A Broke Evangelist

December 19, 2024

1 Corinthians 3:1

"You Need To Calm Down"

“1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

You may notice a format change, which is omitting my blog post (dedicated to another page) where a link will be placed to access at one’s leisure. Tonight, there won’t be an additional link; rather, only the study, but it’ll be a good read and it will be a lot faster to get through, so enjoy…

Beginning with the first chapter on the study list, Chapter 3, we see Paul writing his letter to what seems like a bunch of people who have a lot of drama going on. It’s like he says for them to listen to him and tell them that he wanted to talk to them like they were spiritual giants, living that Spirit-led life, but NOOOOO (channeling my inner John Belushi)! He had to talk to them like they were still figuring out how to share their toys. The people were acting like spiritual toddlers, as “mere infants in Christ.”

Paul was basically saying that when he first met them, he served up some spiritual milk, as they weren’t ready for gospel filet mignon. So, he kept it simple—milk, formula, maybe a little smushed peas of faith. After all he was doing, they STILL were not ready for solid food! I’m sure that Paul wondered if he needed to burp them as well. 

So why did Paul think they were still in spiritual Pampers? Because they were sitting there throwing shade and starting petty drama, with fun emotional outbursts like jealousy and quarreling. They were bickering like toddlers fighting over the red crayon versus the black crayon. They weren’t living the Spirit-filled life; rather, the politics of the playground.

Then the ultimate mic-drop moment came to pass when Paul said, “When one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another says, ‘I follow Apollos,’ what are you even doing? Are you not acting like mere humans?” He was basically stating that they were treating faith like it was a popularity contest! No, this was not time for “Corinthian Idol.” The only winner of this show is Jesus.

A few years ago, there was the whole Team Edward and Team Jacob drama for fans of the Twilight movies. Each team rooted passionately for Bella, the femme fatale of the series, to end up with either Edward or Jacob—archrivals vying for her love. (Yes, I had two teenage daughters during this time, so I heard all about it. For the record, I would’ve picked Jacob.)

But if I were Edward or Jacob, I would’ve told them to walk away and find someone else. Bella annoyed me. But hey, that’s just me. Besides, who would Taylor Swift have written a song about then?

Anyway, before I go too far down the Twilight rabbit hole, let’s bring it back to what we’re talking about here. This kind of drama actually played out years ago, but with spiritual teachers instead of brooding teen vampires and werewolves. I can imagine Paul rolling his eyes (the same way I did with Twilight) at those people bickering among themselves, declaring, “I’m Team Paul!” and “Oh yeah? Well, I’m Team Apollos!”

Some things never change, right?

Meanwhile, Jesus is sitting there like, "Guys, you’re ALL supposed to be Team Me.”

Paul was not just roasting them for fun—he was trying to wake them up. His message was clear: “Stop acting like spiritual kindergartners and grow up! You’ve got the Holy Spirit, so let’s start acting like it.” It’s funny because it’s so relatable. We’ve all been there, caught up in petty arguments, clinging to labels, or playing favorites. Paul was basically saying, “Enough of that. The world’s got plenty of division; the Church doesn’t need more. You’re called to something better.”

So, the takeaway here is to leave the milk behind and move on to the meat of our faith. Let’s stop the drama, drop the jealousy, and remember who we’re really following. And for the love of God (literally), let’s keep from descending into spiritual twilight which is a step before spiritual darkness, although it would be a good subject for a Taylor Swift song…

More to come…

A Broke Evangelist – December 19, 2024

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