*Recap of*
*Be Inspired Bible Study*
*By Sister Leah Adepeju*
*Thursday 21st March 2019*
*Topic:* Kingdom Growth
*Text:* 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! I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Even now you are still not ready. You are still worldly [controlled by ordinary impulses, the sinful capacity]. For as long as there is jealousy and strife and discord among you, are you not unspiritual, and are you not walking like ordinary men [unchanged by faith]? For when one of you says, “I am [a disciple] of Paul,” and another, “I am [a disciple] of Apollos,” are you not [proving yourselves unchanged, just] ordinary people? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Just servants through whom you believed [in Christ], even as the Lord appointed to each his task. I planted, Apollos watered, but God [all the while] was causing the growth. So neither is the one who plants nor the one who waters anything, but [only] God who causes the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one [in importance and esteem, working toward the same purpose]; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-8 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/1co.3.1-8.AMP
*Before we start can someone post this same portion in KJV, another person in Living Bible translation*
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
1 Corinthians 3:1-8 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/1co.3.1-8.KJV
As we wait for the other translations, let us post the meaning of *Kingdom.*
Kingdom can be a country or territory but above all it is a place of dominion.
The topic says Kingdom growth.
As we know growth involves development and obvious changes that start from within.
The kingdom we are referring to here is the kingdom of God.
As a believer we belong to the kingdom of God, not any kind of kingdom but the kingdom of the most High God.
From the scripture above, the people being addressed are the believers not just ordinary newly born but it looks more like the "rooted" believers, that is, those who have been in the Christendom for a while.
I will be using the Living Bible Translation but I requested for other version so we can study with reference to different translations.
1 Dear brothers, I have been talking to you as though you were still just babies in the Christian life who are not following the Lord but your own desires; I cannot talk to you as I would to healthy Christians who are filled with the Spirit. 2 I have had to feed you with milk and not with solid food because you couldn’t digest anything stronger. And even now you still have to be fed on milk. 3 For you are still only baby Christians, controlled by your own desires, not God’s. When you are jealous of one another and divide up into quarreling groups, doesn’t that prove you are still babies, wanting your own way? In fact, you are acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord at all.4 There you are, quarreling about whether I am greater than Apollos, and dividing the church. Doesn’t this show how little you have grown in the Lord?[a]
5 Who am I, and who is Apollos, that we should be the cause of a quarrel? Why, we’re just God’s servants, each of us with certain special abilities, and with our help you believed. 6 My work was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos’ work was to water it, but it was God, not we, who made the garden grow in your hearts. 7 The person who does the planting or watering isn’t very important, but God is important because he is the one who makes things grow. 8 Apollos and I are working as a team, with the same aim, though each of us will be rewarded for his own hard work. (Living Bible Translation)
From the living Bible it says 'Dear Brothers'. When you address people as brothers or sisters you do not address them like strangers but people you have something in common with.
He said 'dear brothers I have been talking to you as though you were still just babies in Christian life who are not yet following the Lord but your own desires.'
*This message carries a lot of weight. What do we think the writer's thought could have been here?*
If you got such letter addressed to you what would you think the writer's thought towards you is?
Without wasting further time.. the writer from my understanding feels a bit let down or disappointed at the people he was addressing and we can see that in the next line of that verse.
He said 'I cannot talk to you as I would to healthy Christians who are filled with the spirit..'
That is, there is some lack that is evident in the lives of the believers being addressed here and indeed this message is still very much relevant to this age of ours.
He went on to say 'I have had to feed you with milk and not with solid food because you couldn't digest anything stronger.'
If we look at the human body, the digestive system is a complex chain that starts from the mouth through the oesophagus then to the intestine and ends up in waste product from the anus.
So if this writer is telling the believers here that they cannot digest what he was feeding them, that means the word what not forming any root as expected not to talk of making a branch that can grow.
He later said *for many of you are baby Christians controlled by your own desires, not God's.*
Then he set out some of these selfish desires which are:
Being jealous of one another.
Divide up into quarrelling groups.
Which are attributes of a baby Christian who only want their own ways not the ways of the Lord.
There is quarrel about whom they belong to. Some say they are for Paul and others says they are for Apollos.
But here Apostle Paul who is the writer said 'I have planted the seed and Apollos' work is to water it but all is for God and to His glory alone because God is the one that will cause the growth not the waterer or the planter.'
The one planting or watering is not more important than God; they are both on the same team but have different assigments and function to partake.
Do you know that if every organ of our body performs the same function, there won't be growth and there will be much confusion?
If the head decides to start walking and clapping, what a confusion that will be, but every part has its own function.
