Why Your Spiritual Life Must Mature
What if your faith isn't immature because of ignorance, but because of comfort? This message from 1 Corinthians 3 invites you to examine what’s really stunting your spiritual growth—and what it takes to break free.
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Divisions in the Church
1 But I, brothers,[a] could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
What Plane Are You On?
When Jesus ascended to heaven, He didn’t leave us abandoned. He interceded for us, closing the gap between heaven and earth. There is one mediator between God and humanity—Jesus Christ—and that has profound implications for our lives.
Scripture teaches that as believers, we are in Christ, and He is in us. Ephesians 2:4-7 tells us that we are seated with Him in the heavenly places. That means we have access to a power that is not of this world, and the life of God is available to us, and it changes everything.
A.W. Tozer once said, “The church is made up of real people, and when they come together, we have church. Whatever the people are who make up the church, that is the kind of church it is. No worse and no better.” If we want to see a transformed church, we must begin with transformed individuals.
In 1 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul presents a sober challenge to a church that had stalled in their spiritual growth. Though they had been believers for several years, they were still spiritual infants. And through his letter, we’re invited to ask three crucial questions of ourselves:
1) Will I Live on a Spiritual Plane or a Natural One?
“I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:1
The Corinthian church was infatuated with worldly wisdom and eloquence. They prized persuasive speech and philosophical sophistication, and the Apostle Paul’s simplicity didn’t impress them, but that was by design. The Apostle Paul knew that relying on human eloquence would diminish the power of Christ.
He described three types of people:
The natural person: one without spiritual life, unable to grasp the things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
The spiritual person: one led by the Holy Spirit, who delights in God’s truth. (1 Corinthians 2:15)
The fleshy (or carnal) Christian: one who is saved but continues to live out of their old nature. (1 Corinthians 3:1–3)
In his book $3 Worth of God, Wilbur Rees captured this tension by writing, “I want ecstasy, not transformation… I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.” This is a snapshot of the carnal Christian, who wants just enough of God to be soothed but not enough to be changed.
This isn’t all too different from a hockey player in the penalty box. While they’re still part of the team, but not enough to enjoy the game. Thus, the fleshy Christian is still saved, but sidelined from growth.
The Apostle Paul then makes a comparison that lands hard: “I couldn’t speak to you as spiritual people.” That’s not a vague disappointment; it’s a diagnosis. Paul opened this entire letter calling them “saints,” but now, he’s pointing out that their behavior doesn’t match their identity. There’s a gap between who they are in Christ and how they are living. And when that gap is persistent, unchallenged, and unexamined, it hinders the church’s witness, health, and joy.
Like a physician giving a prescription, God provides us with what we need to heal and mature. But we have to apply it by taking the medicine of prayer, Scripture, and obedience. As the evangelist Billy Sunday once said, “If you are strangers to prayer, you are strangers to God’s power.”
The question stands: Will we live on a spiritual plane or continue operating from the flesh?
It’s a question that touches every aspect of life, from how we respond to criticism, how we engage in conflict, and how we make decisions in our finances, relationships, and work. The natural plane says, “Protect yourself. Exalt yourself. Just get through the day.” But the spiritual plane says, “Abide in Christ. Die to self. Bear fruit.” One is about control, the other about surrender. One leads to weariness, the other to rest. One preserves pride, the other produces peace.
Living on a spiritual plane doesn’t mean withdrawing from the world. It means being empowered by something greater than the world. It means resisting the temptation to be driven by what’s urgent instead of what’s eternal. It means choosing faith over fear, love over resentment, and obedience over convenience.
2) Will I Remain an Infant in Christ or Grow into Maturity?
“I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh.” 1 Corinthians 3:2-3
There’s nothing wrong with milk—for babies. But years into their faith journey, the Corinthians were still stuck on the basics. They weren’t digesting deeper truths because they hadn’t developed the spiritual maturity to do so.
The reason? They were still choosing the flesh.
The Apostle Paul’s frustration is not because they were new believers. They had been poured into for years, yet they still needed milk. They were still unready for the depth, the meat, the fullness of the gospel. Their growth had been stunted.
In Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul outlines what the flesh looks like: “sexual immorality, impurity, strife, jealousy…” And then he says something sobering: “Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The Corinthians were letting these very behaviors define their community.
Notice: Paul doesn’t measure spiritual maturity by knowledge, but by behavior. You can’t live by the Spirit and the flesh at the same time. One dominates. A helpful question to ask: What behaviors or desires in my life are growing stronger? Which ones are being put to death?
Consider this illustration: A woman who reads a book, returns it, and asks for a refund. She consumed the content but refused responsibility. Likewise, we can’t approach the gospel like a course audit: hearing without responding.
