I Corinthians 3:1-3

I Corinthians 3

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

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

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 a human way?

In this passage, Paul is discussing maturity as a believer with the Corinthians. He says he fed them with milk, not solid food, for they weren’t ready for it. This isn’t referring to actual milk or food, but rather to the ‘deepness’ of the spiritual principles he is teaching them. Milk refers to things that are pretty elementary in the Scripture and solid food (or meat as other translations refer to it) refers to doctrines that require maturity as a believer to understand.

Why does Paul keep teaching these believers the same basic principles over and over? What does he attribute to their immaturity? They are still of the flesh, in jealousy and strife. They are fighting within themselves, jealous of each other and unable to get along.

I think this is a good gauge of our own spiritual maturity. There are two very basic commandments that I would consider ‘milk’ in the Scripture. They are interlaced throughout the Bible over and over again. They are ‘love God and love others.’ We, just like the Corinthians, fail at the second of these commandments on a regular basis. Why is there so much jealousy and strife among believers? And if someone who doesn’t know God comes in and sees it, why would they been drawn to our ‘christianity?’

So take a look at your own life. Do you struggle to get along with other Christians? Are there people in your life, brothers and sisters in Christ, that you ‘dislike’, can’t get along with, or are consumed with gossiping about? I’m not saying its always easy, but Scripture is clear that we are to love one another. We must move past our ‘fleshly’ response and start loving others just as Christ does.

Luke 10:27- And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”