Focus: Childish Things (Pt.1)

Text: 1Cor.13:11

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away CHILDISH THINGS."

Life is lived in stages and growth is a process. Childishness in an adult is a problem. To remain a child at manhood is quite undesirable, deplorable, and regrettable. God wants His children to grow up and give up childish things. Paul touches on three childish things: talking, thinking, and seeing or perceiving. We need to get done with or move away from the childish way of reasoning, childish way of looking at things, and childish way of talking. It's like saying a whole lot that makes no sense. It's like thinking thoughts that are unrelated to what God is thinking or how God feels about things. 

A good example would be the encounter between Christ and Peter. Christ says, 'I am going to die, but it's all for good, because I am going to resurrect.' But Peter didn't want to hear it, so he took his Master aside, and started rebuking him, telling him that that was not going to happen. Peter embraced the fact of Christ being the Son of the living God, but rejected the idea of Him dying. The cross was God's idea, but Peter in his spiritual infancy was opposed to it.

The child in the adult lacks and hates discipline, but in this life, who becomes mature and responsible without discipline? Borderless freedom only leads to destruction. Unguided, unguarded and unchecked freedom is a disaster waiting to explode.

Samson is a good example of charisma without character. Samson wanted what he wanted, and listened to no one, not even his own parents. For lack of discipline and character he lost his freedom, for he was bound and jailed by the Philistines. He was made to grind at the mill, and used for a sport. He lost his sight, for the Philistines plucked off his eyes. He also lost his anointing temporarily, and when he regained it, he ended his life abruptly with it - alongside his enemies. He was not spiritually sensitive. He took the anointing of God for granted. He lived to gratify his fleshly desires and carnal inclinations. He is a good illustration of a carnal Christian and the danger of indiscipline. 

Paul says, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ" (1Cor.3:1). Carnality is childishness. It is lack of spirituality. In fact, carnality is direct opposite of spirituality. Paul goes on to say, "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (1Cor.3:3). A Christian who is envious, full of strife, and divisive in character is childish. These are the childish things we must determine to render inoperative in our lives. We must make a deliberate decision to end our old and godless ways of living. Paul continues, "For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" (1Cor.3:4). Childish Christians engage in personality worship. This is party spirit. Paul and Apollos are gifts to the body of Christ, not competitors. They are not rivals but resource men in the kingdom of God.

One problem of childishness is that it leads to childlessness. A childish Christian is fruitless. He is not reproductive. He is consumer, not reproducer.

For lack of spiritual prudence and passion, he is not given to the ministry of soul-winning. Peter declares, "For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be BARREN nor UNFRUITFUL in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2Pet.1:8). Here we have "these things" as opposed to the "childish things." The things of 2Pet.1:5-7 replace the childish things that hinder us from maturing in Christ. Fruitfulness is associated with maturity. While mature Christians bear fruits, childish ones remain barren.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says, "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!" (Ecl.10:16). Who would want an untrained nurse to nurse him or her? Would you love to go under the knife in the hand of an unskilled surgeon? Who would let an untrained and unqualified doctor prescribe medication for him or her? We can't have a child rule over us. We can't tolerate indiscipline in our princes or leaders. So let us intentionally put away all the childish things, and get ready for the throne and the crown. God is fully in support of us maturing in Christ. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter