Division

In I Corinthians 1:12 Paul pointed out the spiritual immaturity of the Corinthians:

12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

They were following men, rather than God. Paul mentioned himself first. He did not want worship. Paul was instrumental in bringing the freedom of the Word to the Gentiles.  There were some Judeans that criticized his message, demeanor and behavior.

Apollos was popular because of his eloquence. In a Greek culture that thrived on intellectualism, he would appeal to many. He was a well-liked orator.

Then there was Cephas. Cephas (Aramaic for 'stone'-It is interesting that this is the name used here) is Peter.  Some Judeans would have been looking to him for leadership.

Paul even included a group that was 'of Christ'. Maybe the other leaders were rejected by this group and a spiritual elitism dominated their thinking that they only followed Christ.

Factions and following men is a result of spiritual immaturity. God has given his word and His spirit for the 'growing up' process (Ephesians 4:15-16). Men and women may assist in this process as in the case of gift ministries and anyone who recognizes what reconciliation to God is all about (that is: -real honest-to-goodness discipleship), but the ultimate goal is that each individual becomes an expression of the heart of God.

Paul, Apollos and Peter were united by Christ, not divided. In verse 13, Paul says:

13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

There is so much available today to help someone start the process of getting to know God.  Ultimately it is the individual himself that needs to take on the responsibility of developing a relationship with God.  Paul expressed God's heart, as well as his own, in II Corinthians 2:

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

As a child grows up, he becomes less dependent on Mom and Dad. A baby learns to feed himself, crawl, walk, dress himself and so on. At some point during his growth, he develops the youthful attitude: “I want to do it myself!”  As an individual continues grows and matures, he hopefully becomes an avid learner and eventually develops his own confident independence that functions lovingly and wisely with others. The same is true with spiritual growth. It is the process of ‘growing up’  and maturing in Christ. 

Maturity

Newborn babies receive milk from their mothers. It is food that has already been digested, filtered and repackaged in an easily digestible form for those whose digestive systems are immature and are not fully ready to receive solid food and break it down for themselves. Solid food has to be introduced later gradually as the young infant's system is able to break down complex chunks of food and utilize the nutrients for growth.

Paul speaks about the symptoms of immaturity in the body of Christ  throughout the book of  I Corinthians:

I Corinthians 3:1-3 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. I gave you milk (link-milk- gala), 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? Are you not acting like mere humans? (NIV)

To grow up in Christ takes time, the Word, and practice. In Romans, God shows us the beautiful wholeness we have in Jesus Christ. What God wrought in Christ is the foundation of our believing and as we believe we have the completeness and assurance that only God can give. The wisdom and understanding of God's heart is given to us and we become more and more seasoned in that assurance. We exhibit that confidence in our relationships with others. We grow up.

In Corinthians, we can read about the failure to practice that which has been set out in Romans. It is a reproof epistle, so things like, quarreling, jealousies, following one man over another, division and several other things are addressed. If we look at Christianity today, we cannot help but wonder what God thinks of so many denominations, non-denominations and organizations who claim to be the body of Christ. Honestly, religion seems very divisive. We all recognize this.

The subject of growing in maturity in God's word is a topic in Hebrews 5:12-14:

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat (link- meat - trophe) belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

When we get to the place where we take on the responsibility to work the Word for ourselves and not just sheepishly (baa!) accept somebody else's pre-digested material without even thinking about it, we grow. It is not wrong to have teachers, but not to the end we become spiritual hitchhikers and passively accept infant pablum. As we practice the Word in our lives we learn to exercise discretion and biblical perception in handling life's situations. That is when we, ourselves, become good teachers.

Pablumizing? Yucky kaka!

Babies drink milk for the first year of their life because they are not equipped to digest solid foods.  Even with milk, babies often develop gas when they are newborns because their little intestines are still learning to accommodate food. Their lives are entirely dependent on someone else  to grow. As their bodies grow and mature, they develop teeth to grind, chop and tear food to make it malleable for the absorption of its nutrients in the most effective manner.

The body was designed to take in solid food and process it so as to operate at full potential obtaining nutrients from many different varieties of foods. What if a toddler decided it was too much work to use his teeth and stayed in the milk stage the rest of his life? Poor nutrition and dependency would be the results. In addition, what kind of parent would want that for his child? God certainly does not act like that with us!

God uses this example in Hebrews to express his desire for the reality of what Christ accomplished to become active and practical in a person’s life. In addressing the Hebrews, He makes it clear that something had changed, but in a previous verse He said they had become dull of hearing. His desire is for them to mature and rise out of the learned dependency evident in their lives.

 Hebrews 5:12For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.13For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The word ‘discern’(see link) in this verse is 'diakrisis' which means ‘to discriminate’ or ‘distinguish’. The words ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are ‘kalon’ and ‘kakon’(from kala and kaka). It is interesting to note that in the Greek there is only one letter difference between these two words! Sometimes there is such a fine line between good and evil that it is hard to distinguish.  Many times evil passes for good and good for evil! It is our confidence in God’s Word that we have made our own that we can see and thus act with the right response to whatever is set before us.  This is what maturity is all about.

God’s full intention in the new birth is for people to grow up out of the baby stage and utilize the principles of the Word, not just in a ‘spoon-fed’ routine, but actively in the bold righteousness! We are not to forget the first principles of God. God is LOVE and in him is no darkness at all! It is from that point of view we are able to discern between good and evil and know what God's best is for our lives.