February 16, 2001

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Have you ever wondered what eating butter and honey has to do with learning to refuse evil and choose good?  Especially for Jesus, because this is talking about Jesus.

Butter & honey goes down easy.  They’re sweet, easy to take.  A child can’t appreciate the importance of good food as much as a mature adult can.   To a child whatever tastes good is good.  A child needs more instant gratification.

But as you grow and mature you learn right from wrong.  If a person is not learning right from wrong they may be growing, but not maturing.  As we grow, we learn the long term value of good food.  We learn that it’s more substantial and does our bodies much more good than sweets do.  We learn to not eat sweets all the time and to choose the good food.

In the same way, there are things that are good for us spiritually.  Things that cause us to mature (not just grow, but mature), spiritually.  Have you ever seen adults that are full grown but are very immature?  There are some kids that are more mature than some adults.

Paul told the Corinthians that he had fed them with milk and not with meat because they had not been able to take the meat and they still weren’t able.  He says they were still carnal because there were envying and strife and divisions among them (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).

A sign of spiritual maturity is love.  Being able to respond and react and behave according to the love of God in situations is a sign of spiritual maturity.  Being obedient to that portion of the Word of God may not be as sweet and easy to take as other portions, but it’s necessary if we are to mature spiritually and to develop in discernment.  Did you ever notice that for us to receive milk there is no sacrifice made.  The cow didn’t have to give her life in order to give us milk.  But to eat meat there is a sacrifice made.  The cow had to die to give us meat.   Spiritually, meat is more of a sacrifice than milk.

Hebrews 5:14 says that strong meat belongs to those that are of full age, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.