Days Gone By
I turn 38 this year. While it’s not that old, it’s still old enough (older than many of my coworkers, at least). As I get older and think about all the responsibilities and pressures I have now, the more I long for my childhood days. Back then everything was much simpler. I didn’t have any real responsibilities as a child except getting my schoolwork and household chores done. I often played with my younger siblings or friends outside for hours until dark – especially in the summertime. It was a lot of fun.
I remember my teenage years with all its angst, insecurities, and other experiences that come with growing up. I remember seeing that cute girl in class and feeling butterflies in my stomach and that feeling when that cute girl said, “yes”, at the school dance. And I also remember my first teenage heartbreak. Those days seem long ago now, but oddly enough I still hold those memories dear to me. It may be similar for you, too.
Nostalgia is nice. It’s a wistful, almost magical, feeling that takes us back to simpler times. But isn’t that the problem? It takes us back. It can keep us from growing up and maturing emotionally – and even spiritually. What do I mean by that? Let’s find out together.
Thinking Like a Child
Childhood is nice in that it’s pretty simple, but the downside is that we don’t fully understand everything we experience either. We cannot understand why this happens or that happens, nor do we fully understand why we have rules at home to follow. Even things like metaphors are difficult to understand.
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child…” 1 Corinthians 13:11
I’m sure you’ve heard this passage said before. If I look at my own childhood, I definitely understood things like a child. Children cannot grasp abstract or figurative concepts. Everything is literal (concrete) with them. Case in point: In Revelation 5, God has a book that’s sealed with seven seals. That book is given to Jesus in Revelation 6, and Jesus opens six seals. I, a child at the time, didn’t understand that the seals Jesus opened were like those wax seals you see on old letters. I thought they were the animals. So, in my childish mind, I had this image of Jesus literally opening six animal seals. It’s a gruesome, but funny, image looking back. The rest of that verse in 1 Corinthians says,
“…When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
When I grew up and could understand more abstract ideas (and the other meaning of seal), that chapter made more sense. Now, I want to make it clear that Jesus didn’t open a physical book with physical seals. Jesus received the word from God hidden in parables (prophecy), and Jesus fulfilled those prophecies which were compared to opening seals. Through studying the Word, my understanding matured. I hope you can study with us and also learn the true meaning of Scripture. In the Bible, God, and Jesus, desire all believers to become mature in their faith and understanding. To better understand this, let’s go back to the past.
The Children of Israel – Given Spiritual Milk
In Genesis, we read about Abraham’s, Isaac’s, and Jacob’s stories. God promised Abraham numerous descendants and through the promised son, Isaac, Abraham’s offspring began. Isaac’s second son, Jacob, wrestled with an angel of God and overcame. From then on, Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel”, and from him came 12 sons which became the nation of Israel. In Exodus, after God led the Israelites out of Egypt through Moses, God made a covenant with them on Mount Sinai. This covenant was more like a contract, where if Israel fully obeyed all of God’s commands, they would be blessed (Exodus 19:5-6).
God also gave the Law to Moses which contained the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). These commandments were quite basic: “Do not kill”, “Do not commit adultery”, “Worship the LORD your God only”, and so on. Why did God give them such basic commandments?
The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for a little over 400 years. Egypt was a place with many gods and idols, and while the Israelites worship the Egyptian gods, they were still around all of those idols and teachings. Think about how children are easily influenced by what they see and hear in the media, or at home, or at school. They might not directly do the things they see, but their thoughts are still influenced by it all. Spiritually, the Israelites were influenced by Egypt’s gods as when Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Israelites made a golden calf and worshiped it at the very base of the mountain God was on (Exodus 32).
God viewed His Chosen people as spiritual children and gave them quite simple laws with very direct consequences. It’s like how our parents give us basic rules when we are children. As children, we cannot fully understand the why of those rules, but they’re meant to keep us safe. God’s Law given to the Israelites were meant to keep them spiritually safe – yet the Law was pointing to something even deeper.
“Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”Galatians 3:21-24
The Law, according to Galatians 3, was pointing to Christ. In fact, in Matthew 5:17, Jesus says he came to fulfill the Law. “Fulfill” implies the Law was like a prophecy – a promise – of something greater to come. So, when Jesus came at the first coming, the Israelites were a little more spiritually grown up so to speak.
