It’s time you do this on your own

Have you ever met someone who refused to grow up?

I’m not talking about someone who tries to keep a child-like curiosity and wonder about their life.  Instead, I’m asking if you’ve met someone who still thinks and behaves immaturely, whose view of the world is completely self-centered, small, and childish.  Have you met someone like that?  Of course you have.

Even though they are adult-sized, it doesn’t take long for a childish adult to stand out.  You can hear the whine in their voice.  Any topic of discussion is oozing with self-centeredness.  Other people only matter so much as they are beneficial to them in that moment.

Unfortunately, it’s a little harder to spot a childish Christian, but they can’t hide for long either.  When we first believe in Jesus for eternal life, we are born into God’s Family.  This new life can happen at any biological age – childhood, teens, young adult, older adult – and we all start out as spiritual infants.  However, spiritual growth doesn’t happen automatically like physical growth does. 

Spiritual growth comes from learning about God in the Scriptures (both by being taught and by your own study), applying what you have learned in your life, praying with God, and spending time with others who are in God’s Family and further along than you are.

Want to know an easy way to spot an immature Christian?  Listen to what they say.  Unfortunately, buzz words and buzz phrases have made their way into how many Christians speak…and these phrases are often held at the same level of truth as the Scriptures themselves.  How many of these phrases do you recognize?

God helps those who help themselves.
Money is the root of all evil.
God won’t give you any more than you can handle.
When God closes a door, He opens a window.

None of these are in the Bible.  In fact, some of these are exactly opposite of what’s in the Bible.  But they are often spoken as spiritual truths coming directly from Jesus and His disciples.

Unfortunately, Biblical ignorance (which is nothing more than not knowing what God actually says) isn’t just a modern problem.  At one point during his letter, the author of Hebrews had to stop and call out his audience:

Hebrews 5:11-14
We have a great deal to say about this, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand.  Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again.  You need milk, not solid food. 

Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant.  But solid food is for the mature – for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.

No punches pulled there.

The Greek word translated as lazy – nothros – means sluggish or stupid, dull or stubborn.  And the thing to note is that they didn’t start out with this deficit!  The author says you have become too lazy to understand – their willful choices are holding them back.  They could have chosen to grow in their walk with Jesus, in fact by now they should have been teaching others, but they liked being childish so much that they refused to learn or mature.

They have become a drag to the church and are unable to confront the societal pressures they are currently facing.  Their immaturity is part of the reason why they received this letter.  The author’s hope was to spur them on to put their faith into action, so they wouldn’t regret wasting their lives on things that did not have eternal value.

And what of us?  Will we heed the same warning?

Let’s stop being lazy and distracted.  Instead, let’s get into the Scriptures for ourselves.  Then we can grow and mature into the people God has created us to be.

Keep Pressing,
Ken