Verse 13: "For everyone who is partaking only of milk is unacquainted with the teaching about righteousness, for he is a babe."
Now we have the reason that they "are having need of milk and not solid food." The principle is given in the part of this verse: "For everyone who is partaking only of milk is unacquainted with the teaching about righteousness."
1 Corinthians 13:11: "When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things" (NASB).
Righteousness does not come by the works of the law. The truth is righteousness comes by relationship.
Romans 1:17: "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'But the righteousness of man shall live by faith'" (NASB).
The problem with these Jewish Christians is that they see growth and spiritual development as a performance rather than the deepening of a relationship.
1 Corinthians 3:1 - 3: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual , but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?"
1 Peter 2:2 - 3: "like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord" (NASB).
2 Peter: 3:18: "but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen" (NASB).
(From “A Great While Before Day: Issue 2, part 2” by Don Anderson)
