When I was a Child "I Spoke" Part 1
I Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I
spoke like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I
became a man/woman, I gave up childish ways.”
A wise woman once told me, change is inevitable but growth is optional. Recently, I was working out with a woman who is in the process of losing weight. This older man approached me afterwards and said, “I have seen your friend in here for 2 years now and still there has been no change, that’s a shame.” I thought to myself, “I have seen you in here for 2 years as well and you are still chasing after women, being unfaithful to your wife, and most of all you could be my grandfather.” That evening God convicted me heavily and spoke ever so clearly, look in the mirror Jennifer. “You have been walking with me now for 12 years and there are still areas in your life where you are still wearing spiritual diapers so to speak still operating in the flesh. In other words there has been no growth. Sure I got older, time went by, but spiritually I was still in Elementary school.
In fact in chapter 3
of 1 Corinthians verses 1-2, Paul says the same things to them as well as us. “But I
brothers/sisters, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of
the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you
were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of
the flesh.” Flesh, what does Paul mean by the flesh? Charles Pope defines it as, “Perhaps most
plainly it refers to that part of us that is alienated from God. It is the
rebellious, unruly and obstinate part of our inner self that is operative all
the time. It is that part of us that does not want to be told what to do. It is
stubborn, refuses correction, and does not want to have a thing to do with God.
It bristles at limits and rules. It recoils at anything that might cause me to
be diminished or something less than the center of the universe. The flesh
hates to be under authority or to have to yield to anything other than its own
wishes and desires. The flesh often desires something simply because it is
forbidden. The Protestants often call the flesh our “sin nature” which is not a
bad term in summarizing what the flesh is.” I wonder how many of us if we are
really honest with ourselves would have to agree that we are still riding bikes
with training wheels on spiritually. How many of us still walk according to the
flesh. The Corinthians did and that was one of their main problems.
The Church at Corinth was far from the ideal model of a
first-century apostolic church. It had been planted in one of the most
difficult and challenging cities in the Roman World. (The Greek word
korinthiazomai) (literally, "to act the Corinthian") in fact came to
mean "to commit fornication.")
This church had every spiritual gift known to man, but lacked maturity,
unity, and most of all love. Paul challenged the Corinthians to be faithful to
Christ in spite of living submerged in a culture that sin was the norm and
everyone was participating in it. Not unlike America or Western Christianity
today.
(The Holy
Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (1 Co 13:11). Wheaton: Standard Bible
Society.)
The challenges facing this new community of saints were
issues of church unity, sexual immorality, marriage, divorce, litigiousness,
modesty, authority, spiritual gifts, and hope.
As Paul spoke to the Corinthian believers regarding matters of their
Christian faith, life, and ministry, he also speaks clearly and loudly to us
today. Thus he would challenge our generation to “Give up childish ways!”
Most people hear 1 Corinthians chapter 13 at weddings
because it paints a picture of what real love looks like and how it behaves.
The context really has nothing to do with marriage it mainly focuses on
operating and serving the body of Christ with one’s spiritual gifts. (The
principles can be applied in marriage). In Chapter 12 the Corinthians were
using their spiritual gifts in the flesh and causing confusion. Paul implores
them as well as us to operate in love in Chapter 13. In essence Paul says:
·
It doesn’t matter how gifted you are with your
words and speaking in tongues if you don’t love you sound like a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.
·
It doesn’t matter how much knowledge, or
mysteries you understand, prophetic power you possess or faith to move
mountains that you have, if you don’t love you are nothing.
·
It doesn’t matter how much you give to the poor,
or sacrifice if you don’t have love you gain nothing.
Then Paul goes on to describe what love looks like and
behaves like which I will save for a future post. After that Paul continues to
say that all of our gifts will pass away but faith, hope, and love will remain.
In between these favorite verses of mine is our key verse
today. “When
I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a
child, when I became a man/woman I gave up childish things.” Working with children for the past 11 years has
helped me ponder this verse. Working with adults in the summer has also given
me insight on childish ways we need to give up. Notice first of all the word
child. This word is referring to a very young child, not yet of legal age. As a
Christian it is important to grow up spiritually and not view spiritual things
from a child’s perspective.
It is interesting to note the past tense of these verbs in
these verses, I was, I spoke, I thought, I reasoned, and I gave up, more on
that later. For today’s post let’s focus
only on “I spoke as a child.”
Speech is powerful. Words have a way of healing you or
hurting you. Helping you or hindering you. Children babble, have loose lips, speak
careless words, and repeat things easily. Whoever said “sticks and stones may
break my bones but words will never hurt me” ummmm LIED! If we are really
honest with ourselves most of our deepest wounds come from words. Words can
bring life or bring death the bible says. As Christian adults our speech is a
huge indicator of our maturity level. When Paul describes love in the verses
4-8 he paints us a picture of what it is not. Let’s pick out the ones that
have to do with our speech first.
