“To Grow in Love is to Grow Up”
The Apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church:
”If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
(1 Corinthians 13 ESV)
Standing in the checkout line at Wal-Mart…….
I remember a time in the not-so-distant past when I was standing in line waiting to checkout at Wal-Mart. There were several customers ahead of me, but the one directly in front of me nearly drove me crazy! There was mom, dad, and what appeared to be a five or maybe six year old boy. That little boy was continuously yelling at his parents. It was apparent that he wanted something and he was determined to get it before they left that store. The parents initially refused and asked the boy to stop acting foolish and behave, but the request was ineffective as it lacked any sense of power, authority, and/or real threat of consequence. (By the way, whether you are a parent, teacher, business owner, manager, supervisor, foreman, or a political or even a religious leader then you have what is referred to as “positional authority.” However, that doesn’t mean that you have any real authority. Whether or not you have real authority depends on a few important things, the foremost of which is that people take your authority seriously and believe in the consequence of testing your authority. – That was lagniappe….. You’re welcome.) Upon the half-hearted effort of mom and dad to quiet their unruly child, an all-out temper tantrum ensued. Finally, the transaction was complete and the child resolved to leave the store without getting his wish. As they left, mom had to “pull” him along, gripping the shirt covering his elbow as his hands were buried under his tightly crossed arms. The pouty look on his face complete with the poking out of his bottom lip was almost hilarious, but the departure brought something much more valuable than a good laugh – it brought relief!
Many would agree with me that this scenario happens often. I dare not say that my children would never act in such ways in public. If there is one thing that I know about children it is that they have a natural, inborn instinct that drives them to go to ridiculous lengths to try and prove their parents wrong. Childhood pride and arrogance – oh my! Fortunately (or maybe not) I know other things about children – I have two of them. I know that in the early stages of childhood development (and through the teenage years as well, now that I think of it), children often become resentful of anyone who does not give in to their desires or wishes. The most common manifestation of this phenomenon is the burying of the chin deep into the chest, poking the bottom lip out, crossing the arms, spinning around, and stomping off, and with such synchronicity! It seems that they can accomplish every one of those moves with an astounding ability to apply a mind staggering number of variations with each subsequent outburst….. you know, just to keep us from developing some sort of super-parental immunity to such assaults. I also know that, in the minds of children, the seemingly most insignificant circumstances are not insignificant at all. In fact, they are ominous omens heralding the apocalyptic end of the world for every nation, tribe and tongue, or at least the immediate family and perhaps a few neighbors, schoolmates, or fairly close kinfolk! In short, kids seem to crave DRAMA!
An Inspired Reality Check…….
As completely ridiculous and yet ridiculously real as this description is of common childhood behavior, it also happens to be a good description of a good bit of adult behavior. However, if this sort of behavior exhibited by children could be compared to a sitcom (situation comedy), then the same sort of behavior exhibited by adults would have to be likened to a soap opera. As dramatic as a child throwing a temper tantrum can be, it can also be very entertaining. It’s the stuff that many of the funniest home/family movies are made of. However, there is something very sad, disturbing even, about adults who act like children. The world is much less tolerant and/or forgiving of adults who act like children than it is of children who act like children. One might think that the Church – the Body of Christ made holy by His blood and called to holiness by His Word – would be one of the last organizations or, to put it in terms of the local congregation and its place of meeting and worship, the last places on Earth in which such “adult drama” would manifest itself in any serious way. Sadly, it was not true for the church at Corinth. I will not go into an exposition of the letter from Paul to the Corinthian church. It is sufficient to say that the members of the congregation were acting like a bunch of children, and Paul called them out on it. What is extremely interesting to me, though, is the way Paul connects love with maturity. Read 1 Corinthians very carefully. If you examine the comparison of all of the things that are worthless in the absence of (and even compared to) love with hanging on to childish ways, you will see that he also compares the possession of and operation of love with the giving up of childish ways. In other words, to grow in love is to grow up!
Friends – brothers and sisters in Christ – if we can be denied the things that we feel are important and even essential to us and still resist the temptation to protest vociferously, become impatient, act rudely, become arrogant, resentful or irritable, or rebellious, then we are indeed growing in love toward God and toward each other. If we do not sense some secret pleasure at the failure or mistakes of those who, in our opinion, get in the way of our plans, wishes, and/or desires, then we are growing in our love for God and for each other. If we submit willingly and joyfully to God and to one another according to His word, we are growing in love. The mark of Christ-like love is Christ-like maturity; the mark of Christ-like maturity is Christ-like love.
A Call to Christ-like Maturity and a Christ-Like Love……
When I was in college, I went through a sort of rebellious stage. If you were to compare my rebellious stage with that of others, you might say that it was a very conservative, mostly subdued rebellious stage. Nevertheless, I rebelled against God. The childish things of college life (yes, I have been around long enough to refer to college life as childish) were fascinating and attractive. There were on-campus parties, off-campus parties, and plenty of opportunities to do things that many of my peers did whole-heartedly but never were able to quite remember the experience. It was the epitome of stereotypical college life. There was class work to be done, but everyone seemed to live for the not-at-all curricular activities. That was then. Now, my college classmates have all grown up. They are moms and dads, business owners, teachers, Army officers, helicopter pilots, professional musicians, ministers, pharmacists – they are all grown up. They are adults who have responsibilities. They take their responsibilities seriously because they love their husbands, wives, and children. Some, if not most of them are more responsible than I ever thought they could be because they also love the Lord Jesus Christ, their heavenly Father, and their brothers and sisters in Christ. What was once important to us when we were students at Henderson State University, burning the candle at both ends and burning up the roads between Arkadelphia and Hot Springs, Arkansas is no longer of any importance now. We grew up, and like Paul, we gave up on childish ways. We figured out what Paul was trying to teach the Corinthian church members. True love for God, our families, and our neighbors will cause us to grow up, give up childish behavior, and act, think, and LOVE like mature, Christ-like adults.
To Grow in Love is to Grow Up!
In His Love,
Pastor Chris
