It’s Time To Put Away Childish Things

It’s difficult to express the broken heart I’ve had as a preacher over the years. I’ve watched so many people come in to church, seemingly grow, seemingly change, then fall, and fall hard, seemingly not to return (though some, by God’s grace have). It hurts to watch someone self-destruct, but there’s times when I have done all I could, and I am no longer helping, but enabling wrong behaviors. In no way am I attempting to speak from a position of superiority, as I still sin, and in my sin fully realize the need for my savior. But I think, sometimes, we look at Christianity as a “prohibition” of things: once you give your life to Christ “you should do this, or you can’t do that.” What if it isn’t about prohibition at all, but a maturing? And what I mean is this: as we mature, there is no longer room for those things which hinder us anymore. In first Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul said

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (Verse 11)

In many ways, I am beginning to understand that, in the maturing process, there is no room in my life for sin if I am in pursuit of a Holy God. Such things are childish: the pursuits of the flesh, of delights, of candy, but instead, as I grow in Christ, I should seek Holiness, and pursue Jesus on His terms. All too often a person will come to Church, have a religious experience, get dunked under water, but trust in the experience rather than the process of sanctification, by which the Holy Spirit removes the things we no longer can use, and replaces them with the things of Christ. Many, even those who have gone to church for years, maybe even their entire lifetime, have remain stunted because they are seeking the process instead of growth IN the process.

Jesus desires us to mature. We need to put away childish things, stop sucking on spiritual milk, and seek to learn to eat meet. And it IS a process. Just as children grow, and learn to go from milk to solids, so we, also, need to long for Spiritual food which will help us to grow up and mature. My desire is not to sin less, nor to look like a “good Christian.” My desire is to look like Christ, and so I will need to learn to put aside the childish things, and grow in to full manhood in Christ Jesus.

2 Peter 1:3-21

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us toc his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son,i with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Colossians 1:3-10

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.