Is there a difference between childlikeness and childishness? Jesus told us that unless we become like little children, we would not enter the kingdom of heaven. Yet Paul several times chastises different churches for being “infants” who cannot handle solid food. In 1 Corinthians 13:11, Paul writes, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”
What sort of childish ways do we need to put behind us in order to become childlike? I believe the answer is hinted at in a remark made by John Newton who said, “The men of this world are children. Offer a child an apple and bank note, he will doubtless choose the apple.” One of the great dangers of childhood is the failure to recognize one’s own best interest by choosing momentary delights over lasting pleasure. Children want immediate gratification without considering the future consequences. To a child, a bank note is a mere scrap of paper, but an apple is several minutes of pleasure. It is no use to explain to the young child that he might buy thousands of apples with the bank note, for the child has no concept of delayed gratification. Most children don’t understand why a cookie will spoil their dinner or staying up too late will spoil the next day’s play. This is one reason parents are so essential, to look out for the best interest of the child when the child can’t see it herself.
However, as Newton points out, children aren’t the only ones guilty of pursuing fleeting pleasures over lasting ones. When adults pursue temporary pleasures, it is almost always their relationships that suffer. By choosing to save face in an argument (satisfying the pride of the moment), one may sacrifice a relationship that would have brought enjoyment for years to come. Some pursue the next career opportunity or answer to the pressing demands of the office, only to find that they don’t know their own family when they retire. Likewise, many relationships have been destroyed because one person chose the momentary satisfaction of a craving for alcohol, pornography, or some other addiction over investing in the relationship.
Of course, there is much more at stake in our choices than our human relationships. God continually demands that we look at the long-term consequences, that is, the eternal consequences, of every choice we make. But this is not bad news. God, as our Father, has our true best interests in mind, and we should trust his judgment for what will serve us more than we trust our own. In “The Weight of Glory,” C. S. Lewis writes, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Our problem is not that we thirst for pleasure but that we childishly settle for temporary pleasures, the apple over the bank note. The Psalmist writes, “At your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11b). We should submit to God in childlike obedience that He will give us these everlasting pleasures, pleasures found only in Himself, and that they will be better than the mud pies we enjoy on this earth. As creator of everything, God is the world’s greatest connoisseur of its pleasures. Let us forsake childishness for childlikeness, following Him into true pleasure.
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Copyright © 2007 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. “A Slice of Infinity” is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #22575]