THE COMMON ILLNESS OF OUR TIMES

What is the cancer eating away at society in general and a sickness that generally weakens the churches?  My answer is immaturity.  Immaturity is the unwillingness to grow up.  The word ‘teenager’ was not in common use until sixty or so years ago.  A separate group was invented, probably partly to create a market sector into which goods could be siphoned to make profits and how incredibly successful the ploy has been!  Now a ‘new creation’ has come to pass, those who can be excused from their crass behavior and disrespect for everyone else and all that has gone before them “because they are young and will grow out of it.”  But, will they?  Of course, the Bible knows nothing of such a group and neither was it present in society in general until the twentieth century.

[superquote]…look away to Jesus, the One Who has truly changed the world, for His life is an example of the beginnings of true manhood[/superquote]

Mankind thinks it is growing up, but actually it is growing down!  In earlier days a boy grew to the point where he was initiated into (young) manhood with all its responsibilities, from that time he was reckoned to be a man and spent time with the older men and something similar occurred to the growing girl.  Nowadays we see the rather pathetic picture of sixty and seventy year old celebrity singers still cavorting on the stage attempting to cling to the heady days of their younger musical triumphs.  The day of the perpetual teenager is upon us and it is an aberration.  Or perhaps the English idiom ‘mutton done up as lamb’ captures what is happening (search up the meaning on the internet).  But, look away to Jesus, the One Who has truly changed the world, for His life is an example of the beginnings of true manhood when, at the age of twelve, He was taken up to the temple by Joseph and Mary His mother and He entered into His “Father’s business” as the King James Version puts it so delightfully (Luke 2:49).  The things that make for spiritual growth are so often resisted in church life today.

But, the disease of our day afflicts not only the individual, but it is a world problem.  We can trace social, international, political and economic problems to the unwillingness to grow up both spiritually and morally.  The puny efforts of our politicians to rectify the social problems on the increase so rampantly fail miserably.  They pass legislation to implement yet another program as the cure all and the reason for the failure is the unwillingness to grow up and face the disciplines of true morality.  Immature persons, those who insist on political correctness, those evading the moral demands of God in both personal and family life will never cure the ills of mankind for these are massive problems with morality at their root.  The head of a household, the husband and father must not walk away from his responsibilities; he faces a situation demanding maturity.  The wife and mother must grow up and embrace what it means to be wife, mother and homemaker.  Our universities and colleges are so often filled with teachers, professors and lecturers who are at heart immature propagandists peddling their superficial doctrines which, if followed reinforces in their students the debilitating sickness of perpetual self-interest.

The terrible thing about the refusal to truly grow up is that it is a denial of what it means to be alive.  God the Creator has written into all that He has made the law of growth; we are utterly dependent upon this law for our daily food.  The farmer sows his seed and expects, all things being present, there will be a crop and that will furnish the table of multitudes.  We know that in our bodily life there is a time when we cease to grow, our strength begins to diminish, our physical states degenerate, but there is no way that this process should impede the maturing of our moral and spiritual understanding and living.  I have often thought that the founding fathers of one country were awry when they wrote about ‘the pursuit of happiness’ inferring that it was the end of life.  Growth in wisdom, understanding, character and loving service to God and man is the true aim of life.

[superquote]So, let those who are willing to grow up in spiritual and moral maturity be ready for some burdens, some work, some sweat, some backbreaking toil so that they may increase.[/superquote]

Those who pursue another goal will end their days in unhappiness.  God has set in His creation all that is required for that growth.  First the urge toward maturity, it is in everything animate and that includes human beings and secondly He has so arranged His creation that it is unfinished, He has permitted things that oppose, that must be overcome to help facilitate the process of spiritual and moral growth that leads to perfection.  A couple of Proverbs help to illuminate the necessity of the sharpening of man’s soul by facing challenges.  “Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of His friend” (Proverbs 27:17) and “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox” (Proverbs 14:4).

Picturesque language, it is true, but is it not in human relationships, not only with friends but also face to face with others not so friendly that our hearts are enlarged and sharpened and, if we are willing, increases our understanding?  Few reading this will be farmers, but we ought to get the picture of much increase being by the strength of the ox.  It is a beast of burden and makes a mess in its stall and the mess has to be cleaned out frequently only to be messed up again!  So, let those who are willing to grow up in spiritual and moral maturity be ready for some burdens, some work, some sweat, some backbreaking toil so that they may increase.  Indiscipline is sure to impede any growth.  Exercise is essential.

I was talking after a meeting to a younger pastor and commented on the attentiveness and spiritual hunger among the congregation principally made up of people in their twenties.  The pastor was an American but living and ministering in a country that knows extremes of temperature.  It is in the high latitudes and encroaches into the Arctic Circle, a land of the midnight sun and also of bitter cold and dark winters.  He said to me that he felt that the difficulties of climate and the isolation nourished a resilience and maturity in the young people of that country and in contrast the young of his homeland were childish and immature.  He also felt that this spilled right over into their spiritual maturity or lack of it in church life.

