1 Corinthians 3:1-4 - Spiritual Maturity
Brandon Langley
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Introduction:
Good morning,
If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
We will begin reading in verse 1.
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? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
Lets Pray
In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul introduces us to two categories of people:
The spiritual person and the natural person.
The spiritual person is the one who understands and believes the things of God.
They understand and embrace the message of the cross and they are saved by the grace of God!
Look back with me at chapter 2 verses 10-13.
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
If you are a Christian, you are a spiritual person because:
- you have the Spirit of God
- you understand the things of God
- and your able to teach the truths of God to others by the power of the Spirit of God.
The spiritual person believes that they are sinner.
They believe that they need salvation.
They believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again.
The spiritual person believes what Paul summarized in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Without believing that message, you are perishing.
Without the Holy Spirit of God revealing that message to you, you would never have believed it.
But,
What about the other category of person: the natural person.
The natural person:
does not have the Spirit of God
And does not understand the things of God.
They reject the word of the cross.
They reject Jesus As Lord.
They reject God’s plan of salvation, and they want to live their own lives without the Lordship of Jesus.
14 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.
Now…, these two categories of people are pretty clearly distinguishable.
Spiritual people are Christians
Unspiritual people are not Christians
Spiritual people understand and believe in the message of the cross.
Unspiritual people do not.
Spiritual people are being saved.
Unspiritual people are perishing.
but….. what are we to make of the person who believes the spiritual truths about the cross, but then live in a worldly unspiritual way?
It is to this category of person in the Corinthian church that Paul now directs his attention.
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
Truth #1 Every Christian Starts Out as a Baby Christian
Truth #1 Every Christian Starts Out as a Baby Christian
Notice that Paul is not outright denying that these Corinthians are actually Christians.
He calls them “brothers”
He calls them “infants in Christ.”
Remember that Paul has used this phrase to be “IN Christ” several times already in 1 Corinthians.
To be in Christ is to be saved by your faith in Christ.
It is to be connected to Jesus so that you are a receiver of all his saving benefits.
This is the language he uses earlier in verse chapter 1 verse 30.
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
Paul does not deny that these believers are IN Christ by God’s grace through their faith in Jesus.
But He does clarify that they are “infants in Christ.”
They are babies.
This is an analogy which helps us to understand what happens at salvation.
When someone places faith in Jesus they are totally forgiven,
totally justified,
totally set apart for the purposes of God,
totally redeemed from sin and death and Satan…
To put faith in Jesus is to be positioned IN Jesus Christ forever on the basis of Jesus’ work, not yours..
When we place faith in Jesus…, we are immediately saved from the eternal penalty of our sin…, but we are NOT immediately perfected so that we no longer sin.
Rather, when we place faith in Jesus…, God begins in us what becomes our spiritual journey…,
We are born again… we begin a new life in Jesus…
But when we are born again through faith in Jesus… we are born again as spiritual babies.
Yes, we are spiritually alive like we have never been before…, but we are spiritual babies.
Our spiritual heart is beating, we can love God like we never could before…,
our spiritual lungs are breathing, we can understand his word like never before…,
but we can’t crawl yet, we can’t walk yet, we can’t run yet in the freedom of holiness and Christlikeness.…, we have a lot of growing to do.
Paul describes these Corinthians as infants in Christ…,
If you are a relatively new Christian, this category should be somewhat encouraging To you.
The spiritual journey of Christianity is a not a journey in which you leap frog to maturity on day one of your faith in Jesus Christ.
Everyone starts out as a spiritual infant.
Everyone who believes that Jesus was crucified for them…, is now learning how to live the crucified life…
Do not be discouraged beloved, we are all fighting sin.
It is ok that you are still growing And learning.
It is ok that you are are still struggling along the path of sanctification.
Everyone is on a journey… and we are all at different points along the path of spiritual growth.
It would be silly to be frustrated with a one year old who cannot yet brush their own teeth and tie their own shoes.
but, at the same time, it would be silly to accept as normal a 25 year old or a 40 year old who cannot brush their own teeth or tie their own shoes.
Verse 1 assumes that every Christian starts out as a spiritual infant…, but verses 1 and 2 also assume… that they should not stay that way.
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,
Truth #2 Christians Should Grow in Spiritual Maturity
Truth #2 Christians Should Grow in Spiritual Maturity
Paul says, “even now you are not yet ready”
the assumption of the phrase is that they should in fact be ready.
Baby Christians should not stay baby christians.
According to Paul, there is an obvious deficiency in the spiritual growth of the Corinthian people.
They have been Christian’s long enough now to have grown up a bit.….
They have been Christian’s long enough now to be chewing up some meat rather than sipping on milk.
Paul assumes that there should be an ongoing maturing happening in every Christian person….
A growing that does not end until we see Jesus face to face.…
This is our aim As Christians…. This is the ongoing reality of our lives as Christians.
We have been born again through our faith in Jesus…
and now as new creatures In Him… We seek to grow up in Christ…,
AND we want to help others grow up in Christ!
