Messenger Magazine
Understanding Doctrine
by Elder Sterling W. Sill
Posted on 1/22/2002 at 4:59:23 PM
On one occasion the Apostle Paul spoke of the spiritual immaturity that existed among the members of the Church at Corinth. Many of the people did not understand the great Christian doctrines that were important for their eternal success. Because of this lack of understanding Paul said that he could not speak to them about spiritual things as they were only able to understand carnal things.1
Inasmuch as they were adolescent in religion, the great apostle called them “Babes in Christ.” He said: “I have fed you with milk and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it.”2 And they were making very little progress in becoming able to digest the adult food of the Gospel…. Because they just hadn’t grown up religiously they had to be fed on milk and be treated like babies. Paul pointed out that their greatest need was for some of the good substantial nutritious meat of the Gospel.
This still represents one of our biggest problems. There are presently a great many Church people who have to be taught the most simple Gospel principles over and over again, and even then they have difficulty in understanding. The Lord Himself said: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” He said, “Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee…”3
One of our problems comes from the fact that it is awfully hard to learn anything that we just partly believe in. It is also difficult to maintain our interest on some weak fractional basis. Most people learn very little about the Holy Scriptures because they study them so half-heartedly and infrequently. Certainly we can’t live the scriptural passages very well before we have learned to understand and to love them. And before we can grow up religiously we need to eat enough of the right kind of spiritual food, and take a few effective moral exercises.
There are still too many people who require a religious milk diet and they can’t take very much even of that. For them, sermons must be short and the doctrines weak, and well diluted with carnal things. When strong spiritual food is fed to some people, they respond by breaking out in a kind of mental rash. They complain that they don’t believe in meaty doctrines or can’t understand the significance of eternal truths.
…Paul also diagnosed the (Hebrews) problems as being unable to take any kind of food stronger than milk. He went on to say: “For everyone that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are full of age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”4 He advised all members of the Church to get these first principles of the Gospel so firmly established in their hearts on a once-and-for-all basis that they would then be able to go on to perfection. As another great scripture says, “No man can be saved in ignorance.”5 Unless we understand and live some of the more advanced doctrines of Christ, our own salvation is placed in jeopardy; and a little good solid spiritual maturity will perform wonders for our own eternal success.
We presently need more teachers who are capable of understanding all of the principles of the Gospel…And we also need more students who are anxious to learn about these divine truths. It is vitally important that we should not go through life spiritually emaciated because we live on an unenergized, skimmed milk diet…
It takes a much stronger diet than milk to be able to return good for evil or to obey the l0 commandments or to live the Sermon on the Mount. Someone has said, “What our world needs more than about anything else is for its people to get off the bottle.” And he didn’t mean the liquor bottle, he meant the milk bottle. He meant that we should be more frequently feed ourselves on these weighty doctrines that Christ designed to carry us beyond the baby stage toward perfection.
Our eternal exaltation requires a lot more meaningful response on our part than a mere passive assent or a nodding of our mental heads. If we really desire to qualify for God’s presence in the Celestial Kingdom, we need more spiritual vitamins in our diet and then be willing to take a lot of good vigorous moral exercises to get them into our bloodstream. We should develop a faith that is strong enough to live the Golden Rule, a will strong enough to pay our tithing and have enough gumption to refrain from starting a rebellion at every doctrine that we are too immature to understand. Our Heavenly Father has a very ambitious program outlined for us that will require us to get out of the cradle, overcome our temptations, and respond to life like faithful Christian adults. And one of our greatest ambitions should be to grow up spiritually.
3 December 1966, Church News
1. 1 Corinthians 3:1
2. 1 Corinthians 3:2
3. Hosea 4:6
4. Hebrews 5:13-14
5. Doctrine and Covenants 131:6