The Child and the Adult

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

THE CHILD AND THE ADULT

1 Cor 14:18-21

18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. 20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. 21 In the Law it is written: "Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me," says the Lord.

NIV

There are going to be some strong words of pastoral counseling, still to come, however, Paul has already been giving his pastoral advice and now he makes that point about the way they are thinking. For the most part, little children do not know about self-control or how to behave in a respectful manner, therefore, they must be taught. We are to stop being like children who do not know right from wrong. We only have to observe a classroom of children when the adult leaves the classroom and are left alone and we would soon see chaos ensue. This must have been what was happening in the Corinthian church regarding the gifts of the Spirit with many of them all speaking in tongues at the same time, with no one listening to each other. This is not a church, not a unity in the Spirit, not worship, but it was children behaving badly without an adult present. However, there is something that we should be as innocent as an infant about and that is about that which is evil. If we think as an adult, we will know that it is damaging to our spirit to allow evil to enter our thinking. It is not just that we look good and appear holy and proper when we gather together, in one sense, looking for the approval of men. It is what is within our heart, or our thought life that makes all the difference. It can be difficult to keep some form of evil out of our minds at all times. They must have been out of control, and maybe acting in the flesh rather than operating under the influence of the Spirit. It makes us think if our worship time when we gather together is being influenced by the Spirit, or by the flesh. Are we holding back the Spirit, quenching him from working in and through us when we gather as a church, and even when we are alone? It would seem if we are holding the Spirit back, is that being childlike in our behavior in the sense of looking only to our own interests, as children are prone to do. If our thinking is mature, as adults are supposed to be, then we will allow the Spirit full access to our worship time both when we are gathering together and when we are alone. Although we are not fully privy to the alone time of Jesus, we have to believe He was fully engaged with the Father through the Spirit. If we are living the mature Christian life, we are living completely under the influence of the Spirit, rather than under the control of our flesh. Then worship will be fully spiritual and the operation of the gifts of the Spirit will be under His control and there is never chaos in the heavenly realm. Are we the child or the adult?