– Tobi Oke
The difference between childishness and childlikeness is nothing far from maturity and immaturity; one leads to looking more like Christ while the other results in the opposite.
Here is one significant difference between the childish and the childlike nature which Christ commends in Matthew 18:3:
“Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Matthew 18:3 (NLT)
Trust and obedience
Being childlike means you’re quick to submit yourself to the oversight of those who have shown themselves to be authority figures and leaders in your life. When we become born again, God the Father shows Himself to be the supreme authority figure and caretaker like a parent.
Children easily trust and obey their parents, which is why Christ commended their nature and declared it an utmost necessity for entrance into heaven and experiencing eternal life (Matthew 18:3).
Those who are childlike are mature in Christ in that they exercise continual trust in God. This type of trust is not worked up or mustered by supreme religious piety or commitment. This trust runs deep and comes from an intimate realization of the care God has for them.
This type of trust is strengthened by repeated learning from experience as the child realizes that God is faithful. A child learns to trust when through experience they’ve seen their parents keep their word and look after them. This results in the child’s obedience and cooperation.
Are you able to trust God even when you don’t understand what’s happening? This is the litmus test for childlikeness and maturity. A child will stop putting their hand on a stove after a parent says so (if they truly trust that parent).
This is a commendable child, the kind of characteristic highlighted in Matthew 18:3. When God tells you to no longer touch the hot stove of sin which will surely burn, do you trust Him in spite of your own understanding? Will you say, “But God, I don’t get how this is wrong…”?
Surely, asking God for understanding is not bad. But hinging your obedience on your understanding of His instructions is proof of immaturity.
As Hebrews 11:3 states, “By faith we understand…”
The child who obeys first by trusting God in faith is the one who will truly come to full understanding. As that child grows, they eventually begin to piece together why their Father condoned or condemned this or that. This is the process of growing in maturity and in the revelation of who God is.
If God said it then the first response of a childlike believer is to: (1) believe (2) obey (3) understand. A childish believer spends more time trying to understand while being reluctant to believe and obey.
Ultimately, a childish believer can’t fully grow to relate with the Father. Someone who is childish can’t embrace the Father’s ways because they question them to the point of disagreement. This leads to them walking down a path that is more comfortable for them because they reject what they don’t understand even though it comes from a God they allegedly trust.
Instead, they go down a path they resonate with based on their own limited understanding.
“Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 3:7, NLT).
The attitude of the childlike and the childish differ in that one is easily trusting and embracing of God’s word and His ways while the latter is not always willing. Galatians 6:7-8 teaches that we reap what we sow.
Those who give into fleshly tendencies (childish folks) will receive the same outcome in their life (death, i.e. disconnection from God in various areas of life). In contrast, those who practice the tendencies of the Spirit (i.e. childlike faith and cooperation with God’s word) will experience life (the full benefits of knowing & being connected with God).
If we truly grow where we have sown, then the more we invest in childlike or childish tendencies, the more we will become either mature or rebellious believers.
Believing in God means nothing if we do not follow Him without reservation like true disciples; even the devil believes and he trembles (James 2:19). A child who is easily trusting and obedient is one who continues as a disciple and is childlike (John 8:31-32).
A child who is resistant and uncooperative, prioritizing their own understanding above the word of the Father, may remain as a childish believer whose faith is questionable (John 8:34-38).
Let’s humble ourselves and choose to be childlike–easily trusting and cooperating with God’s word.