Sin Hinders Spiritual Growth
1 Corinthians 3:1-6 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. (2) I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; (3) for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? … (6) I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”
Another consequence of sin is that for the period that we walk in unrepentant sin our spiritual growth is hindered. It is only under the new covenant that the saints can grow spiritually. The old covenant saints could never grow spiritually because they were spiritually dead. At no time in the Old Testament were the saints ever referred to as being babes or being mature. It is in the New Testament that we see for the first time, the saints being referred to as babes and being mature. For the most part, we have not yet understood just what is available to us under the new covenant, for the resources that we have available to us under the new covenant are infinitely more than what was available to the saints under the old covenant. One of those resources is spiritual growth. Our spiritual growth only comes from God however, for in the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit clearly teaches us that God is the one who gives the increase. The increase that He is referring to is our spiritual growth. In this same passage the apostle Paul referred to the church at Corinth as being babes in Christ. When Paul made that statement the church in Corinth had already been established for at least seven years. So why were these believers still babes in Christ, seven years after they had been born-again under Paul’s ministry? The reason was because their spiritual growth had been hindered. In other words God had not been giving them increase. So why had God withheld spiritual increase from the saints in Corinth? Paul gives us the answer when he calls them carnal, for he tells them that as long as they continue in envy, strife and divisions, that they will remain carnal believers or spiritual babes. The envy, strife and divisions that the saints in Corinth were walking in, is a description of the sin that they were walking in. And so clearly their spiritual growth was hindered because of the sin in their lives.
1 Peter 2:1-2 “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, (2) as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above we often refer to the fact that we need to partake of the milk of the word of God in order to grow. But that is not all that the Holy Spirit said in that passage of scripture, for notice that before He encourages us to partake of the milk of God’s word, He tells us to lay aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking. In other words He is telling us to lay aside all sin. Clearly the Holy Spirit is telling us in this passage of scripture that laying aside sin is an essential part of our being able to grow spiritually. And so there can be no doubt that sin hinders spiritual growth in believers. Time and again in the New Testament when sin is mentioned in the lives of believers, it is linked to the fact that those same believers are classified as being spiritual babes. And so we see that if we want to mature as believers then part of that process is that we must lay aside all sin in our lives.
Michael E.B. Maher
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