Restoration – Life and the Law

The blood is for our justification, our atonement, our reconciliation and saves us from the wrath of God or judgement. The blood has to do with our standing before God and is related to our forgiveness of sins. The blood is not primarily for us but for God.

The cross is for our deliverance from the self-life, the world and all connection to the first Adam. The cross is related to following Jesus and discipleship. Many people are speaking about “another level of ministry and the church making “the transition.” Obviously both the blood and the cross will be essential to any advancement. Another level of faith will be required for another level of ministry. Of course many people are pointing to these things In this paper I will point to another deliverance we will need. Paul devotes the complete chapter of Romans 7 to this problem of the Law. Also in other of his letters he warns about this danger of “the Law.” What is it about “the Law” that is so bad that we really must receive deliverance to be free from it?

ROM 7:1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? [2] For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.[3] So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man. [4] Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.

ROM 7:5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were {aroused} by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. [6] But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

The question that is raised by Rom 7:1-6 should be; If we are now forgiven of our sins and baptized into His death and burial what has “the law” got to do with us?

COL 2:13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, [14] having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us {and} which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Didn’t Jesus really nail the law to the cross of Calvary?

Is not the law removed from us by the cross? Why don’t we just forget about the law and live by grace? Of course that is God’s plan! The problem of the law has been solved by Calvary. However, each believer must personally die to the law of commandments in order to come to a personal deliverance from the law. Trying to forget the Law is nothing. If deliverance is automatic through forgiveness of sins, why do we see so many churches establishing their own church laws?

The answer most often given is that the law of Moses was brought to a conclusion at Calvary but now these new laws are “church laws” that are established by the New Covenant. These “laws”, “statutes” and “ordinances” are part of the government of the church and are given to establish standards and discipline for the church. After all if we didn’t have rules and ordinances how would the people know what we require and how would they know how to live the Christian life? These laws are fences that keep the believers in bounds so they can move forward and not wander all over the place.

All this appears righteous to the flesh but accomplishes nothing in the life of the believer. COL 2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as {21} “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” [22] (which all {refer to} things destined to perish with the using)-- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? [23] These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, {but are} of no value against fleshly indulgence.

The primary purpose of escaping from the law of commandments and decrees is so we might be married to Jesus. ROM 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.

Most legalistic churches have no idea how much damage they do to the believers by establishing their own laws for the church. God didn’t deliver us from the law of commandments so we can now bring ourselves back into bondage to our own form of man made laws.

God’s purpose was not to enact the law of Moses at Mt. Sinai. His purpose was to have His people come up the mountain, hear His voice and obey. JER 7:21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. JER 7:22 “For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. JER 7:23 “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’ JER 7:24 “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in {their own} counsels {and} in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

The law, the statutes, the ordinances, the judgements, the sacrifices, the offerings and the earthly priesthood was all established because Israel refused to come up the mountain of Sinai. However, none of these things were able to bring anyone to perfection. (see study on Mt. Sinai in Tabernacle series).

The government of the church and the ministries of the church are quick to establish a ministry and government like Moses. Moses went up the mountain, heard what God said and came and told the people so they could obey. That was the Old Covenant but the New Covenant is nothing like that. That will not bring the church to perfection or develop “body ministries.” However, it is because these things that are “the reason that we must have laws.”

HEB 8:7 For if that first {covenant} had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. [8] For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; [9] Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord.

HEB 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. [11] “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all shall know Me, From the least to the greatest of them. [12] “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.” [13] When He said, “A new {covenant},” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. This is quoted from Jer.31:31-34.

EZE 36:25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. [26] “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. EZE 36:27 “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

EZE 11:19 “And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, EZE 11:20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.

ISA 59:20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares the Lord. [21] “And as for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “ My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring, “says the Lord,” from now and forever. “

Many of the “prophesy teachers” use these scriptures to apply only to Israel after the time of the Gentiles end. Of course the “New Covenant” will apply to Israel if they repent and turn to God through Jesus Christ. However, there is little doubt that the New Covenant was established in His blood at Calvary and certainly includes more than the Lord’s Table.

