Meat and Milk: Spiritual Formation in Mature Believers, Part 1

Note: this is an article I am completing for a lecture series at New Life Seminary called Voices of New Life.  I am putting it out on my blog to get comments and reactions.  Please feel free to read and comment on it.  I welcome your opinions.

Introduction

The Christian walk of the Spirit is not easy to define or track.  No two people ever have the same spiritual journey, nor do they arrive at the same place in exactly the same way or the same time.  Our individual faith journeys are as unique as fingerprints or snowflakes.  We follow unique trajectories like water drops over a curved glass.  Nevertheless, there are enough similarities of experience among Christian Believers that a general path of spiritual formation may be described.  We all start in carnality and flow heavenward, following the path of grace and redemption.  Our similarities make it possible to help one another along the way.

The purpose of this study is first to trace that track of spiritual maturity from initial conversion to spiritual maturity using Biblical, historical and contemporary patterns.  This author hopes to demonstrate that Christian discipleship is often ignored by the contemporary church, and when it is practiced it focuses only on the initial stages of Christian growth—milk, not meat.  Then we will attempt to develop a model of spirituality that will adjust to the changing challenges of living out a mature spirituality in an increasingly challenging world.  It is this author’s hope that this model will assist us all to continually grow and strengthen our relationship to God through a lifetime spiritual journey.

Biblical Stages of Christian maturity

The New Testament shows at least two passages which clearly indicate stages of Christian maturity.  One is found in 1 John 2:12-14.  John mentions three stages of the Believers’ lives—children, young men, and fathers.

12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.

14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.[1]

John repeats the phrase “I write to you” six times.  The use of “because” (hoti) may also be rendered “that,” which would suggest that what follows is not the reason he is writing, but the subject.  “I write to you that you have known the father.  .  .” and so forth.  John is writing these words as a reminder to the church of what they need to know in these particular stages of Christian maturity.

Children should know the Father and that He has forgiven their sins.  Young men should know that they have already overcome the Evil One, are strong, and have the Word of God.  Fathers should continue to remember the One they already known from the beginning of their spiritual walk.

In the first instance, John uses the word teknia for “little children,” a word which he uses in other places for all Christians.[2]  We all know the Father.  In the second instance, he uses paideia, which means “infants,” specifically referring to those who are new Christians.[3]

“Young men” in Greek is neaniskoi, which literally means “new men.”  Culturally it might be used for a man up to the age of forty, someone who has attained some aspects of maturity, but not others.  A young person is on the way to maturity, but not fully arrived.[4]

Neaniskoi have proven themselves strong in the faith.  They have overcome Satan and have the Word of God living in them.  However, their hardest days are ahead of them.  Only now are they beginning to understand how difficult the Christian walk can be in a world of temptation and hostility.

“Fathers” have reached both reproductive and emotional maturity.[5]  They are involved in some aspect Christian service.  They are capable of sharing their faith and discipling others.  They can bear the burdens of others, while bearing their own.  Even so, they have to be reminded to stay in a relationship with God.  The first truth is the last truth—fathers must know God, as they did when they were children.

Table 1.  Stages of Christian life, 1 John 2

Repentance	New Birth                                                                                      Eternity
Children	Young Men	Fathers

In 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 Paul refers to two stages of the Christian life.

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as 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.  You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?  Are you not acting like mere men?  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?[6]

In this passage, the two kinds of Christians are carnal and spiritual.  The carnal, or “babes in Christ” in Greek are the neepioi—a term also used figuratively for the simple-minded or immature.[7]  These neepioi are contrasted with the pneumatikos, or “spiritual”, who are the mature believers whose orientation is towards the Spirit and away from self.

The carnal believer attempts to live in two worlds with two sets of values.  As a result, the carnal believer does not do justice to either.  The carnal believer knows Christ, and the central teachings of the Gospel, but the focus of the carnal believer is on himself or herself.  This leads to jealousy and strife within the church.

Paul describes the carnal believer as living on the milk of the Word, not the meat.  Spiritual “milk” refers to teaching designed for elementary believers, which would include the basics of salvation, rudimentary doctrine, and elementary instruction in spiritual disciplines and moral behavior.  The carnal believer is not ready for advanced doctrinal or theological instruction, for advanced teaching in prayer and fasting, or for dealing with ethical dilemmas beyond his understanding.

