Stop Milking It Series

Corinthians Series (Part Four)

Text: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Well we’re back in Corinthians today, and we’ve moved into chapter three of this great book by the Apostle Paul. And just to quickly summarize what we’ve seen so far… you’ll remember that Corinth is a trade city. Paul was sent there after his time in Athens, and he opened this letter by reminding the Corinthians that because they were in Christ, they were called to be saints and called to live in fellowship with Jesus and with one another… then he got into explaining to them the wisdom and power of God through the cross of Jesus Christ, and we spent two Sundays talking about that.

So now we’re in chapter three… And today we’re going to be looking at verses 1 – 9. So please take your Bibles, and open them up to 1 Corinthians 3, and follow along as I read the text (READ TEXT).

Now I don’t know if you caught that or not, but in this short little passage of Scripture Paul uses three metaphors there. The first one is when Paul calls these believers in Corinth – “Infants who still need milk because they’re not ready for solid food.”

The second and third metaphors are in verses 5-9 where he says that the church is God’s field, and God’s building. I don’t know that I’ll get to all three of those today, but I’ll do my best.

So first off – Paul calls these Christians in Corinth infants. Now that’s saying what it sounds like. Paul is calling them a bunch of babies. He really is! He says to them, “Guys I can’t go on and teach you the more in-depth stuff because you’re acting like a bunch of babies!” And let’s be honest – they really were. There was jealousy and strife among them, and they were acting more like the world than the church. Now let me ask you a question – was Paul being unloving to these folks in Corinth? No… I don’t believe he was. Paul knew these people. He knew who he was writing to, and there are unfortunately some folks who are so stubborn, and so obstinate, and so worldly that you’ve got to shock them to get their attention. You’ve got to get their focus off of themselves, and onto what really matters.

And so this is kind of what Paul is doing here. He says to them, “I can’t go on to teach you the deeper things of Scripture, because you’re infants, and you couldn’t handle it. You’re worldly. You’re in the flesh. You are not behaving like Christians at all.” And he gives them an example of how that’s happening, because some are saying, “I follow Paul”, and others are saying, “Well I follow Apollos.”

So this is what’s happening at the church in Corinth – Jealousy, strife, division… It’s a church full of worldly Christians, who have set their minds on worldly things. Some people ask if they are even Christians… I believe so. In verse 1 Paul addresses them as “Brothers”… and so yeah, I’d say they were believers. They’ve been saved. They’ve accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. But then somehow; their growth was stunted, and they’ve failed to move forward in their faith. And this becomes a problem. Not only for a Christian, but for anything. Just think about it for a second…

We recently bought some baby goats. Four babies. And all four of them had been abandoned, orphaned, and so we’ve been bottle feeding them. And one of them was really small. I’d say very under-developed. And Leslie worked hard with that little baby. Trying to feed it, and nurture it, but it failed to grow and died.

You see; every living thing, should be growing. Calves grow into cows, infants grow into adults, grass grows, trees grow, flowers grow. If it’s living – it should be growing. And the same is truth with a “living faith”! We should be growing in our faith and understanding! Pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus!

If you plant some wheat, and it sprouts up but fails to grow; you’ve got a problem right?

And so Paul started this letter to the Corinthians by pointing them to the cross! He was like, “Yup, I’m gonna’ go back and hit this again, because some of y’all in Corinth are acting like you’re not even Christians.” And he went over that – how it was the wisdom and power of God. How God, in His infinite wisdom, sent Jesus to die on the cross to be our substitute. How Jesus took the wrath of God on our behalf while on the cross, and died for our sins, so that we could be justified before God.