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NASB | 1 Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Corinthians 3:1 However, brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as to spiritual people, but [only] as to worldly people [dominated by human nature], mere infants [in the new life] in Christ! |
Bible Question: If those in Cornith were "infants in Christ", and so many Christians today can't "walk" in the truth of 1 Cor 13 (the love chapter), what "stage of growth" would Paul consider us today? |
Bible Answer: The love that is being spoken of in I Cor 13 isn’t just something that we just crank out, it is actually the by product of one who has the Spirit of God and is being controlled by Him. It is the overall fruit of the Spirit that will emanate from the one in Christ that is being controlled by Him at any one point in time. Galatians 5:22-26 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Did you notice that the word fruit is in the singular, meaning one and that is Love; the rest of those things, that are mentioned, are the result of the love! Verses 25 and 26 exhibit that fact that the believer can actually live under two standards but only one is in control at any one time, it is an absolute, that is to say it can’t be 75/25, it has to be 100 percent of one or the other. Either filled with the Spirit or controlled by your old sin nature; it can’t be a little of each at any particular moment in a believers life. The reason for that is because all believers in Christ contain two natures, the old sin nature and the new nature, which is after Christ. At any one point in time we are choosing whom we want controlling us as believers and this is done by our wills. If we give way to the dictates of the OSN and sin, God is grieved or quenched and He is not controlling us, as it were, but our OSN is dictating the actions of our lives and we can’t demonstrate the AGAPE type love, which is the fruit of the Spirit. The only way to get the Holy Spirit back in control is the function of, 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The exercise of I John 1:9 puts God back in control until the next time that we give way to our old nature again but just remember the following. Hebrews 13:5 (B) I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. This condition, never leave, nor forsake, exist even when we are under the function of our OSN the problem is that we just aren't filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit. Anything that a believer does outside of the filling of the Spirit won’t count no matter how good it might appear to be on the surface because it is directly coming from the function of the OSN John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. The abideth mentioned in the past verse is the same as being filled with the Spirit and being under God’s control. The safest thing to do is for one to get their eyes off of people and focus on the person of Christ Jesus and that way they will never be deceived! 2 Cor. 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) This is the way I see it, CDBJ |