Milk is essentially predigested food.  Just as a mother breaks down complex proteins and carbohydrates into an easily digestible, uniform liquid for infants, so have teachers and preachers already done the hard work of study, interpretation, and application.  They break down complex doctrines, simplify Bible study, and smooth out thorny commandments into simple rules.  Spiritual milk is nourishing but incomplete, containing what infants need to survive, but not what young men and fathers need to maintain mature health.  In time, the carnal believer will grow tired of this, but only when she ceases being carnal and becomes spiritual.

The relationship between John’s stages and Paul’s stages may be seen in table 2 below.  John and Paul cover similar ground.  Both divide Christians into mature and immature groups.  Reliance upon God is the necessary knowledge that leads to maturity.

Table 2.  John’s and Paul’s stages of Christian life

	Repentance	New Birth	Eternity
1 John 2	Children	Young Men	Fathers
1 Cor 3	Carnal		Spiritual

In the book, Mapping the Christian Life, there is a similar division discerned from a study of the psalms of degrees—Psalms 120-134.  The book lays out five divisions of the Christian life.  The first three stages parallel the stages found in John and Paul.  They are Seekers, Servants, and Settlers.

The Seeker stage begins with disillusionment with the world.  Seekers have discovered that the world they have known is not what it appears.  Like Neo in the film The Matrix, they have begun a journey to look for something real.  Seekers lift their eyes to the hills seeking help. That help comes not from the hills, but the Lord.  This begins the Seekers’ journey to God.

The task for each stage may be summarized in one burning question which must be asked and answered.  For Seekers that question is—can I trust God?

The second stage is Servants.  Servants have undergone a reversal in thought and have realized that God is not their servant, but that they are God’s.  The servant must answer another question—how can I serve God?

Settlers are mature believers who have come to understand, after a process of discovery, calling, and equipping; what kind of service they are to render.  They have a general idea what course of service their lives will take.  Nevertheless, like the settlers of America discovered when they tried to shape a new world on a new continent, knowing what they are to do and doing it are not the same.  It is difficult serving God in hostile territory.  The settler must balance family, work, and faith, while fighting temptations that in the Servant stage he would not have thought possible.  The question that Settlers ask is—how do I build the Kingdom in the face of opposition?[8]

Looking at John and Paul’s stages, as well this pattern from the Psalms, we see a strong similarity, as we see in Chart 3.

Table 3.  Stages of Christian life adding Psalms pattern

	Repentance	New Birth	Eternity
John	Children	Young Men	Fathers
Paul	Carnal		Spiritual
Psalm Pattern	Seeker	Servant	Settler

There is an initial stage of discovery, a stage of growth, and a stage of maturity.  Maturity is not a resting stage, but the one of even greater challenge.

Ancient stages of discipleship

The ancient church seemed to be familiar with these stages, and trained new believers to face them.  We see this in an ancient pattern of discipleship written down by Hippolytus in the early Third Century AD.

According to Hippolytus, the first-stage Christians were called Seekers or Inquirers—people who sought to know Christianity, and whether or not they should commit themselves to it.  When Seekers committed, they were welcomed into the fellowship.[9]

Then the Seekers became Learners, or Catechumens.  The learner studied the faith for approximately three years.[10]  Not until this process had been completed was the new believer baptized and offered the Lord’s Supper.  This time period was not set, but was determined by the individual rate of progress of the student.  St. Augustine was catechized by Anselm of Milan for slightly over a year before his baptism.[11]

At the end of this catechesis, the learners briefly became Kneelers, or mystagogues.[12]  This lasted only about six weeks and was marked by prayer, vigils, and fasting.[13]  Ordinarily, all baptisms were done on Easter Sunday at daybreak.  From that time on, they were considered fully mature disciples.[14]

Becoming a disciple was not the end of the process, however.  The new believers were then initiated into the deeper teachings of the faith by the bishop—teachings not given to seekers or learners.  Hippolytus calls these teachings the “white stone of revelation.”[15]  Hippolytus does not reveal these teachings but infers that they were theological mysteries not given to initiates, but only to the mature.

Hippolytus never suggests that the seekers or learners were not believers.  On the contrary, they were included in most meetings as well as in the agape, or love feast, where they were given bread from the hand of the bishop, though they were not allowed to take the cup.  This process of spiritual formation was not intended just to prepare them for eternal life, but to equip them to withstand persecution, which the church presumed would be coming later.

Let us compare Hippolytus’ pattern with the others in table 4.

Table 4.  Stages of Christian life adding ancient church model

	Repentance	New Birth		Eternity
John	Children	Young Men		Fathers
Paul	Carnal			Spiritual
Psalms	Seeker	Servant		Settler
Ancient church	Seeker	Learner	Kneeler	Disciple