This has been a whirlwind of a week, and, as a result my schedule has been thrown off, preventing me from my normal early-morning-scheduled times with Jesus.
After just a few days of inconsistent time in God’s Word, my spirit feels a bit shriveled…
…and, in fact, I feel somewhat stunted, and as if I’ve gone in reverse instead of moving forward spiritually…
It’s exactly what Paul talks about with the churches in Galatia…
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Thirteen years ago, Paramount pictures produced a fantasy romance movie starring Brad Pitt. Entitled, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the film loosely followed a short story written in 1922 by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Basically, the story chronicles the life of Benjamin Button, who was born “old,” but regresses as he ages to infancy. He lived his life in complete reverse. While a strange movie, it received thirteen Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. I remember watching it when it was finally released on television, and thought it odd, and, honestly, quite sad.
This week, the movie came to mind as I started reading what I term, Paul’s Lament (Galatians 4). In the midst of entreating the churches he planted to stop listening to false teachers, he asks them a heartfelt question (9b):
How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world…
On first reading, his question seems vague; but, he’s really asking them why in the world they would want to regress?
Love means being willing to ask tough questions…
The Galatians have a choice whether to move on to maturity, or not, but they aren’t taking the opportunity…
In turning back to law from grace, once they were saved, it’s as if they’ve chosen to take a path back into infancy.
These believers are, in fact, spiritual Benjamin Button’s…
And, sadly…this isn’t just an issue of the early church.
Many Christians do the same today…
Instead of moving forward in a natural path of spiritual growth, I’ve frequently observed folks find salvation in Christ, be handed all they need for personal development in faith, and, then………well, nothing….
I’ve even seen Jesus-followers, who’ve found salvation by grace through faith, begin a deepening, solid, growing relationship with their Savior…and, then……….seem to go back to infancy.
What happens?
For the churches to whom Paul wrote this letter, they took their eyes and ears off of the TRUTH that had been introduced to them, and began listening to others…
They were easily swayed, by false teachers who were leading them astray by tickling their ears.
They preferred the milk of the Word (the “ABC’s of Christianity” – which is what the word “elementary principles” actually means) to having to chew on the meat of God’s Truth.
It simply seemed “easier.”
But “easier” for them meant aging in reverse.
For today’s Jesus-Followers, not much has changed.
There are still false teachers, trying to lead others astray by tickling ears.
Milk is still preferable to meat.
We’ve taken our eyes off of the goal –
The goal of keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus (the author and perfecter of our faith – Hebrews 12:2).
We much prefer to let others do all the thinking for us.
It just seems way easier…
But “easier” for us means becoming spiritual Benjamin Buttons….
And, that, as I understood it this week…is simply not natural, and, yes…sad!
Even the writer of Hebrews implored the Jesus-Followers:
Let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again! Let us go on, instead, and become mature in our understanding. Hebrews 6:1a
Paul goes on to tell the Ephesians…
Let us go on to maturity…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Ephesians 4:13-14)
So this week, my heart felt Paul’s lament to the churches he founded in Southern Turkey, as if he wrote them to me.
I recognized how easy it is to regress to infancy, spiritually speaking…
And, once we start on that slippery slope downward, it’s hard to reverse.
So, Paul gave me a few words of advice, to stop the downward cycle.
His advice reads a lot like this:
The righteous live by faith, and living by faith looks a lot like keeping in step with the Spirit of God one step at a time.
…And, the Spirit of God will always lead us to creating space in our lives for keeping company with the Lord in order that we might go on to maturity!
Not becoming a Benjamin Button begins with the right attitude of my own heart, and a willingness to keep in step with the Spirit….
