Childish Things

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 put aside childish things. This might sound strange to read in a chapter focused on love. So what’s it doing in here? And what does it have to do with maturity? Today, we will name what has to come off the table before maturity has anywhere to land.

1. Childish Speech: Words Without Weight

   1. 1 Corinthians 13:11: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, …

      1. The Corinthians built their identity on a certain kind of talk. More flashy? More spiritual.

      2. Paul has already told them: If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, 1 Corinthians 13:1. Their proudest talk — all noise.

   2. And then, at 13:11, he says, “I used to talk like a child too.” I grew out of it. We must, too.

      1. It looks like complaining. Every observation a grievance.

      2. It looks like gossip. Passing along what wasn’t ours to pass along.

      3. It looks like snapping. Using the tongue like a weapon.

      4. It looks like performative talk. Sounding spiritual without actually being spiritual.

   3. The corrective:

      1. 1 Corinthians 13:4: Love is patient, love is kind. …

      2. Most of our childishness leaks out of our mouths first.

2. Childish Understanding: Surface Reads and Quick Offense

   1. 1 Corinthians 13:11: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, …

      1. The word “thought” refers to your mindset or orientation.

      2. Paul says he used to have a child’s frame of reference. Smallness.

   2. What does this look like in the church?

      1. Reading the worst into people’s motives. Taking offense at things that weren’t aimed at us in the first place. Drawing conclusions before the evidence is gathered.

   3. The cure:

      1. 1 Corinthians 13:7: love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

      2. Maturity isn’t measured by what you know. It’s measured by how you view others.

3. Childish Thinking: The Ledger

   1. 1 Corinthians 13:11: When I was a child, …, I reasoned like a child.

      1. “Reasoned” is a bookkeeping word. “To reckon, to credit, to put on the ledger.”

      2. Connect to v. 5: love does not keep a record of wrongs. Childish thinking is the ledger.

   2. What this looks like:

      1. A child reckons by the feel of the thing. It weighs the immediate over the long term.

      2. Keeping a mental file on every slight. Keeps a list of what we’re owed.

   3. What’s the cure?

      1. 1 Corinthians 13:5: love does not keep a record of wrongs.

      2. Love throws out the ledger. Closes the notebook. Shreds the spreadsheet.

   4. Paul didn’t say I outgrew the childish things. He said:

      1. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.

      2. A decision…with a verdict.

4. As We Close

   1. Maturity isn’t a birthday. It’s a verdict you render.

   2. Render the verdict this afternoon and let the people next to you finally meet the grown-up you were called to be.