Toddlers are into everything.
Exploration is what they’re about. They want to know what’s behind that cupboard door, where the water in the toilet goes, and how many things they can fit in an electrical wall receptacle.
A saying is that curiosity killed the cat, meaning that if we explore in the wrong areas, we might find something we’ll wish we hadn’t. Inside that wall plug, we might very well connect with an electrical current that will zap us dead.
Yet, toddlers have a need to explore. They’re curious by nature. Our job is to allow them to explore in acceptable ways. We have to set limits on what they can and cannot do. We have to childproof our home.
We face the same spiritual conundrum. How do we satisfy spiritual curiosity without risking spiritual death? How do we sin-proof our church body?
Romans 1:21-22 tells us the first signs of inappropriate curiosity:
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, [so] claiming to be wise, they became fools.”
In Romans 1:26, we find the deadly result of sticking our fingers in the foolish receptacle:
“For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions…”
If we want to sin-proof the church body and our individual lives, we have two things God expects of us. First, we must honor the Father. How do we do this?
- 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says to be sexually pure.
- Proverbs 3:9 tells us to give of our income.
- Romans 14:8 wants us to devote our lives to him.
- Psalms 37:4 is our call to delight in him.
- 1 Chronicles 16:11 and Isaiah 55:6 encourage us to seek him in everything we do.
Second, we must give thanks to him.
- We offer thanks for our inheritance in him in Colossians 1:12.
- We thank him for our fellow Christians in Ephesians 1:15-16 and Philippians 1:3.
- We sing to him in Romans 15:9.
- We give thanks in everything we do in Colossians 3:17.
We must be curious after God, anxious to find out more about him, and willing to change ourselves to what he would have us become. Our lives must be about Christ, in everything we think, say, and do. When we reach that place, we’ve become sin-proofed in him.
When our focus is the Lord, our curiosity about the world will no longer lead us astray.
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