“I fed you with milk and not with solid food…” (1 Corinthians 3:2)
The Apostle Paul believed that when a person becomes a believer they are like a newborn baby who critically needs milk and formula to survive. Babies need to be fed milk before they are ready for solid food. Since a baby does not have a fully developed digestive tract we feed them milk. Paul uses milk here as a metaphor for spiritual truth a teacher feeds to believers. When we find spiritual truth without human help that is meat and solid food.
The bottom line is that new believers, like new born babies, critically need their milk and formula if they are going to progress to solid food that makes them grow into spiritual adults.
What is the nutritional formula for a new believer? A primary part is the Word of God. Peter writes that as new believers, we should earnestly desire the Word of God the way newborn babies go after their mothers’ breast knowing that survival depends on what is received there. Prayer is another vital part of that formula. When we pray we talk to God, and when we open God’s word He talks to us.
We must add spiritual community and fellowship to this formula. We need the inspiration and encouragement we receive from other believers. Witnessing and sharing our faith with secular people is another important part of our spiritual diet. So are service and acts of love and charity.
Are you getting your spiritual nutrition? Or are you suffering from spiritual malnutrition, barely surviving because you are not getting your formula and milk? Although we always need the truth we receive from teachers, we should also hunger for the solid food truth we receive directly from the Lord.
25 October 2013
Happy Birthday Dick!!!! Thanks for all you do with this blog. It means so much to so many of us. God bless!