Spiritual Adolescence – From Milk to Solid Food
As we grow up physically, we also can understand more complex and abstract ideas. Things don’t need to be so concrete anymore. In elementary school, we learn basic concepts such as the planets, body parts, basic history, and simple math. In middle and high school, we learn more complex math like algebra and calculus, and biology, and can understand history on a deeper level. And in university, we receive the most complex and highest level of education in various subjects. What we couldn’t understand as children became easier to understand as adolescents and adults. Now let’s think about this spiritually.
When Jesus came at the first coming, instead of saying, “Don’t do this,” or “Don’t do that,” he gave deeper meanings to the Law given through Moses.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17
He spoke about loving your enemies, your neighbors, and God. In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus says the Law and the Prophets can be summed up as, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself”. Jesus also spoke parables about the kingdom of heaven. Parables are figurative language. Those who could perceive and understand (his disciples), came to Jesus.
Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
Matthew 13:10-11
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Matthew 13:16-17
Through Jesus and his disciples, the gospel of the first coming spread throughout the whole world. The spiritual understanding Jesus gave, namely how the prophecies of the Old Testament about Jesus, was greater than what was given to the Israelites at the time of Moses. Jesus also gave prophecies and parables about his second coming and promised a time when those would be explained plainly through a messenger he sends.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
John 16:13-14
“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.”
John 16:25
At that time, we as believers should become like spiritual adults. What does that mean?
Spiritually Mature – Eating Solid Food
Physically, when we are babies, we cannot handle solid foods otherwise we would choke. As we grow older, we can eat more solid foods because we have teeth to chew and break our food apart. We can handle more complex flavors and textures because our bodies and senses have matured. We can see this mirrored spiritually.
In Hebrews 5:12, Paul likens the basic teachings of the Bible to milk. The Ten Commandments God gave the Israelites on Mount Sinai, for example, was like spiritual milk – basic, easy to swallow (understand). When Jesus came at the first coming, and gave deeper teachings and prophecies, those were like more solid food for believers. For us today as Christians waiting for the second coming, we must move past understanding Jesus’s death and resurrection, rituals and judgment as Hebrews 6 says.
“Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.”
Hebrews 6:1-2
We should work on understanding the deeper things of God, the prophecies of the second coming, and then when they are fulfilled, we must see and believe (John 14:29). Maturity in faith means understanding the prophecies and how they are fulfilled (the testimony of the fulfillment) – meaning we must come to the one who received that testimony and learn from him, just as Jesus said in John 5:39-40. Also, in John 6:45, Jesus says that all who learn from the Father (God) come to him. In other words, if we want to understand God’s Word, then we must come to the one He sent.
Jesus received the testimony of the Old Testament fulfillment from God and preached it at the first coming. Those who believed in Jesus’s testimony at the first coming were saved. At the time of the second coming, Jesus fulfills the New Testament prophecies in the gospels and the book of Revelation and gives the testimony of that fulfillment to the one he promised to send (Rev. 22:8, 16). Those who believe in the testimony he gives, and act on it, are saved. Just saying, “I believe,” isn’t the kind of faith God and Jesus desire.
We must act on our faith by obeying what Jesus and God say – as James 2:17 says faith without deeds is dead. When we can understand both prophecy and fulfillment, then we become mature believers. We can eat that spiritual solid food because the one Jesus promised comes and gives us that food.
One thing we should remember is that growth doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not quick. It’s a process that happens over time. It takes years for our bodies to physically grow to maturity. Spiritually our growth and understanding doesn’t happen quickly either. We should daily be reading God’s Word, studying it so we can understand it, and also praying for wisdom and understanding (James 1:5-6). Even when it seems difficult, when the devil is hindering you, we must look ahead at the hope we have as believers. What is our hope? It’s heaven and eternal life (Hebrews 10:36, Revelation 21:2-4).
Looking back on our lives, seeing how we’ve grown and changed, is a good thing. But if we look back and long for those old days, we won’t be focused on where we should be going. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family are told to run for the mountains and not look back. Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. She didn’t fully believe or trust God’s Word and ended up dying. Whereas Lot and his daughters only looked ahead to that mountain of salvation (Genesis 19:15-22). And they lived.
For us today, we must look ahead to the mountain of salvation at the second coming and go there without looking back. If we long for the things of this world, or are afraid to leave our old ways, then we won’t grow up to be mature believers. We will end up being like Lot’s wife because we won’t fully understand and trust God’s words. So, let us not look back and remain spiritually immature, but let us look ahead to the good things to come and grow to maturity. For us to grow, we must receive spiritual food. So come and study with us so you can become the mature believer that God and Jesus desire.
Written by Kenny
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