No doubt about it – we who have surrendered our lives to Jesus have been adopted into God’s family. According to John’s letter, we are “called children of God; and so we are.”¹ Hallelujah! Amen! However, when John addressed believers as “my little children,”² he was not advocating that they remain in elementary school. When Jesus said “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,”³ he was not telling us to be immature. When the writer of Hebrews announced to his readers “You need milk, not solid food,”⁴ it was not a compliment! No! He explained that “everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. ⁵

What, then, does it mean to be a child of God but not to act childishly? It means we need to grow up. Paul talked about the process in 1 Corinthians 13. He said, “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.”⁶ So, we need to stop speaking, stop thinking, and stop reasoning like a child. We need to give up our “childish ways.” What childish ways is he referring to? Many many things but the main thing is that children cannot distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, truth and lies. So, Paul implores believers to “no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”⁷ Instead “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”⁸

How do we do that? Hebrews 5 tells us! Mature people are “those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”⁹ So, the difference between a young Christian and a mature one is not measured in age or church attendance or even being a good person; it is measured in the ability to determine what is godly and what is ungodly and then, of course, to do the godly thing.

It sounds simple. It is not. It takes “constant practice.” Unfortunately, most people don’t like to practice. They just want to be able to do things and know things without working on things.

You know, I have played the guitar and have been leading worship since I was 16 years old.  As a result, many people have asked me to teach them how to play the guitar. Generally, I have responded with this question: Do you want to play the guitar or do you want to learn how to play the guitar? The question usually baffled them. My point was that most people just want to play; they really don’t want to learn because learning takes time and practice and involves pain and frustration; therefore, most people that I taught quit before they could play well and remained beginner guitar players at best.

It is sadly true about Christian life as well. Many people are excited about being a Christian, enjoy the benefits of it, believe it is good and right, etc., but most believers do not practice, work at, their faith! They remain baby Christians because they never gave up their childish ways. Why would I say such a thing? The latest statistics prove it. According to the Baptist Press* when it comes to Protestant churchgoers, only 30% of believers read their Bible every day and 9% rarely or never read their Bibles (or even own one).

Of course, reading the Bible is only one element of our Christian faith, but the Bible is God’s Word and Paul tells us that all scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”¹⁰ Hebrews 5 tells us the immature Christian, on the other hand, lives on milk and “is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.”⁵

One way we can grow up in our faith is to study God’s Word. It is the best way to learn discernment. It is the best way that we can be trained in how to live a godly life. The choice is ours to make: grow in Christ and become steadfast in our faith or remain children and be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.”⁷

I think it’s time to grow up, people!

¹1 John 3:1   ²1 John 2:1   ³Matthew 18:3   ⁴Hebrews 5:12   ⁵Hebrews 5:13   ⁶1 Corinthians 13:11   ⁷Ephesians 4:14   ⁸Ephesians 4:15   ¹⁹Hebrews 5:14   ¹⁰2 Timothy 3:16  

*Smith, Gregory A., et al. “Religious Service Attendance & Belonging to Religious, Nonreligious Orgs in the US.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 26 Feb. 2025, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/religious-attendance-and-congregational-involvement/.