WHEN I WAS A CHILD is not always a fond memory. Paul uses the phrase to orient himself for his readers.   When Paul was a child he was a conscientious Jew, and he lists all of the things that define him as an extraordinary Jew.  So we are confident that we have captured what Paul’s childhood is like.  First, let us see that the child stands in contrast to the wise and intelligent.  The child is expected to advance to responsible adulthood, and I say, woe to the human who does not see that being left behind by the Irresistible  flow of life in all its manifestations.  The grown person keeps up with the flow because avoiding change and growth is like  having standing in the rain and not getting wet.  That person would be an extraordinarily grown man.

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.

1 Corinthians 13:11

This is an all together different arrangement of children and adults from what the Lord Christ had to say about children and the wise people (typically, adults).

“At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” (Matthew 11:25, NASB)

Paul is addressing the state of affairs between Jewish life and full blown Messianic revelation, namely, juvenile and adult.

“Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything,” (Galatians 4:1, NASB)

The Man of God says good bye

The child is not equated with the mature or responsible heir; he is appropriately pictured as subjected to slaves and is comparable to the slaves. The child – nëpios – νηπιος – represents the minor,  whose destiny includes release from guardians and tutors.  For Paul the sweep is large and traumatic. He who excelled in the religion of his ancestors plungers to the very bottom in his discovery of the Lord’s Anointed.  That plunge is painted in the gripping terms of loss and gain, excellence and rubbish.  Not least in any way is the contrast of law and Christ.

“and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,” (Philippians 3:9, NASB)

DISCOVERING PAUL’S CHILDHOOD

You will see there is no God, Yahweh, or Christ, or even Moses in Paul’s childhood.  This is because there was not, at least, no dynamic relationship with a person.  Paul can sincerely list his Jewishness.

• FLESH.  circumcised the eighth day,
• NATIONALITY.  of the nation of Israel,
• TRIBAL PRIDE.  of the tribe of Benjamin,
• ETHNICITY.  a Hebrew of Hebrews;
• RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION.  as to the Law, a Pharisee;
• PROGRESS and ACHIEVEMENTS. as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;
• RIGHT STANDING. as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”

Philippians 3:5-7

When grown up time arrives

The rite of passage sees an end to childish things, dim views, and partial knowledge.  Instead of the large number of instructions in the law the heir who comes into his own has three pillars of success; faith, hope, and love.

Stop being kids

Verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 14 cautions Paul’s readers in tender terms.  “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature”.  We need therefore to ask ourselves about the things we have put away as we mature from law to faith, from juvenile to mature.  We are in laughingstock territory when we boldly assert that we have converted from child to adult with our fingers wrapped tightly around days, months, years and seasons, touch not commands, taste not commands, and handle not commands. There is no adult dimension to being subject to elementary or “kindergarten” principles governing this age.  Growing up or ending one’s childhood is not a willpower thing, because you do not initiate growth.  It happens to us, so growing up is not entirely in our control; it flows from both outside influences and mysterious inside help.  We stop being children with a conscientious choice in three critical areas.

Speak, think, reason

Here is a good example of how the sentence structure or word order in particular does not necessarily tell the truth contained in the context.  The exhortation for speech, thought, and reason do not necessarily happen in that order.   Speaking should not happen in a vacuum.  Thinking and evaluation are likely to happen in the light of what Christ has accomplished or be categorized as noisy gong. 

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)–in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?

Colossians 2:20-22

To answer Paul’s question directly we turn to the well-known obsession of people with things that require no personal responsibility or intellectually mature sacrifice. I make no apology for my observation that the many proud cultural traditions are not much more than humanity’s kindergarten, and packages of elementary principles of the world we know. Man, would it not be something if they all began to dream of those matters that are sustaining to both the next generation and our ancestors?