October 19 – Don’t Let Division Stunt Your Growth
Dear Marisa,
«And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions….»
(1 Corinthians 3:1-3)
Envying, strife and divisions had reduced the early Corinthian Christians back to the natural, or carnal, state that they were in before they were born again. It had so stunted their spiritual growth that they couldn’t understand the things the Apostle Paul wanted to teach them.
Satan has sent the same spirit of division among us today. He knows that a house divided against itself will fall. He also knows if we all come together in the unity of our faith, we’ll arrive at the full stature of Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:13). So he has assigned a spirit of division to operate in our personal lives, our church lives, our social lives and our family lives. His goal is the same as it was in Corinth: To bring envying, strife, division and to stunt our spiritual growth.
But we don’t have to yield to that spirit. Instead Paul says, «[by] speaking the truth in love, [we] may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.»
Compare «speaking the truth in love» to «envyings, strife, and divisions.» Diametrical opposites, aren’t they? You can’t do both of them at the same time. As you speak the truth in love, you grow up. As you envy, fuss and separate from one another, you go back to babyhood.
Don’t let Satan stop your spiritual growth by giving in to the spirit of division but speak the truth in love and «grow up into Him in all things!»
