Three Key Characteristics of Babes in Christ %

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1 KJV)

We are born as babies in the kingdom; we then grow up to be responsible sons and daughters of God. Because of this spiritual transition, God expects us to grow from babes to mature ones. This devotional examines what God calls “babes in Christ,” which might be a shocker to many of us, as it was to me.

Of the different characteristics that could be retrieved from the scriptures about babes in Christ, there are three that I find incredibly revealing. The scriptures use three key features to describe the typical characteristics of babes in Christ: the Word, the Spirit, and the ability to partake of their inheritance.

First, a babe in Christ is someone who cannot understand or use the deeper truths of the Word of God. Scriptures, therefore, use our spiritual understanding and ability to apply the Word of God as key characteristics that define who babes are in the faith( Her. 5:13, 1 Cor. 13:11).

Second, a babe in Christ is the believer controlled by their fleshly desires, wants, or passions rather than by the Spirit of God. What is distressing, and even embarrassing, is the example of what Paul called carnality in 1 Cor. 3:1 above. No, it was not a sexual sin! Instead, it was division in the Church, where the believers were forming factions, grouping behind one Church leader or another. Think of how divided we are in the body of Christ today and then conclude on how carnal or immature we are as the Body of Christ.

Third, babes cannot take control of their inheritance until they reach the maturity age. Paul says, “Even so we when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world” (Galatians 4:3 KJV). Few things deeply trouble me as when I suffer from something I know Christ paid the price for me to have, but for whatever reason, I am just unable to get it to work for me. Babes suffer for what is theirs until they grow up. So many of us might be struggling with things that are there simply because we have not yet grown to take our place.

As you have probably heard me say before, the Spirit of the Lord is calling us into spiritual maturity because “ creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19 ESV).

Which characteristics of a Babe in Christ do you struggle with the most?

God has one prescription for babes “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2 KJV)

Ask the Father to help us grow to maturity as the body of Christ.