"That
we henceforth * be no more children, tossed to and
fro,..."
*from
that time on God has given us gifted men who have now been
teaching us, that from henceforth we are not to remain as a cork on water. Men and a occasional woman filled with the ontological essence of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit and approved of God to train, teach, and yes, lead us through the snares and mine fields of the evil one.
You
know when we see a particular word in Scripture, we can think of 4 or
5 verses that will fit. It was not to long ago that we shared
what we found dealing with the traditions of Religious holidays and
what is revealed in those passages. Let’s look at one of them. Go
back to 1Peter chapter 2 for a moment... Here in 1Peter, this is
almost the same kind of language we are seeing here in Ephesians.
1Peter
2:1-2
Wherefore
laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies,
and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby:"
See
that is how and where exactly every new believer has to begin, as babes. It
makes no difference whether we are 90 or 9 that is beside the point,
because the moment we are redeemed, saved we are a babe in Christ,
and we have to start with the milk of the Word. Because we have accomplished the first line in the laying aside all guile, malice, hypocrisies and evil speakings. And, "If" we have not, then we had better do a self examination because these are the treats of evil that are remaining in our flesh.
Elsewhere, we have likened it to
being placed under a tutor or in a corral because that is what God
did with Israel and for the same purpose. For the training and
development in righteousness by the perfecting of His holiness within
them and now us. But we have this benefit and advantage we have the Holy Spirit inside of us which Israel did not have. With this exception, the righteous men of God, His Prophets. But now looking at that verse again, Peter does not
say that is where a new believer is supposed to stay. They are to
desire the sincere milk of the Word, Truth with the idea of growing
and getting beyond it.
The
other verse that comes to mind is in 1Corinthians chapter 3, and
again we are going to see babes, but here mentioned in a different
light. Paul is telling these Corinthians that they have been
believers long enough that they should be off the milk bottle, and
should be partaking of the deeper spiritual things of Scripture, but
they were not. Why? Because they retained the treats of the flesh life as listed above. And here again Paul lists them by another name but they remain the same. And why is it so, because of the difference in Paul's and Peter's personalities.
1Corinthians
3:1-3
"And
I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal*, even as unto babes in Christ.** I have fed
you with milk, and not with meat (the
depth of the lambs revelation): for hitherto ye
were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are
carnal (earthy,
sensual, ignorant); for whereas there is among
you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk
as men?"
*sometimes
carnal can mean the unbeliever, or the earthy and purely practical but here it is
referring to the believer who is just simply immature. **they had
never gone beyond their infancy in their Christian experience.
Paul
does not say they were not believers, because they were, but they did
not grow. They were halted or stunted from growth. Why? Because of
their former life style, just as the believers of the Hebrew letter
were. And even those to whom Peter was writing and warning in his two
little letters. This is the same kind of language we find in Hebrews
chapter 6 verse 12. Paul of course, was the master teacher, but
nevertheless the problem was that these Corinthians believers did not
grow up, but rather they stayed on the carnal level, and could never
get to the place of partaking of the meat of the Word, or the
revelation of chapter 11 verses 23 through 33 or the strong things
just like many Christians do today. I suppose that I could go off on all the reasons why people just refuse to accept the spiritual and the unknown of that realm. But suffice it that they willing remain ignorant, thinking that by so doing they will still get into God's kingdom. This is a false supposition because to resist change which God ordains is to say God, Your a Liar. This is not Your intent and Will, when it is His Will. And this is exactly what the nation of Israel as a whole did. How do we know that this is His Will, recall when Jesus said that He had to die and Peter rebuked Him, Jesus told Peter get behind me Satan for you can not resist the Will of God (paraphrased). This is recorded in no less then two of the synoptic gospels, Matthew 16:20-23, and Mark 8:30-33. In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul
reminds us that we are not to stay as baby Christians.
Ephesians
4:14
"That
we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;"
No comments:
Post a Comment