 Most us have heard of the John Godfrey Saxe poem, The Blind Men and the Elephant. It is based on a traditional Indian parable and tells of six blind men from Indostan who come across an elephant. As each touches a different part of the animal, they come to different conclusions about what the elephant is. The man who grabs the tusk thinks an elephant is like a spear, while the one who has a leg is convinced that it is like a tree, while still another who has the tail is sure it is like a rope. They’re all right in their specific observations, but wrong in their overall conclusion. The point of the poem is to keep us humble by showing us how a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing when we act as if it is all knowledge.
In a similar way, the disciples at Corinth were immature in
regard to how they handled the truths Paul had taught them (1 Corinthians 3:1-4). After all, they took the truth of Christ
crucified and used it promote division rather than unity. Their immaturity wasn’t due to their age or the
amount of time they had been in Christ, it was simply a failure on their part to
develop. They were immature about their
immaturity. It’s the same sort of thing
the Hebrew writer addresses with his audience in 5:11-14 of that letter.
One of the sad consequences of their stunted growth was that they were unable to receive or process further spiritual truth (see John 16:12). Like a petulant child who puts his hands over his ears, their arrogance had shut them off to all of the wonderful things God wanted them to know (4:6,10,18). Like the blind men, they confused the little truth they had with all of the truth. The same thing still happens in the kingdom of God today. You see people who haven’t learned anything in years. Why does this happen?
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