When I Was a Child

It is becoming increasing clear to me that the biggest problem in the church today is we have not left our childhood religions behind. Remember Paul's admonition? "When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things" (1 Cor. 13:11) So why have the majority of us, both Jewish and Gentile believers, carried over our respective childhood religious ideas and practices into our "adult" walk with Christ.

What do I mean?

Take non-Jewish believers first. Most of us have been going to some sort of Christian church our whole life. Even before we came to know the Lord's love and forgiveness in a personal way. So what are we doing now that we have experienced our life-changing, miraculous rebirth in Christ? Exactly what we were doing before. Going to church every Sunday, maybe singing in the choir, maybe ushering, just trying to keep our noses clean and live as good Christians. Nothing has really changed has it? Except now we pay a little more attention to pastor's message, act a little more serious about our commitment, and maybe tithe. Because we know it's for real now.

And what about Jewish believers? The same thing. Most have attended synagogue, at least until the Bar-Mitzvah was done at age twelve. Most have celebrated the Passover seder and watched mom scrub the house of all traces of leaven, have fasted at Yom Kippur, and have honored the Sabbath. Most know dairy and meat should never be served together (even if they never got that crazy with it themselves). So what has changed since they have invited Messiah into their lives and been reborn? Not much. In fact, most Jewish believers, who call themselves Messianic Jews, are probably under even more pressure now from certain quarters to commit to living a "Torah-compliant lifestyle."

But is this what Messiah Jesus (or Yeshua) has called us to do? No way! "It is for freedom [from all religious law] that Messiah set us free, so keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal 5:1). If we received Him by faith, by faith we must now live our lives! "The righteous man shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:17). All mandated religious practices, whether Christian or Jewish, can not please God because they do not require faith. They are expressions of law. And law is the opposite of faith. So why do we bother?

To continue to practice the same religions we did as children that couldn't save us then, and can't save us or keep us saved now, is to "still think, speak, and reason like a child." This childish behavior is not only destroying our own personal walk of faith with the Lord, it is separating us into two groups. And Jesus shed His blood to make us one flock, with one Shepherd.