"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Mt.18:1-4) No one comes to God without humble, child-like faith. It's the place we must start the Christian life. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Only those who come to understand their spiritual poverty, their utter bankruptcy before a holy God may enter, because only they are able to entrust themselves completely to Christ's finished work on their behalf. As long as they hold onto any vestige of the idea they have somehow earned or even co-earned their salvation, they have missed Christ's point.
But we are not to remain child-like when it comes to knowing and obeying God's Word. "For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." (Heb.5:13-14) The implications of long-term biblical illiteracy are catastrophic, both personally and corporately! As believers, we need to maintain that child-like humility as we approach God's Word, but we need to be progressively maturing in our understanding of and obedience to it.
I recently came across a descriptive post making this very point at The Ordinary Pastor blog. Personally, I'm better at handling Scripture than I am at illustrating it. Therefore, I'm always thankful for those who excel in this area!
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One of my joys in life is the time that I get to spend with our kids before their bed time. They love to read their books. They talk and discover. It’s great.
I noticed an alarming trend with our youngest little girl though. Zoe likes to skip pages. She moves ahead to her favorite part and then she starts gabbing. Oftentimes she is talking about things that do not even relate to the story. You know, things like, “Monkey says “AHAHAHA!” or “RED hat!” These are important facts, no doubt, but not really related to the story.
As I was sitting there, smiling and laughing, I was convicted. I think that a lot of times we read our Bibles like Zoe reads her cardboard books. Sometimes we are all about moving the book mark ahead in the Bible reading program. We fail to sit and stare at the scenery, discover new details, and breathe in the fresh gospel breeze.
Other times when we do focus on details, we focus on things that aren’t key components of the big picture. We can get really good at knowing verses and not knowing the story. Texts without a context are like matches in a kids hand. It’s just a matter of time.
Still other times we may read our Bibles with the level of intellectual engagement that rivals a 2-year-old. The Bible is meant to be read, chewed upon, digested, and lived out. It is not merely a spiritual flouride that we swish around in our mouths for a morning cleaning, and then spit out with little impact throughout the day. Instead, we are to marinate our very souls in it that we might begin to have the biblical flavor and scent sweat out in our very lives.
So, yes, become like a dependent, humble, amazed and vulnerable little child when you come to Jesus. And walk in this posture in your ongoing neediness. However, when it comes to our Bible reading, we would be better off if we wiped our chins and engaged with the Book a bit.
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