December 18

When a baby is born, we recognize that his/her digestive system and eating reflexes are not yet ready for solid food. The natural order of things is for them to begin with milk to gain the nutrition their body needs to grow. In time, we feed them baby food such as: beans and ham, peas, carrots, etc. Since most babies don’t like some of the more exotic vegetables we know are good for them (any more than we adults do), I always tried to fool them with a spoonful of delicious fruit mixed in with their vegetables once in a while. Eventually, as they grow up, babies graduate to soft table food, and ultimately, they are ready for solid food.
What is true physically, is also true, spiritually. New Christians are not capable of handling some of the more difficult truths of the Bible. We would be foolish to take a baby in Christ and place them in a Bible study on Romans, Hebrews, or Revelation based on the original Greek language they were written in. There is a natural order of things in spiritual growth just as there is in physical growth. BUT, even as we expect our babies to grow into toddlers, who then grow into children, who then grow into adolescents, who then grow into teenagers, who then grow into adults physically, it is natural to expect the same type of growth from a person spiritually. Unfortunately, there are some Christians who never seem to graduate from the milk of biblical truths to the baby food of spiritual truths, let alone the solid food of spiritual truths. This was an issue amongst the readers of the Hebrew letter (5:11-6:3), and it was a problem also amongst the Christians in Corinth (I Corinthians 3:1-4). Each of us is responsible for our mental and social growth, as well as our spiritual growth. Let us no longer be content to remain spiritually like children forever (Ephesians 4:14-16), but train ourselves in the wisdom of God’s holy truths (II Timothy 3:15-17) for only then will we be thoroughly equipped for anything life may bring our way.