Are You a Fat Little Baby?

As I write this, 100 mile per hour winds are buffeting the southeastern coast of the United States as a hurricane works its way north.  Winds and waves like that tend to relocate boats, uproot trees, and weaken the foundations of homes that are susceptible.  When the apostle Paul wrote these words to the Ephesian church, he was concerned about the same thing happening to his readers:

“…that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine…”    Ephesians 4:14

Those words immediately follow Paul’s explanation about the function of the leadership in any church.  That leadership is there:

 “…for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…”    Ephesians 4:12-13

That last phrase is talking about growing up; becoming mature in the faith.  The idea is picturing ripened fruit – fully mature and not still too “green” to eat.  That’s what is SUPPOSED to happen to ALL of us who follow after Christ.  We are “born again” as babes in the faith, and then we grow and mature, becoming like fully ripened fruit attached to the life-giving vine of our Savior (see John 15).

However, this is where the fat little baby* part comes in.  Take a look in the mirror.  Do you see a fully mature follower of Jesus looking back at you?  And if not, why not? The writer of Hebrews has at least a partial explanation:

 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.  But solid food belongs to those who are of full age...   Hebrews 5:12-14

Instead of growing up and stepping into the leadership roles Paul was speaking about in Ephesians 4, you struggle with the solid food necessary to grow up in your faith.  The milk is easier, but that’s BABY food!  We don’t feed babies steak for good reason – they aren’t ready for it.  But for heaven’s sake, GET READY for it!  The wind and waves of life are crashing all around us, assaulting the foundations of our faith.  Our solution is to dig a deeper foundation by tunneling deep into the complexities of the Word. 

Babies don’t aspire to grow up because they don’t understand enough to want that.  I’m writing this so you don’t have any excuse.  Don’t keep feeding on the easy milk of your faith – dig in to a hearty meal so you can grow up big and strong.  While advertising will tell you that “Milk does a body good”, I’m telling you on good authority that it keeps you a fat little baby.  Put away the kiddie menu and step up to the buffet.

Jacob

*By the way, the name of this post is inspired by Amy Grant’s song that you can hear at this link (with apologies to Archie Bunker): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnV1aoobQSU