WE COME TO another “in Christ” passage in 1 Corinthians: “But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ” (3:1). And the reason he gives for calling them babes in Christ is that “one says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ and another, ‘I belong to Apol´los’” (v. 4). This is a startling passage, for we usually use the phrase “babes in Christ” when we describe those who have just become Christians and are as yet not well informed about the faith. I once said to Madame Chiang Kai-shek concerning the Generalissimo who was seated there, but is not supposed to know English, “Is your husband a real Christian?” She replied, “Yes, he reads his Bible daily and gets guidance from God, and we have an hour of prayer together from five to six o’clock every morning. But you must remember he is only a babe in Christ.” Here she meant that he had not grown to maturity as a Christian.
Paul puts his finger on a special sign of being a babe in Christ. “I belong to Paul,” and “I belong to Apollos.” Centering one’s allegiance around religious teachers instead of centering allegiance around Christ is a sign of being a babe in Christ. If that be true—and of course it is—then that makes a great many Christians, perhaps the majority, “babes in Christ.” Barthians, Neo-orthodox (meaning allegiance to those who teach Neo-orthodoxy), Calvinists, Lutherans, Wesleyans, Campbellites, Mennonites, and so on all down the line—it includes those who, while not holding a personal name to the denomination, hold the teaching of a person or persons who founded the denomination. It renders immature those who center their faith in anything less or anything other than Jesus Christ Himself. This is not a label that Paul sticks on people—it is a fact. Christianity not centered in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone, is an immature Christianity and the product is “babes in Christ.”
O Christ, we cannot be mature until we are Thine and Thine alone. Outside Thee everything is secondhand and hence unsatisfactory. Everything in Thee is firsthand, vital, and hence mature. I thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: If my spiritual life has grown up around persons instead of the Person, I am immature. I must shift my basis from them to Him.
