This morning's PAYG was on a very familiar passage from 1 Corinthians 3:

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh.  For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?
For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?  What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.  For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

The words that struck home were these:

For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?

Two thousand years on these 'flesh' characteristics seem to as evident as they ever were in the Church, in the churches.  So that means, presumably we, collectively and individually, are still 'infants' or at least 'infantile'.  It's not the disagreeing that is infantile but the way it plays out, especially on the public stage.  Maturity is not measured purely by 'what' we believe/support/reject but by 'how' we do so, and equally importantly, how we engage with those who may differ from us.

On Monday evening we enjoyed a stimulating presentation by a guest who shared something of his faith journey.  With great honesty he shared some of the struggle and pain that arose along the way - but his story was characterised by compassion and concern not to hurt others who may differ from him in their views/understandings.  Perhaps the first 'medical' rule of "do no harm" is a good one that leads us to greater maturity in our attitudes, and which will, finally, lead us beyond the quarrels, factions, dissension and jealousy which keep us infants in faith?