Are You Growing Up? 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Hebrews 5:11-14

DISCUSSION GUIDE 1.What did Paul call the believers in Corinth? (1 Corinthians 3:1) Paul called the believers “infants in Christ.”

DISCUSSION GUIDE 2.What did Paul say he provided the believers in Corinth when they first accepted Christ? (1 Corinthians 3:2) Paul gave the new believers “milk, not solid food.”

DISCUSSION GUIDE 3.Why did Paul not give the believers “solid food?” (1 Corinthians 3:2) Paul did not give the believers “solid food” because they were not ready for it.

DISCUSSION GUIDE 4.What do you think Paul meant by this? Is it right to criticize a baby for drinking only milk?

DISCUSSION GUIDE 5.Why did Paul criticize the believers in Corinth? (1 Corinthians 3:2) Paul was critical because the believers should have matured to the point that they could have “solid food” but they had not.

DISCUSSION GUIDE 6.What characteristics were a part of the lives of the believers that caused them to be worldly? (1 Corinthians 3:3-4) The believers were jealous of one another and quarreled among themselves. They also followed personalities, like Paul and Apollos, who were only men.

DISCUSSION GUIDE 7.In what ways do we approach life from a worldly position?

DISCUSSION GUIDE 8.What did the writer of Hebrews condemn in the lives of his readers? (Hebrews 5:11) The writer of Hebrews says that his readers were “slow to learn.”

DISCUSSION GUIDE 9.What do you think that he meant by this?

DISCUSSION GUIDE 10.What are the marks of spiritual immaturity? (Hebrews 5:11-14) The marks of spiritual immaturity are: a.Laziness (v. 11). b.Inability to teach (v. 12). c.Diet of only elementary truths (v ). d.Lack of application (v. 14).

DISCUSSION GUIDE 11.What do these believers still need? (Hebrews 5:12) These believers still need someone to teach them the elementary truths of God’s word.

DISCUSSION GUIDE 12.Of what are immature believers ignorant? (Hebrews 5:13) Immature believers are ignorant of the teachings of righteousness.

DISCUSSION GUIDE 13.Of what benefit is solid food? (Hebrews 5:14) Solid food is for mature persons and trains them to distinguish good from evil.

DISCUSSION GUIDE 14.What is solid food?

DISCUSSION GUIDE 15.How would you describe your present level of spiritual maturity?

The scriptural maturity choices are: 1.Being taught vs. teaching others 2.Struggling with basics (milk) vs. developing a depth of understanding (meat) 3.Not acquainted with what is right vs. distinguishes good from evil

Some specific choices that a person might make that will move him/her toward spiritual maturity are: 1.Make a commitment to the hard work of change. 2.Commit to a daily Bible study and prayer time. 3.Make worship and your Bible study class a top priority. 4.Find a place to serve.

D.A. Carson

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace- driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. D. A. Carson