Joy sometimes likes to pretend she is still a baby. She wants to be carried like an infant – which is hard on my back. She “wah-wahs” and crawls around on the floor like a baby. We have been talking with her a lot about “growing up,” and doing “big girl things. She wants to “grow down” and become a baby again. I’ve tried to explain that it doesn’t work that way, but she is not convinced. This morning I discovered a text where Paul might actually agree with her.
He starts by saying, “Brothers, stop thinking like children” (1 Corinthians 14:20). Understand that when Paul speaks of children, he is not talking about being “childlike,” but childish. He’s talking about spiritual immaturity. He adds, “In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults” Read that again, slowly and take in every word. He said it like this to the church in Rome: “Be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil” (Rom 16:19). No doubt he was projecting Jesus’ words: “Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Mt 10:16).
When Adam and Eve took the first bite of the forbidden fruit way back in the Garden, the Scripture says that “the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked” (Gen 3:7). Those opened eyes saw things they were not meant to see – things they could not bear nor forget. No, not naked bodies. They saw evil. If you pay attention to the account in Genesis 3, you’ll notice that the serpent did not say that they would “know good from evil,” but that they would know “good and evil” (Gen 3:5). Only God Himself could bear the knowledge of evil without being affected by it. Their act of disobedience stripped away humanity’s innocence.
Paul said we have to regain that sense of childlike innocence. That’s not a call to naiveté, but to incorruptibility. And it starts with you and me. There’s so much evil in this world that it’s nearly impossible to avoid it all. But we can wrap the righteousness of Christ around us like a blanket to protect us in this world as long as we remain. That’s what Jesus meant by we are “in the world, but not of the world” [John 17].) Paul’s words are also a command to avoid everything that displays and celebrates evil (Grammys anyone?) – don’t give it any space in your head.
Folks, it’s time to grow up as responsible Christ-followers. And it’s also time to “grow down” as innocent babes in the sheltering wings of our Father. Beloved, don’t allow the world and the enemy to take your innocence.
Deeper Roots 