Hayden writes in to ask, "Matthew 18, verses 2-4 talk about having a childlike faith. In 1 Corinthians 13, 11, Paul says that when he became a man, he put away childish things. Pastor John, can you explain the differences and the similarities between childlike faith and becoming a spiritually mature man?" Well, in summary, Tony, the way I would put it is, trust like a child, think like a man.

First Corinthians 14, "Do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature." So clearly we're not supposed to be like children in our thinking. Or 2 Timothy 2-7, "Think over what I say, Timothy. The Lord will give you understanding." Or 1 Corinthians 13 that the questioner referred to, "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, I gave up childish ways." And so, no, a mature man shouldn't think like a one-year-old. One-year-olds can't think. They can't reason out what they need to. And the Bible says, John 7, "Do not judge by appearances.

Judge with right judgment." In other words, as you grow older, you learn how to make right judgments. That's what we want for our kids. We don't want them to use their minds at age 15 like they did at age 5. We want them to have the capacities to make judgments, test all things, hold fast to what is good.

Why? Because you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind, the Bible says. In fact, here's a really strange and provocative word from Paul in 1 Corinthians 8. "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know." My interpretation of that is right knowing is in the service of loving.

And if your knowing doesn't produce loving, you don't know right yet. And now I would say the same thing about faith. Right knowing or right thinking, the right use of your mature mind, is for the sake of childlike faith. We should grow up in our thinking so that we can grow down in our humility, so that we can have faith like a child.

So the text that was referred to was, "Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like a child, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." So the point there is humility. What kind of humility?

Well, picture a little child in a stroller, standing in line at a bank with his mom, and all these people are around him fretting about their finances. And he's asleep in this totally public, anxious, financially driven setting. Why? Because he knows mama is right there. Mama's right there. I don't worry about where my next meal is coming from.

I don't worry about my finances and whether I'm going to be able to pay for college. My mama is right behind the stroller. That's what I know. If I didn't believe that, I'd panic. But that's what faith is. So childlike faith is a humble faith that sits in a stroller, believes God is standing behind us, doesn't get anxious about all kinds of things.

And the reason God gave us brains, mature, adult, sophisticated, hard-thinking, studying brains, is to understand the Bible and the work of God well enough to become that kind of child. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Please email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

At desiringgod.org you'll find thousands of free books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper. I'm your host Tony Reinke, thanks for listening. Desiring God.org Desiring God.org