1 Corinthians 3:1-4

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

And I, brothers and sisters, was not powerful enough to speak to you all as to spiritual people, but as to infants in Christ.  I gave you all milk to drink, I did not give food.  For you were not yet powerful enough.  Rather, you are not yet powerful enough now.  For you are still natural people.  For where there is jealousy and strife in you all, are you all not natural people and living according to humanity?  For whenever someone says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you all not mankind?

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I give Paul credit here.  He really puts his neck out on the chopping block.  Not only does he tell the Corinthians that they weren’t powerful enough to receive mature spiritual food, he tells them that they still aren’t ready to receive true spiritual food!  That’s astoundingly amazing if you think about it.  That takes courage.  But I think it also takes honesty.  We know that human babies need to have milk first and then grow into solid food.  So anytime we are going to truly learn something we start with milk until we can handle the full truth and the challenge it brings to our life.  All spiritual change starts from a position of needing to be fed milk first.  It’s actually the only way to grow properly.  It’s not an insult after all, just a realization.  We must all confess our need for milk in the areas where we could genuinely benefit from growth.  Only when we recognize our need for milk can we truly prepare ourselves for when the spiritual meat comes!

Why is it hard to think of ourselves as needing spiritual milk from time to time?  Why is it humbling?  Where do you need spiritual milk so that you can prepare for the true spiritual food that God really wants us to feast upon?

Second Thought:

When Paul points to humanity in this passage, he points to jealousy and strife.  Most human beings are jealous.  We want what other people have.  It’s really that simple.  Where does jealousy lead?  Strife.  Another word for strife is conflict.  When we are jealous of one another, there is conflict.  Ever see two kids each get a sucker?  If they aren’t the same color, watch out, right?  Now, I jest a bit.  But there is truth there.  One kid gets a blue sucker and another kid gets a red one and someone is inevitably unhappy.  We as adults aren’t really any different.  Rather than getting caught up in the grace of God that we have received as a free gift we tend to pay more attention to whether we’ve received the best kind of grace, or the most amount of grace, or whatever.  The greater point is that in Christ we have all received grace.  Considering our sinfulness and that we have received grace, we have no reason to have jealousy and strife coming out from our jealousy.  When we do, it demonstrates our humanity.

Have you ever been jealous?  What are the things about which you are most like to be jealous?  Has jealousy ever led to strife in your life?  How do you overcome that?

Third Thought:

Paul really makes a great point here in the end of this passage.  I think we as human beings like to draw distinctions based on our pedigree.  How many times have you heard people argue about their denomination?  As if being Lutheran or Baptist of Methodist or Catholic makes you any more Christian!  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with worshipping in a Lutheran way or a Baptist way or whatever.  But it doesn’t make us more Christian than anyone else who genuinely worships God and who confesses salvation through Christ.  On a more personal level, Paul tells us that whether we come from Paul’s training or Apollos’ training is really pretty irrelevant, too.  Our pedigree just isn’t important.  When we get to heaven, there isn’t going to be a hierarchy based on how significant our mentor was!  This seems so common sense, but we often don’t live like that.  For example, how many people put greater emphasis on being spiritually led by the pastor in a church and less importance on being spiritually led by a sincere lay person?  In truth, what Paul is saying is this: we are saved by Christ only.  It is Christ that matters.  With respect to human mentoring or training, it is more important to find someone who speaks in a manner that makes sense to you than it is to be mentored or led by the pastor or the church matriarch or the church patriarch.  Human pedigree just isn’t that important.  Find someone who speaks truth and listen to them.  Whether they are clergy or lay or high in reputation or modest in reputation just doesn’t matter.

Have you ever been involved in a discussion where someone tried to make you feel less important because of your spiritual pedigree?  Have you ever done this to another person?  Why is it human nature to do this?

Passage for Tomorrow: 1 Corinthians 3:5-9