1 Corinthians 3 - "Are You Settling on the Milk, Or Ready For the Meat?"

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The Church and Its Leaders

Paul starts chapter with mild rebuke toward the believers in Corinth. He describes their spiritual maturity as more worldly than being led by the Holy Spirit. As a result he could not teach them the deeper things connected to the Spirit and the Word. The main evidence of their worldly behavior was there jealousy and infighting, which led to for instance one camp saying "I follow Paul" and another saying "I follow Apollos". 

Paul clarifies that Apollos and himself have complementary gifts. There was no reason to compare one to the other. Paul plants the seed, Apollos waters it but God makes it grow. This is why we should never have any competition in the body of Christ. For instance in Fallbrook we have several different denominations of different stripes and different practices, but the main thing that we preach Christ and him crucified as Paul did. One church may have an Apollos and another Paul but there is only one field and we are all co-workers in it. I like to call this a 'kingdom mentality", which is more than any one church. 

Paul knew there would be others after him who would build on the foundation he had built. The foundation of the building is Jesus Christ. He is the "cornerstone" which holds the building together. We sing in the famous hymn, "The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ." Here are the first two verses, 

Verse 1: The church's one foundation. Is Jesus Christ her Lord; She is his new creation By water and the Word. From heaven he came and sought her To be his holy bride; With his own blood he bought her, And for her life he died.

Verse 2 Elect from every nation, Yet one o'er all the earth; her charter of salvation, One Lord, one faith, one birth; One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food, And to one hope she presses, With every grace endued.

At the end of the day our work for God will be revealed. If we build it on the one foundation of Jesus is will be like precious metals, which will be tested for its worth on the day of judgment. On the other hand if we build it on something else it will be like wood, hay, and stubble, which will be burned up in the fire. Fire is always a sign of judgment in the bible. Although this is not a salvation issue, "the builder will suffer loss but will be saved as one escaping through the flames. 

Finally, Paul uses the analogy of milk and meat to describe their spiritual maturity. Some of them were like spiritual babies who needed to be fed "milk". or are they ready for spiritual meat. Those who needed milk were still caught in copying the world, in this case being driven by personalities not on the Word of God. 

Some “spiritual junk food Christians” are greatly blessed when they get a spiritual meal of solid food, but others, when presented with solid food are not able to receive it, because their spiritual “taste buds” are so conditioned to junk food, that is all they have a taste for.

What are you dining on spiritually these days? Are you settling for spiritual junk food? I.e. Elementary teachings. Or you dining on the richness of God's Word and being obedient to it so you are getting real spiritual nourishment.