You wonder, but how does that affect me? I am a Christian, I go to church. I do this and that, but the truth is many of us fall in the place of doctrine and condemning others' belief.
Which was evidence of a baby Christian.
Some of us are so indoctrinated that we forget the one that called the one that wrote the doctrine.
Listed below are things we as believers ought to grow in if indeed we want to grow in the kingdom of God.
*Things to grow in*
Faith
Obedience
Giving
Righteousness
Eternal life
Soul winning
You wonder why should I grow in faith?
Hebrews 11:6 says "without faith it is impossible to please God for he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
Obedience
Luke 11:28 "blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."
Giving
The life of a believer is a life that enjoys the gift of God which is in John 3:16. Jesus is a gift for our redemption because the Lord loves us.
Righteousness
Romans 14:17 "for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."
Eternal life
1 John 5:13 "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."
Soul winning
Romans 10:15 "and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things."
Proverbs 11:30 "He that wins souls is wise."
Those points listed above can be more explained to us as believers.
Aside Jesus being a gift to us, we as believers must learn to live a life of giving.
Without faith as believers we will constantly live in doubt and fear of lies of the enemy of our soul.
Then as believer, soul winning is a paramount thing for us to do. It is not the assignment of big grammar speaking and great scripture quoters but the duty of every believer.
But how can you fit into that criteria if you are still referred to as baby in the Kingdom of God?
From the letter Apostle Paul wrote, you could tell then that the whole division was all down to man behaviour.
The envy...
The groups...
The doctrine 'we are for Apollos', 'we are for Paul'...
The over-enthusiasm that gives no glory to God but man and self...
The unwanted duties of high service just to justify who they see as their leaders.
These behaviours are still portrayed by believers then and now.
We need to come out of the stage of a baby in the kingdom of God.
We need to be ready to grow if we truly want to serve God the way we ought to serve Him.
Many of us still have a shaky faith, a faith that is only activated when we can see the thing happening, not a faith like mustard seed.
A faith that is only energised when we see manifestation.
We neglect the long suffering that can come in the period of waiting.
Many of us have become so complacent and judgemental that soul winning isn't even one of the things we want to do at all.
Many of us have seen righteousness as a forbidden thing for us.
We claim we are the righteousness of God yet we deliberately walk into sin.
Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and days we hold programme in church, we are so angelic that other days it is not obvious if we are born again.
We have taken the righteousness we have in Christ as a joke by constantly dibbling and dabbling in areas God frowns against.
We exclaim we are in the dispensation of grace, yes grace is above law, grace this, grace that, but it's is not a justification to deliberately walk and dwell in sin.
Many of us serve God just because of what we want from Him.
This kind of divisions and attributes are not far fetched.
Even in church we eye people who dress either less or more than us.
We have categorised every member to the high class, middle class and low life.
Then we go into our day to day life and nothing, absolutely nothing, makes us stand out as believer.
The word 'church' isn't the four structures and roof we sit under to hear the word of God, we are the church.
And we are the one that make the kingdom.
But we cannot make the kingdom as we ought to if we stay being babies.
Many are easily cajoled by magician on the pulpit just because they want to see miracle.
They cannot discern.
Many cannot even pray to God by themself except the woman of God or man of God asks us to.
We find it boring to read the word of God.
We are so in a haste to do things, jumping from one place to the other in the name of searching for breakthrough.
You have forgotten that the same God who opened the Red Sea is the one that spoke on mountain top.
The same God who spoke through the fire is the same God who spoke with the still voice.
The same God who understands all groaning also understands all languages and all heart thoughts.
But how can you know that He is the same God if you never wish to grow to know Him more?
You cannot neglect souls out there or be of the opinion they are not part of my family, my race or nation and not pray for them or be active about their redemption and say you are growing.
To win souls, you look past what the body carrying that soul is doing, you long for the salvation of that soul.
Beloved my desire for you as a member of this forum is not to remain baby Christian but grow in the capacity God has called you to.
My desire is that you come to the knowledge of God everyday.
My desire is that at the end of all our soujourn here on earth we will all reign in heaven with Jesus.
So we can all worship Him together.
We may not physically meet here on earth but we will in heaven when we get to see our Father.
But you and I must grow past the baby stage.
Not all of us will be pastors on the pulpit but we are examples of Christ everywhere we go.
I know the stages of growing as a Christians demand more than just Sunday-Sunday church.
You must be ready to know God personally, yes have a relationship with Him. Let the word be your consistent manual, nothing but the word.
My prayer is God will lead us in Jesus name.
I pray whichever way we are struggling, the Spirit of God will cause ease to be our lot in Jesus name.
The name of Jesus will cause us to do that which He has deposited in us to do.
