Paul expressed his frustration with the group of young believers in Corinth. They just couldn’t make the jump from their former ways to maturity in Christ.

At one point he calls them babies: 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, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

He pushes them to grow up: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Then he chides them for naive thinking: Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.

Paul yearns for this young congregation to flourish in grace and knowledge and the practice of their faith. He longs for them to develop into fully mature followers of Jesus. They are not there yet, so Paul keeps hammering away.

But notice the one aspect of life Paul hopes they remain infantile—in regard to evil. Corinth was a cosmopolitan seaport. Wicked walked the streets arm in arm with corrupt and immoral. The world pressed in from all sides.

Paul strove to build neophytes into thinkers who allowed the Holy Spirit to guide and direct them. He then juxtaposed these qualities with a refusal to engage in the seamy side of life. In other words, don’t get good at being bad. Paul reminds us that adults in the faith know when act like a grown-up and when to think like a child.

I Corinthians 3:1-2; 13:11; 14:20

Photo by Luke Jones