1 Corinthians 2-3 talks about how Paul taught only simple things at Corinth, because they were not ready for the mature things as they were divisive and would use such teaching to further divide themselves. Unfortunately most teachers today, especially in the celebrity realm, do not exercise similar restraint. With the reach of the internet, a piece of teaching can quickly turn into seeds of division, as immature members use such articles to rebut and bash other’s view points. Even more so with the relative comfort and distance of social media.
Futhermore, with celebrity teaching being so widely disseminated, so accessible apart from the nurturing guidance of accountable relationships, local leaders are pressured to "pick a camp" or risk having their leadership undermined by celebrity teachers. As a result discernment, well demonstrated in Acts 17 by the Bereans as the process of working through the scriptures with fellow brothers and sisters to validate a truth claim, has now degenerated into simply comparing something/someone to the teaching/teachers that one agrees with; one human source against another human source. A brother once, when I asked if it occurred to him that a certain celebrity teacher could be wrong on the issue being discussed, flatly replied, "Well, he's usually right."
Interestingly, Paul also describes this attitude in 2 Timothy 4 (emphasis mine):
Most will interpret that as referring to the prosperity gospel in the present day, but I believe it also speaks over the other extreme, the hyper-calvinist, pharisee-like faction that is gaining such prominence with young believers these days. Just as true as it is for unbelievers, believers also seek to hear what they want to hear. We pick a church based on which we think has “good” teaching, we surround ourselves with brothers and sisters that believe in the same theological bent that we do, we post rebuttals of articles with articles from the coalition that we align with, filled with scriptural references and twists that we ourselves did not even look up.
We close our hearts and minds and stay away from truly wrestling with God about what we and others think of Him, perhaps because in our zeal to "defend the faith" we have developed the pride to say that we are fully right all of the time. Or we go after teachers to follow and shy away from hearing God for ourselves because others have taught us that without them we do not have the authority to do so correctly, or simply because spending the necessary time in the Word and in prayer ourselves would require too much effort and too much uncertainty, as if trusting God's voice from any man not named Jesus was any more certain.
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Most will interpret that as referring to the prosperity gospel in the present day, but I believe it also speaks over the other extreme, the hyper-calvinist, pharisee-like faction that is gaining such prominence with young believers these days. Just as true as it is for unbelievers, believers also seek to hear what they want to hear. We pick a church based on which we think has “good” teaching, we surround ourselves with brothers and sisters that believe in the same theological bent that we do, we post rebuttals of articles with articles from the coalition that we align with, filled with scriptural references and twists that we ourselves did not even look up.
We close our hearts and minds and stay away from truly wrestling with God about what we and others think of Him, perhaps because in our zeal to "defend the faith" we have developed the pride to say that we are fully right all of the time. Or we go after teachers to follow and shy away from hearing God for ourselves because others have taught us that without them we do not have the authority to do so correctly, or simply because spending the necessary time in the Word and in prayer ourselves would require too much effort and too much uncertainty, as if trusting God's voice from any man not named Jesus was any more certain.
Maturity is not focused on knowing more to begin with, never mind knowing just one take on the big picture of God. What the apostle was saying in 1 Corinthians 2-3 was that the mature never allows teaching to divide the body of Christ. For those who pursue learning more and more teachings as a path to maturity, but end up using it to fester resentment and disunity among brothers and sisters on Facebook of all things, the Apostle Paul simply calls them immature.
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