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Children are always changing. It seems like just yesterday my oldest was the same size as his backpack, embarking on his first day of kindergarten. Today, he stands a foot taller than I and will soon begin his first day of college.
The Bible often points to children as illustrations for how we are to live the Christian life. In Matthew 18, Jesus told the disciples that they needed to become like little children: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (v. 3). Jesus said this in response to the disciples’ asking who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (v. 1). Jesus’ response is shocking because in the Roman culture of the time, children were often ignored, sometimes exploited, and seldom treasured—unless they were the heir apparent. Even more, since the disciples expected Jesus to stage a coup against the Romans, they likely thought an army of children would be useless.
Jesus said that they were to become like children not because children are sinless or innocent and not even because they are curious or carefree but rather because children are dependent on others—and they know it. They are helpless and need others to provide and care for them. Children readily turn to the adults in their lives to meet their needs. What Jesus called the disciples to, and us as well, is humility—to acknowledge that we are dependent on the grace of God, not on ourselves, for entry into the kingdom.
Though we come to faith like children, however, we don’t remain as children. Just as children grow and mature in their physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development, the Bible teaches that we are to grow and mature in our faith. We are to move from immature thinking to mature, from simple teaching to deeper teaching. The Apostle Paul exhorts the Corinthian church to think like adults, not like children: “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Cor. 14:20). The writer to the Hebrews compares growth in the knowledge of the Scriptures to that of eating solid food:
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Heb. 5:12–14)
We enter the faith as children, as those who know the depths of our depravity and our need for the lavish grace of God for us in Christ. But we don’t stay there. We shouldn’t want to. Instead, we should crave solid spiritual food so that we can grow and mature into the image of Christ.