Articles
Maturity
Immaturity is cute and entertaining in children. It is strangely amusing to hear little ones try to interact with a world they yet don’t understand. Whether it’s mispronouncing words (“bisketti”), walking in adult-sized shoes or playing with the box instead of the gift that was inside, it heartens the soul to observe the infant/toddler/child/teen/adult progression.
What is not so amusing is to see adults acting like children. The term “childish” carries both a positive and negative connotation. We understand if a child acts childishly. But if it’s an adult, not so much. Have you ever said of someone’s behavior, “What? Are we still in middle school?!” Such acknowledges that progress is lacking and one’s behavior is grotesque and inappropriate. Worse, immaturity can be destructive, even deadly.
* When Ahab’s offer to buy Naboth’s vineyard was rebuffed, “Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased … and he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food” (1 Kgs 21:4). This immature snit, of course, triggers Jezebel’s vindictiveness, and she schemes the murder of Naboth to soothe her childish husband.
* When Elah became king, “his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk … and Zimri went in and … killed him …” (1 Kgs 16:9-10). Only foolish college kids would think drunkenness with its physical impairment, raging emotions and reckless behavior is advisable for a king in treacherous times. Apparently Elah never grew out of the frat mentality.
* Jesus even used childish fickleness to describe his peers: “To what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we mourned to you, and you did not lament.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (Mt 11:16-19). And we know what happened to that generation of spiritually immature Jews.
The NT admonishes us to grow up in several passages:
* “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” (1 Cor 13:11). Some among the Corinthians were blessed with spiritual gifts; the Holy Spirit had given these miraculous abilities to help the congregation mature in the faith (1 Cor 12:4-11). But instead of realizing the gravity of their blessings and humbly utilizing these gifts to edify others, the prophets and tongue-speakers were childishly sparring over which of them should hold center stage (1 Cor 14). This turned the worship into shameless self-promotion and chaos and demoralized those who were not blessed with such gifts (1 Cor 12:12-31). Only the mature understand that life is not all about them; it’s about the Lord and serving His people (cf. 1 Cor 9:19-23; Ph 2:3-8).
* “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby …” (1 Pet 2:1-2). At the heart of the maturing process is knowledge, not of worldly philosophies, psychosocial maladies or humanistic insights (which become passe with astonishing regularity) but familiarity with God’s instructions, explanations and character. Every person must acquaint themselves with God’s word as deeply as they are capable. This cannot be done by proxy, for there are battles to be fought that only the individual can fight. A husband can guide and lead in the overall flow of family life, but if a wife gets chronically ill, loses a loved one or is searching for deeper meaning in life, she is going to have to work that out based on her own understanding of God’s truth.
* “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?” (1 Cor 3:1-3). Back to the Corinthians, Paul issued this severe rebuke in the section dealing with factions that were being formed around personalities: “Each of you says, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ’” (1 Cor 1:11-12). This is like middle schoolers who, in their own insecurities, gravitate to their popular or pretty or athletic peers. They find status and acceptance vicariously in an alter-ego (vicarious: “experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another,” Webster’s Online). Such is highly toxic to the unity of a local church, which is why Paul spent four chapters confronting and correcting it. Our focus should remain where it belongs: on the Lord and Him only: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? … But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord’” (1 Cor 1:30-31).
* “For by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb 5:12-14). At some point intellectual knowledge must merge with experience, life-observations and foresight in order to make wise choices. Otherwise, we are doomed to stumble mindlessly along spouting Scripture and professing our love for God but making foolish, harmful decisions.
Thus we, with Paul, “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you …” (Ph 3:14-15). God reveals our immaturity to us through study, prayer, self-examination and even the counsel of others. It is up to us to see our shortcomings and make changes befitting maturity.
