Entry Exam
I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 1 Corinthians 3:2 NASB
Even now – So you want the meat of the Word, right? You want to investigate the depths of Scripture, see the mysteries of the Spirit, know the passion of the Messiah. But there’s a problem. Notice what Paul tells the Corinthian qahal (assembly). We would expect him to say something like this, “Oh, you aren’t ready for the really deep stuff because you’re sinful. You haven’t confessed enough. You aren’t tithing enough. You aren’t praying enough. You need to set aside more time to study the Bible.” But Paul doesn’t even mention church attendance, tithing, prayer, study or confession. Listen.
“for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (verse 3)
Paul’s educational entry exam has nothing to do with our idea of spirituality. He is a much more practical rabbi. The reason the Corinthians can’t handle the depths of Scripture is because they exhibit strife and jealousy. Plain and simple—they don’t get along with each other. They are jockeying for power. They are driven by ego. They contend over who’s right. Where there is no unity, there is no insight.
Paul isn’t writing to unbelievers. He is writing to those in the qahal. But he says that even now they are still thinking in terms of the world’s values. The Greek is alla plus eti. Literally it might be read as, “But still,” or “Yet nevertheless.” Think about it. These people know the power of God (1 Cor. 2:5). They have seen with their own eyes the demonstration of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:4) and heard the hidden wisdom (1 Cor. 2:6). They are not babes when it comes to exposure to the things of the Lord. But they haven’t changed their attitudes and actions toward each other. Therefore, they cannot know.
In the Greek worldview, education is the answer to life’s problems. Do we have disagreements, conflicts, tension? Let’s talk it out! Let’s negotiate. Let’s study the problem in order to find a rational solution. What a waste of time! In a Hebrew worldview, action comes first. You don’t have to study the problem to know there are ego issues. You don’t have to get to a therapist to know jealousy exists. What you have to do is make amends, change direction, confess one to another, step down from your pedestal and humble yourself. What you have to do is act like the Savior. Then, maybe, the mysteries of God will be open to you. But wherever you value the ranking of the world, the ascendancy of superiority, the “glory” of leadership, you will remain ignorant babes, milk drinkers, anemic and dependent, no matter what titles you garner for yourself.
Education in the Spirit begins with hupotasso—humility and submission. There is no alternative. Paul measures this by the standard of unity.
Topical Index: even now, alla, eti, milk, strife, jealousy, 1 Corinthians 3:2
Skip, I believe that I have the pleasure and honor of enjoying your insight into the Hebrew worldview at a wonderful time in my life, where I can sit back a little and collate the agony and adventure of my life thus far into some sort of sense, but in a profound way when it comes to lining it all up with the Word. Thank you so much!
Your insistence that, according to the Hebrew understanding, there is NO SEPARATION between the ‘spirit’ of a person, the ‘mind’ of a person, and the ‘body’ of a person takes care of SO MANY POTENTIAL PROBLEMS that present themselves in the context of some sort of artificial separation between these elements of the human. We are three-in-one, for sure, I am convinced of it.
When I realized that the physical ailments of my body were just physical manifestations of the illness of my heart, driven by believing things that were not true about love, and being reinforced by the thoughts of my mind, that all mirrored my fractured heart, I saw quite clearly that to believe in my heart WAS the same as to think in my mind WAS the same as to experience, or TO DO, in my body. If it was not showing up in the physical, that meant that it also was not really going on in the mental or spiritual either! Not really! That set me back! I went through a lot of whining. “But what about good intentions?” “But what about trying my best?” And this one really got me:”But what about it being SOMEONE ELSE’S FAULT?”
I got taught that those were all just AGREEMENTS with sin; reinforcements of the problem. All thinking or believing that just kept me a part of the problem and not the solution. I had to repent for that, too.
I believe that we also experience this phenomenon on another plane, in the Body of Christ. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” applies here, too. I think we are also judged by the deeds in the Body because they ARE the physical manifestations of the supposedly ‘secret’ things of the heart. Except how secret are they, really, if we can tell what they are by just looking at fruit? LOL
I think I learned this one by raising children. They ‘see’ their parents as a single entity. If one parent is not doing right, the children experience it the same as if the other parent was not doing right, either. This is why it is so important to present a united front, and be prepared to take the responsibility for the problems emanating from the other one. A parental Body is no stronger than its weakest link, as experienced by a child, anyway. This makes the sin of attempting to ‘turn’ a child against the other parent so grievous for the child, and so stupid for the parent, because, in the end, they will have succeeded in turning the child against themselves, too.
