The Immaturity of Babies -1 Cor. 3&4

There are few types of people less enjoyable to spend time around than someone who is immature. You know what I am talking about. Immature people never seem to "get it" or be aware. They are silly when they should be serious, they are frivolous when they should be focused. Immature people don't seem to have any discernment--they seem to always be doing obviously foolish things. Any prolonged association with such a person will stretch you to the limits of your patience.

When writing to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul doesn't mince his words. These believers need to grow-up, spiritually speaking. They are still fleshly motivated when they should be spiritually minded. They are immature to the point of earning the stinging rebuke that they remain as "babes in Christ," still requiring doctrinal milk when they should have moved on to more substantive spiritual nourishment. (1 Cor. 3:1-3)

Here is the consequence: Spiritual immaturity prevents us from seeing what we ought to see, and knowing what we ought to know. Because they are immature, the Corinthian believers fail to understand the foolishness of being divided by allegiance to earthly teachers (1 Cor. 3:4-17). Because they are immature they fail to see the foolishness of being persuaded by the absurdity of human "wisdom" (1 Cor. 3:18-23).

But perhaps the most revealing mark of their immaturity is their belief that they are already sufficiently spiritual. Paul supplies a witheringly sarcastic rebuke of these believers he has already called "carnal" and "babes." "You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us--and indeed I could wish you did reign...(1 Cor. 4:8)." They were a divisive, fractious, immoral, and immature church, but they thought of themselves as spiritually full, as spiritually rich, as though they were already righteously reigning-a notion that Paul appropriately sarcastically derides them for. Jesus said "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." This Corinthian church, immature and worldly, did not hunger because they foolishly thought themselves full. Spiritual immaturity prevents us from seeing what we ought to see, and knowing what we ought to know.

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Application--Do we think ourselves full? Do we consider ourselves spiritually mature, as though we already reign, when, in fact, we are more spiritually immature, more fleshly in our thinking then we care to believe? We cannot be blinded by the same arrogance that blinded the Corinthians to their failings. Scripture clearly reveals the mark of the mature and the immature. Let's reflect well on where we stand, remaining hungry and thirsty for righteousness that we may continue to grow in the Lord.

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Reading- 1 Corinthians 3 & 4