BABES IN CHRIST

The people who repent of their sins and give their heart to the Lord are born again, born into a new life. The Bible tells us that when one becomes a Christian he is a “new creature” [2 Corinthians:5:17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. ]). Paul also called the new Christians “babes in Christ” [1 Corinthians:3:1And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. ]). They have just started in the Christian way and are not expected to know all there is to know about Christianity.

Starting as a Baby
We do not hold it against a man that he was once a baby; everyone gets his start in life as a baby. But no one stays a baby very long. Some babies may get a disease that will stunt their growth, and they become midgets. Or some other sickness may keep some from walking, so they remain invalids all their life. But those things are tragedies that everyone hopes to avoid.

No more should we want to remain infants in the Christian life. We want to become strong, healthy, grown-up Christians -- Christians who can stand opposition, who will not backslide when discouraging things happen to them, or when the devil tries to deceive them through a love for worldly things. Healthy Christians must have good food, and our food is the Word of God. We know that, because Jesus said: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” [John:6:35And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. ]). Another place we are told that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” [John:1:14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. ]), which was Jesus. So the way for us to grow and become strong Christians is to study God’s Word seriously. A healthy baby wants much milk; so a healthy Christian will want the “sincere milk of the word,” that he may grow thereby [1 Peter:2:2As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: ]).

Eating Meat
Within a few months the baby is not satisfied with milk, so he is given chopped meat; and a little later, when he can chew, he is given his meat straight. Should not the Christian develop in like manner -- go on to “strong meat,” instead of staying on a milk diet? That means that he will be able to make deeper consecrations, he will have the courage to line up on stricter rules of the Bible, and will have more power to overcome sin. He will have more of the love of God in his heart.

Have you ever said, when children much younger than yourself wanted to play with you, “You are too young”? Have you ever tried to run away from small children who insisted on tagging you? You considered the little ones a nuisance; but when they grew older and had what you thought was more sense, you found them quite enjoyable companions.

How much have you grown spiritually since the Lord saved you? Have you learned “more sense,” or are you still a “little nuisance”? Paul said: “Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” [Hebrews:5:14But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. ]). Children do not have to be very old in order to learn enough of God’s Word to be able to teach others. But hearing the Word alone will not give us spiritual wisdom. We must apply the Word to our lives if we are to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” [2 Peter:3:18But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. ]).

When the Apostle Paul was writing to the Hebrew Christians he said that many of them were “dull of hearing.” Maybe they had listened to Paul’s preaching, and the preaching of other ministers of Christ, but had not listened with their heart. They had not paid attention to it, nor learned from it. We use the expression sometimes that what we said merely went in one ear and out the other. The person who heard it did not profit by what he heard.

Self-Pity
There is always a need for more qualified teachers of God’s Word, so everyone should start learning as soon as he is saved in order to be able to teach others soon. But some people do not try to learn. They always want others to be helping them. They want to remain babes and have someone help them to walk. Instead of going out to visit the sick, and to be a help to others, they sit at home and feel sorry for themselves because nobody comes to visit them. The best way to forget your own troubles -- if you have any -- is to look for someone who is having a harder time than you, and then doing something to help him. Have you ever heard the saying, “I wept because I had no shoes -- until I met the man who had no feet”? What if we do have some hard places in life to go through? The Lord has promised to stay right beside us to help us. We have nothing to fear.

Let us be like Caleb and Joshua were when all the other spies who had visited Canaan were crying because of the giants they had seen in the land. Caleb and Joshua said: “If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey” [Numbers:14:8If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. ]). That is the secret of a Christian’s success: live such a life as is pleasing in the sight of God. Then He will always give the victory. “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” [Psalms:84:11For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. ]).

Saved Through Jesus
Paul had devoted much of his preaching to explaining to the Hebrews that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. But he had many more things to preach about. To “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” [Acts:16:31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. ]), is a good beginning for a Christian. One cannot be saved unless he believes that Jesus is the Son of God. The Jews were looking for the Messiah to come, but most of them did not believe that Jesus was the One for whom they looked. And so they were not saved. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” [John:1:11-12 [11] He came unto his own, and his own received him not. [12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: ]). That was good -- but it was only the beginning.

Christian Perfection
After we are saved we must go on to perfection. That begins with sanctification, often called Christian perfection. There is so much of God’s love that it is sometimes compared with the ocean. One song writer wrote:

“Wide, wide as the ocean,
High as the heavens above;
Deep, deep as the deepest sea,
Is my Saviour’s love.”

We will get more of the love of God in our heart as we go on to serve the Lord, and seek God earnestly for all the blessings He has to give us. When we receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost upon a clean, sanctified heart, we get an overflowing amount of the love of God.

If people do not seek the deeper things of God, they are in serious danger of losing what they have. God is merciful, and when one does slip from the Christian path and backslide, He will forgive when that one repents.

Apostates
But some people never do become established in the faith. They backslide again, and again, and finally they may get so far from God that He does not speak with them any more. What if God would never speak to them again? They would have lost all chance of ever being saved. As long as the Spirit of God convicts the backslider, there is hope for him to return to the Lord; but when the Spirit no longer calls him to repentance, he has gone too far -- he has apostatised. Every time one backslides it is as though he crucified Jesus again. It was because of our sins that Jesus had to die; so we certainly do not want to commit more sins after we have once been saved. And what a tragedy it would be for someone who has been saved to backslide so far as to never again feel the wooing of the Spirit of God! We want to be among those of whom Paul spoke, who “through faith and patience inherit the promises.” In our next lesson we shall discuss what those promises are.