Immaturity (Sixth Sunday After Epiphany, February 12, 2023)

IMMATURITY

Text: 1 Corinthians 3: 1 – 9

1 Corinthians 3:1-9 And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. (2) I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, (3) for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? (4) For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human? (5) What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. (6) I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. (7) So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (8) The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. (9) For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building (NRSV).

Tell me if you have ever heard this before. You’re immature! You need to grow up! Did anybody ever say any of things to you? How did it make you feel? Did it sting because it was true when they said it? How well do you think it went over when Paul said this to church at Corinth?

Let’s look at that. In the very first verse Paul has stepped on toes! There are two words that illustrate well how Paul stepped on their toes. These two words carnal and babies lose some of their emphasis as they are transliterated from Greek to English. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance breaks down the original meaning of those two Carnal and babies. Carnal ?????????? means flesh, bodily, temporal, animal and unregenerate; babies ???????? means simple minded, babies, childish.

The Passion Translation helps us to understand 1 Corinthians 3:1 even more: “Brothers and sisters, when I was with you I found it impossible to speak to you as those who are spiritually mature people, for you are still dominated by the mind-set of the flesh. And because you are immature infants in Christ,

As someone anonymously said, “You are young only once, but you can stay immature indefinitely”. Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. Paul’s message was simple “Grow up”! Essentially, Paul is getting at two things, spiritual growth and kingdom growth.

SPIRTUAL GROWTH

How can we grow in the Spirit if we are limited by the flesh?

1) Flesh for a compass:: Their spiritual lives were incomplete because they were immature. They were relying on human wisdom instead of God’s wisdom. In the beginning, there were not any barriers between the bond that God shared with Adam and Eve. Satan aka Lucifer appeared in the garden in the form of serpent and conned them because of his jealousy of Adam since God wanted “Lucifer to bow down to humanity”. http://www.differencebetween.info/difference-between-lucifer-and-satan Lucifer’s pride got the best of him as he rebelled and subtly and cleverly attacked the bond between God and humanity. Before the attack, Adam and Eve had their (f.r.o.G.) full reliance on God. Satan designed the attack to break that f.r.o.G. bond and get them to rely on their human wisdom which relies on the flesh for a compass and not God!

2) Incomplete: “They were saved but not living in the light of the spiritual realm into which they had been adopted”. (Tony Evans. The Tony Evans Bible Commentary. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019, p. 1152). They were still living by the flesh instead of being guided by the Spirit. Jesus is the only One who can restore that f.r.o.G. bond.

3) Christ crucified: This is exactly why Paul preached “Christ crucified” earlier (I Corinthians 2: 2). “… The flesh can never be reformed or improved. The only hope for escape from the law of the flesh is its total execution and replacement by a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ”. Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [Original source: The Adversary, Mark Bubeck, Moody Press, p. 28] Consider what the book says, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5 NRSV).

Through Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, God conquered our flesh problem! The Book says, “ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24 NIV)!

How does our growth compare with the book---- God’s Word and what it says?

1) Growth required: If you had a child that was three and was no taller than the day she was born, would you think something is wrong? Of course you would! When Lilly was an infant, they would measure her growth in height and weight with a national chart that measured the rate of growth for children in her age bracket.