Your Spiritual Maturity: Milk Vs. Meat...Yum

1 Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

 

2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

Diagnosis of Spiritual Immaturity

* **Milk**: Is the basic, foundational spiritual teachings. Just as an infant can only digest milk, new believers, or "babes in Christ," are only ready for the simplest doctrines of faith: 

-What is salvation?

-What is discipleship?

-What is the rapture?

-What is the church?

-What is the word of God? 

Paul's by inspiration of the holy ghost choice to "feed" you with milk indicates a necessary and fatherly approach, as you are not yet mature enough to handle more complex biblical principles.

* **Meat**: Is the deeper, more complex doctrines. Meat requires a stronger digestive system, and similarly, these advanced truths require a more mature, discerning spiritual mind. Paul states that he could not give you meat because you are not "able to bear it," implying that trying to teach them advanced concepts would have been unhelpful as you spiritual understanding is not yet developed.

Spiritual milk is the indispensable starting point for every baby Christian delivering the basics of faith in digestible form. However, a mature Christian, a true steward presses us onward to cultivate stronger “stomachs”, a more carnivorous diet for solid spiritual food, equipping us to stand firm in truth of the word of God.