March 31, 2014 - The meter for spiritual guidance and the spiritual age of each person

March 31, 2014

The meter for spiritual guidance and the spiritual age of each person

“Just as a mother who brings up a child and teaches it to eat bread as something supe­rior to milk, so does this visible church teach her children to eat something better, and far greater, so they can grow. It is not that the mother who brings up a child does not have other food, but it is the child who is too feeble for food, and so milk is appropriate for it. Nor is the Spirit who ministers in the visible church weaker than the Spirit who ministers in the heart or on high, for one and the same Spirit ministers to all three. But the chil­dren of Adam are very feeble, and unless the church brings them up like children, they will not be able to take solid food.

But what nursing mother who has many children, some thirty years old, others only thirty days old, is going to be able to set before them all one and the same food? If she were to set before them just solid food alone, then her thirty day old child would die, whereas the thirty year old would grow; but if she provided only milk, then the thirty day old one would live and grow plump, whereas the thirty year old one would die in agony. This is the reason why our  Lord and his preachers, who serve as leaders for everyone, instruct the thirty day old child as follows: Do not eat with adul­terers or mix with prostitutes, drunkards and accursed people, or with any whose actions are evil'; but to the thirty year old they say, Take on the sickness of the sick, and be all things to all men;  do not call anyone* a pagan or unclean or evil, even though he may be so**. Hold everyone to be better than yourself***f, and in this way you will grow in stature. “

Liber Graduum
4th-5th Century  

* I Corinthians 5:9,  9:22
** Acts of the Apostles  10:28
*** Philippians 2:3

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