Meals and Maturity

No one expects for a newborn baby to be able to eat solid foods like barbeque ribs or fish. Yet, if thirty years later that same person still doesn't know how to pick out the bones, chew, and digest such foods, then clearly something has gone drastically wrong. Yet, this is the very predicament in which some Christians find themselves. As the Apostle Paul once wrote to the church at Corinth: "I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh" (1 Corinthians 3:2,3). In addition, the writer of Hebrews proclaimed:

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. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:12-14).

There is a clear connection between maturity and discernment...as one increases so does the other. Those who are immature lack discernment and practice evil; yet, those who are mature have feasted upon solid food (the word of righteousness) and have gained wisdom and discernment through constant practice.

Maturity doesn't happen overnight. If we expect that it will, then we are foolish. Yet, we should not be discouraged by this fact; rather, it should encourage us to pursue the path of wisdom that is found in the Word.

I pray that each of us will take time to wean ourselves away from diets that consist of milk alone and instead feast on the full bounty of Christ and the Word.

So, why not start now? Click here to go to the online ESV Bible.