In order to find the many aspects of the New Covenant we need to search out the prophets that spoke of that time when Messiah would come. These scriptures represent a few of the provisions of the New Covenant.

It is clear that the New Covenant is nothing like the Old Covenant yet the church has set up church laws and ministries very similar to the Old Covenant. If we miss the part about “the new Spirit” and then “My Spirit” and the part about the laws being written upon the hearts and put into the minds of New Covenant believers, we can only revert back to Old Covenant methods.

If we cannot believe that the Holy Spirit will cause the true New Covenant believer to walk in all the ways of God and that He will teach the church all things and reveal the things to come, how can we possibly establish a New Testament church?

The government and ministries of the church seem to be quick to establish their own methods of control and systems to teach God’s people how to know Him when the ministries are grouping in the dark themselves and are ignorant of His New Covenant. Some leaders are not even participants New Covenant provisions because they were taught against it. This is the great danger of men teaching men to know God and ignoring the Holy Spirit. They set themselves up as representatives of God and stand in the place of God to the church and inform the church what God is saying the same as Moses.

The church, therefore, can never become “the Lampstand church” until the full New Covenant becomes a reality in the experience of the church. As long as we insist upon continuing the ministry of Moses to the church we will have the same problems Moses had with Israel.

GAL 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” Of course God has set government in the church but not to take the place of the Holy Spirit and His teaching, discipline and guidance in the believer’s life.

Paul insists that there was nothing wrong with the law, it was righteous and good. The problem was that man wasn’t given power to fulfill the law. Only as believers function within the full New Covenant provision of the Holy Spirit’s subjective work within will they have the power to keep the New Covenant laws that are written upon our heart and put into our mind. How is God going to cause the New Covenant believer to walk in all His ways and to keep His statutes and ordinances and do them? Through the provision of the New Covenant and by the Spirit of God.

What is the experiential evidence that we have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit? When we walk according to the New Covenant without the mixture of the Old Covenant! Both the Galatians and the Colossians were warned about trying to mix them together. The church at Jerusalem was trying to mix circumcision and the law with the New Covenant. Paul’s conference with the council at Jerusalem in Acts 15 was to solve this problem. The church today thinks they are much more righteous than the council at Jerusalem but then make up their own laws. God is not pleased with any outward laws, period! GAL 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

The legalistic church is quick to point out that their believers are not mature enough “to be led by the Spirit” and therefore need all the church laws. The real question is: Why are they not mature enough to walk according to the Spirit? Maybe if we spent as much time perfecting the saints as we do perfecting and enforcing the laws and ordinances, we would have some mature saints. The embarrassing fact is that most ministers don’t know what it means to be “led by the Spirit” and are impotent to help the saints walk by the Spirit.

ROM 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. This is not keeping the law but fulfilling the requirements of the law. That is to love God with all your heart, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

It is disgusting to see “new creation believers” taught to walk according to “old creation methods”. The “old creation methods” were designed for Israel because they were in Adam and that was the absolute best that Adam could be expected to do. Bringing any law back upon “new creation believers” must grieve the Holy Spirit because it undermines His ministry and represents unbelief and disobedience.

Human laws substitute for the laws of God and give a false sense of being right with God. We can keep all the human laws of the church and still be “lawless” when it comes to God’s laws written upon the heart and put into our minds. MAT 7:23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

When we understand how ridiculous it is for “new creation believers” to be under outward laws and human ordinances, we may then understand the first 6 verses of Romans 7. The problem is that we cannot be married to the law and at the same time be married to Christ. That would be Adultery. Many churches that are so legalistic about physical adultery, are ignorant of this kind of adultery. Neither kind is acceptable to God. Even friendship with the world and intimacy with the world is also adultery.

JAM 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. JAM 4:5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? We cannot be married to the world and be also married to Christ. That is adultery in God’s eyes. If we are being led by the Spirit we will stay out of the world system.

The question presented in Romans 7 is how can we escape from the law so we can be married to Christ and still not be an adulterer? If the law would die, we would be free. However, it will not die or pass away until all be fulfilled.

