Baby Christian Blues
I happen to have a picture in my wallet of my baby. He’s a cute little fellow. The photo is quite small, but you can tell it’s a baby. And though babies come in all sizes, you can distinguish them from children and adults.
However, it’s harder to spot spiritual babies. They don’t appear in a particular size or age. In 1 John we learn about spiritual children, young adults, and parents. There are four levels of spiritual growth. The first level contains spiritual infants.
How Can We Recognize a Baby Christian?
We find four signs in Hebrews 5.
1.) “They have become dull of hearing” (verse 11).
One time I tried to talk to my seven-month-old son, Aaron. I told him, “Don’t eat the newspaper. It’s not food, not good for you, and stains you all over with black ink.” When I got through, he reached for the newspaper and crammed it in his mouth. Just like spiritual babies, it just didn’t seem to sink in.
Dull of hearing can mean lazy or careless or sluggish. That makes them slow to learn. Lazy hearing is when you don’t allow the sound wave that hits your ear sink into your mind. That happens with children. They’re playing and you tell them, “Time to pick up all your toys and go to bed.” But they keep right on playing. So, you repeat it a second and third time, then say, “Didn’t you hear me?” Well, yes, they heard, but it didn’t register.
For instance, some Christians believe in the resolution that mankind is basically good. They say, “By and large, most folks are decent and trying to live a good life.” However, the Bible doesn’t agree. Most everyone has read or heard of John 3:16.
Then there’s John 3:19, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” This means mankind is basically evil. The kindly old man down the street loves evil more than good. And so does everyone else before they know Christ.
Believing Hogwash
When you’re careless, words reach your mind, but you don’t act upon it. Like when we warn children not to play in the road and give them the reason. So, we say, “Did you hear? Did you understand?” and the child says, “Yeah.” Then, an hour later he’s playing in the road.
Along the same line, every Christian knows we’re saved by our faith in Christ. We come to God by faith in Christ alone. It’s not because of works. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9). Yet, baby Christians will say, “If you do your best, that’s all God requires. Just try to live a good life.”
Sluggish Christians
Some slow down the time it takes to understand something or to carry it out. You can say to older children, “Son, I’d like you to mow the lawn.” A couple days go by and the lawn’s not mowed. So, you say, “I’d really want you to mow the lawn.” And they say, “Oh, you mean this week?” And you reply, “I’d like it done today.” “Oh, sure,” they respond. At 6:30 p.m. it starts to get dark and no mowed lawn. You bring that fact up and hear, “Oh, I’m going to do it. Don’t worry.”
Jesus once said, “If your right hand offends you, cut it off and throw it away.” He didn’t want you to mutilate your body. But if you have sin in your life, get rid of it, the sooner the better. A baby Christian will say, “Well, I’ll get around to it someday.”
2.) Baby Christians cannot teach others (Hebrews 5:12).
A seven-month-old baby can pick up a toy, sit in a chair and eat toast, gurgle and coo at stuffed animals, and shout for joy when he sees his mother. He can also be expected to grab everything he can and put it in his mouth. But he can’t work crossword puzzles, drive a pickup, make his bed, read Tolstoy novels, or teach piano lessons.
Baby Christians can pray daily, attend church, read their Bible, and share about what’s happening in their lives. But they can’t be expected to write a sermon or explain predestination or teach an adult Sunday School class. But after a few years, they should be able to do more things, such as even teaching.
“Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (Hebrews 5:12)
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2)
This doesn’t necessarily mean upfront teaching a class. But a believer within four years should be able to understand or in the process of comprehending elementary Christian principles. He or she can explain them to other people at home, at work, at college, or with neighbors.
Why Four Years?
In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Paul said, “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.” This was just under four years later since they had become believers due to Paul’s initial preaching. Yet, he was amazed about their spiritual immaturity and they weren’t teaching others.
Here’s what I think anyone following the Lord four years should know about a foundation belief. Why do we baptize? What does this act signify? What two things should precede baptism? How many baptisms are there? Why should baptism be part of worship? These are things we need to learn to mature in the faith.
3.) Babies have a very restricted diet.
A baby’s lunch consists of a lump of cold gray stuff that might be called veal, beef, or chicken. Then you can’t tell the peas from the spinach, or the carrots from sweet potato. And the fruit looks all the same. But that’s all he can digest. And a baby looks forward most to getting milk from a bottle. However, at five or fifteen or fifty, it would be pathetic if he still clutched a bottle. We need to get rid of lugging around spiritual bottles and blankies. At some point, you need to chomp down on a quarter house steak.
Hebrews 6:1-2, “Let is leave the elementary teachings about Christ and press on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.”
Understand those things and move on. No debate needed. The mature Christian knows eternal judgment is over for the believer (John 3:18). It is appointed for all men to die once, then comes judgment. And just punishment is assured for unbelievers (John 3:36).
4.) Babies cannot discern good and evil.
One person is crucial for health and safety for our seven-month-old, Aaron. Yet, he screams every time he sees our doctor. He hates him. In another matter, he loves to twist, pull, and pinch the hairs on my arm. I must convince him that’s not a positive thing to do. It hurts me. He can’t seem to discern between good and evil.
Baby Christians say such statements as, “It doesn’t really matter whether you’re married or not, as long as you love each other.” Baloney! Or “I’m not going to let anyone take advantage of me.” Why not? Or “every woman should have the right to choose whether a living, growing baby inside her should live or die.” That’s absurd! We practice and train ourselves in discernment.
Let me say, I love my little baby, Aaron. But I don’t want him to stay a baby forever. I look forward to him growing up. It would be ridiculous to have a twenty-year-old baby in diapers. Yet, we have too many baby Christians. You can tell them by their dullness of hearing; their lack of ability to teach those around them; they’re spoon fed and on their spiritual bottle; and can’t tell right from wrong.
You can always tell a baby Christian, but you can’t tell them much.
Stephen Bly
Copyright©1980
Baby Food Image by 泊悦 枫美 from Pixabay
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