May /99
Just recently my son and I had an opportunity to join over sixty young people to help at a mission. Over the 10 days we had opportunities to talk about the things of the Lord. One night we had an informal Bible Study where the question came up concerning God's reaction to our sin. Some, who were new in the Lord, struggled with sin in some of the most elementary areas, suffering many defeats. I pointed out the relationship between physical birth and spiritual birth and that just as I expect different levels of maturity from my children of different ages God expects the same. It is expected of my newborn to wet the diaper but unacceptable for my teenager to wet their pants. To put it simply, God expects his children to act their age. Paul's letter to the Corinthians was to infants in Christ:
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. (1Co.3:1-2; He.5:12-14)
Just as a toddler falls on his face when he starts walking, new Christians struggle in their first steps of following Christ. New Christians need a mature Christian to hold their hand to steady themselves as they are taught spiritual truths:
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (2Pe.2:2-3; Eph.4:14)
There are many so-called teachers who are ready to mislead new Christians into spiritual SIDS. We need to teach them as they enter their spiritual childhood that their sins are forgiven and that they need to get to know Abba- Father:
I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. (1Jn.2:12)
I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. (1Jn.2:13)
Spiritual children are acquainted with the elementary truths of God (He.6:1-2) but are neither used to warring against the enemy nor experiencing the victory that is ours in Christ. Christians need to gain practical spiritual maturity:
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. (1Jn.2:13)
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (1Jn.2:14)
Today I find few Christians who mature to this stage. I find many that have been Christians for 30, 40 and some 50 years, yet have not matured past their spiritual childhood. They have not thrown off the sin that so easily entangles them (He.12:1-2), but are entangled time and time again. Christians need to be taught how to grow, conforming to the likeness of Christ so that they can enter the prime of their spiritual life. John repeats himself when we read:
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. (1Jn.2:13, 14)
Fathers are the Enoch's of God, those Christians who have learned to walk with God in a greater depth of knowledge. This was Paul in Philippians 3 where he claims not to be perfect, but forgetting what was behind and straining toward what was ahead he presses on. We usually stop here and yet he continues:
All of us who are mature
should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Php.3:15-16)Let us teach "progressive sanctification": Not perfect, but being perfected. Not sinless, but sin less and less each day of their lives. For by His grace let us act our spiritual age.