That is the nature of the Christian ministry we are all called to.
Listen to how Paul summarizes the aim of the Christian ministry in Ephesians 4.
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
We are all growing up and church ministry is a ministry of helping each other to progress in spiritual maturity.
This is what Jesus meant with his great commission given to us…. “Go therefore and make disciples.”
We are maturing and we are helping others to mature So that they are no longer spiritual children tossed to and fro by every trial, temptation, and false teaching.
We are to work in the maturing of others so that they might in turn work in the maturing work of others.
If there is not growth, then that should signal to us that there is some kind of problem. There is some kind of abnormality.
If there is no progress in Spiritual maturity, we need to pause and ask what is stunting that progress.
If you have been a Christian for some time now…, what is the untreated spiritual sickness that is keeping you from being the kind of Christian who is growing and discipling other Christians?
If there has NEVER been progress, then we need to pause and ask whether we were ever born again.
The Holy Spirit Of God does not take up residence and bring someone to spiritual life to leave them exactly the way they were.
The Holy Spirit of God makes us spiritually alive,
and then he begins to work to make us more and more spiritually mature.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
But all this leaves us with a question we have to address first.
What is maturity?
What is the difference between a Christian sipping on milk and a Christian eating solid food?
What is milk and what is solid food?
Well lets take the clues from the context.
What are the marks of someone who is still sipping milk according to THIS text?
Notice particularly how the argument is carried along by the word “for.”
1 Corinthians 3:2–3 (ESV)
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?
According to Paul, The Spiritually immature person is a “fleshly” person
What does it mean to be a “fleshly” person?
In another parallel way he describes them as acting “merely human”
To be fleshly or to be acting merely human suggests that, though they may have received the truths of the Spirit about the Cross of Jesus Christ…..,
They are still thinking, processing, and acting according to the desires of their natural fleshly unspiritual self.….
These kinds of people may likely find that they they identify with, relate to, and find an easier time befriending non-Christian people then Christian people.…
This is because they do not live in the world or see the world through the lens of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They are more influenced by the culture then they are by the cross.
They may believe that the message of the cross is true.
but they have not yet learned how to walk out the implications of that message in their life.
They may believe that Jesus humbled himself for them…,
but they have not yet learned how to humble themselves as they relate to others.
The message of the cross that saved them is not translating to a message of the cross which now guides them through life.
Paul cites some very obvious proof.
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?
Paul knows that they are still sipping milk particularly because of the way they relate to one another in the body of Christ.
They are entertaining jealousy over one another.
This is the kind of pride which elevates self and even wishes for the downfall of someone else.
This is the opposite of the message of the cross where Jesus humbled himself for the uplifting of someone else.
These Corinthians are entertaining strife, or quarreling between one another, not seeing one another the way God sees them.
They are seeing one another, and responding to one another the way Spiritless people see one another and respond to one another.
Their primary problem is not just jealousy,
their primary problem is not just strife,
Those are simply symptoms to a deeper fleshly, human reality in them.
Truth #3 Mature Christians Know AND Apply the Word of the Cross
Truth #3 Mature Christians Know AND Apply the Word of the Cross
Here is the real crux of the problem…. The gospel message they say they believe has not impacted the way they see themselves, one another, or their purpose in life.
You see the deep things of God are not a move away from the message of the cross to some deeper theological study….
The deep things of God are a moving more deeply into the same message of the cross that saved you so much so that it impacts the way you live your life.
Let me quote from John Piper here. This is what he says of this text.
What, then, is solid food? Notice that it is not something that takes more intellect to grasp. What it takes is less jealousy and strife, less pride and self-assertion. The solid food is not for smart people. It's for humble people—people who have stopped pursuing the pleasures of self-confidence and self-exaltation and self-determination—people who now want only to boast in the Lord and give him all the glory for whatever good there is in the world and in their lives.
John Piper
You see relational realities like jealousy and strife with other people persist and persist and persist in your life when you do not see yourself and others in light of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Jealousy and strife mark your life when you think you deserve something that is not yours…
when you think that you must prove yourself right…,
when you fail to give others the grace that you yourself need.
Pride is the power of jealousy and strife… it is the engine of inter-relational conflict.
The meat and potatoes of the message of the cross however… is not necessarily some new insight in a theology book….
The meat of spiritual maturity, in this text, is such a deep rootedness in the message of the cross that the message of the cross actually has a humbling effect on you…
It has an every day effect on you.
Through this word you receive grace and the power to give grace
Through this word you receive forgiveness and the power to give forgiveness
Through this word you receive love and the power to give love
Through this word you understand the severity of sin, and are empowered to war against it.
Through this word you receive promises, and the power to rejoice patiently in the painful waiting.
Through this word you see how much God loves a lost and dying world, how serious the judgment will be for those who reject Jesus… and it drives you to share the truth, live on mission, and go to the nations.