Every person of Adam’s race has been married to the law in the eyes of God. The law is presented as the husband of a wife who is desperate to get rid of him. He [ the Law] is declared to be her husband as long as they both shall live. If the husband should die, she would be free to marry another. He refuses to die so she is bound by Law. Of course if she should die that also would set her free. It is obvious that her only means of escape is through death and burial. If she is resurrected, she can then be married to another, even Christ who is also resurrected from the dead. The teaching here is complementary to Romans 6 and presents the same solution, death, burial and resurrection. Since the chapter division confuses the message it is good to ignore the divisions and read it as one teaching.

From V 7 to V 22 Paul shows how “the law” produces sin in us. If we are commanded to do a certain thing and we don’t do it, we sin.

James 4:17] Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

The commandment of the Law was not given in order to produce sin in us but that is the result. The commandment was not given to produce death in me either. However, that is the result if I don’t do everything demanded by the law. Even though the law, if it were kept would be a very good thing, to the one who can’t keep it, it brings death instead of life. Even though it is designed to bring life, in reality, it brings death.

The question is, why is this former husband so unpleasant to the woman that she seeks to put him aside and seek for another husband? Paul asserts that he [the Law]is a very good man and righteous in his many demands. This husbands has a right to expect certain performance from his wife and expects her to toe the line in her obedience. However, this husband puts forth no assistance in helping the wife with his many demands. The demands are so many and so detailed and precise that her whole life is spent just meeting his demands. She is helpless in herself to meet these demands and requirements. The husband [the Law] only judges his wife by her performance in fulfilling all his requirements but makes no provision to help her.

This new man [Christ] is the one she wants to marry. However, He also has many requirements that are even more difficult to fulfill. Matthew 5 & 6 & 7 lists some of his demands. These are the demands of the Kingdom! Then why would she want to get rid of this first husband and marry this more demanding husband? The difference is not in the demands but in the help and provision given to fulfill the demands. This new husband [Christ] has offered to impart to the woman all that is necessary to fulfill His demands.

He [Christ} is also going to send her a helper to stand along side her to assist her and to guide and direct her. He will prepare her so that she may please her new husband. The difference is not in the demands but in the husband Himself and in His provision. The Servant, whom He sends, will impart and provide all that she needs to meet His demands. The Servant will also teach her all things and lead her into all “Truth”. While the demands of the Kingdom are far beyond our natural ability, the demands present to us an offer of a higher life and a greater inner strength and ability.

In many legalistic churches, the reason given for church laws is; We must have church laws because our people just walk in the flesh. ROM 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good {is} not.

This error focuses upon demanding the flesh to do certain things that it is not even able to do. For example: The focus of our church may be to forbid anyone from using their tongue to gossip and demean any other person. We all would have to admit that is certainly a good and righteous thing. However, there is nobody who is going to able to control their tongue by the power of the flesh. The only thing that law is going to do is cause people to sin against the church ordinance. The result is, the good ordinance brings death instead of life.

Then what is Calvary’s solution ? First die to the law through the body of Christ and second get filled with the Spirit and do not walk according to the flesh. COL 2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, [21] “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” [22] (which all {refer to} things destined to perish with the using)-- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? Do not let anyone bring you back again under the law of commandments and do not submit to decrees of do not taste, do not handle etc. All these things result in a man made religion and have nothing to do with Christianity.

But if people, who confess to be believers, are doing things that is destroying their testimony, shouldn’t we confront them and tell them to stop? Why? How will that help their testimony? Their testimony must be the reality of their life. True Christians are being led by the Spirit. If they are doing perverted things, they are not being led by the Spirit and therefore have no testimony.

All we would do is to teach them how to act like they had a testimony, when in fact they don’t. Hypocrites are people who act like they are Christians when they are in public view. Their actual testimony may only be a counterfeit. It would be much better if God would teach us so we lived like Christians rather than to act like we were Christians. Since the church laws have no power to do a subjective work in us, they have no power to change us. The church laws teach us how to appear to be Christians but give us no power to become Christians.

