Mensa Otabil - When I Was a Child
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1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11: When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Learning is in stages; growth is in stages. When you go to school, you enter one stage, and you have to learn the lessons of that stage, master them, and then you move to the next class. If you don’t master the previous lesson, you can’t go to the next one. If you don’t master your ABCs, you can’t master spelling and pronunciation. So, what you learn at one level is important, but you must use that knowledge to progress to the next level; you don’t learn something and stay there for the rest of your life. Paul is talking about the fact that he used to be a child, and now he’s a man. When you are a child, you behave like a child. When you grow up, you stop behaving like a child.
There are three stages of growth that the Apostle Paul talks about here, which we can apply to our lives. First, he says, «When I was a child, I thought as a child.» The first stage is thinking as a child. Thinking as a child will make you behave as a child. It is cute for children to think and speak like children. All of us have instances when we roll with laughter because a child spoke a word in innocence, in an unfiltered way, and we all laughed. But you know, as a child grows, we expect them to learn to filter their speech a little better and be more in control of their thinking. What once made us laugh when they were children, if they behaved the same way in the boardroom, in marriage, or in a mature relationship, would destroy the relationship. So, it’s okay to think like a child when you are a child, and Paul is saying that it’s all right.
But he talks about the second stage: he says, «When I became a man.» Although he’s using the masculine gender, it applies to females as well; we can also say, «When I became a woman.» When we grow up, usually our bodies grow ahead of our minds, maturity, or understanding. As your body grows, moving from crawling to being a child, your mind must also correspondingly grow; your understanding must also reflect that. It is not an asset to grow in your body as an adult while your mind remains at the baby stage. When I became a man, as I grew up and added years, as you celebrate your birthdays and blow out the birthday candles, you are growing, which means something must also happen in your mind.
So, what does Paul say happens when he grows up? He says, «I put away childish things.» That’s the third stage: think as a child, become a man, and put away childish things. This means the moment I recognize myself growing in age, I have to be conscious. He didn’t say the childish things left me; he said, «I put them away.» This means it has to be an effort, an action; it has to be intentional to monitor your behavior and ask yourself, «Is this childish or adult? Am I behaving maturely or like a child?» Sometimes, even in marriages, you find that parents with children are behaving like children, and because of that, they encounter problems they cannot solve. We must put away childish things; the things that worked for us when we were children will not work for us when we are adults. When I grew up, I put away childish things. May the Lord help us to mature as we seek the best that He has for us.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, help me to put away every thought and action that holds me bound to my childish past. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»