What if Christians were Lactose Intollerant

1 Corinthians 3: 1 - 3
"Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?" (NIV).


Human appetite is an interesting thing. There are certain things that I like to eat that I think I could eat every single day... forever. I even made the mistake once of saying to my wife and others: "I could probably live on beef jerky and diet coke for the rest of my life." Nothing says "I appreciate all the time and effort you put into making me meals" quite like "I could live on beef jerky and diet coke." My poor wife. I am so lucky she is gracious to me.

The truth is, we can often become satisfied with the way things are and never move on. Paul was yelling at the Corinthian church in these verses because they refused to put worldly things behind them and become mature in their faith. The problem with comfort is that it really does hold back necessary development. There is a process for maturing and each step is necessary. With humans we start on milk, and then there's the gross mashed up food, and ultimately... beef jerky and diet coke. If you have a new baby and jump strait to solid food bad things will happen. The same is true for Christians, there is a process to our growth.

What would happen if you tried to put a third grader in a college level psychology class? You're right, they would pay better attention - but they also wouldn't know what was going on. Now imagine the opposite - what if you're 21 and instead of going to economics at the community college you were still trying to pass your finger painting class? You wouldn't be content with where you are - and we shouldn't be content with where we are on our discipleship journey either. We need to be constantly making steps and growing and not stopping when we are satisfied with where things are.

My challenge for you is to make some practical step towards growth. Set bible study goals (notice I said study - check previous post), make prayer a priority at different times of your day, join a new bible study or small group - just do something to make sure that you aren't trying to coast your way up the narrow road. When we as God's children decide that we are no longer satisfied on our milk diet great things will happen. Don't be fooled by the hilarious commercials with milk mustaches (italics are the sarcasm of the type-written word), milk is only good for babies.