Devotional

Christian Maturity

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. -1 Corinthians 3:2

Beginning in 1 Corinthians 2:10, Paul elaborates on our need for wisdom and revelation from the Holy Spirit, and he ties this very firmly to our receiving the “words … which the Holy Spirit teaches” (2:13). He immediately turns from these observations to an outright confrontation with the carnality of the Corinthians, attributing it to the shallowness of their understanding of God’s Word. Hebrews 5:12–14 elaborates this by asserting that “everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness.”

The demanding truth of this passage is that no amount of supposed insight or experience reflects genuine spiritual growth if it is not rooted in the knowledge of God’s Word. Such “rootedness” is in truth and love, not merely in learned knowledge or accomplished study. In order to experience true spiritual growth, we must spend time in the Word.

Just as a baby requires food to grow, so we require the daily input of God’s Word for our spiritual growth (1 Pet. 2:2). Let us make studying the Word a priority in our lives and see how it begins to “grow” in us!

1 Corinthians