“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.” (1st Cor. 3:2)
The last student in the classroom the teacher wants to be around is the one that shows no initiative to learn; they gravitate towards those who seek the knowledge they have to offer.
The pastor is of course desirous that all in attendance would receive the morning message with joy, being convicted by the Holy Spirit to actions that will glorify the Living God, but he can see in the glassy stares of those whose bodies are present, that their minds and thoughts are far away.
It can be extremely difficult to differentiate between the weaker brother, those who for whatever reason will never progress beyond the milk, yet are truly saved, and those “good people,” the polite, kind and caring people of the planet who only profess the Lord with their lips. For some reason, a reason I profess I do not understand, there are those who are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who refuse to grow in the knowledge of His grace, who will not seek His face and His will in their lives, and while they are not consumed by the world, it is the world and self that demands the majority of their time.
“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” (James 3:1)
And “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;” (Col. 1:9)
These two verses do not seem to go hand in hand, for those that are willingly asking the Almighty to draw them closer to Him would by default necessitate the need to become a teacher, not one who remain in the basics of the Scriptures and the truths contained therein, but moving away from the milk of the Word towards the meat of those truths. Yet so many seem to sit there with that glazed look in their eyes and a smile on their face, year after year.
Are they spots and blemishes on your feasts while remaining docile and uncontentious, good people who want to believe that they will be accepted by the Most High because they are good in their minds, or weaker brothers and sisters who are content to be a doorkeeper in the house of our God?
Can one grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and remain for the entirety of their lives in the milk of the Word? Does the desire to serve grow as we are transformed by the renewing of our mind?
Saved, yet remaining on that safe and comfortable spot on the path, born-again, but never moving beyond that milk. This may be true, I cannot say, God alone knows, but we are commanded to test the Spirits, and those who profess to serve Him with a willing heart are not to be left out of that testing, it is the eternal resting place of their soul that is in question, and we would be remiss in our duties if we did not pose the proper questions to them.
How they react to those questions can only in part be a determining factor towards that evaluation, for personal shame in their own knowledge in the lack of their growth may be encountered. They know, yet they know not what to do about it. With these be kind, they are Christ’s servants, tender and easily damaged.
The “good people,” not always, but most generally, will become combative, either verbally or in their relationship towards you, they will attempt to defend that which they do not own, that they believe they possess.
Spots and blemishes, or tender-hearted loving servants?
There are fewer places where it is more important to judge with righteous judgment than in this my friends.
