Childlike, Not Childish
00:00:00.000 | [music]
00:00:04.840 | Hayden writes in to ask, "Matthew 18, verses 2-4 talk about having a childlike faith.
00:00:11.320 | In 1 Corinthians 13, 11, Paul says that when he became a man, he put away childish things.
00:00:16.520 | Pastor John, can you explain the differences and the similarities between childlike faith
00:00:20.480 | and becoming a spiritually mature man?"
00:00:23.000 | Well, in summary, Tony, the way I would put it is, trust like a child, think like a man.
00:00:32.240 | First Corinthians 14, "Do not be children in your thinking.
00:00:36.840 | Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature."
00:00:40.880 | So clearly we're not supposed to be like children in our thinking.
00:00:44.920 | Or 2 Timothy 2-7, "Think over what I say, Timothy.
00:00:48.880 | The Lord will give you understanding."
00:00:50.520 | Or 1 Corinthians 13 that the questioner referred to, "When I was a child, I spoke like a child.
00:00:57.480 | I thought like a child.
00:00:58.480 | I reasoned like a child.
00:00:59.480 | When I became a man, I gave up childish ways."
00:01:02.120 | And so, no, a mature man shouldn't think like a one-year-old.
00:01:06.720 | One-year-olds can't think.
00:01:08.800 | They can't reason out what they need to.
00:01:11.320 | And the Bible says, John 7, "Do not judge by appearances.
00:01:16.720 | Judge with right judgment."
00:01:18.000 | In other words, as you grow older, you learn how to make right judgments.
00:01:22.080 | That's what we want for our kids.
00:01:23.520 | We don't want them to use their minds at age 15 like they did at age 5.
00:01:28.480 | We want them to have the capacities to make judgments, test all things, hold fast to what
00:01:33.920 | is good.
00:01:35.520 | Why?
00:01:36.880 | Because you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind, the Bible says.
00:01:42.760 | In fact, here's a really strange and provocative word from Paul in 1 Corinthians 8.
00:01:50.160 | "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
00:01:54.960 | If anyone imagines that he knows something, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know."
00:02:01.120 | My interpretation of that is right knowing is in the service of loving.
00:02:09.320 | And if your knowing doesn't produce loving, you don't know right yet.
00:02:15.640 | And now I would say the same thing about faith.
00:02:19.800 | Right knowing or right thinking, the right use of your mature mind, is for the sake of
00:02:26.240 | childlike faith.
00:02:28.820 | We should grow up in our thinking so that we can grow down in our humility, so that
00:02:35.840 | we can have faith like a child.
00:02:39.280 | So the text that was referred to was, "Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like
00:02:44.560 | a child, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven.
00:02:47.920 | Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
00:02:53.000 | So the point there is humility.
00:02:54.960 | What kind of humility?
00:02:56.240 | Well, picture a little child in a stroller, standing in line at a bank with his mom, and
00:03:05.480 | all these people are around him fretting about their finances.
00:03:10.560 | And he's asleep in this totally public, anxious, financially driven setting.
00:03:17.880 | Why?
00:03:18.880 | Because he knows mama is right there.
00:03:23.640 | Mama's right there.
00:03:24.640 | I don't worry about where my next meal is coming from.
00:03:28.080 | I don't worry about my finances and whether I'm going to be able to pay for college.
00:03:32.760 | My mama is right behind the stroller.
00:03:35.160 | That's what I know.
00:03:36.160 | If I didn't believe that, I'd panic.
00:03:38.040 | But that's what faith is.
00:03:39.120 | So childlike faith is a humble faith that sits in a stroller, believes God is standing
00:03:45.320 | behind us, doesn't get anxious about all kinds of things.
00:03:48.920 | And the reason God gave us brains, mature, adult, sophisticated, hard-thinking, studying
00:03:58.240 | brains, is to understand the Bible and the work of God well enough to become that kind
00:04:05.480 | of child.
00:04:06.480 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:04:10.040 | Please email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:04:14.440 | At desiringgod.org you'll find thousands of free books, articles, sermons, and other resources
00:04:18.600 | from John Piper.
00:04:19.600 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, thanks for listening.
00:04:21.240 | [END]
00:04:22.740 | Desiring God.org
00:04:24.740 | Desiring God.org
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