[superquote]Fellowship with Jesus includes ‘growing up into a death like His,”. Communion and friendship with Christ is not spending our time in some happy go lucky mosh pit with our Christian ‘buddies’ in the so called worship time in a Sunday morning service or ‘worship concert’..[/superquote]

This gives us a clue to the first step in spiritual growth, it involves a struggle against elements both in ourselves and in the world around us, and involves a death, a forsaking, a renunciation and a turning away from.  There is a verse in Romans chapter six that captures this aspect of spiritual growth, “For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His (Romans 6:5).   An intriguing aspect of this verse is the word ‘united,’ it only occurs once in the original and actually contains the idea of growth.  We could therefore translate it like this, “as we have grown into Him in a death like His we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.”  Our first steps of growth involve a “dying with Christ” and the verse implies that further growth includes a continued ‘dying with Him’ that we might live and grow up into Him in all things.

Dying with Him means a forsaking of self-centeredness and in its place placing God right in the center of life.  When Christ is central the states of receptivity so necessary to spiritual growth are set up in the soul.   We are sure to remain in the states of spiritual superficiality so evident in many churches today unless we are “growing up into a death like His” with Him.  Fellowship with Jesus includes ‘growing up into a death like His,” communion and friendship with Christ is not spending our time in some happy go lucky mosh pit with our Christian ‘buddies’ in the so called worship time in a Sunday morning service or ‘worship concert’ until we decide for ourselves that we should spiritually grow up a bit.  It is time to grow up now!  Not when we feel like it! In the pursuit of accommodating the passing fashions of the young those in leadership in the churches run the risk of the perpetual juvenilization of their people.

It is happening, make no mistake about it.  I have been told by some younger people who are seeking to grow up into increasing spiritual life that they are profoundly dissatisfied with the shallow sentimentality and self-centeredness of so many songs being sung in the meetings of their church.  In this regard I was encouraged when one of the more mature song writers of the last twenty to thirty years suggested quite graciously that other song writers should be submitting their work to those more theologically and doctrinally discerning for examination and correction lest the churches end up singing shallow ditties with the same boring chord structures containing doctrinal error.  Thus shall we be held in a prison that feeds us with the tiniest portions of truth that barely keep us alive and certainly do not nurture spiritual growth.  What is so challenging is that spiritual receptivity is dependent upon spiritual renunciation and true rejoicing is a fruit of both of these.  So, if there is no real growing together into His death there will be no restful receiving of His Life and the spontaneity of the heart that issues in rejoicing and gladness in God will be absent.

[superquote]“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin” (Matthew 6:28). [/superquote]

We really do live in an age of hyper activity and rush.  Worry and hurry, or maybe the attempts to blanket out the anxiety by the rush of constant amusement and activity are part and parcel of what we see today.  As some will know the word amusement comes from the Greek language, we have all heard of the ‘muse’ and the ‘a’ in front is the negative, so, amusement is the refusal to meditate, to muse, to ponder, to reflect, to be still and quiet and contemplate.  Here is a death and renunciation to experience if we are to grow up in Christ Jesus and for many it will be complete with ‘withdrawal symptoms’ as they lay down their noise generating gadgets and remove themselves from the social whirl of ceaseless activity with their friends.  My mind turns to the sports person who, in order to develop their skills withdraws from the life-party atmosphere they have inhabited.  As I write a picture comes to my mind of a great basketball player from Indiana.  I recall a scene from a movie about someone like him.  He was not a ‘natural’ but the scene portrayed him in solitary practice, just him and the ball and pole with the backboard and hoop fixed to it, out at back of one of the buildings on his father’s farm.  He loved the game; He was prepared to spend multiplied hours of his weeks and months to habituate the discipline necessary to achieve the increase in the skills that would take him to the peak of the game he loved.  It was a dying, but brought a ‘living’ and who can but doubt that such people are incredibly receptive to instruction from others so that their skills are honed to perfection.

We who own the Name of Jesus are not playing a game; we are in a life and death struggle and the Lord demands our wholehearted attention.  Remember Jesus said “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin” (Matthew 6:28).  We usually skip over the central phrase, “how they grow”!   How do they?  They do not strain, they are not rushing, and they are receptive to the Creator Who sends His rain and His sun.  They abide in the earth where they have been set.  The result is growth and, at the right season beauty beyond that of Solomon in all His glory!  We live in a time when jumping from one thing to the next to the next is commonplace.  The awareness of being rooted in Christ and grounded in His love and the great grace of His Calvary work comes slowly.  We must learn to take time daily, out of the rush, to reflect, a little while at least, to “think upon His sacrifice” as one of the newer songs exhorts us for we are saved, by Him, He has done it and not we.  It is vital for us to focus on God’s grace if we are to mature in spiritual life.

[superquote] Let us renounce the spirit of the world that is always breathing the myth of perpetual playtime and eternal youthfulness and become initiated into the pathway of spiritual growth to maturity.[/superquote]

Alas, if we are not careful even the ‘amazing grace’ so popular now degenerates in our thinking to the idea that it is God cutting us a little slack to do what we like, or Him winking and closing His eyes to our ‘little defections.’  His grace is dynamic, it is His enabling power that is ever available and comes to us so that we do not need Him to cut us a little slack or wink at our repeated defections because we are pressing on to please Him by His energy that works in us.  Receptivity to His instruction, teachable-ness of heart, patient attentiveness to His voice in the Scriptures, in the church and within will most certainly lead to a rejoicing disposition and a restful spiritual service to God and our fellowman.  Let us renounce the spirit of the world that is always breathing the myth of perpetual playtime and eternal youthfulness and become initiated into the pathway of spiritual growth to maturity.

Comments 1
  1. Hi Mr. Hull I was really reached when you said that teenagers should act like men and women. I’ve thought about this before. Thanks.

    Matthew

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *