In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth the apostle
admonishes the Corinthians for 
their lack of spiritual growth. He writes, “I was not able to speak to you as
spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you
were not yet able to receive it. In fact, you are still not able, because you
are still fleshly” (1Cor. 3:1-3). The
writer of the Letter to the Hebrews noted that his readers had “become slow to
understand.” He also points out that although
they should have been teachers they still needed someone to teach them the
basic principles of God’s revelation – they needed “milk, not solid food.” They were inexperienced with the message of
righteousness because they were [spiritual] infants (Heb. 5:11-13).
It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the
same. The modern church is marked by a
serious lack of Biblical understanding and spiritual growth. This lack of biblical knowledge should come
as no surprise as surveys have shown that biblical knowledge is that area that
most Christians consider themselves deficient.
However, what is surprising is that these same surveys show that few
Christians aspire to increase their knowledge of God’s word as a means of
improving their spiritual lives. It
would seem that even in the Christian life the Bible has become unnecessary.
An article
from the Barna Research Group reveals that,
“Bible reading has
become the religious equivalent of sound-bite journalism. When people read from
the Bible they typically open it, read a brief passage without much regard for
the context, and consider the primary thought or feeling that the passage
provided. If they are comfortable with it, they accept it; otherwise, they deem
it interesting but irrelevant to their life, and move on. There is shockingly
little growth evident in people’s understanding of the fundamental themes of
the scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and
application of biblical principles.”
“The problem facing the Christian Church is
not that people lack a complete set of beliefs; the problem is that they have a
full slate of beliefs in mind, which they think are consistent with biblical
teachings, and they are neither open to being proven wrong nor to learning new
insights. By the time most Americans reach the age of 13 or 14, they think they
pretty much know everything of value the Bible has to teach and they are no
longer interested in learning more scriptural content.”
This dismissive attitude towards
Scripture affects every aspect of the modern Christianity. In increasing numbers American Christians are
less likely to hold orthodox views even on critical issues such as the
sovereignty of God or the exclusivity of the cross. Without these central doctrines Christianity
is reduced to little more than religious therapy designed to promote the esteem
of its adherents.
It is not for lack of
opportunity that modern Christians fail to grow beyond the most basic
principles of God’s revelation, nor is it freedom. We live in a time and place where God’s word
is easily accessible and Christians are free to immerse themselves in Scripture
without the fear of persecution. The
only thing that seems to be lacking is the desire to do so. Once we have learned enough to involve
ourselves in spiritual conversations and crated a Christian facade, we are
satisfied. We are content with milk and
have no desire to move on to solid food.
There can be no wonder as to why the church has become more and more
secularized.
This world needs mature
Christians. It needs Christians who have
been washed by the word and been transformed by it. It needs workmen who aren’t ashamed, who are
rightly able to handle the word of truth.
God revealed Himself to us through His word. He intends for us to be changed by it and for
us to communicate His message to the ends of the earth. It won’t happen by accident, nor will it
happen if our biblical exposure it limited to a predigested Sunday school
quarterly.
In His Service,
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.