An infant lives on milk for many months in its early life. Milk for breakfast, milk for lunch, milk for dinner, and milk everywhere in between. The infant can’t handle anything else because the baby doesn’t have teeth or a digestive system that can handle solid food. There’s nothing wrong with giving milk to a baby.
Many believers today are over-informed and under-formed. We know Bible stories, listen to sermons, read devotionals, but without application, it’s milk without growth. Solid food requires chewing. It requires meditation, digestion and obedience. It pushes us to wrestle with God’s will and walk it out in everyday life.
If you’ve been in Christ for years, are you more patient than you were? More gentle? More prayerful? More generous? That’s the fruit of growth. Not perfection, but transformation.
3) Will I Function as a Mere Human or Allow God to Cultivate My Life?
“When one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human?” 1 Corinthians 3:4
The Corinthian church had fallen into tribalism, aligning themselves with specific leaders. The Apostle Paul cuts through the noise: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants… I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-6).
The focus must always be on God. God brings growth, transformation, and fruit—not the teacher, not the method, only God.
Then come two profound metaphors: “You are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9).
God’s building: a reminder that our growth is gradual. One beam, one brick at a time.
God’s field: a call to let God break up the hard ground in our lives so new life can take root.
The Apostle Paul deliberately uses agrarian and architectural metaphors. A building doesn’t rise overnight. It takes design, structure, and support, and a field doesn’t produce fruit without preparation, including cultivation, planting, and watering. In both images, there’s intentionality, effort, and timing.
Paul’s vision is not individual. It’s communal. When he says, “You are God’s building,” he’s speaking to the whole church. That means our growth isn’t just for us because it affects the whole body. When one part of the field is dry or neglected, it limits the yield. When one wall of the building is crumbling, the structure is at risk.
So, what does it mean to live beyond being “merely human”? It means to live empowered, directed, and aligned with God’s Spirit. The world doesn’t need more self-made men and women; instead, it needs Spirit-made disciples. The church can’t thrive on personality cults or factional loyalties; it must be rooted in Christ.
Sometimes, we get stuck in spiritual ruts. But the Spirit invites us to be cultivated, disrupted, and changed. And often, that starts with simply paying attention to where God is already at work.
Our hearts don’t get cultivated accidentally. They must yield. Exposed to the tilling of the Word. Watered through worship. Fertilized with confession and humility. And pruned in discipline. Growth requires participation with the Gardener.
We’re not just called to be good soil—we’re called to be active soil. Yielding, nourishing, receiving, releasing. When we hear stories of people making sacrifices for the gospel, these aren’t extreme cases reserved for the spiritually elite. These are just people choosing to live on a spiritual plane, and a church that sent them because it, too, is walking by faith.
Some of us may hear these stories and think, “I could never do that.” But maybe God isn’t calling you there. Maybe He’s calling you to your workplace. Your neighborhood. Your home. And He’s asking the same question: Will you live on a spiritual plane or a natural one?
The Apostle Paul seemed to sense something else beneath Corinth’s immaturity: wounding. Hurt people hurt people. And the church, operating in the flesh, had become a place of strife and fear.
That’s why he later writes an entire chapter on love.
When we operate in the flesh, fear rules. We’re afraid of vulnerability, forgiving, and letting go. But the gospel brings healing. It binds up wounds. It sets captives free. And when we know we’re secure in Christ, we’re no longer ruled by fear. As Paul told Timothy, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7).
Those embers are already there in you, but they must be fanned into flame. How do we do that?
Through surrender
Through prayer
Through openness to the Word
God wants to take what’s already burning in you and turn it into a blaze of Spirit-filled living.
A Spiritual Invitation
Today, the invitation is simple: be still.
Not to do something dramatic, but simply to let your heart become an altar. Be quiet before the Lord and listen. What is He saying to you? What needs to be surrendered? What wounds need healing? Who do you need to forgive?
Remember: there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Only grace, mercy, and the gentle but powerful call to be made new. Let’s choose growth. Let’s choose the Spirit. Let’s choose Christ.
TL;DR
Many believers live spiritually stunted lives—not because they’ve rejected Christ, but because they’ve settled for milk when God offers solid food.
1 Corinthians 3:1–9 lays out three challenges:
Will we live on a spiritual plane or a natural one?
Will we mature in Christ or remain infants?
And will we live as merely human, or be transformed into Spirit-empowered people of God?
Drawing from real stories of mission and ministry, this sermon presses believers to break the patterns of fear, control, and complacency that keep us in the flesh.
Instead, we are invited to cultivate hearts ready for God’s growth, step into supernatural life in Christ, and live lives that glorify not the one who plants or waters, but the God who gives the growth.
