I Corinthians 13:11 - 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.
You know when I was little I hated this verse. I would sit there and wonder why Paul wouldn't just tell the Corinthians "Grow Up Already". Instead he said it subtly. He called the Corinthians Children in the Lord.
Please Read More for more of an explanation and a paraphrase....
I'm not a subtle guy, when Richard Poley comes into the room, you know it. Only when I'm tired can you see me slunk around in a corner. I'm not perfect, but definitely not subtle.
If I were to say this verse it would have read a little more like this. "STOP IT already! Do you have to act like children all the time who don't know right from wrong? When I was a child, that is how I acted, I didn't know right from wrong, but once I knew right from wrong, I did the right thing. So now that you have been saved for a few years and you know what is right, Start doing it already!" - I Corinthians 13:11 (Richard Poley Paraphrase)
Some people think that I over read into the verse, but I like reading into the people's personalities a little bit, and then once I have read into the personality, I exaggerate it a bit. and then God speaks to me through my "slight" exaggeration.
In saying that I will now show you what God told me in this verse. It seems quite clear once you read my paraphrase, but how do you do it?
When I was a kid learning how to ride my bike, my dad would tell me what I needed to do and I would run out and try it, and after a while of utter failure, then I would go back to my dad and ask him how to do it. My father would show me that I need to do something different and then the things would work. The point of that little story is that when we can't seem to do things the right way, then we ought to run to God.
A personal intimate relationship with God will help you do right instead of wrong, and that is something that easier said then done.
Knowing the right thing to do and doing is a totally different thing. When I was 14 or fifteen-ish I was into a relationship that I shouldn't have been in at the time. I knew that I had to end it, but I didn't know how to do it without hurting the other person in that relationship. I thought that it would be best to just end it quick and be very blunt.
I was thinking that it would be like taking duct tape off of a hairy leg. You know what I'm talking about, it would finish the pain quickly and efficiently and it would be over before I knew it.
Well, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And though I was doing the right thing it hurt like I had torn and strained a rather important muscle. Although it hurt (a lot, excruciatingly), it doesn't mean that it was the wrong thing. Because I did the right thing there were people to help me get through the pain. Because I had done the right thing, I saved myself from future, more excruciating pain. I had to lean on God a lot to get me through it, but the point of telling the story is that when you do the right thing, you can lean on God and the people that God sent your way to lead you.
In closing you know what is right, you know what is wrong, now do it! Stop doing what is wrong and do what is right, it may hurt, excruciatingly, but that is why God wants to have an intimate relationship you, because you need to lean on him. Trust him, do what is right and he will bless you (Deuteronomy 28:1-14)
