Correction Paul Had for the Church Still Applies Today

Tour of Truth Podcast

these Corinthians, They were falling back into some of their old ways of thinking. And so Paul says, Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you, I couldn't talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk to you as though you belong to this world or as though you were infants in Christ.

I had to feed you with milk, not solid food, because you weren't ready for anything stronger. And. Guess what? That's my own word, but it says, And you still aren't ready, you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You're jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn't that prove that you're controlled by your sinful nature?

Aren't you living like people of the world? When one of you says, I'm a follower of Paul and another says, I follow Apollos. Aren't you just acting like people of the world? After all, who was Apollos? Who was Paul? We are only God's servants through whom you believed the good news. Each of us did the work that the Lord gave us.

I planted the seed in your hearts and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. Paul is saying, essentially, don't you see that both are needed? If you're going to win people to Christ, it has to be simple and pared down to the essentials. But then, if you're going to grow in Christ, there has to be much deeper teaching.

You have to go on to deeper things, and it takes the simple presentation of the gospel to plant the seed, but it takes a much deeper rational presentation of Christian truth to make a person grow and be watered. Though all the time, it's only God who enables the whole thing to grow.