Love does not
boast….Kids boast and brag. Boast means to talk with excessive pride
and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities. Kids are the first to brag about what new
shoes, or game they received, or what they accomplished all by themselves. As
adults it sounds a little more subtle like, “I saved ______ souls this year”, I
have _______ degrees/titles, I accomplished______! “Look who I know or am
dating!”
Proverbs
27:2 says, “Let praise a stranger praise you, and not your own mouth; and not your
own lips.”
Jeremiah 9:23 says, “Thus
says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty
man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches”
1 Corinthians 1:31 says, “Therefore, as the Scriptures say,
"If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD."
Love is not
arrogant….Kids especially teenagers are arrogant. Arrogant means having
or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities. I guess
we could say this is a step up from boasting. This is the kind of Christian who
forgot where they came from. It’s like the man or woman who loses a bunch of
weight but refuses to thank those who helped along the journey. Who now looks
down upon those who were in the same struggle as they were in? God forgive us
for our arrogant I did it all by myself look at me attitudes.
1 Corinthians 4:7 says, “For who makes you
different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if
you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”
Love is not rude…Children
say rude or insulting things to others or about others sometimes. Rude means offensively impolite or
ill-mannered. Children hit below the belt and don’t fight fair. They use other’s
weaknesses against them. It is amazing to me how many of us in the body of
Christ are comfortable accepting from other Christians but then will turn
around and insult or hurt the very ones who had our backs by wreck less
careless words.
Colossians 3:8 says, “But now you must put them
all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”
Ephesians 5:4 says, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude
joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”
Love does not
rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth…Kids lie and tell
stories. To lie means A false statement deliberately presented as being true; a
falsehood. Something meant to deceive or mistakenly accepted as true: To
present false information with the intention of deceiving. To convey a false
image or impression: Appearances often lie. Our world is so backwards in that
people get mad at people when they tell the truth no wonder it is easier to
lie. People lie for various reasons. Children lie mainly out of fear; fear of
disappointing the one they lied to, fear of admitting their failure, fear of
reaping the consequences or rejection. I think adults do these things as well.
I’ve noticed in the body of Christ when people admit the truth sometimes they
receive rejection, abandonment, or even punishment. That doesn't mean you should stop telling the truth.
Proverbs 12:22 “Lying lips are abomination to
the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.”
Proverbs 13:5 “A righteous man hates lying:
but a wicked man is loathsome, and comes to shame.”
Proverbs 14:5 “A faithful
witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.”
Ephesians 4:25
says, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the
truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Love is not
irritable…children complain. To
be irritable means having or showing a tendency to be easily annoyed or made
angry. As adults we do this too. We display our anger through tantrums,
mumbling under our breath, and complaining about the other person instead of
looking in the mirror at ourselves.
Ephesians 4:26
says, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger”
James
1:20 says, “For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
Love is not
resentful….Sometimes children don’t say anything at all and let it
fester until it becomes resentment. Resentment means…. feeling or expressing
bitterness or indignation at having been treated unfairly. Adults are afraid to
confront others when they become offended so they don’t say anything at all and
let it fester into resentment. Then they tell others about what happened to
them and the person who offended them has no idea what they did wrong! Meanwhile they are painting the offender in a negative light.
Mark 11:25 says, “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if
you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may
forgive you your trespasses.”
Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one fails
to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes
trouble, and by it many become defiled”
One might ask, so now what? I am not perfect what am I supposed to do now?! I would say
neither am I but we are in this together. The fact that we are still drawing
breath means that God is not done with us yet. This post I challenge us to
repent of any known sin and renounce it. Then go back and pray these scriptures
over our lives and ask God daily to help us with our speech. One prayer I
literally pray every day is this:
Heavenly Father please put a muzzle
over my mouth and grant me grace to speak only words that speak life and not
death. Let no corrupt talk come out of
my mouths, but only such words as is good for building up, as fits the
occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Help me to live in reality
of Matthew 12:36 which says, “But I tell you that everyone will have to give
account on the Day of Judgment for every empty word they have spoken.” I pray
in Jesus Name Amen!
I Love you all so
much! Thanks for going on this journey with me! Live Fit4eternity!
Digging Deeper: Get alone with God this week and ask
yourself these questions. Then confess any sins.
·
When was the last time I boasted in anything
other than the Lord?
·
When was the last time I pumped up my flesh to
exaggerate the sense of my own importance?
·
When was the last time I said something rude or
impolite towards someone or about someone?
·
When was the last time I lied to someone, to
myself, or to God?
·
When was the last time I was irritable with
someone and displayed my anger in an unrighteous way?
·
Is there anyone I am holding resentment towards?
Have I gone to that person and shared how they have hurt or injured me?
