07 Apr Milk vs. Solid Food
Another month has passed, and we have spent much of April at home. As we enter the month of May we are hearing conversations about loosening restrictions. But for now, schools, businesses, theaters, and churches remain closed. I would like to speak to this idea that the “church” is closed. In Zambia I hear the question being asked over and over, “is the church still closed, or when will the church open?” Even in America I have heard people say, “churches are still closed.” Of course, we know those statements are either harmless statements of conversation with no theological meaning intended, or they are ignorant statements with a lack of biblical and theological understanding of the “church.” Let me start by saying the obvious: YOU CANNOT CLOSE THE CHURCH!!! The church is not a building or a location or a time of meeting. The church is the born again, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, Called Out ones. You cannot close these people. Jesus said, “… I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18b) If the gates of hell cannot prevail, or close the church, a virus certainly cannot.
So, what are people saying or perhaps meaning when they allude to the “church” being closed? They appear to be saying the gathering that we do on a specific day, at a specific time, in a specific place is not happening right now. We are not able to attend that building on the day we usually go to that building. Which, in most persecuted countries, public gatherings rarely, if ever happens, and yet the church continues to grow in many of those places.
While there is much to say about the devastating implications of a theological misunderstanding of the “church,” I want to focus on something equally disturbing as the public gathering is not happening. I was reading in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, “But I, brothers and sisters, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,…” And that led me to Hebrews 5:12-14, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he/she is a child. But solid food is for the mature…”
In these verses Paul and the author of Hebrews (could be Paul), seem to speak of two types of Christians, or two stages of spiritual maturity: those who drink milk, and those who eat solid food. And the author(s) seem to be frustrated and concerned that these believers are still drinking milk when they should be eating solid food. In Corinthians Paul connects milk to infants. It is like feeding an infant milk.
Therefore, we can define the milk drinking infant as a person who needs someone else to feed them what they need to grow and mature. A solid food person is someone who is able to feed themselves what they need to grow and mature. Milk is me feeding someone what they need to grow. They need their spiritual food to come from someone else. They need to be fed the Word of God. They are unskilled in the Word of righteousness. They cannot eat and grow on their own. Solid food is me learning to take the Word of God and feeding myself.
Over the last month and half, I have seen and heard the struggle of “professing” Jesus followers who seem to have little to no ability to feed themselves. With no public gathering of believers they seem lost. Now, for those who are new believers and truly are infants, this makes perfect sense. But the writer of Hebrews emphasizes in 5:12, “by this time you ought to be teachers.” These folks were not new believers. They should have been teaching, they should have been able to feed themselves, they should have been eating solid food and should be skilled in the Word. What we have known, but perhaps are seeing in a new way is the number of professing Christians who ought to be teachers and eating solid food, but are still drinking milk, unskilled in the Word, and need someone else to feed them what they need to grow. While we have the Spirit of God and the Word of God, something is missing or incomplete.
It seems we are more dependent on Performances, Professionals, and Programs as we have ever been. While the “church” has improved technology, programs, methods, church growth strategies, and comfortable settings, we still fall short of doing the one thing Jesus commanded us to do as he ascended back into heaven, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” Heck, just making one disciple in our own neighborhood. For centuries the “church” seems to focus on everything except the main thing. We create methods and strategies to gather more people into a building on a certain day. But we don’t seem to prioritize making them disciples and teaching them to obey. It seems we want to make them dependent on the “church,” rather than helping them grow up into mature disciples who can be sent out.
What will we learn, change, improve, or re-imagine at the end of this global shutdown? I imagine local church leaders will ramp up their technology for greater internet viewing capacity. While also making online giving a top priority. I imagine there will be many creative conversations trying to prepare in case something like this happens again.
One idea, and my prayer, is that we will disciple followers of Jesus so deeply, and so completely, that if the “church” building is closed again we are fine, because they don’t need the performances, professionals, and programs anymore. They are solid food eating, spirit-filled disciples who start groups in their homes and share Jesus everywhere they go and with everyone they see. We become like the disciples in Acts 8, 11, and 13 who had their local Jerusalem gathering destroyed when a terrorist (Saul) killed one of their leaders (Stephen), and they scattered throughout the world while the Professionals (apostles) stayed in Jerusalem. These normal ordinary spirit-filled followers of Jesus shared the gospel, made disciples, and planted churches throughout Judea, Samaria, and the entire world fulfilling Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8. Then we could truly be THE Church, the Called Out Ones rather than the Come In Ones. And what appears to be a global crisis, could become a global awakening of making Jesus known to the entire world.
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