How do we grow out of the milk? (Point 1)
Many would not like what I am going to say, but it is a fact that most believers today never grow to spiritual maturity, but instead remain babes in Christ? I can point the finger to myself as I was one for many years. So, what makes a believer a babe in Christ? What qualities does this type of believer show? Well, Paul answers this quite clearly when he addresses the Corinthians. After speaking about the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, in 1Cor.2, Paul then writes,
1Cor 3:1-4 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. [2] I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. [3] For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? [4] For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
The standout quality of a babe in Christ is carnality, which is opposite to a mature believer who walks by faith and after the spirit, according to the grace doctrine in Paul’s epistles. Carnal believers do not stand upon the Word of God but are controlled by their 5-senses, by their emotions, by visible things, and beguiled by ignorance and inexperience in the grace doctrine. This is why they are so unstable in their faith, being tossed to and fro by fables, by different doctrines, and by opinions, and why they are up and down like a rollercoaster in the various issues of life.