Thinking Like an Adult

1 Cor 14:20 "Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature."

The apostle uses the word "infant" here in regard to how our thinking ought to be about evil. Not the word toddler or even child. An infant has so little consideration about their world; it generally consists primarily of eating, comfort, and sleeping… and also pooping I guess. The point is that it is limited thinking, non-extravagant thinking on a subject. About the issue of sin then, we are encouraged to maintain limited thinking about it and avoid sinful thinking. While it is a backwards manner of saying it, nevertheless the believer demonstrates spiritual maturity by maintaining this limited thinking about sin.

But in regard to our thought life we are encouraged to stop thinking like children. Children have such a limited view of the world. This simply comes from not having experienced all that this life has to offer as yet, both the good and the evil. But this is in regard to the failure of thinking in this manner. Children live in black and white worlds; there is no room for anything else. They do not understand the complications of life and so tend to categorize too much in ways that are not real to the world around them. Differing cultures, worldviews, and different manners of life are still unknown to them and anything not like them and their world is bad…

Teenagers tend to also live at some level of black and white, but they tend to also live with an awareness of primarily only themselves. They do not weigh things out by the reality of what their actions today might mean tomorrow in consequences. Many teens begin considering other things and people other than themselves during the teen years, but this is in very limited ways. Someone once asked Bible expert Josh McDowell "when is a good age to marry?" His response was, "When you can think about someone besides yourself."

Yes, these are generalities and I do not mean to insult anyone. Nevertheless, do you see these failing qualities of thinking done by younger children and teens as signs of immaturity? Limited thinking, selfishness, self-centeredness, black and white thinking with no consideration of other cultures and ways of doing life are all signs of immaturity. Paul also wrote this:

1 Cor 13:11 "When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things."

Make a conscious decision to think as a mature person rather than like a child. Think with greater awareness of others, other ways of doing things, and the other workings of God in the world around you. Grow up in your thinking… on purpose.

God help us to no longer think like children, but instead to think like mature men and women.