“As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”

Now that is a mouthful. Time to grow up. Children are not stable, the writer says. Wind and waves toss them around and take them wherever they will. This is not good for the child of God. The child of God is God’s offspring but God wants the child to grow into a mature person.

Take a good look at our Christian world today. Every section of the country has a major religious group and as a whole, there are hundreds of what we call denominations or different beliefs. Not the picture painted by the Apostle earlier in the chapter is it? Could it be the trickery of men? Has the evil one used the craftiness of preachers and teachers to deceive believers into all kinds of winds of doctrine?

I don’t wish to be negative necessarily but it seems odd that the Bible should plead that we all believe alike and have the same mind and we believe that we should attend and believe the church of our choice. God says there is but one way and we say all religious roads lead to heaven. Is this mature thinking or is it thinking like children? We jump from church to church, belief to belief and ultimately conclude that it doesn’t matter if we have the knowledge of Christ as long as we are sincere about what we do believe. It is the idea that purity of motive makes us right rather than the righteousness of God making us pure in motive.

We act like children tossed here and there when we think its all about us. Chuch should suit us, meet our needs, cater to our interest is the thought of the child. Adult behavior seeks the good of others and the truthfulness of Christ. The mature Christian sees the church as a benefit for the world rather than his private institution.

Church leaders often control the church as if it was a company and they were the board of directors instead of it being the body of Christ which is led by the Spirit.

I am a part of the body of Christ so that I can grow up and be an ambassador to the world. After years of being in that body, I am still whining and demanding as I did when I was a baby something is wrong. If after years of being in the body I am still on a milk diet, something is wrong. If after years of being in the body I still think its all about me and not the lost world then something is wrong. These things are childish and not mature concepts.

Task for today: Put our big person clothes on. Leave our childhood behind and forgetting self, launch out for others. Go to work in the local body of Christ as a man or woman and not as a child or teen. Search for the true doctrine and stay out of the waves and wind.