You Need Meat: Spiritual Maturity
How many of you enjoyed Nesquik or some type of other chocolate or strawberry milk, as a kid? I know I did. I loved warm milk in my sippy cup as part of breakfast or before bed. But as I became an adult, sugary milk wasn’t what I needed anymore. The same holds true in our walk with Christ.
In 1 Corinthians and Hebrews, the writer the Apostle Paul, admonishes those Christians for still needing spiritual milk and not advancing to spiritual meat:
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 New King James Version
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
Hebrews 5:12-13 New King James Version
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
What is spiritual milk? The word milk comes from the Greek word “gala”. According to Strong’s Concordance and Thayer’s Lexicon, gala means “ less difficult truths, and uncertain affinity”. Essentially, when you are a Christian who is still on milk, you cannot or choose not to grow in the Word, which automatically makes your salvation or affinity to Christ shaky. Yikes!
The reality is, you cannot stay on spiritual milk forever. At some point, you must grow in the Lord. How do you do this? By staying connected to the Lord. When your relationship with Christ is a true relationship, one in which you are:
reading the Word (Bible);
have an understanding of the Word;
can discern the voice of your Heavenly Father (either audibly or by an understanding of biblical concepts);
and you act with the conduct of a saved person
that’s how you advance in the Kingdom. That is how you start graduating your spiritual palate from milk to solid food - meat!
John 10:27-28 New King James Version
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
John 8:47 New King James Version
47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
Luke 11:28 New King James Version
28 But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Romans 8:5-6 New King James Version
5 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, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Based on the above scriptures, it is clear that there is a difference between someone who follows the Word of God, and lives by it. Those people who live accordingly are blessed, are not carnally minded, and can hear the Lord. But in contrast, if you remain on milk and keep backsliding or never growing, the Bible describes it as so. Ephesians 5 and Philippians 3 are two of many passages that can help us remember to stay on course and to keep growing in Christ:
Ephesians 5:1-21 New King James Version
Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Philippians 3 New King James Version
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already attained] or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
Ephesians 5 and Philippians 3 are truly the blueprint for living on meat and not milk. We must have a renewed mind, and be ready to live a righteous and upstanding life. If you are ready to get off milk and basic truths, and are ready to grow and learn the mysteries of the Lord, then pray this prayer:
Lord, I come before you humbly. I am ready to advance in my walk with Christ. I no longer want to be carnally minded or on milk, but I want real spiritual food. I want to know you more, and on a deeper level. Lord, please show me the areas that I need help in and things are hindering me from moving forward. Help me to know Your Voice and Your Ways. In Jesus Name, Amen.