Childish Ways

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults."
1 Corinthians 13:10 & 14:20

There is a distinct difference between being childlike and being childish. Jesus calls us to be childlike in our faith. Children have little to inhibit their faith. No adult worries and anxieties have entered their minds. They are free to believe God. We are to be like little children in regard to faith. But children are childish. They do not understand deep things and they are often caught up in selfishness. They live in a world that revolves around themselves. They have little ability to reason. They often have no point of reference to make wise and informed decisions. They are not expected to because they are children.
    But there comes a time when we must put childish ways behind us. The self-centered world of children must give way to a selfless life that more closely resembles Christ's. Think about the things that are mentioned in the above scripture. When we were children, we talked like children. Usually, children have little understanding of important things that will later govern their lives. They talk about things kids talk about. They aren't necessarily bad things, just small things, things at their level of understanding. But we are called to grow up into maturity in Christ. We are to leave the elementary things of Christianity and build on them with deeper things. When we were children, we thought like children. Children think about things that affect them. Often the thoughts are imaginative, but lack understanding. There is little mature substance to their thoughts. But we are destined to entire into a new way of thinking. This is the way of the Spirit. We think the thoughts of the kingdom of God, not immature selfish things. We are to reason as adults reason, not as children do. We are to think things through. We are to weigh things on the balance of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. This is how we grow in the faith.
    The apostle Paul tells us to stop thinking like children. I think this is a challenge to all of us. We may find ourselves continuing to live in childish Christianity. We only want the things that make us feel better. If it is palatable, we will take it. If it is too difficult, too challenging, we refuse. This puts us in the revolving door of spiritual immaturity. We have walked around the mountain and found ourselves right back where we started. "Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity." (Hebrews 6:1a). When we move into maturity in Christ, we will leave the places of sin in where we have lived. We will stop being concerned about things that matter little and begin concentrating on eternity that God has placed within us. We will desire what pleases God, not what pleases us.
    Sometimes the things that mark maturity seem so simple. Paul wrote the scriptures referenced here in the context of love. True maturity is living a life of love. It is living with an eternal hope and a childlike faith. The things we thought were elementary are really the greatest marks of the spiritually mature. I think the phrase that best summarizes what Paul was saying is this: Grow up! It is not condemning or demeaning. It is God's call to us. It is his greatest desire for us. For when we grow up, we will act like eternal beings. We will live like we are Christ in the world. We will think like spiritual adults. We will talk like people who are full of the Spirit of God. There is a time to be childlike. There is never a time to be childish.