Grown Folk Conversations – Part 2
Measuring the impact of spiritual immaturity.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child … but when I grew up, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11
New Conversation for a New Reality
No one, absolutely no one, comes to the Lord fully grown spiritually and fully aware of the necessity to pray, read God’s Word, and share the Gospel with others. These are the growth areas of the Christian life. Therefore as infants in the Kingdom of God, someone must teach us and there must be a willingness to learn and develop. Where growth is lacking, the believer will be stunted and unable to respond to God’s guidance. Jesus commands us to learn from Him and share the responsibility of representing God’s Amazing Love. Growth is expected.
When God delivered the Israelites from four hundred years of bondage to Egypt, they had to learn a new way of life. The Commandments and the Law of the Lord was given to teach them worship, how to live as a community, and more importantly, how they were to honor God. All they knew when they departed from Egypt was to live like a slave. They talked like slaves, they thought like slaves, and they reasoned as slaves. They never owned anything in Egypt and that included their own bodies. It would have been total disaster to lead them into the Promised Land without teaching them a new way of life. Israel had to learn God’s Ways. It was so critical for them to listen to Moses and Aaron. It actually took forty years or one generation, for them to really grasp God’s Way. They got it by quoting God’s Law while walking along. They got it by listening to God’s Word as they ate their meals. They got it by tying reminders on the fingers. After a generation, they started talking like people who belonged in the Land of Promise.
When God anointed Jesse’s son David to be the next king of Israel, David did not immediately take that position of leadership. David learned God’s ways by growing and learning God’s Word. The circumstances and trials were severe at times, but through the process of facing hardships, the shepherd David became the musician. Then he grew from being a musician to becoming a warrior on the battle field. Step by step, one struggle after the next, he learned that his strength came from God. The conversation of the shepherd could not work on the battlefield. The conversation of a musician could not work when Goliath was hurling taunts against Israel. How did he know that he could defeat the giant anyway? He knew because of the grown folk conversation he had with God.
With that in mind, why would we think that maturity for the Christian is a small matter? If the expectation was not so great, then perhaps we could dismiss growth as something necessary for those who hold offices in the Church. The Apostle Paul was serious when he said, When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child … but when I grew up, I put away childish things. It is evident that the mature Christian is speaking here. It is evident that there were some things that had to change. It is evident that the childish ways were a thing of the past.
Notice the use of the word “when.” In his past, Paul had spoken, thought, and reasoned as a child and the results were not productive. Maybe he tried something childish when he was confronted by those who disagreed with his preaching. The childish ways did not work. Maybe he witnessed a crisis or problem that demanded attention and did his best to find an answer but found that his understanding was limited to childish ways. It is at that point that you must realize that what worked “back when” is not working now. You must rely on new information. You must have new revelation, and you need new inspiration. That is when you need to have a grown folk conversation. You must no longer speak, think, or act like a child if you expect to thrive at the Kingdom level.
Reaching a New Living Level
Paul confessed that he had reached a new level in his thinking, his speaking, and ultimately is acting. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child … but when I grew up, I put away childish things. There are a couple of critical steps that must be taken to get to that level.
First, you must put away the things that are in the past. That was then, this is now and God has opened up new doors of opportunity. One day while Jesus was ministering, the religious leaders brought a woman to Jesus and accused her of being caught in the very act of adultery. What was interesting is that Jesus did not respond in the way they supposed. Jesus replied, “let the one who is without sin cast the first stone at her.” Then Jesus said to her, “go and sin no more.” That is putting away the past. I’m quite sure that Paul had some failures in his past, but he made the decision to put all those things away in order to live for Christ.
The second critical step of living at the next level is to learn something new. While it is not in the text, it is certainly true that you must learn something new. Repeating the past and expecting change is foolish living. Thanks be to God that the new way of living is free to all who will ask for it. You will find all of it in God’s Word. I don’t know if you have realized it or not, but this world and its ways are getting crazier every day. Things simply don’t make sense. But guess what? We used to live that way. That was our communication every day. But then something happened. God began to speak to our heart and caused us to think a different way. The Apostle Paul was so thrilled to hear about the things of God that he forgot the things that were behind and started to press toward the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14. The Truth is, God has something new to show each of us every day. God is there to teach us something new every day. When you learn something new, it will elevate your understanding. When you learn something new, it will expand your mind to think differently. When you learn something new from God, your talk with change and consequently, your walk will change. As the old hymn goes, What a wonderful change in my life that’s been wrought – since Jesus came into my heart. I have light in my soul for which long I have sought – since Jesus came into my heart. Yes, thank God for learning new things from God every day. Mercy is new every morning. Grace finds a new way to touch my heart every day. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child … but when I grew up, I put away childish things.
Then, there is the third element that helps us to live at the next level and that is speaking at a new level of maturity. Paul referenced his ability to speak differently because he knew differently. When people don’t know any better, they are subject to say anything to anyone because of their immature state of mind. When you know better you begin to change the way that you communicate. Guess what? Your communication will begin to change your atmosphere. Rather than seeing the problems, rather than seeing what you don’t have, rather than seeing what you can’t do – you start expressing how you can do all things through Christ who gives you the strength.
When you mature in the faith and put things behind you, you automatically put new things before you. You will make love your mission and strive to fulfill that mission by God’s Power and not your own. You don’t mind reminding people that you are moving up in life to a new level of living. You don’t mind expressing your new love for the things of God and His rich blessings in your life. That is the essence of grown folk conversations and what it means to be at a place in life where your past no longer haunts you. The future no longer intimidates you. Each day is a new opportunity to praise God and to be an encouragement to others. Maturing in Christ and growing in His Love is the key.