Thursday, April 26, 2012

A Culture of Childishness

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me," 1 Corinthians 13:11. I have been thinking about what it means to be childish. Not childlike, which the Lord commends in Mark 10:15, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

 Webster defines childlike as "resembling, suggesting, or appropriate to a child or childhood; especially: marked by innocence, trust, and ingenuousness," and childish as "of, relating to, or befitting a child or childhood; marked by or suggestive of immaturity and lack of poise; lacking complexity: simple." Childish actions include: demand for instant gratification, an attitude of entitlement, emotional instability, temper tantrums, self-absorption, disloyalty and the like.

 In many ways, the American culture promotes and even lauds childishness. We are a culture of violence, disloyalty, divorce, immorality (or definining our own "morality"), abortion, lascivousness (rampant pornography), lawlessness, greed, obesity, compulsions and addictions, materialism (leading to massive debt), vanity, etc. Childishness IS, simply defined, the manifestation of the sinful nature. As people of God, it's time to put childish ways behind us. Childishness negates love. The meat of 1 Cor. reads, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" (vv.4-7).

 Galations 5 commands us in verses 16-26, "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." Believers must WAR against the flesh, (Hebrews 12:4: "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood."), but thankfully, we have been given the Holy Spirit in order to triumph over our sinful nature. 

Second Corinthians 2:14 assures us of this: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him." I long to walk in triumph over my flesh-driven childishness and live as Romans 6:11 commands, "In the same way, count yourselves DEAD TO SIN, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Amen!