Its the word of the cross that drives us to share the truth, to live on mission, to go to the nations…
The cross is not just a message to be believed at the moment of salvation… It is the way in which we see and live In the world.
and for the rest of our lives we will feast on the meat of all that the cross means for us For our marriages, our parenting, our relationships, our stewardship, our lives.
The spiritual infant has only come to believe that Jesus died for them…
The spiritually mature person is always learning more deeply what Jesus’ death and resurrection means for their life in him.
Spiritual infants believe that Jesus was crucified for them…
The spiritually maturing are increasingly reflecting the crucified life of Jesus
As they give of themselves for the good of others and the glory of God.
One of the clearest marks of maturity according to Scripture is whether a person is pouring themselves out for others like Jesus poured out for them… or whether they are simply taking from others.
Infants are consumers…
They take and take and take…,
They need to be fed, they need to be dressed, they need to be cleaned up.
They cry for someone else to fix it when they are uncomfortable
They don’t contribute to the household.
Adults, however,
They give,
They can feed themselves, they can dress themselves,
and they contribute to the household.
They pour out for others even at great cost to themselves.
And so it is spiritually...
Spiritual infants will consume the message of the cross… and they are saved by his grace…
But Spiritually Maturing people will reflect and pour out the message of the cross in their every day life.. they will be givers of the message, not just takers.
11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 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, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Truth #3 Mature Christians Know AND Apply the Word of the Cross
Truth #3 Mature Christians Know AND Apply the Word of the Cross
In fact, the message of the cross for the mature Christian is not simply something they believe…
it becomes the central and guiding principle of their lives.
This bring us to our final verse for this morning.
For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
You see the problem in Corinth is that Corinthian Christians are giving their allegiance to human leaders …
more than that…
They are giving their allegiance to human leaders more than they are giving their allegIance to Jesus himself.
Remember back to Paul’s rhetorical question in chapter 1.
12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Truth #4 Mature Christians Give Allegiance to Christ Alone
Truth #4 Mature Christians Give Allegiance to Christ Alone
Jesus is not one option among many.
He is not the back up leader of our lives whom we call upon when we have no one else.
He is not the one we serve as long as we don’t have anything else going on.
The Spiritually mature person puts Christ at the center of all things.
Following Jesus comes first.
He comes before any leader, any family member, any friend, any job, any amount of money, any dream, any ambition, any desire, any sin.
Following Jesus comes first.
The Spiritually mature see the world through a heavenly lens…not a human one.
through an eternal lens… not a temporary one..
They are always asking this question… NOT… how can I please myself…, but rather…. How can I please my Lord?
This is how Paul lived his life.
This is how he understood life in this broken world.
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
This was Paul’s perspective of life.
It was totally and entirely Christ-centered… driven and focused on the most important task, the eternal task, the mission of God that had been given to him.
That is maturity.
That is how I want to live my life… I don’t primarily want to be known as a good preacher, a good leader, or even a good father, or a good person… I want to be known as a Jesus follower. I want to be someone whose eyes are set on the prize of the upward calling of Jesus Christ more than anything else this world has to offer.
Yet here are the Corinthians… bickering, and quarreling As they prioritize temporary things, personal preferences, and their own pride.
Like babies crying for milk…, unable to enjoy the meat of gospel truth for every day life.
So Paul writes…
1 Corinthians 3:4 (ESV)
….are you not being merely human?
Church, lets not be merely human…
Let’s have something other worldly about us.
something spiritual about us.
Something supernatural about us.
Something Jesusy about us.
Let me leave you with a few takeaways.
Takeaways:
) Accept That You Have More Growing to do
No one is a grace graduate.
No one has arrived.
No one will ever be perfected until they see Jesus face to face.
So accept right now that you have some growing to do and thats ok.
Repent of whatever arrogance or slothfulness that stunts your growth.
The arrogance that tells you that you have this Christian life and ministry thing all figured out.
Accept that you got some growing to do.
2.) Assess Where You Need to Grow
Self-assessment is encouraged in the Bible.
It is the precursor to confession and repentance.
You have to take a long look at your life every once and a while and pray the kinds of prayers that King David prayed.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
In what ways or areas are you struggling to apply the message of the gospel To your life?
In what ways have you given things or people or goals in life a deeper allegiance then you have given Christ himself?
Assess where you need to grow.
3) Aspire to More Spiritual Growth
What do I mean by aspire?
I mean fan into flame a desire for spiritual maturity.
Long for it.
Eat meat…
Don’t be satisfied with sipping on the milk Of spiritual infancy.
Sanctification is a gift of God.
Spiritual growth is a grace of God.
He has given you the Holy Spirit for your good.
Growing in godliness is good.
Their is joy in spiritual growth.
Their is peace in spiritual growth.
Their is eternal reward in spiritual growth.
Don’t be satisfied with less than what God freely offers you in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Become a disciple-maker.
become a producer and a giver of spiritual good… not just a consumer.
Get to work… and reap the fruit of your labor in the grind of spiritual growth in other people’s lives.
Steak is better than milk.
Grow your appetite for the feast that God has made available to you.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus again and again until you see him face to face.
Lets pray to that end.