Do we have on our big boy pants?
1 Corinthians 13:11 spells it out clearly. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
God loves mankind, and he wishes for all to come to him through his Son. However, if we never take on the responsibilities of adults in Christ, we will remain spiritual toddlers.
What do toddlers do? They walk along fine until they become off-balanced, and then their world collapses around them.
If we do not mature in Christ, a financial setback will lead us to doubt God’s provenance, and we will turn from him. A soured marriage will be the rough stone that causes us to stumble, and down we will go. A prayer unanswered will become a wall shutting us out from heaven, and we will no longer trust him.
If we look in Hebrews 6:6, we see that if we fall away from Christ, we nail the Son of God to a cross once more. We shame him in front of others, and it is impossible to bring us back to a changed life.
Hebrews 12:17 gives us the example of Esau. He wanted his father’s blessing. However, even though he cried, there was no way to change what he had done, and his father refused him the blessing of the firstborn. This was because Esau did not think ahead, but instead grasped at what was at hand.
We should try to live free from sin, to listen when God speaks, otherwise, as Hebrews 12:29 tells us, his fire will burn us up.
Without maturity, that is our fate. How can we avoid such a horrible end? If we remain spiritual toddlers, we cannot. If a child reaches for a hot stove, and someone slaps his hand away without an explanation, it does no good, for he will reach back again, and he will burn his hands. What must we do?
We must train him in a way that is to his benefit.
Read in Hebrews 6:1. We must move on to grown-up teaching. If we teach again about the first lessons Jesus presented, we are taking a step back. Faith in God is important, but we know that lesson. We have already learned about turning our backs on those acts that lead unto death. We will become stagnant if we continue in those teachings.
Instead, God wants us to put on our big boy pants. He wants us to mature as Christians. He wants us to put away childish things and become men and women in him.
Once we repent and accept Christ as our savior, we need to move into spiritual maturity, for if we remain immature in him, we will stumble and fall, and that will lead only to death.
However, maturity in Christ will lead us into eternal life, for we will become like him, and he will welcome us into glory when our time on earth is done.
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