Milk and Solid Food

We have here two types of foodstuffs, milk and solid food, that are well known to us. They are recorded in the Bible as examples of spiritual infancy and spiritual growth respectively. Milk is the ideal food stuff for babies. That is why Peter had to say: "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation" (1 Peter 2:2).

The writer to the Hebrews, when warning against apostasy said: "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 is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 12:14). Therefore the basic principles of the truth are represented by milk, while the spiritual growth one acquires by constant use of the Bible is the solid food. Since the bible was inspired by God, its contents are spiritual. And so one aspiring to be such a disciple has to make use of it daily.

We learn of Jesus that in him the spirit was without measure. One may ask why was this so of Jesus? Right from his childhood, Jesus had his heavenly Father's business at heart as Luke says: "He increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man." He therefore was wise because he feared the Lord which is the beginning of knowledge. Jesus knew his Father and so obeyed Him to the last. He is our greatest example. The apostle Paul said: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." To achieve this, one has to deny oneself and look ahead to him who is the "author and finisher of our faith".

Bro Sylvester Tembo (Mzuzu, Malawi)