1 Corinthians 3:1-9 “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.”
This last Sunday, Pastor Obie continued in our church’s Sermon series through the book of 1 Corinthians. He announced that his wife was pregnant and they were expecting a baby boy to arrive in March of 2022. As a sermon illustration, he gave a scenario that everybody came to see their new little bundle of joy and thought that he a was really cute baby. But, after a year, the boy hadn’t grown very much and caused a bit of concern. Then five years went by and the child was still an infant, there was a big problem here, so there was great concern that something was seriously wrong because babies naturally grow and mature at a normal rate as a part of healthy life. Pastor Obie used this hypothetical story because this is what the Apostle Paul discovered in the Christian maturity of the Corinthian church described in the Bible passage above. Paul planted this new church in Corinth and five years later, he receives a report that the church is not spiritually growing in faith and knowledge of the Lord.; they are still spiritually immature. Because of that lack of spiritual grow, many ungodly issues had arisen within the body of Believers in the church. Pastor Obie extrapolates insights and wisdom from this passage of Holy Scripture that we all can apply in our lives today to answer the very important and vital question: Are you growing?
The city of Corinth in Asia Minor (modern day Greece) had a similar social climate as we have today in Southern California. They were a prosperous port city with a diverse ethic mix. A center of sport, military, government, business and the pursuit of all things worldly (parities, drunkenness, sex, power, pleasure and prestige). In this epistle (letter), the Apostle Paul addresses five issues, the first being divisions within the church over preferences of preachers they follow, not focusing on God, so the body of Believers were not spiritually growing or maturing. They suffer from self-inflicted “stunted spiritual growth syndrome. We all need to take a spiritual diagnostic assessment to see if we are growing spiritually and gauge ourselves for needed spiritual growth areas individually. Pastor Obie gave four spiritual growth markers because once the seed of faith is planted into a Believer and sprout, that faith must be continually watered and nourished to grow and show spiritual health.
(1) Flesh verses Spirit. The Apostle said: could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh. Every true born-again Christian has two sides inside them warring against each other for our heart – our fallen flesh nature and the indwelling Spirit. There are three varying degrees: (a) the natural man – purely of the flesh desires, patterned after the fall of Adam and rejects everything of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (b) the spiritual man – completely in tune with the Spirit of God and rejects all things of the flesh, knowing and doing the things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:15“The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.”
(c) the fleshly man – the Christian that knows the things of God, but in some significant way is still characterized by the fallen flesh. The word “flesh” (“carnal” in other translations) is the Greek word “Sarkikós”, meaning; pertaining to flesh, having the nature of flesh, aroused and under the control of the animal appetites governed by mere human nature not by the Spirit of God –a fallen human: with the included idea of depravity—carnal, fleshly. The Apostle Paul addresses this in Romans 7:15 where he says, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Then, explains in Romans 8:5-6, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” What is on your heart, mind and soul? Paul further explains in Galatians 5:17-24 “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery [drug abuse], enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” It is a spiritual life and death “Salvation” issue.
Let's continue Pastor Obie's message on "spiritual growth' in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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