John the Baptist who said, I must decrease and he must increase.

May that be the cry of our hearts, less of us and more of him. And we help each other in the church, in the body of Christ, grow up into Christ as well. That all of us together may be presented before God, sanctified, purified on that day.

Convict us of our sin and lead us in righteousness. It's in Jesus name we pray, amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word, when we understand the text.