I think this is true also in the Body of Christ: we are no stronger than our weakest link. I think there is a reason that we will always have the ‘poor’ among us: they are our litmus test. I get to ‘grow up’ in Christ to the extent that I can bring up those around me AT THE SAME TIME. What if, in the eyes of God, His Body also looks like a collective organism? What if we have it exactly backwards? Where, instead of vying for ‘favor’ (whose?!) like crabs in a bucket, the one on the ‘bottom’ is actually the MOST IMPORTANT because they have enough strength to hold others up?
Miss Laurita Hayes thank you for articulating your thoughts this morning.
There was a recent conversation with a friend that developed into a similar conversation. We were considering the analogy of the BODY of Messiah. Each person/cell being important in the body to such a degree that if one becomes cancerous the rest of the body becomes ill and if not corrected the entire body dies.
But to the degree that the rest of the cells are healthy, the damage done by the cancer can be slowed, stayed and even corrected. The need to stay healthy is for the sake of the entire body not just ourselves.
Everyone wants to do something “GREAT FOR GOD” The greatest service we can do for the body is nourish each cell. That means we must love each cell according to God’s definition of love.
Jas 1:27 Pure religion, undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Php 2:1-9 If then there is any comfort in Christ, any help given by love, any uniting of hearts in the Spirit, any loving mercies and pity, Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in harmony and of one mind; Doing nothing through envy or through pride, but with low thoughts of self let everyone take others to be better than himself; Not looking everyone to his private good, but keeping in mind the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, to whom, though himself in the form of God, it did not seem that to take for oneself was to be like God; But he made himself as nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made like men; And being seen in form as a man, he took the lowest place, and let himself be put to death, even the death of the cross. For this reason God has put him in the highest place and has given to him the name which is greater than every name;
As we walk in YHVH’s commandments He walks among us. Then only then is He able to show us tangably the the beauty of them.
Has anyone else noticed that the Shema De. 6 tells us HOW the commandments become “written on our hearts”?
Thanks for sharing this. Truth stands out – even in plain black and white type.
This includes Laurita and Pam’s comments. Thank you.
It would seem that if those in a selfish, fleshly and jealous state would be taught wisdom, they would use it to advance themselves and harm others. I have seen this, where hirelings appropriate bits and pieces of the teachings of others, misusing them, and not even giving the author credit. A smart wicked person is much more dangerous than a stupid wicked person.
Wow, excellent comments~ all. They all have impact on my life THIS VERY MINUTE. Thank you so much, “Body,” for speaking out in black and white! I needed all of this tonight!
Skip, this topic is perfectly timed for the sadness we face in the loss of your dear friend and a part of us who had to leave because he just couldn’t move more in the direction of a paradigm shift.
I pray that we all walk very care-fully, including you, Skip–..- especially you, Skip, as our teacher, as we unravel 2000 years of false teaching and “the church” mis-quoting/mis-teaching/twisting all of the Bible in some way (who Messiah and His disciples are, for starters.)
Please, everybody, commit to praying diligently for our much-loved teacher, Skip Moen.
“But wherever you value the ranking of the world, the ascendancy of superiority, the “glory” of leadership, you will remain ignorant babes, milk drinkers, anemic and dependent, no matter what titles you garner for yourself.”
“Education in the Spirit begins with hupotasso—humility and submission.”- Skip. (Thumbs up!) Without which, no one can be taught, nor hope to learn anything from anybody..
Heb 5:12
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
πάλιν palin – renewal or repetition of the action; again, anew; again, i.e. further, moreover.
This is what is taking place here- Skip is going over what we thought we have learned is truth, whereas we in truth EVEN NOW are babes, not able to handle the meat of the Word in its true perspective from the original as written and meant by the various authors.
“But they haven’t changed their attitudes and actions toward each other. Therefore, they cannot know.” Skip. Where there’s contention and vying for control in an assembly, there are babes who have need to be taught again, until renewals/transformation occur! This is still happening in many assemblies’ leadership, and the folks they lead cannot mature, for lack of strong meat.
Would these pass their entry exam? It is a concern.
Shalom.
“humble yourself”
On our faces.. with tears!
Praise YAH..
whew.. this word was a word for us!
Thanks for delivering it!
Hugs
Chari 🙂