What then is the Christian’s position with the law of Moses and the various church laws? He must die, be buried and be resurrected into Jesus Christ. COL 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, {so} walk in Him, [7] having been firmly rooted {and now} being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, {and} overflowing with gratitude. [8] See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. [9] For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

Most ministers would be fearful that without church laws, rules and ordinances the result could only be much confusion and many problems or even anarchy. The New Covenant fact is that no New Covenant believer is without laws, statutes and ordinances within him. They are written upon his heart and put into his mind.

HEB 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. HEB 10:16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And upon their mind I will write them,”

How can we be “New Covenant ministers” if we don’t believe that. If we do believe that, why do we then need to make our own laws written on paper that will perish. True believers will carry God’s laws (put into their minds and written upon their hearts) with them wherever they go. The laws written on paper will be ignored. God’s laws are much better.

The question will then arise; What if we don’t really have “true believers” in our church? Should we then establish church laws? No! Stop everything and establish them as “true New Covenant believers”. Church laws are counter productive because they depend upon man instead of the Holy Spirit to discipline the life.

Church laws are designed to guide and discipline those who are in the flesh and those who walk according to the flesh. The New Covenant laws are designed to guide and discipline those who are of the Spirit and those who walk after the Spirit.

Therefore, the first part of Romans 7 shows us we must first be delivered from the law of commandments before we can serve in newness of the Spirit. We cannot mix the LAW with the Spirit. We cannot mix the flesh with the Spirit either. For that reason the last part of Romans 7 deals with those who set out to serve God in the flesh. The first revelation we must have is that no one can please God by serving Him in the flesh. It is only possible, under the New Covenant and to serve God “in the Spirit”.

Multitudes know the doctrine of the flesh but can only serve God in their flesh because their spirit is not mature or is not functioning. However, because they are doing their best to do the will of God and to serve Him, they assume they are pleasing God anyway.

There is an unmeasurable difference between serving God by the human will power which means in the flesh and serving God in the Spirit and under the anointing. Law, flesh and human will power all go together with the Old Covenant while Spirit, spirit, and the anointing are connected to the New Covenant.

Speaking very shallowly, we could say that Law means to mechanically do something for God and to please God in the flesh. Grace means that God does something in me to enable me to do His will. Law means that “I” do my best to serve God. Grace means that God has already done everything necessary “for me” so I can fulfill His purpose and bring joy to His heart. The problem is that man in the flesh cannot serve God or please God and is useless to God. He may want to do good but he ends up doing evil.

When God places certain holy and righteous, spiritual and good demands upon me and commands me to do them in my own ability in the flesh, that is law. When God places holy and righteous, spiritual and good demands upon me and causes me to walk in His ways and keep His laws written upon my heart, by the Holy Spirit, that is grace. The difference is seen by which power we use to do God’s will.

The problem is not that the law is unjust, unholy or wrong. The problem is that “I” am unjust, unholy and wrong and therefore unable to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law by my own resources. God’s provision for me and in me to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law is grace. Here we see the “Law is fulfilled in us” as we walk in the Spirit.

ROM 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God {did:} sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and { as an offering} for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, [4] in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

This “provision is called grace” while the power to fulfill the Law is of the Holy Spirit. The conflicting power is called “the flesh”. The flesh is the root source of “the sin” [not just sins] that manifests when I set out to serve God by my own ability.

ROM 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good {is} not. [19] For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. [20] But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. [21] I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.

This is the same problem we saw in Romans 6 with the “body of sin” or the “sin factory”. Several scholars point out that Romans 7 could not be in the proper order but should follow chapter 4. Romans 7 doesn’t appear to logically follow the Romans 6 experience. However, Paul is addressing another problem of the Law. His solution is the same as Romans 6 which is death, burial and resurrection. But isn’t the flesh [the old man] overcome in baptism by death and by burial and by the resurrection? If the flesh was no longer a problem there would be no conflict between the Holy Spirit and the flesh. However, as long as we walk “in the Spirit” we are not walking according to the flesh. It is not that the flesh in annihilated but that it is made ineffective in controlling us.

