Focus: Stop Kidding! (Pt.2)

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."

There is nothing wrong in being a child, but there is everything wrong in remaining a child forever. A child that is alive and feeding well is bound to grow. There is an adult in every child.

In this awesome love chapter of First Corinthians, Paul tells us of the need to mature in Christ. He says there came a time when he had to say no to childishness. He saw the need to grow up and become a man. He mentions three things: speaking, understanding and thinking childishly. We can easily detect or know a mature believer in Christ by his words, his insight, and his mindset or wisdom. 

Paul says, "When I was a child…" There is a time to be a child and a time to become an adult. Perpetual childhood is abnormal. God says of Ephraim, "Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not" (Hos.7:9). Ephraim is ignorant of the fact that age has come upon him. He has refused to take a good look at himself, and tell himself the truth, and to accept the fact that time is no longer on his side. He needed to grow up, become responsible, and behave more wisely. God is telling Ephraim, 'Stop kidding yourself! For once in your life, be a man, and stop behaving like a kid that you are not.'

Paul says, "When I became a man I put away childish things." There is a time to become a man. The goal of childhood is adulthood. To grow into adulthood and still behave like a child is a big tragedy. In my part of the world, they say that such a person was not properly breastfed or well-trained. They believe that something was not right in his growing up years. 

Paul took action to end his childishness. He says, "I put away childish things." He parted ways with toys, childish attitudes, selfish interests or pursuits, and irresponsible behaviors. The words 'put away' are a compound word in the Greek, and it is the word, katargeo. It is differently translated in the New Testament. Generally, it means to put down, abolish, cut off, bring to nought, to render entirely idle or useless, to nullify, to make of none effect, to make void, to cease, to destroy, to loose or deliver oneself from, to make to vanish away, and to be done with. Paul took drastic action to his childish proclivity or propensity. He refused to treat his childish tendencies with kid's gloves. He did not pamper with his immaturity nor cherish any sin as a darling. He was decisive and final in dealing with everything that hindered his spiritual maturity. 

As another has rightly said, "What you tolerate, you cannot change." It is our spiritual responsibility to eliminate whatever stands in the way of our spiritual progress and maturity.

Truly and spiritually speaking, many Christians are suffering from arrested development, an abnormal state or condition in which growth has prematurely stopped. It means that a defect has occurred in the gene - a deficiency that hinders the process development. The believer's life is designed to advance from childishness to childlikeness, and from childlikeness to Christ-likeness. The word of God is the believer's character molder. It is the divine apparatus for character formation and development.

It is time to end 'nepiotic' inclinations in our Christian life. The word Paul used for 'child' in the Greek, is 'nepios.' It means a child who still lacks the ability to communicate clearly and intelligently. It is an infant who is not yet able to speak or properly articulate his thoughts. 

It is time to speak up and testify of Christ. Open your mouth and share your story! You are a witness for Christ - just be it! Reject immaturity and choose maturity. The Scripture says, "By faith MOSES, WHEN HE WAS COME TO YEARS, REFUSED to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (Heb.11:24). 

What are you refusing on daily basis to show that you have come of age in the spirit?

Or do you still prefer and cherish 'Pharaoh's daughter' as your mother? When Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he was actually rejecting the throne of Egypt. He was the next in line for the throne. He had already been trained and learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Act.7:22). In my part of the world, Moses would be hailed as the crowned prince, meaning that he would be the next king or monarch. Moses came of age and understood what his divine destiny really was. He looked away from the glamour and splendor of the palace, because as an adult he had seen the invisible, discovered his identity and destiny, and encountered a unique vision and vocation different from that of being an Egyptian monarch, even with all the troubles that his new choice would entail.

Let me show you from Scripture what Moses' maturity made him do. He REFUSED to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He CHOSE rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He ESTEEMED the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He had RESPECT unto the recompense of the reward. He FORSOOK Egypt totally unafraid of the king's wrath. He ENDURED, having seen the unseeable. He KEPT the Passover, believing that God would do as he had said (Heb.11:24-28). 

Maturity is responsibility. It is putting your life on the line. It is both standing up to be counted and to count. It is taking up your cross, following Jesus Christ. It is making tough decisions and living with the consequences. It is making serious efforts while counting on the resources of the Spirit and tapping into the provisions of grace.

Let's stop kidding, and grow up! Our Father's business is waiting for us as His dear children.

Part three to follow

by Bishop Moses E. Peter