1 Corinthians 3:1
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.
After reaching the high point of “the mind of Christ” in 2:16, Paul returns to the present problems in the Corinthian church. The reality is that life is not easy to live. We live in a fallen and sinful world where good has to constantly fight against evil and chaos. If we live like the world, we should expect the same struggle with sin and chaos. The Corinthians believed in Jesus but were not acting like him. They were acting like unbelievers. Paul will give a lot of evidence of this throughout the letter. They had a lot of trouble maturing and growing in the mind of Christ. They were not listening to the Holy Spirit but to their own desires. What they were experiencing happens to each of us in our spiritual journey. The goal is to move past this, though there will always be a little child in all of us. When we become Christians, we should develop forward momentum in our growth. If we are not growing, we are in supreme danger of falling backwards into the world again. Jesus’ illustration of the four soils in Mark 4 is a good example. There are too many baby Christians in our churches who never seem to get far in their spiritual growth. Why? One major reason is that they have not committed themselves totally to Jesus’ Lordship and obedience to the Holy Spirit. The Christian life can be summed up in one word: YES. We must simply say yes to the Holy Spirit.
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