There are a couple of places in the NT where
the apostles contrasted the intake of believers, using the metaphor of “milk”
as the food for babies against “meat” as the food for mature men & women.
(1 Corinthians 3, Hebrews 5, 1 Peter 2 are the clearest.)
The apostles (Paul, the anonymous author of
Hebrews, and Peter) all seem to reference something similar to John’s stages of
Christian growth (1 John 2:12-14): that there are clearly stages of growth for
us as Sons of the Most High. John makes it clear: believers in different stages
of growth have different needs (for a discussion of those stages, see here: http://bit.ly/QMANqF)
Reflecting on this, I observe several things:
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There are several places where
believers are described as children, as milk-drinkers, often bemoaning the fact
that by this stage of their growth, they should be eating meat and changing the
world.
§
There appear to be NO places where
any of the apostolic writers of the NT acknowledge a group that has progressed
from milk-drinking to meat-eating. This may be simply because the epistles were
all written to address problems among one church or another, and the churches
that made the transition didn’t need corrective letters. There is no epistle to
the church at Antioch,
for example; it may be that this early center of the Church may have gotten
some things right, though we have no record of it.
§
When we are young believers, we
require milk. And when we become mature believers, milk is still good.
§
We are expected to progress beyond
the basics. We are expected to graduate from being nourished by the “elementary
principles” of “milk” to digesting and being nourished by “meat.”
§
So much of the church in our day
has not even well learned the “elementary principles”; These are the “milk” or “baby
food” of Christian nurture (Quoting Hebrews 6:1 here):
1. repentance
from dead works and of
2. faith
toward God, of
3. the
doctrine of baptisms (note the plural), of
4. laying
on of hands, of
5. resurrection
of the dead, and of
6. eternal
judgment.
A number of prophets and apostles are
speaking of the need, now upon us, but growing in necessity, of believers being
established enough in theses topics that they are comfortable (and safe) moving
on to more challenging topics. In fact, Holy Spirit has been speaking to a
substantial number of believers about what some of those more meat-like
discussions will be about, but they would only serve as a distraction in this
conversation.
As He speaks to me about some of the meatier
topics of growth that I see coming to us, I am reminded of two applications
that have relevance in this conversation:
1) There will be people (possibly people who
are invested in a spiritual “milk-delivery service”) who will not understand of
believers’ need for meat, who will speak against it (even accusing meat-eaters
of apostasy and heresy), and, sadly, who will succeed in preventing hungry
believers in their sphere of influence from obeying the scriptures and pursuing
more advanced topics.
2) Those who choose to leave the discussion
of the elementary principles of Christ, and go on to perfection, not laying
again the above foundation, will likely have to go on in the face of such
opposition. A very likely booby-trap will be to engage argumentative
milk-delivery devotees in extensive discussion about the need for meat, though
it will be necessary to discern between those committed to not moving on from
milk from those who have only known milk but long for more. A wiser response
may be just to “set our face like flint” toward digesting and practicing that
which Father is feeding us, and leaving the nay-sayers to themselves.
I believe it will be valuable to recognize in
advance (if it is in advance) the opposition that will be confronting us more
and more as we run the race set before us. Such battles are often won in
advance, when we make our determined decisions of how we will respond before we
meet the opposition.
How will you respond when faced with this
choice? Will you choose a steak knife, or a warm bottle?
