Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

I Corinthians 13:11 – When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. (NRSV)

This verse from I Corinthians 13 is rarely the one people focus on.  It’s called the “Love Chapter,” not the “Maturity Chapter,” after all.  But I have one vivid memory of someone commenting on it at a meeting one time.  It was a pastor who was called to lead children’s ministries for the denomination, and she was mad.  She found this verse demeaning to children and part of the problem with the way churches often relegate children to being the “future” of the church, rather than an integral part of the “present” of the church.

Indeed, many other passages in the Bible don’t talk about children this way.  Jesus certainly didn’t.  The prophets seem to suggest that people of faith should never dismiss the wisdom of children.  (More on that on Sunday!)  But what if Paul isn’t actually talking about his literal childhood?  What if this is a reference to his pre-conversation self, before he had truly been changed by Love?

You will remember that Paul’s first relationship with Christianity was anything but loving.  He was a zealous persecutor of the early Christians, until Christ came to him in a vision on the road to Damascus. (See Acts 8 & 9 for details!)  What if, when Paul talks about speaking and reasoning “like a child,” he is confessing his previous immature understanding of God’s love?  What if he’s confessing that he, too, gave into the temptation to interpret scripture in rigid ways that bind people rather than liberating them?  What if he’s rejoicing in being freed to love rather than judge?  To let go of black-and-white rules that separate us in favor of an expansive love that includes everyone?

We each have our own way that we need to “grow up in every way… into Christ,” as it says in Ephesians 4.  What is the immaturity you need to let go of?  How can Love release you from whatever is holding you back from deeper faithfulness?