BABIES!

Babies. There are lots of things we like about them.They are cute. Playful. Their smiles. Innocence. Affection. So also in the Bible. Children, babies, and others of that tender age are lauded.

Without the simple faith of a child, an attitude of trust in Christ, salvation, Jesus says, is not possible.

“Truly I say to you,
whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God
like a child
will never enter it.”
Luke 18:17

In that sense, every believer is a child before God.

The Spirit Himself testifies …
that we are children of God.
Romans 8:16

Babies and children. Delightful. But, needless to say, there are also things we don’t like about them. Lots of things. They can be petulant. Noisy. Demanding. Selfish. Immature. (Just like adults!) The Scriptures do not hesitate to exhort each believer, every child of God, “Grow up!”

… like newborn babies, yearn
for the pure milk of the word,
so that by it you may grow ….
1 Peter 2:2

Growth is not the verses we know by heart or the hymns we can sing from memory. Growth is not the size of our checks in the offering basket or the years we have attended church. Growth is not the comprehension of the nuances of doctrine or the big names whose teaching we’ve imbibed. Growth is not the theological degrees we hold or the Sunday School classes we have taught.

Because we are, or should be, greedily devouring the living and abiding Word of God, the milk that enables us to grow in the Christian life, Peter exhorts us …

… fervently love one another
from the heart ….
1 Peter 1:22

The practical outworking of growth, that comes from the consumption of the milk of the Word—the food for babies—should be love for one another. The tangible fruit of growth must be love. It is not a doctrine-gauge or theology-assay or ministry-scale that measures our growth, but a love-meter. If I am a growing baby, I must be loving. If not …

… I am nothing ….
[Everything else] profits me nothing ….
1 Corinthians 13:2, 3

If we have not love, we are still babes—abnormal and aberrant—for we have not grown. How many years have I been a Christian, and how much have I grown, or … how much do I love?

Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is from God;
and everyone who loves
is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:7

If we are truly children of God, we can love because we have been born again, this time not into a physical family, but into a spiritual one. And just as we naturally love those in our physical family, we must love those in our spiritual one.

The one sitting next to us in church, or the one we don’t like very much, or the one who looks down at us, and the one with whom we don’t have much in common, or the one whose name we’ve forgotten, the one who said something nasty to us 17 years, 3 months, and 4 days ago which we still haven’t forgotten. We think we can’t stand them? Listen, we are stuck with them for eternity. Let’s start loving them now …

… until we all attain
to the unity of the faith, …
to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature
… of Christ …
for the growth of the body,
the building up of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:13, 16

The growth of babies. Drink His Word in! Pour His love out!