ROM 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. [5] For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

The “Christian” experience and evidence of water baptism is found in those who “walk

not after the flesh, but according to the Holy Spirit. No matter how powerful our baptism was, if we continue to walk in the flesh, we will fall back again into sin.

ROM 7:25 So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. It should be obvious that the low state of the “visible church” is the result of walking in the flesh instead of participating in the full provision of the New Covenant by walking in the Spirit.

ROM 7:22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, (or spirit man) [23] but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

Until the members of my body come under the power and control of the Holy Spirit sin may manifest itself. We are not speaking of “SINS” but of the Law of SIN. Baptized or not the “sin factory” functions through the flesh! The consecration in the second part of Romans 6 must logically follow baptism. Without consecration we will just walk in the flesh. Baptism is only a valid power in my life when I walk in the Spirit. When I walk in the flesh, I am just as if I were a mere man who is not reborn or forgiven.

I am not saying that I am not reborn or forgiven but that my life does not reflect that I have been changed. The New Covenant is just as weak through the flesh as the Old Covenant. The power of fulfillment of the New Covenant is through the infilling and operation of the Holy Spirit in our life, personally. The power of the New Covenant is manifested when we walk in the Spirit. Then why doesn’t everybody just walk in the Spirit? Because that is not possible as long as we are walking in the flesh! We are not obligated to walk in the flesh but many of us do!.

ROM 8:12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- [13] for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.[14] For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

The process is this: First dead to the flesh and in resurrection Life live by the Spirit. Set your mind on the Spirit and not on the flesh. The mind may turn upward toward the Spirit or it may turn downward toward the flesh. If our mind is turned upward toward the Spirit, we say “we are in the Spirit”. If our mind is turned downward toward the flesh, we say “we are in the flesh”.

ROM 8:5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. [6] For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, [7] because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able { to do so}; [8] and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

It is clear that those who have been baptized in faith but then walk in the flesh will have a personal testimony that “baptism did nothing for me! It was just a public testimony. I am just as carnal as I was before I was baptized!” That is true for the one who continues to walk in the flesh. However, that is not true of the one who walks in the Spirit. Baptism does everything that the Word of God says it does, when we walk in the Spirit.

When the “church government” establishes rules, standards, fences and church laws, the people who “break the law” come under condemnation whether they agree with the “laws” or not. The same might be true if we preach a goal so high and holy that the people fall into despair because they perceive that they will not be able to reach it. But don’t we have to preach the Kingdom and its demands? Yes! But we have to emphasize the provision that is given in order to achieve the goal.

This is what Paul did in Romans 8. Paul shows that God has established a “new Law” that sets us free from the law of sin and death. That is the “Law of the Spirit of Life” in Christ Jesus. It is amazing that so many things only work “in Christ Jesus.” There is such a contrast between the “law of death” and the “Law of Life.” Both are laws that work! There is NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. When we find people living in condemnation it is no use reading them this verse. We need to find out why they are being condemned. Maybe it is our fault for setting a goal that is beyond their expectation or beyond their perceived ability.

MT 24:45 “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? [46] “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. [47] “Truly I say to you, that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

It takes a sensitivity and discernment to distribute the Word of God in the proper depth and proportions at the proper time. Not giving strong meat to babes requires a lot of discipline. I have failed on this aspect of ministry many times and hurt many who were too young in the Lord.

Of course not having “strong meat” to give to the more mature is just as destructive because “milk” gets boring and inadequate and people complain about being hungry!. At the present time it seems the babes are getting plenty of milk but the ones who are ready to go on are getting too little nourishment to make the trip. Many today who are complaining about being hungry have no understanding of what it is that will satisfy but are going from church to church searching for something.

Knowing how and what to feed them requires great wisdom because in every assembly there is a wide diversity of needs. The “slaves” who are ignorant of these things risk not having people prepared for His return. Of course there are believers that don’t want anything except milk and are offended at strong meat. The “slave” who is commissioned to “feed” will offend some unless the system of church as we know it changes.