Where’s The Beef? Assessing Your Spiritual Growth

by Debbie Wilson

A friend introduced me to Burger Fi. I love their grass-fed cheeseburgers. I’d clobber my husband if he promised to bring me one and showed up with a carton of milk. Oops, that attitude kept the church in Corinth on milk and hindered their spiritual growth!

Paul wanted to serve the Corinthians filet mignon, but they could handle only milk. Their quarreling and jealousy showed their lack of maturity and inability to digest deeper truths.

“And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it. But even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people?” (1 Corinthians 3:1-1 NASB).

God has given believers His own Spirit “so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians. 2:12 NLT). Those who walk by the Spirit have access to the mind of Christ. But those who continue to live powered by the flesh (their old nature) can’t understand the things of God.

Steak would have been wasted on this church. They had no spiritual teeth.

This group of believers argued over worldly matters. (Of course, that never happens in our homes and churches.) Their mindset effectively shut down their ability to receive deeper spiritual truths.

Unfortunately, they weren’t an isolated case.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14 NASB).

Adults who live on just milk end up weak and malnourished and unable to feed others. Thankfully, God has provided a better way.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16 NASB).

Sadly, the flesh didn’t lay down and die when we became Christians. It continues to crave the worldly cotton candy that hinders spiritual growth. We must consider ourselves “dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11 NLT). Only the Holy Spirit provides the power to overcome the controlling drive of the flesh.

It’s not too late to add a juicy steak to the menu. We can shed our worldly mindset and fleshy impulses by choosing to live moment by moment yielding to God’s Holy Spirit. Then we will be able to receive all God has for us and become all that He intended.

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  Galatians. 5:16 NLT

This article is brought to you by the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association (AWSA).

About the author: Debbie W. Wilson is an ordinary woman with an extraordinary God. Drawing from her personal walk with Christ, twenty-four years as a Christian counselor, and decades as a Bible teacher, Debbie writes and speaks to connect sojourners to the heart of Christ. She and her husband Larry founded Lighthouse Ministries, a nonprofit ministry offering life and relationship counseling and Bible studies. Despite time in Boston, the Midwest, and Southern California, she still says y’all. Her family, which includes two mischievous standard poodles, calls North Carolina home. Find free resources to refresh your faith and connect with Debbie at debbieWwilson.com.

Join the conversation: Are you living on milk or solid food? What steps can you take to ensure your growth into maturity?