Paul actually wrote about this in his first letter to the church in Corinth:
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
A prominent televangelist was famous for saying that the message of his ministry was about “Christ and Him crucified”. He meant this to be a display of humility so that his favor among those who consumed his message would increase. But, like all self-serving ministers of the gospel, he missed the reason that Paul could not preach to the Corinthians anything but the foundation of the gospel.
This is in the same letter:
“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal.”
In inadvertently, the televangelist admitted that, in his 40 years of preaching, the people under his ministry were still immature.
Paul, as an attentive father of their faith, could not address the Corinthian believers beyond what they could digest. They were still babes in Christ, unable to eat the solid food of the wisdom of God.
This primary issue was “envy, strife, divisions among [the believers]...”:
“For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”
Carnal, here, is not necessarily outward and apparent sin. It relates to being led by the flesh as opposed to being spiritual and being led by the spirit. What they were doing was common among the population of Corinth but was not up to the standard of the Kingdom of God. The Corinthians were contemptuous and divided; Between their behavior and displaying the “One Body” of Christ was a wide divide.
In the same letter, Paul noted that in spite of their shortcomings there is a different message spoken to people who could hear it:
“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature…”
Even though THEY could not hear the deep wisdom of God, there were still believers who could.
Now, part of keeping a mature message from children is the mercy of God. A mature message will confuse a child. As an example, there is a reason we don’t explain “paying taxes” to our 3-year-olds. Just the same, Paul, as a loving father of their faith, withheld the deeper things of God from the Corinthian saints because they could not bear the weight of the words: because of their immaturity they had no way to assimilate the truth of a greater message.
“I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”
However, make no mistake, it was to their detriment that they could not bear the weight of the full counsel of God. Paul even admitted that this prompted him to warn the believers of their shortcomings. If they remained as children, participating in and condoning divisions of the Body, they could be swept away by empty words of other men. He wrote these words, about maturing, to the saints in Ephesus:
“..that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ…”
So, the gospel is simple but it is supposed to be simple. The audience, after all, is the unregenerated masses - people who are carnal. But, we are expected to move beyond the milk of the gospel and onto solid food. Solid food is for the mature.
Grace and Peace,
Aaron56
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
A prominent televangelist was famous for saying that the message of his ministry was about “Christ and Him crucified”. He meant this to be a display of humility so that his favor among those who consumed his message would increase. But, like all self-serving ministers of the gospel, he missed the reason that Paul could not preach to the Corinthians anything but the foundation of the gospel.
This is in the same letter:
“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal.”
In inadvertently, the televangelist admitted that, in his 40 years of preaching, the people under his ministry were still immature.
Paul, as an attentive father of their faith, could not address the Corinthian believers beyond what they could digest. They were still babes in Christ, unable to eat the solid food of the wisdom of God.
This primary issue was “envy, strife, divisions among [the believers]...”:
“For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”
Carnal, here, is not necessarily outward and apparent sin. It relates to being led by the flesh as opposed to being spiritual and being led by the spirit. What they were doing was common among the population of Corinth but was not up to the standard of the Kingdom of God. The Corinthians were contemptuous and divided; Between their behavior and displaying the “One Body” of Christ was a wide divide.
In the same letter, Paul noted that in spite of their shortcomings there is a different message spoken to people who could hear it:
“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature…”
Even though THEY could not hear the deep wisdom of God, there were still believers who could.
Now, part of keeping a mature message from children is the mercy of God. A mature message will confuse a child. As an example, there is a reason we don’t explain “paying taxes” to our 3-year-olds. Just the same, Paul, as a loving father of their faith, withheld the deeper things of God from the Corinthian saints because they could not bear the weight of the words: because of their immaturity they had no way to assimilate the truth of a greater message.
“I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”
However, make no mistake, it was to their detriment that they could not bear the weight of the full counsel of God. Paul even admitted that this prompted him to warn the believers of their shortcomings. If they remained as children, participating in and condoning divisions of the Body, they could be swept away by empty words of other men. He wrote these words, about maturing, to the saints in Ephesus:
“..that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ…”
So, the gospel is simple but it is supposed to be simple. The audience, after all, is the unregenerated masses - people who are carnal. But, we are expected to move beyond the milk of the gospel and onto solid food. Solid food is for the mature.
Grace and Peace,
Aaron56
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