Be Your Age
That we henceforth be no more children.
Ephesians 4:14
We are to be childlike (Mt. 18:3) but not childish (Mt. 11:16). Those who pursue the study of the deeper Christian life often miss the way and become Faddists, studying it as a novelty, playing with it, like the world plays bridge. Others become Freaks, going off at tangents on “death to self” or the filling of the Spirit or some other point, making the part greater than the whole. Still others become Failures, giving up the whole thing in disillusionment.
There are not enough wholesome, healthy, normal Christians who “grow up.” We either freeze or fry, it seems. What a picture Paul paints here of saints and churches, carried about with every wind of doctrine instead of maturing in Christ! And we grow up in Him, Christ in His fullness, not in some phase or feature of His fullness however precious. How many saints, babes on milk instead of meat, need to “be their age!”