Infants in Christ

Babies are so cute, and I think newborns are really amazing. But you have to feed them and care for them. You need to watch them carefully and change their diapers. And when they get a little older and start toddling around, you need to keep an eye on them so they won’t get into trouble.

When they can finally start eating solid food, you have to cut it up for them. Then you make airplane noises with it to entertain them and convince them to take a bite.

You have to care for children, watch over them, and keep your eye on them. And that’s okay, because they need you to help them grow up.

In the same way, when we first come to Christ, we need lots of care. We need the milk of God’s Word. We need everything we hear from the Bible to be cut up into small bites in a way we can digest. We need people to explain things to us and watch over us.

But if you’ve known the Lord for a long period of time and haven’t matured, if you haven’t developed basic disciplines as a Christian and need everything spoon-fed to you, then we have a problem.

The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth about this. He said, “Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1 NLT).

When I was in school, I goofed off a lot. And on more than one occasion, I heard a teacher say, “Greg Laurie, will you just grow up?” I think some of us need to hear that today. It’s time to grow up.