Without The Milk Of God’s Words Less Mature Christians Will Die

Without the milk of God’s words less mature Christians will die

Hos 4:6 (God) My people (Christians) are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected (or)… forgotten (or not been fed) the law (the words) of your God.

God says to the spiritually young: desire milk and submit to your elders who feed it to you:

1 Pet 2:1-3 Laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,

as newborn babes (or babies who haven’t yet grown), desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious (have tasted, as in believed, God’s initial saving words).

1 Pet 5:5 Likewise you younger people (spiritually), submit yourselves to your

elders (the ones through whom God will feed you His milk)…and be clothed with humility for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."

God says to the spiritually mature: Feed the milk of His words, as a mother, to His lambs:

John 21:15 (Jesus) “…Do you love Me…?” "Feed My lambs (the pure milk of My word)"

1 Thes 2:7 We were...among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own children.

What then is milk? The words of the most basic teachings of Jesus Christ. What ere they?

1. The milk of laying aside evil, desiring God’s words and submitting to those who can feed you the milk of God’s words. Start by drinking in, that is believing with your heart, the milk of God’s words contained in 1 Peter 2:1-3 and 1 Peter 5:5 set out above.

2. The milk of remaining forgiven and righteous: Having been forgiven of all your past sins when you were born again, now If your renewed conscience within you convicts you of any new sin, immediately repent of it and re-receive God’s forgiveness. Understand the basis for your forgiveness. You will be able to do so as you drink (believe) these words:

1 Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (Why is it just for God to do this?)

1 Pe 2:24 (Jesus) Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree (the cross)

3. The milk of always granting others forgiveness: We only remain connected to God, who is righteous, when we stay forgiven of all our sins, for all sin is unrighteousness. This is how God keeps us righteous. If we want to keep enjoying this grace of God’s forgiveness we must always grant everyone else who may sin against us (or we just thought they did) forgiveness. If we don’t, we forfeit our forgiveness by God. Since it is not in our human nature to truly forgive, we can only do it if we drink the milk of (as in believe) these words:

Matt 6:12-14 (Our daily prayer) And forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven

TLB those who have sinned against us…(Jesus) Your heavenly Father will forgive you if you forgive those who sin against you; but if you refuse to forgive them, He will not forgive you (leaving us unrighteous in all our sins).

Do we wait to forgive others until “we feel like forgiving”? No, often we will not “feel” like it. Do we wait until they are first sorry for what they did? No, because often they won’t be sorry. Are we condoning what they did if we forgive them? No, God isn’t condoning what we did when He forgives us. Do we forgive intellectually reasoning that it’s the right thing to do? No, my intellect is not the real “me” and being corrupt can rarely do what is right. The real me is my heart or spirit, so to be real forgiveness must come from there; a heart that has drunk the milk of God’s words on forgiveness, knowing it is based on Christ having borne that person's sins against us, too. We forgive by faith in the truth of God’s words; we forgive in the name of, meaning we currently live in the nature of, Jesus Christ.

Matt 18:33-35 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant,

just as I had pity on you? ...So My heavenly Father also will do to you (leave you in the hands of Satan, where your un-forgiveness has put you) if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

1 Pe 2:24 (Jesus) Who Himself bore their sins in His own body on the tree (the cross)

To not forgive others is to trample under foot the cross of Christ who died for their sins. It is like drinking poison myself, then hoping it will somehow harm the person I won’t forgive. God likens it to my having been forgiven of a $20 million debt to Him and then my refusing to forgive someone of their $20 debt to me. It puts me in Satan’s hands. To stay free I must constantly, daily, forgive everyone. Even then, Satan will try to remind me or give me a flashback of what someone did, to re-capture me, if I’m foolish enough to re-dwell on that memory. God chooses to not remember our sins. When the milk of God’s words on forgiveness is in our hearts we have His nature in us to likewise choose to forget sins.