1 Corinthians 3:2 –
I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,
Paul is talking to the people about the message he is bringing. He wants the people to understand their maturity in Christ is still young and needs to grow, like a child not ready for solid food. We have all been there and many are still there. I know as a Christian it took me 20 or more years before I was ready to leave milk and dig into the word more. Although my first pastor from West Side Bible in Arizona use to get theologically deep each week, so I guess that stuck. He had an overhead projector and was like watching John Madden describe a football play when he preached.
Anyway, the key that Paul is talking is many of us are not ready for deeper discussions on God; we are still nursing on the initial concepts. We must all be able to present the Gospel in such a way that everyone can understand who God is and how it’s important in our lives. Once the seed is planted, we must cultivate this and grow. We cannot survive on milk alone as we grow, so be aware of that as you learn and teach others.
We need to help as far as we can and then ensure they move to get better teaching. I know many times that means changing churches to go deeper spiritually. Other times that means it’s time to explore deeper study or even step up to lead a small group or Bible study. Either way, we need to continue to grow and help others grow.
Paul later in this chapter, warned us about worshiping the person bringing the message and forgetting about God. People we either saying they were followers of Paul or Apollos, and not God. Paul needed to correct that quickly. We see this today with detonations and mega churches, where people define themselves by their pastor and not God. Again that is something we need to constantly be aware of and not focus on the messenger, but the message. Keep yourself in “check” on this to ensure it doesn’t happen to you or your inner circle.