Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were in fact not ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?     1 Corinthians 3:1-3 HCSB

It’s been almost 13 years since I spent as much time with a baby as now. I forgot how fascinating it is to watch them grow on a daily basis. I forgot how quickly they develop and reach their chronological milestones right before your very eyes. I spent time yesterday with my granddaughter and I am always in awe as I watch her. It is such a blessing to watch her as she learns to do more and more and becomes more interactive.

I said it’s been 13 years because my great niece will be 13 years old on the same day that my granddaughter will be six months old. It seems like yesterday when my great niece was turning 6 months old. She matured so quickly.

Children seem to grow so quickly and mature so quickly. Sadly Christians don’t always mature as quickly. Sometimes they rarely get past the milk stage.

The milk Paul is referring to is baby Christianity or the beginning of spirituality. Unfortunately, he is telling the members at the church of Corinth that their growth has become stunted. A counselor might say they suffer from arrested development. When we answer the call of Christ, we must be careful. The devil is right there hoping we will not grow or develop into mature Christians. If we do this, we run the risk of bringing others to Christ. He doesn’t want that to happen.

As mature Christians, we must be there for baby Christians to help them grow. We can’t do this if we don’t mature ourselves.

The biggest problem with stunted Christian growth is it causes others to question the persons salvation. If I tell you I am saved but speak and live my life just as I did when I was lost, what would you think?

Have you been saved? First, you must be sure you were truly saved and that’s another blog. If you believe in your heart that you were truly saved, then you must ask yourself if you have grown since you were saved. Sometimes we grow and then we backslide. If you have grown, have you continued to grow and mature?

Can you handle spiritual meat? Have you taken a deeper dive into the doctrine and surrendered control to the Holy Spirit. Part of the problem with the church in Corinth is their members had negative influence from pagans outside the church. Sound familiar? But the other problem was an internal problem. Church members were envious of and fighting with each other.

We grow through daily Bible study and prayer. We grow in our relationship with the Lord. As grow in our relationship with the Lord, we mature as Christians. Think about it this way, if you went on a first date and decided to go on a second date and then a third you would expect the relationship to grow, right? But what if your 100th date was no different than the first. What if nothing had changed in your relationship?

When we get saved and don’t grow in Christ, it causes the relationship to become stagnant.

Maturity in Christ brings about a peace that surpasses understanding. It brings about a joy that never ends. An immature Christian is actually an oxymoron if you think about it. How can we be truly saved and not grow and mature?

Surrender yourself to God’s Holy Spirit. Devote yourself to daily Bible study and prayer. Grow in your relationship with Christ. Grow in your faith. We are reborn so we can grow. We should never stop growing until God calls us home to spend eternity with Him.

Keep calm and keep growing.

Have a great day!